Justin Chatwin apologizes for Dragonball Evolution

[MasenkoHA]

. You simply can't take another non-white nation's character, or even parts of their culture, and repurpose it for your own white nation's culture, even though the opposite is true

I'll give you the benefit of a doubt and ask you to elaborate because otherwise fucking yikes

What the fuck was I supposed to say? Majority white then. Western. Whatever. You know what I meant. Don't pretend I somehow implied the USA belongs to white people or some shit.

I don't have to pretend anything, it was literally right in your post.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

If he read the script and then took the money and went on to star in that turd he should apologize.

Nope, a bad script is not an actor's problem. If you were in his position and had bills to pay why wouldn't you do what you love doing even if its not a part you like. For the record Ben Ramsey did apologize so we can absolve the man of any guilt.

If anyone should be apologising, especially now, it should be the execs at Fox that not only greenlit this but disrespected Toriyama by not listening to him and thinking the man didn't know the world and characters he created.

[DefinitiveDubs]

I'll give you the benefit of a doubt and ask you to elaborate because otherwise fucking yikes

What the fuck was I supposed to say? Majority white then. Western. Whatever. You know what I meant. Don't pretend I somehow implied the USA belongs to white people or some shit.

I don't have to pretend anything, it was literally right in your post.

You still haven't explained what I should've said instead if I didn't mean to imply that. The point is that people have an issue with Hollywood entertainment using other countries' culture and media and portraying it using white actors. It's called cultural appropriation and it is inherently linked to racial inequality.

[Zephyr]

Goku has to be Asian/Chinese, it's practically in his DNA as a character. But even if he wasn't explicitly Asian, people would still complain about whitewashing in the film. Practically any Hollywood adaptation of an anime, even if they completely change the setting and even if the character isn't explicitly said to be Japanese, gets accused of whitewashing if the lead is white. You simply can't take another non-white nation's character, or even parts of their culture, and repurpose it for your own white nation's culture, even though the opposite is true. It has very little to do with "he's supposed to be Chinese"; that's missing the big picture. There are much bigger, more systemic issues at play here.

It reminds me of when Iron Fist premiered on Netflix and how controversial it was that Danny Rand was white with people saying it should have an Asian lead since everything around his mythology, development, and superpowers is Chinese...even though the character is white in the comics.

I mean by that reasoning, "people would complain" if, for instance, Johan Liebert (a German character from the Japanese comic, 'Monster'), was cast as a white actor and not a Japanese actor. In lieu of a good case being made for such complaints, I'd be inclined to say "that's dumb", and we should just ignore what those people say, maybe.

I wonder if the complaints about Netflix Iron Fist touched on the idea that, perhaps, Iron Fist's character in the comics never should have been white in the first place.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Personally I'd prefer an open minded approach to casting. It would be a good idea to cast an Asian actor as Goku if they can portray the character well, which is the most important part - Goku's essential characteristics. The look of the actor is secondary.

For me as long as an actor can sound and act carefree, youthful, energetic and look as close to Goku as possible that's the most important thing. It wouldn't matter if the actor was Chinese and looked enough like Goku but wasn't good at portraying a hick and/ or a manchild.

Goes back to my point earlier, the problem with Justin Chatwin's portrayal was not that he was white or American, its because he was cast as a character that was purported to be Goku but was not, the problem was the writing, and the fact casting decisions were not being made based on character traits. He probably wouldn't have been cast if the character written for him was Toriyama's Goku, not Fox's bland, generic teenage boy Goku but again he didn't write the script, he didn't write a fake Goku.

[TVfan721]

Wasn’t this poorly received movie one of the main reasons why Akira decided to take more control of the franchise and write more? Leading to the BoG film, DBS and so on? If yes, Dragon Ball would look very differently today had Evolution not existed. Speaking about Evolution on its own merits, no, of course it’s not a good movie in terms of representing the franchise but it’s a somewhat decent movie on its own. (The white-washing was obviously very problematic of course)

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Wasn’t this poorly received movie one of the main reasons why Akira decided to take more control of the franchise and write more? Leading to the BoG film, DBS and so on? If yes, Dragon Ball would look very differently today had Evolution not existed. Speaking about Evolution on its own merits, no, of course it’s not a good movie in terms of representing the franchise but it’s a somewhat decent movie on its own. (The white-washing was obviously very problematic of course)

While it's true Akira Toriyama decided to get involved with Dragon Ball again because he didn't like Evolution or the fact FOX disregarded his advice, the movies failure itself didn't lead to Battle of Gods and everything since.

Battle of Gods was already in production as early as 2011 and would have been released without Toriyama. Yusuke Watanabe was confirmed to be the screenwriter and Tadayoshi Yamamuro as the character designer. Kazuhiko Torishima later requested that Toriyama be given his say on the production, which led to him rewriting and redesigning everything to give us the film we all know.

We can ask the question would Battle of Gods have been as successful without Toriyama, it surely would have still been a hit, although probably less so without being able to boast about being "from the series original creator".

Bandai wanted a new series since at least 2009 but Toriyama didn't want one at the time. We may have still got one if the originally planned Toriyama-less Battle of Gods and possible sequel happened, but whether or not TOEI would have felt confident enough to create a new anime without being able to market it as a Toriyama story is anyone's guess.

They may have decided to remake the original series, Kai was sort of like a consolidation for Toriyama not wanting an anime with new story but TOEI was probably not happy with Kai's underperformance in Japan so that would be a long shot.

[TVfan721]

Is the “As early as 2011” in your post a typo? Evolution was released mid-2009 so if the 2011 is date, then it wasn’t in development until long after DBE and Akira Toriyama could’ve indeed been there from the start.

[Grimlock]

Toriyama said he suddenly got the script. He wasn't there from the beginning.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Is the “As early as 2011” in your post a typo? Evolution was released mid-2009 so if the 2011 is date, then it wasn’t in development until long after DBE and Akira Toriyama could’ve indeed been there from the start.

I was talking about Battle of Gods. As stated in the above interview:

I think it was around 2011? It all started when I came to Tokyo, and my first editor, Torishima-san, suddenly handed me the scenario and said, “read this!”… I guess? At that time I had no idea what it was, and when I asked Torishima-san what the scenario was for, I heard for the first time about how it was going to be made into an animated movie. (laughs)

We don't know exactly what point TOEI began pre-production on Battle of Gods, but this comment definitively confirms Toriyama was not there from the beginning, and by the sounds of it wasn't even told about it until there was a draft ready for him to read.

Toriyama also initially expressed excitement for Evolution, and didn't publicly criticize it (to my knowledge) until after Battle of Gods was released. Although he may have just been polite the first time.

Either way Toriyama's disappointment with Evolution didn't lead to Battle of Gods, but it was probably the catalyst that led to him becoming more and more distrusting of other people's handling of Dragon Ball and at some point rethinking his original rejection of Bandai's 2009 proposal for a new TV series.

[Mister_Popo]

He doesn't need to apologize. But if he really felt that sorry all these years, why exactly wait untill Toriyama's passing to express this?
There are other, more constructive ways to pay tribute to Toriyama. Ben Ramsay expressed this in a more thoughtfull manner.

[MasenkoHA]

Akira Toriyama could’ve indeed been there from the start.

We know he wasn't, we know what the original pre-Toriyama outline for BoG was and everything

[Hellspawn28]

Dragon Ball Evolution is only talked about with anime fans or bad movie buffs. The movie flopped on its original release and was quickly forgotten by most movie goers. Even the 2010 Last Airbender movie is remember more from the casual audience than DBE.

[MasenkoHA]

Dragon Ball Evolution is only talked about with anime fans or bad movie buffs. The movie flopped on its original release and was quickly forgotten by most movie goers. Even the 2010 Last Airbender movie is remember more from the casual audience than DBE.

Do bad movie buffs even care about Dragon Ball Evolution? Sure it's bad but it's "generic boilerplate sci fi film" bad. It's just not bad enough to care about unless you're a Dragon Ball fan.

[Jord]

Dragon Ball Evolution is only talked about with anime fans or bad movie buffs. The movie flopped on its original release and was quickly forgotten by most movie goers. Even the 2010 Last Airbender movie is remember more from the casual audience than DBE.

Do bad movie buffs even care about Dragon Ball Evolution? Sure it's bad but it's "generic boilerplate sci fi film" bad. It's just not bad enough to care about unless you're a Dragon Ball fan.

A bad movie with a famous brand gets more algoritm hits so it gets more attention than a regular bad movie.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I can't find the video anywhere but I do remember Justin Chatwin was asked about an Evolution sequel in one interview and his response was something along the lines of "God no, its like this joke that will never go away that we were part of that movie".

So by the sounds of things Chatwin and other cast members must have got a lot of ridicule over the years, as Dragonball Evolution is quite infamous among bad movies, no doubt because the material it is supposed to be an adaptation of has one of the most passionate fandoms out there.

I also think Evolution was one of Chris Stuckmann's early reviews that caused his YouTube channel to blow up.