On "Kubo's" box office shortcomings: (Patreon)

One of my favorite episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine (stick with me folks) is "Far Beyond the Stars" which tells the story of a Black science fiction writer struggling to get his work published. He pens an exceptional story of a Black man running a space station - a story that every last one of his peers love (including his editor) - but ultimately the story is rejected because? well? 

"If the world's not ready for a woman writer – imagine what would happen if it learned about a Negro with a typewriter – run for the hills! It's the end of civilization!"

This story- albeit fiction - is something that thousands of artists of color deal with every day.

Whether it's writers, actors, painters, potters - you name it. It is just one of million scenarios in which racism makes life unnecessarily difficult for anyone who isn't white. People were sick of it in the 20s, the 60s, the 90s, and you better believe they're sick of it now.

Luckily things are changing. With technology becoming more affordable, and the internet allowing all kinds of folks to communicate over vast distances we've seen a steady rise in education, expression, and protest. Audiences are becoming more informed and by extension far less tolerant of fuckery.
In the early 2000s no mainstream media would've dared use the word "racism" to critique movies like "Sausage Party" or "The Ridiculous Six." Truth be told they wouldn't now either, were it not for the swell of people who are happy to take their business/readership to media sites that are more inclusive. But here we are - for better or best - calling out problematic shortcomings the second we see them.Ok Ok - so where am I going with this?I'm a Laika Films fan. I've always had my doubts about their movies but each time I see one I'm pleasantly surprised. "Coraline" is my personal favorite. It's just the right mix of creepiness and originality - a really refreshing movie. But when I saw they were working on "Kubo" my immediate reaction was "Oh no. Oh god I hope they don't fuck this up."This morning I stumbled upon an article begging people to watch "Kubo". The piece talked about how the ratings were really good but it had done poorly in the box office. To some degree this makes sense simply because stop motion animation is even now viewed as a either old fashioned or a gimmick. It's been that way for a long time. But out of sheer curiosity I checked the cast to see if maybe there was more to this...

Notice anything? anything at all?Truth be told there are more Asian voice actors in the movie such as Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Minae Noji, Ken Takemoto, Alpha Takahashi...but? doesn't this movie take place in Japan? Shouldn't they ALL be Japanese??
People groan and roll their eyes when I talk about how representation matters but that's precisely because they HAVE been represented. For people that grow up never seeing/hearing people on screen that look like them? it's a big fucking deal.
When "Big Heroe Six" came out even Disney made sure to cast Asian actors to play "Hiro" and "Tadashi." ...if Disney is better about diverse casting? then you have problems.I remember when I saw Lavern Cox on "Orange is the New Black" and it was the first time seeing a trans character played by an actual trans person. It was like I had been holding my breath my whole life and I could at last breath again. It was a huge deal. Huge.
Honestly what bothers me the most about is that for decades we've been turning down scores of people of color but the second a product from a largely white team of creatives doesn't do well we have to send a dozen Whaaambulances to Tantrum City corner of White Tears blvd and Privilege Avenue.
I get it. It sucks that this thing you worked on really hard isn't doing great. Happens to all of us. But if you really thought that the best possible voice actor for your main character, a Japanese boy, was a kid from Ireland? I don't know what to tell you...
...but people's wallets just might.