New Musical From Dreamworks Animation Announced

More exciting news from out of Dreamworks

It seems they’re planning their first musical since Prince of Egypt. It’s called Monkeys of Bollywood and as /film states…

More can be found here.

I’m pretty excited by the news of Dreamworks branching out lately. It seems they’re headed for even bigger and risky things. I’m almost certain that the del Toro stuff will net them their first PG-13. And it’s nice to see other cultures on display in a very white and/or Christian dominated medium. No offense to members who are white and/or Christian.

Stephen Schwartz? Sweet, I’m glad to see he’s on board for this!

I like all aspects of this film, besides it’s title. It’s inspiration sounds fantastic, it’s a musical, and I appriciate Indian culture. I’m glad to see movie featuring it (you can’t really count The Jungle Book too much on the native Culture part of India)

I personally feel that there’s a lot of animated films out there that aren’t a part of “white Christian media”. A lot of animated films borrow from other cultures (Some examples that come to mind are the Jazz music in Princess and the Frog, the Inuit mythology in Brother Bear, and Documenteries with animated segments like Saludos Amigos).

Cool! I love diverse cultures being represented in films.

But I’m concerned that some Indians might take offense at the title. I mean seriously… monkeys? Couldn’t they have chosen another animal instead?

That’s an interesting point, I hope no one gets too upset about it. Maybe the title will be changed for the Indian version, but I’m sure someone in India would find out what the original title is.

Ditto! This is excellent news, thanks for posting.

Monkeys are revered in India. There’s a connection to Hanuman (the ape-god) in there somewhere.

Hmmm… I guess I jumped too quickly to a conclusion, JustSteve. But like EJE said, hopefully all Asian-Indians understand the title and take it in context. Dreamworks has to really choose its title words carefully lest it incur the wrath of sensitive fans (Exhibit A: Tangled).

I’m really proud that Dreamworks is really pushing the boundaries, especially after they’ve taken on so many different cultures and settings like China (Kung Fu Panda, their best work yet that plays equally as a homage and parody of Chinese culture), Scandinavia (HTTYD), and Africa (Madagascar 2, though mostly in setting and not much of the culture sadly). And of course, there’s their earlier traditionally-animated films like Spirit, Road to El Dorado and Prince of Egypt that portrays Native American, Latin American, and Middle Eastern influences respectively.

Pixar is starting to do this now with Cars 2 and Brave, but most of its movies (especially Cars) is distinctly set in America or if it is a fantasy location, has American influences (like Monsters Inc and The Incredibles). Finding Nemo has been their most ‘overseas’ film to date.

Anyway, to get back on-topic: Monkeys+Bollywood+Ramayana Epic=Awesum.

New Dreamworks Musical!
Oh boy, I loved The Prince of Egypt! I hope they’re doing something goo-
“Monkeys of Bollywood”
Oh god, they’re gonna drive themselves into the ground with that title, aren’t th-
Stephen Schwartz
YES!
AR Rahman
NO!
Bollywood story about the Ramayana with monkeys
MAYBE!

Not sure if want.

More can be found here. TDIT totally called it on this one and even underestimated the reaction.

Well, at least it’s getting attention so far away!

I do hope they treat the story with respect. But when you do stories off of legends or religious text that are important to a culture, there will be controversy, none the less.

Reminds me of Pocahontas, the modern Powhatan people are not impressed with Disney’s version at all.

Hmmm, I’m not sure what to think of this. I feel silly for being skeptic about this while all I know is at the moment is the title. I hope Dreamworks manages to prove me wrong once more. :slight_smile:

@TDIT, I don’t see how you could be offended as an Indian.I f you look at it that way, you can feel offended by any anthropomorphic character they could come up with. Monkeys are our closest relatives when it comes to species. :slight_smile:

I didn’t hear black protests against the Lion King because all the ‘evil hyenas’ were voiced by black people. Their voice simply suited the characters more, Disney would be the last company to try to portray a race as evil or inferior with their movies.

I guess what matters is how they portray them in the movie, not which animal species they chose to represent them. :slight_smile:

Uuuuuuuh. Well not so much in modern times (at least not delibrately in any case), but um, in their old pieces they were exceedingly controversial. Like in the original Fantasia… well, look up their Centaur controversey.

Walt himself was also apparently pretty racist himself in general.

Also their WW2 films? Oh good grief.

Of course we’re supposed to know better these days. But racially advanced Disney hasn’t ever been compared to the rest of the world. At best they at times reflected the general attitudes at the time or at least what Walt or the writers held. Which wasn’t really always PC. Disney is not at the forefront of racial rights and never has been. They’re just better now because while not perfect American society is better in that respect.

But I’ll just assume you more or less mean nowadays.

Ohohoho… here comes the pain, Dreamworks. :slight_smile: Thanks for the link, aerostarmonk.

This is a potential minefield here, as AICN illustrated, it’s like taking fables from the Bible and replacing the characters with animals. Personally, I’m okay with anthropomorphic renditions of folktales (I view the Ramayana as something like Journey to the West, more of a fable than a sacred religious text). And Dreamworks has always paid respect to foreign cultures and sensitivities (again, Kung Fu Panda is a prime example).

There will always be people who are easily offended, or have different sensibilities. Dreamworks is really walking the tightrope here, but I have confidence it’ll pull it off (unless the teaser is extremely insulting or something).

Actually, only one (Shenzi) was voiced by a black person (Whoopi Goldberg). The rest were voiced by a Latino (Cheech Marin) and white guy (Jim Cummings). :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s not to say there have been peculiar conspiracy theories about Disney being racist or anti-whatevers, but I won’t bother elaborating that here.

He did definitly state however he didn’t want African Americans working in Disney land thinking it would ‘spoil the illusion’.

So not exactly a conspiracy at all, and there is a basis for it not to mention of course some of his cartoons, a few have been edited of course. Sometimes things are overblown, sometimes not. With cartoons which protrayed the Japanese were redicously offensive- like pretty much all WW2 cartoons. It wasn’t anything particulary special in that department at the time, since everyone was doing it really- so Disney gets undue attention for this really since well, WB did the exact same thing at the time and we don’t see they rung out as much for it for some reason (maybe because Disney is supposed to be more ‘moral’ or something IDEK.). So did probably anyone producing cartoons at the time given the way society seemed to be or go for. But is it still racist? Of course it is. It’s not really characters like the Dumbo crows but actually say Sunflower, the removed aspect of Fantasia I have issue with. Of course by 1960 they tried to forget that character even existed so they were starting to learn and Walt too I guess since he was alive. But the idea that there has never been racial intolerance in Disney is a fallacy.

In any case, Disney was about as racially advanced as society was at the time, which wasn’t really very at all. Walt himself was an entertainer. There are various groups who hated him and loved him. It’s not to say he eventually changed his mind about certain aspects, but overall he did have racist points and aspects in his life which cannot be denied.

In the end of course the company only got better because society didn’t reflect those ideas as acceptable. It’s a feedback loop however in the end- the media consumed can in effect reflect the ideas of the society but in effect media can sometimes affect society too.

Monkeys are very important on the Indian culture, so it’s a appropriate chose, i guess.

Even if Dreamworks ridicules them, it’s their right. As Hans Teeuwen (a Dutch comedian) would say:
“Everything that has some kind of status also has a kind of power. And my one condition for power is that it has to be able to be ridiculed for the sake of humor. When you can’t do that anymore, you’ll get scary situations like censorship, prosecutions, or even terrorist attacks or assassinations. That’s a world I wouldn’t want to live in…”

Even if you see your beliefs as sacred or holy, you must be able to take a joke. :slight_smile: But I trust Dreamworks will treat their culture with respect anyway.

Well, there’s Song of the South. Fantasia. Peter Pan.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that Walt was not racist, or that his company wasn’t guilty of racist material in their films at any point. Perhaps my statement of ‘peculiar conspiracy theories’ would be more apt to describe the more sexual ones (“Good Teenagers take off their clothes”, the naughty-looking castle in the Little Mermaid poster, etc). As some of you have pointed out, there are indeed obviously racist overtones in his earlier films, and I won’t deny that. There are the obvious prejudiced instances like the Fantasia fawn, the crows in Dumbo, that line in Peter Pan, the Siamese twins in Lady and the Tramp, etc. Then there are the misguided ones with good intentions like The Three Callaberos, Uncle Remus, Sebastian the Crab, etc. Oh nuts, I promised not to elaborate here, didn’t I?

Anyway, my point is, I think Dreamworks should do okay. I agree with Czarine, nothing should be above commentary, even for humorous purposes (I should know, I spoof and parody things all the time :unamused:).

My rule of thumb, though, is that it should be in good fun and not be demeaning. Some people will say this is subjective, but you’ll know it when you see it.

Example: Luigi from Cars speaking in an Italian accent and obsessing over Ferraris, a native brand from his country. Stereotypical, but acceptable.

Example: Mushu, a miniature Chinese dragon who strangely has an African-American accent. Kinda strange, but acceptable.

Example: Sunflower the centaur, who is obviously darker-skinned than all the other centaurs, has buck teeth and curled hair, and is the lusty hoof-polisher. Has negative implications, is demeaning, and in poor taste. Unacceptable.

Again, this is dependent on societal mores of the time. What would have been funny back then wouldn’t have been funny now, and vice-versa. We are much wiser now, and have a better idea of when jokes cross the line from being good-natured to downright insidious.

I am aware of that, but again, some modern Indians (who I assume have been Western-educated or have no ties to their original culture) might take offense. The cow is also a venerated animal there, but if I were an Indian who didn’t know better, I still wouldn’t like my race being represented by it, any more than a Western woman likes being called a dog (who is man’s best friend).

Dreamworks might have the best of intentions, and it’s not like they haven’t used animals to represent a different ethnicity before (again, Kung Fu Panda). But if monkeys are going to be the only animals in the film, and they are to represent Indian culture, then there are bound to be a few sensitive folks who will jump to conclusions (as I’ve mistakenly did) and kick up a fuss about it.

I have no problems whatsoever with Monkeys of Bollywood. I watched Roadside Romeo which had dogs as its entire cast and was partly-produced by an Indian animation company, and I throughly enjoyed it. But some easily-offended types might take issue with it.

I know these types of things don’t happen over night. But I wonder if the success of Tangled had anything with Dreamworks making another musical. Maybe Jeffery got some inside info on how Tangled was coming along, thought it would be something great and successful, and decided to return to musicals again.

That could be the case, but also the director or writers might of had intended it to be a musical in the first place, we might never know.

You know, I hate to chime in here. But in the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s and all that stuff, those jokes weren’t “Racist”. In that time, they were completely acceptable. The crows being black, and the monkeys in Jungle Book being black was just good fun back then.

Sure, now you couldn’t do that, but back then it was accepted culture. Us beating on it and calling Walt a Racist isn’t fair. That was how people, particularly whites, thought back then. We can’t change that, we can only do different(better) than that. That’s like attacking J.R.R. Tolkein for Racism. In his books he portrayed Sauramon’s followers as evil Africans. Obviously this is now unacceptable, as in the movies, they were mostly white to avoid controversy. It’s all relative. Today’s rules would seem preposterous back then, because they weren’t there. Why would Disney have followed rules that weren’t there yet? :confused: So, if Disney was Racist, so were 90% of white people of his era. This is true, by today’s standards. But back then, it was like that. If you called them Racist, they’d call you a Communist. :confused:

Sorry to barge in on the conversation, but I just had to throw that out there. Don’t smack on Walt.

Anyways, I think it’s nice that DreamWorks is doing musicals again.