Untitled Pixar Film with Romani Lead

[Sotiris]

Pixar is casting two voice-over roles of Romani characters for an upcoming English-language animated feature.

One is Lena, a 17-year-old Romani musician. She is a passionate violinist who spends her days as a street musician and her nights working a dishwashing job at a restaurant. She’s whip-smart, resilient, and filled with a youthful spirit and sarcastic humour. But she’s also quick to put up walls to protect herself due to years of prejudice against her and her family.

The other character is Papu Emil, a 70-year-old Romani musician. Emil is an eccentric and cantankerous Romani grandfather and musician. He’s bedridden but full of spirit, with an intense passion for all things family and music, especially his teenage granddaughter, Lena. Emil might be overly direct and opinionated at times, but it all stems from his unwavering support of his granddaughter.

Both Lena and Emil characters speak a few words/lines in Romanes. Actors don’t need to be fluent, but being familiar with the language is helpful.

Source: https://ergonetwork.org/2024/10/pixar-i ... ma-voices/

[DisneyFan09]

Really? That`s surprising and interesting. So it means that Esmeralda and Clopin are not going to be alone with the title of being Disney`s only Romani characters But I wonder if this movie is going to be a musical.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

I wonder if they're doing this because of some backlash to casting Robert Downey Jr as Victor von Doom in the next two Avengers movies because he's a white man playing a Romani character.

[UmbrellaFish]

I enjoy movies about people and culture different from my own, so I’m very excited to hear about this project! I hope they handle the cultural aspect respectfully— I think Pixar generally has a good reputation in that area.

I’m sure the plot line is missing some crucial details. Excited to hear more about this film as time goes on.

[Disney's Divinity]

The violin part is interesting even if the continued binary character structure is yawn-inducing. I'm more excited for Shi's project although that film sounds a bit like a lesser Turning Red so far, it's true.

[Pokenonbinary]

I remember talking to the Instagram account of a Pixar concept artist about making a Spanish Romani flamenco dancer girl movie and she said it was a good idea, it was about 3 years ago and never expected anything to come out of that

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but you never know, maybe after that message she started googling about Romani people and that's how this started

But also those casting calls don't always end up happening, I remember two of those about a trans teen girl and another about a non binary actor, and nothing happened with those characters

I wonder if they're doing this because of some backlash to casting Robert Downey Jr as Victor von Doom in the next two Avengers movies because he's a white man playing a Romani character.

Actually Romani people can be racially white, not all Roma are brown, and also Robert Downey Jr can easily pass as Romani, I know many Romani that look like him

The problem is that he's not that ethnicity, but physically he can pass

Same way Joe Locke is not Jewish but he could be, we ask for correct ethnic casting because ethnicity aka culture is important to correctly represent marginalized communities, but that doesn't mean those communities are all homogenous in physical appearance

There are even Romani people with blue eyes and blonde hair (a minority tho)

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

I remember talking to the Instagram account of a Pixar concept artist about making a Spanish Romani flamenco dancer girl movie and she said it was a good idea, it was about 3 years ago and never expected anything to come out of that

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but you never know, maybe after that message she started googling about Romani people and that's how this started

But also those casting calls don't always end up happening, I remember two of those about a trans teen girl and another about a non binary actor, and nothing happened with those characters

I wonder if they're doing this because of some backlash to casting Robert Downey Jr as Victor von Doom in the next two Avengers movies because he's a white man playing a Romani character.

Actually Romani people can be racially white, not all Roma are brown, and also Robert Downey Jr can easily pass as Romani, I know many Romani that look like him

The problem is that he's not that ethnicity, but physically he can pass

Same way Joe Locke is not Jewish but he could be, we ask for correct ethnic casting because ethnicity aka culture is important to correctly represent marginalized communities, but that doesn't mean those communities are all homogenous in physical appearance

There are even Romani people with blue eyes and blonde hair (a minority tho)

Too bad people could never learn Romanis are white when they saw an animated Disney character who was a white Romani in Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

[Pokenonbinary]

I remember talking to the Instagram account of a Pixar concept artist about making a Spanish Romani flamenco dancer girl movie and she said it was a good idea, it was about 3 years ago and never expected anything to come out of that

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but you never know, maybe after that message she started googling about Romani people and that's how this started

But also those casting calls don't always end up happening, I remember two of those about a trans teen girl and another about a non binary actor, and nothing happened with those characters


Actually Romani people can be racially white, not all Roma are brown, and also Robert Downey Jr can easily pass as Romani, I know many Romani that look like him

The problem is that he's not that ethnicity, but physically he can pass

Same way Joe Locke is not Jewish but he could be, we ask for correct ethnic casting because ethnicity aka culture is important to correctly represent marginalized communities, but that doesn't mean those communities are all homogenous in physical appearance

There are even Romani people with blue eyes and blonde hair (a minority tho)

Too bad people could never learn Romanis are white when they saw an animated Disney character who was a white Romani in Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I didn't said Romani people are white, I said some Romani are white, most people in the Romani community are racialized and categorized as non white by euro standards

Saying "Romanis are white" erases brown Romanis who make the majority of the population

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Too bad people could never learn Romanis are white when they saw an animated Disney character who was a white Romani in Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I didn't said Romani people are white, I said some Romani are white, most people in the Romani community are racialized and categorized as non white by euro standards

Saying "Romanis are white" erases brown Romanis who make the majority of the population

Correction, I mean to say “Romanis are ALSO white.”

[Pokenonbinary]

By the way as someone with romani ancestry making the grandpa 70 and the grand-daughter 17 is very unlikely in the romani community, Romani people tend to marry young (very young, 12-14 but nowadays 18 or 20)

Some romani people obviously don't have kids very young, but it's mostly the norm, so if they're making a movie about Romani people they should investigate and read about the ethnic group they're portraying

But as I said those casting calls normally have fake names and fake descriptions so the real movie is not leaked

[Pokenonbinary]

So you think we will learn something about this movie this year? When they have casting calls is normally because the movie is advanced in production

[Lavendergolden]

My take on this is that Disney needs to first show more respect to their Romani characters like Esmeralda, Quasimodo, and even Stromboli (who they don't represent in the Disney Villains franchise anymore) before bothering to make new ones who will probably be swept aside and ignored after release as well.

But Pixar has a better track record of representation than current Disney. So I have more faith in Pixar handling Romani culture since Disney also whitewashed Romani Flynn Rider as based on Johnny Depp.

[Disney's Divinity]

I don't think PIXAR has a good track record at all, unless tademarking a cultural holiday is considered respectful. And they benefit from the fact that they haven't made many culturally-themed movies to begin with. One thing I find is every film with a PoC cast is eventually called "problematic" for some reason or other by some far left crazy.

[Kyle]

Wait, what? what leftie is calling any poc character problematic?

[Disney's Divinity]

I just meant how eventually films end up getting called something they're not, like with Mulan, Moana (the whole Maui thing), TP&TF, Pocahontas, Raya, Turning Red, Soul, etc. Really the only film the criticism feels somewhat justified with is Pocahontas, but even it's not this horrible film or anything. It is a shame it didn't get a Broadway musical back in the late '90s or '00s, since I'm sure modern Disney wouldn't touch it. I feel like it's only a matter of time before Encanto gets spun as problematic somehow.

[Kyle]

I can give you Pocahontas, but I don't see leftists calling any of those other things problematic at all. If anyone's doing it, its the right, because they're too conservative.

[Pokenonbinary]

I don't think PIXAR has a good track record at all, unless tademarking a cultural holiday is considered respectful. And they benefit from the fact that they haven't made many culturally-themed movies to begin with. One thing I find is every film with a PoC cast is eventually called "problematic" for some reason or other by some far left crazy.

That's true, Pixar has a better track record with minority groups because they barely have touched them

90% of their projects have been about white WASP suburban families or coded as such (for example Nemo is WASP coded, Monsters Inc are also coded as WASP)

And yes the thing about trademarking a national holiday was awful, but Coco itself as a movie is a great film even if the things in the background are horrible (like using the likeness of real mexicans and not paying them)