The diversity lacking in this year’s Oscar nominated films can be found in the increased number of diverse character seen in animated movies, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Big Hero 6, the Disney Oscar nominated film for best animated feature, features two women, an African American, Latina and Asian American.
“We took the Japanese aesthetic from the comic, which we thought was very cool, but applied it to San Francisco because it’s iconic,” said co-director Don Hall. “Once we had our world of San Fransokyo, it became a no-brainer that the cast of the movie should be very multicultural.”
The 2009 Pixar film Up starred Korean American scout Russell who bonds with a white man.
“When we were designing Russell, we were very lucky to have input from Pete Sohn,” said the film’s director Pete Doctor. Pete’s a Korean American who grew up outside New York. He storyboarded some of the first sequences with the Russell character.”
This diversity can also be seen behind the scenes with the voice actors selected.
“Voice casting is complex and challenging, because when you have the opportunity, you want to reflect the world as it exists and have a multicultural cast,” says Hall. “The characters never really come alive to me until we get the voice actors because they bring so much.”
This diversity is not a recent trend, but actually began two decades ago. You can read about that in the Los Angeles Times.
