out of place

A lot of the time corners must be cut in television shows, movies, and other forms of entertainment due to budget.  To an extent I understand that, as I believe that most people do.  Some of the cost savers bother me more than others, though.  The biggest may be having someone who is very obviously not from a certain area of the world portray a character from that area of the world.  In this case I am talking about when this is blatant.

An example of what I am not talking about is having Apu in The Simpsons voiced by Hank Azaria or Kahn  Sr. in King of the Hill voiced by Toby Huss.  In both of these cases the characters are presented as a bit tongue-in-cheek, and there's at least a hint of what seems like it should be the right accent in their voices.  I am also not talking about the fact that ancient Roman, Greek, and Hebrew individuals are frequently presented with a British accent.  I don't know how people are supposed to have sounded like in those regions a few centuries back, so it isn't as offputting as it might otherwise be.

Three examples of what I am thinking about spring to mind.

The first example is more significant to me than it would be to others since I had some childhood experience living on and around reservations.  Native Americans have historically been portrayed by non-Native actors who do not talk a bit like any Native Americans I have met and whose facial features were very Caucasian.

This has gotten better in more recent decades than it used to be. I remember talk about relatives of a Native family I knew actually holding a short part in Dances with Wolves when it was filming in the area so some Natives have found roles. My bar for acceptability here is pretty low.  All I am really ask for is someone with a believable accent and who looks Native American to play Native American characters.

As an aside, Dances with Wolves was a pretentious and poorly paced movie if ever there was one. 

The second example is from a movie I rewatched several months back: Around the World in Eighty Days.  One of the main characters is Princess Aouda who is presented as an Indian (from India) princess who the protagonist rescues from a cult that is trying to sacrifice her.  She is played by Shirley MacLaine in this movie.  In case you are wondering how not Indian Shirley MacLaine looked in 1956, the below image from the movie should give a hint.

Shirley MacLaine playing an "Indian" princess

She made no attempt to adopt even a mild accent during the movie, so the entire time that character was on the screen I was thinking, "Had anyone associated with this film ever met someone from India?" Now I know that I am asking a lot for a movie released fifty-eight years ago, but I also know a lot of people from India.  No film holding a Best Picture Oscar should have been allowed to pass off Shirley MacLaine as Indian.

Finally, I spent some time last month playing a game on the Wii called Secret Files: Tunguska.  It's largely a puzzle game where you are supposed to pick items up around a playing area and figure out how to combine them to work toward a specific end goal.  The storyline for the game has German characters traveling on a Russian train, in an Irish pub, and through a Cuban psych ward.  At no time did any speaking character in the game come close to having even a fake German, Russian, Irish, or Cuban accent.  Ultimately, since this was a puzzle game the storyline did not matter so much, but it was jarring hearing "German" and "Russian" characters who sounded like they were from the American Midwest interact.

All of this being said, throw the flimsiest of Sci-Fi plots my direction and I will eat it up.  Perhaps I am not as discerning as I am portraying myself here.