Given the popularity of Aaron McGruder's comic strip-turned cartoon, you could probably have predicted a movie would happen. But it's probably not so likely you predicted it'd be this one...
What studio would dare fund a spin-off movie with a protagonist who's a black handyman who hates black people and is a proponent of flat-out racism?
None. That's why McGruder has a Kickstarter going. He's hoping you'll help him fund it, and has provocatively named donation packages after people he clearly (and in many cases, controversially) considers to be notable racists, from Bull Connor to John Wayne.
It's a ballsy, bizarre move when you consider that a regular Boondocks animated movie could probably find funding reasonably easily. Though I'd rather see a Gin Rummy/Ed Wuncler III spin-off, I imagine that Charlie Murphy and Samuel L. Jackson don't come cheap, and getting white actors to lip-sync properly to their audio could be hard.
And you thought Disney was worried about Song of the South (which, by the way, is available on YouTube in its entirety).
I miss having The Boondocks be a newspaper strip. But then I also miss newspapers. Minority opinion, I suspect.
h/t SlyDante
this just proves the power of kickstarter if one can't use the normal studio method espiclaly with a character like ruckus for a film. try on your own . though surprised he is trying a ruckus solo film instead of a boondocks film. we shall see if aaron manages to use kickstarter to have ruckus raising some trouble on screen in the end
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I love the show, but this just seems kind of weak and showcasing a one-joke, supporting character, and one that many people would find horribly offensive. I think it's a terribly poor choice for a first foray into live action.
Is it possible to start a Kickstarter for the express purpose of stopping another Kickstarter? Because this Kickstarter should not happen. I don't care if Dave Chappelle takes this over and turns it into the story of Clayton Bigsby . . . Ruckus is a supporting character, and an annoying one at that.
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@lantern75A Kickstarter to stop Kickestarter on Kickstarter?
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/JuRER.jpg[/IMG]
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Okay, I probably deserve that for presenting the absurdity. But come on, this is the prospect of an Uncle Ruckus movie. Just thinking about it causes me pain. We shouldn't have to suffer because few people saw Red Tails.
@troi I've avoided doing that for one major reason - my editor at my previous job did exactly that, and I'm being careful about the perception that I'd just be copying him.
@LJDarten @LYT @troi the only article submissions I'm accepting as such are lists. Readers are welcome to send me tips - and I hugely appreciate the ones who do - but I don't want people to write for me for no pay, and I'm really only paying for lists.
Interesting Kickstarters will always be potential fodder, but doing a regular round-up column of them is still too close for comfort. Besides, the good ones merit a whole post. If I had included other Kickstarters in this or the Ralph Bakshi post, would anyone have talked about them?
Am I the only one that think Robert E Lee gets a bit of a bum rap? I think of him like the guy who jumps into the bar fight to help his friend when he knows his friend was in the wrong.
I guess I think he's more like Rommel then Himmler.
@TheClap I don't know. Both North and South wanted him to command their troops, and he chose against the U.S. government, and because he was so good at what he did, the war lasted years longer, and tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of more people died than would have otherwise, and so my vote (and possibly MY vote only) goes to him as Greatest Traitor to the United States Ever. And I find it poetic justice that his personal land was taken from him and used, as Arlington Cemetery, to bury the soldiers of the government he tried to overthrow.
Sorry if I went semi-rantish, but it always pisses me off to think that we, out of every country in the world, civilized or otherwise, were the only ones that had to have a civil war over something that every other country apparently had no problem voluntarily getting rid of.
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@TheClap I once surveyed my Facebook friends with the question: If you can honor the troops even if you disagree with their mission, should we honor Confederate dead? Most agreed that you could respect the life sacrificed even if you felt the cause was wrong.
"I imagine that Charlie Murphy and Samuel L. Jackson don't come cheap, and getting white actors to lip-sync properly to their audio could be hard.".
You make it sound like, if there were no black voice over actors.
Wow. The crapstorm this will encounter will be enormous. Anyone remember the reaction to "Read A Book?" (Link here if you don't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmZq7PkrKsk).
I stopped watching Boondocks because, for me, I couldn't tell whether it was actually helping me remove my prejudices or it was simply reinforcing them. Does anyone else have the same problem, or am I just that racist?
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@Shemp I think Aaron McGruder has specifically said that he creates the show with NO specific message. I've struggled with the same thing, at times. "Am I laughing because of the racist humor, or because it's lambasting racist humor, or both".
It's a little like South Park, in that it blurs the line between delivering a message and mocking it.
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@Shemp I think it's laughing at prejudices while at the same time making viewers think. Like Chappelle's show - though Chappelle quit when he thought audiences weren't getting that, and just enjoying the racist parts.
Thing is, artists can't help that not everyone's going to get their point. They need to understand that some viewers won't look deeply. And when your topic is racism and racial stereotypes, it means some people will read it very wrong.
not saying you're reading it wrong either - the execution can easily be off sometimes.
@LYT I think you're exactly right. It was actually Chappelle's reason for quitting that made me reexamine exactly why I found Boondocks funny. And I didn't mean to imply that it's somehow Mr. McGruder's fault for ME having trouble reconciling my feelings.
@LYT if you don't want people interpreting your work in ways other than you intend don't do creative work.
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@LYT @Gallen_DugallLuke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.
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I actually have a copy of 'Song Of The South' on DVD. Don't ask how I got it.
Uh oh. I hope Disney doesn't send their team of commando lawyers after me.
Well I wasn't expecting that.
By the by, currently up to 66k and with a target of 200k I think he might make it.
@gazzyw007 Got another $5K in the last 12 hrs. I think this can all be attributed to TR readers....
@gazzyw007 Never mind he's going to do a mockumentary anyway if he doesn't reach the goal, going off the pitch.
@GeneralTekno @gazzyw007 Not quite - he says he's making the mockumentary if he reaches the goal but somehow other factors keep the movie from being made.
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