21 January 2013
RACISM: Toys based on Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained are being bombarded with criticism.
By Stephen Park, Staff Writer
Quentin Tarantino’s new film Django Unchained has already received massive criticism due to its obsessive violence and alleged racism, but now, the release of action figures based on the movie is sparking an even bigger outrage.
The toys are being made by The National Entertainment Collectibles Association, Inc. (NECA), a company that previously produced toys for movies such as The Hunger Games, Predator and even Rocky. They have partnered with the Weinstein Company to begin producing eight-inch figurines modeled after the movies stars that will be sold on Amazon exclusively.
Many feel that the toys trivialize the horrors of slavery and the plight of African Americans. Najee Ali, the director of the advocacy group Project Islamic Hope, told Associated Press in a recent interview that the action figures are “a slap in the face to our ancestors” and hopes to see the toys speedily removed from the market.
This uproar is shocking because NECA also created toys for Tarantino’s movie Inglourious Basterds. However, no one made the claim that the toys trivialized the holocaust. In fact, none of the Django Unchained action figures portray anything but the main characters of the movie. The movie was just being periodically correct. “If fans of this film want to collect memorabilia and action figures based off of a movie they enjoyed, it is a far stretch to say that the makers of this movie are attempting to make money off of slavery,” one supportive collector wrote. “There is nothing racist about making a toy based off of a character from a movie.”
The Weinstein Company has subsequently decided to discontinue the Django Unchained toy line in light of the controversy.
Courtesy of kastorskorner.com and oyster.ignimgs.com