The subject of inappropriate racial and ethnic casting in Hollywood films is unlikely to go away anytime soon. A new dispute has cropped up over "The Last Airbender", a live action reworking of a popular US animation. The film has already picked up some poor reviews but it had been a target of criticism for its casting choices well before release. In short, characters which were understood to be generic Asian types in the cartoon are played by white actors in the film. As this piece shows, the original casting call for the lead role of Aang even specified a caucasian child actor. The film makers have defended themselves against criticism by pointing out they have a diverse cast but the same article notes that the non-white actors only seem to portray the bad guys. The casting decisions have caused such a fuss that there is even a website called Racebending which details arguments against the film.
