Cultural Accuracy And Representation In Animation: How Important Is It?

[SweetShop209]

So, when it comes to the world of animation, one thing that's done quite a bit is having characters voiced by actors of different ethnicities. For example, Samurai Jack, a Japanese man, is voiced by Phil LaMarr, an African American man. The same series likewise sees the Scotsman voiced by John DiMaggio, an American. In The Adventures Of Puss In Boots, the title character is voiced by Eric Bauza, a Canadian-American voice actor. In the video games, he's voiced by Andre Sogliuzzo , who's Italian American. This in unlike in other media, where he's voiced by Antonio Banderas (in the movies and TV specials) and and Christian Lanz (many Dreamworks commercials before the 2015 series). There's also the idea of interchangeable cultures within the same continent. For example, Katana is Japanese, while in Beware The Batman, she's voiced by Sumalee Montano, who has Filipino and Thai ethnicity (though she was born in Ohio). Granted, they did well in these roles.

Now let's go back to the 1990s, when Disney made movies like Aladdin and Hercules. While well received (more for the former, but the latter is well liked too), they did come under fire for not being that accurate to the cultures they were portraying, with some people even accusing them of using stereotypes.

Now this makes one wonder how important it is to be culturally accurate? One could say it is important given how many projects these days have been more comfortable in showcasing other cultures as accurately as whether, usually with having them as the creative force, or getting someone from that culture heavily involved. For example, Craig Of The Creek stars a black character, and while the show is created by Matt Burnett & Ben Levin (who are white men), the show's story editor is Jeff Trammell, who's black. Jorge Gutierrez and his wife Sandra Equihua are both from Mexico, hence the cultural representation being well received in their works such as El Tigre and The Book Of Life. Lalo Alcarez was brought on as a cultural consultant for Coco and The Casagrandes (as well as The Casagrandes episodes at the start of season 4 of The Loud House), and both projects are well received (helped by the latter having other Latino people to write for the series, with Miguel Puga serving as supervising director). Elena Of Avalor came under fire at one point due to supposedly homogenizing various Latino cultures, but this ignores how Craig Gerber has cultural consultants onboard to help with the series, and the show's story editor is Silvia Olivas.

Of course, I want to hear what you think.

 

[TheMisterManGuy]

My answer to this is two fold.

* Regarding Voice Actors, I believe performance is the ultimate deciding factor, regardless of race. Whoever can provide the best performance for the character should get the role. If it can match their race, that's great. But otherwise, casting and voice directors should worry about the actors' performance before anything else.

* In regards to people writing about different cultures that they don't belong to. That's what research is for. Simply looking up some history of a specific culture can really help improve not only accuracy, but also creativity of writing. That said, you don't have always be one-to-one, mostly if you're writing a fantasy.

 

[Red Arrow]

They should ask people of that ethnicity if it sounds good. Otherwise you end up like Apu from the Simpsons, who doesn't sound Indian at all but Americans think it is very accurate, because Americans don't grow up hearing the typical consonants and vowels of any of the Indian languages.

This reminds me of the character Gunther in Friends, a Dutch waiter who speaks Dutch at one point, but you can't understand him at all. Also, no one in the Netherlands is named Gunther. Well, no one cares that much here, but it might be more sensitive in other countries

Russians are used to hearing terrible Russian in Hollywood movies.

 

[Radiant97]

Not long after reading this thread, I stumbled upon a Twitter thread by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, creator of Bojack Horseman, where he discussed why Diane Nguyen, a Vietnamese, was voiced by Alison Brie, a white woman. You can read the rest yourself.


As an Indonesian myself, I completely agree with TheMisterManGuy. I don't think the race of the voice actor should matter much when they're not showing their face, unless the character is supposed to have an accent or dialect belonging to a certain ethnicity that would otherwise be distasteful for someone of another ethnicity to imitate. While I think it's even cooler when casting directors seek out actual POCs to voice POC characters, I wouldn't lose sleep over an Indonesian character being voiced by a Caucasian.

 

[Fone Bone]

I don't actually mind Brie as Diane too much BUT...

In almost all cases if you have a white person voicing a person of color it's gonna suck. Apu is just Patient Zero. Cleveland Brown is also hugely problematic. And I also want to throw extra shade at Scott Wiegner as Aladdin who was cast specifically so he'd sound white and nonthreatening. There are a couple of other examples like Brie where it's not actually all that offensive, but as a rule you should try to cast people of the same ethnicity.

I should also mention that black, white, Latino, and Asian voices all have their own distinct tones and inflections. You can talk about who sounds best for the role on paper, but in reality a white actor will never actually sound like a black one (or vice versa.)

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

*Sighs* Okay guess I'm going to be the controversial one here but I just have to say it;

If you are going with live action or trying to make your animation applicable to a REAL LIFE setting and culture and trying to purposely be detailed to specifically appeal to that market and it's an important part of the authenticity of the show then yes you should ALWAYS get the right actor of the right race/gender/nationality to play that role. I mean if the point is to correctly portray something and having it feel like you're properly representing this specific culture then it should fully sound like that as well as yeah even the best VAs in the world aren't going to fully get an accent or tone as a person who as actually lived that life for years and is a part of that culture.

However, if your animation is absurd and goofy and is meant for mostly comedy or takes place in it's own specific world with it's own specific rules then quite honestly no it SHOULDN'T MATTER if you get someone of the proper sex/race/nationality/etc for the part; you get who best fits the role regardless of what their own background is because what's important is getting the right person for the role and how it's going to sound in your fictional setting matters way more then real life behind the scene politics.

Seriously for some of these series it's really a ridiculous thing to complain about. Yeah Phil LaMarr isn't Japanese but Samurai Jack is about a man whose trained his entire life to stop a demonic alien sorcerer who flung him millions of years into the future so I don't think they're trying to be 100% realistic. People got up in arms about Hank Azaria playing Apu in this goofy sitcom series about a world inhabitated by mostly yellow people where one of there most celebrated episodes has Lenoard Nimoy randomly just be able to teleport away without any explanation, where you have white VAs playing roles of every other color (Carl and Dr. Hibbert and ethnicity (Groundskeeper Willie, Akira, Luigi) that it feels pretty inane to pick on that particular detail. Heck there's a difference between being up in arms about the white washing in the Last Airbender movie but not caring how you had white actors Jack Desena or Mae Whitman playing the more inuit looking Sokka and Katara and Flippino Dante Basco playing the obviously Japanese Fire Nation prince Zuko; because in the cartoon where you only see the animated images on screen in it's fictional world who portrays the race of a character does not nearly matter as much. Or IMHO at all.

Again for certain projects you want that authenticity. Like say Coco or even The Casagrandes where that's kind of more the point but a lot of these roles don't need that and quite honestly trying to force that with animation is a pretty silly and pointless idea that goes against the point of VAs talents being judged above all else. If you are banking on trying to have a certain specific flavor then yeah go for that but otherwise cast who just fits best and don't worry if the behind the scene voice doesn't fit the actor portrayed in the show or movie. Yeah Alison Brie is white and not Vietnamese but again, as realistic as the show tries to be it's still a cartoon world with it's own rules and guidelines where animals talk and live in basic society so why should that really be such a big deal?

 

[Dr.Pepper]

I don't actually mind Brie as Diane too much BUT...

In almost all cases if you have a white person voicing a person of color it's gonna suck. Apu is just Patient Zero. Cleveland Brown is also hugely problematic. And I also want to throw extra shade at Scott Wiegner as Aladdin who was cast specifically so he'd sound white and nonthreatening. There are a couple of other examples like Brie where it's not actually all that offensive, but as a rule you should try to cast people of the same ethnicity.

I should also mention that black, white, Latino, and Asian voices all have their own distinct tones and inflections. You can talk about who sounds best for the role on paper, but in reality a white actor will never actually sound like a black one (or vice versa.)

This reminds me of Vanessa Marshall who is the voice of Irwin from Billy and Mandy. She is white, but when she auditioned for the role she didn’t know what Irwin looked like. She got the role because everyone else was trying to do a more stereotypical “urban” accent because Irwin is black. She felt kind of bad because she felt like she took a role away from a black actor.

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

And IMHO though I have no right to tell her how she should feel, I personally think she shouldn't feel bad whatsoever for that role. She didn't get the part because she was white but because she did something different for the character who isn't supposed to sound hip and cool. I mean later on they give Irwin more a bit more "urban" dialect (or at least have him constantly say yo in every other sentence) but he's supposed to be a geek and not cool at all. So her giving him that voice works for the character because again she is the right fit for it.

Also considering she started playing Irwin in the third episode of Grim and Evil she has especially no reason to feel bad because the title characters of that series were both played by black actors. Greg Eagles is Grim (and Grim though technically a skeleton isn't written as a black character... I would hope not because otherwise there are more creepy impications of him becoming Billy and Mandy's best friend slave forever and ever then there should be) and Phil LaMaar was Hector Con Carne/Evil Con Carne, so it's not like that show lacked black voice actors playing pivotal roles. I'm sure sadly there has been some sad examples of racial profiling in roles but honestly most times it does go who is the best fit and with cartoons like this it shouldn't matter what race or creed the person doing the voice is.

 

[TheVileOne]

I would not have watched the final season of Samurai Jack without Phil LaMarr as Jack.

Secondly, Aku and Iroh used to be voiced by Mako. Mako sadly passed away. He was replaced in Avatar and Samurai Jack by Greg Baldwin. Greg Baldwin HONORED Mako in both performances. Should they have cast an Asian actor to play Aku or Iroh? They did the right thing by casting an actor who was cast because he could do a voice similar to Mako to honor the characters he played and Mako's performances. If there were actors who could've done a better job than Greg Baldwin, then by all means give them the part, but I doubt they could've done a better job than Baldwin. That's why he was allowed to take over the roles.

TMNT 2012 - Splinter/Hamato Yoshi is voiced by Hoon Lee. Asian American actor, who judging by his name is of Korean descent. Meanwhile, Oroku Saki/Shredder is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, an African American actor. Now, I don't know all the details of how they cast those characters or what they were looking for but both men were absolutely fantastic in their roles.

I think the beauty of voice acting is you aren't limited to anything. You can play a freaking anthropomorphic chair, an alien, talking animals.

Most pre-teen boys in animated shows are voiced by women! Because women tend to do the best job at voicing boys before their voices change and they go through puberty. It's rare to find age-appropriate working class male voice actors to play the young boy characters, plus if a show is on for a long time, their voices change even though the characters are supposed to have the same voice.

I think in general, get the best actors for the part. I think ideally, yes for certain characters and roles you want to get the racially appropriate characters. But other times that's not even possible.

As for Apu and The Simpsons, they could've avoided the problem entirely had The Simpsons ended years ago like it should've as it hasn't been good for decades.

 

[Red Arrow]

However, if your animation is absurd and goofy and is meant for mostly comedy or takes place in it's own specific world with it's own specific rules then quite honestly no it SHOULDN'T MATTER if you get someone of the proper sex/race/nationality/etc for the part; you get who best fits the role regardless of what their own background is because what's important is getting the right person for the role and how it's going to sound in your fictional setting matters way more then real life behind the scene politics.

What if an absurd, goofy and successful cartoon is made in Europe in which one of the supporting characters is a loud idiot from New York with lots of American stereotypes, voiced by a British voice-actor who tries to sound Texan. "He doesn't even sound like he's from New York!" "Yes he does, hahaha, all Americans sound the same, just like all 1.3 billion Indians!"

People got up in arms about Hank Azaria playing Apu in this goofy sitcom series about a world inhabitated by mostly yellow people where one of there most celebrated episodes has Lenoard Nimoy randomly just be able to teleport away without any explanation, where you have white VAs playing roles of every other color (Carl and Dr. Hibbert and ethnicity (Groundskeeper Willie, Akira, Luigi) that it feels pretty inane to pick on that particular detail.

The detail being that his accent is terrible according to Indians.

I don't understand the comparison with Samurai Jack. No one is laughing with Jack.
The disctinction isn't absurd vs not absurd, but comedy vs serious cartoons.

 

[SweetShop209]

Should I have this thread closed? I have a feeling this might get out of hand.

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

Should I have this thread closed? I have a feeling this might get out of hand.

Nah we don't need to do that. We're all adults here and can discuss these differing opinions in mature interesting ways that make for conversation not for pointless bickering back and forth. For example...

What if an absurd, goofy and successful cartoon is made in Europe in which one of the supporting characters is a loud idiot from New York with lots of American stereotypes, voiced by a British voice-actor who tries to sound Texan. "He doesn't even sound like he's from New York!" "Yes he does, hahaha, all Americans sound the same, just like all 1.3 billion Indians!"

Well if it was a series like The Simpsons and meant to mostly just be a general goof towards anyone I doubt anyone would of really cared for years. And honestly I never would of cared at all, and I'm from New York. Well specifically Long Island but still New York. And just because someone represents where I come from doesn't mean they specifically represent me and if they're meant to be a silly stupid character in general it shouldn't really matter whey they are from.

The detail being that his accent is terrible according to Indians.

And Luigi's accent is a terrible Italian Stereotype.
And Akira's accent (which BTW Akira was originally played by George Takei but due to George being a guest they couldn't always get went to Hank Azaria) is a terrible Japanese Stereotype.
And Groundskeeper Willie's accent is a terrible Scottish Stereotype.

How come no one ever went after them, especially now?

I don't understand the comparison with Samurai Jack. No one is laughing with Jack.
The disctinction isn't absurd vs not absurd, but comedy vs serious cartoons.

Yeah but even when the show started the joke about Apu wasn't "LOL it's funny he's Indian" but rather he was more the sort of straight man and voice of reason character to play off other's absurdity. Like his annoyance at Homer offering a statue of his god Ganesha isn't funny because "LOL Apu sounds silly and prays to an Elephant" but rather "LOL Homer's an idiot who has no idea what he's doing" like a lot of Homer related jokes. Same with him tearing down Skinner for his terrible attempt to make a Jurassic Park story and of course the classic line "I can't believe you won't shut up!" Like Apu actually was by far one of the most evolved secondary character as they spent a lot of episodes on his backstory and fleshed out his personality of being incredibly hard working and dedicated to sometimes an unhealthy point and sometimes being kind of being a bit shady in his business practices but not ever to like an evil degree or anything and having been before his marriage Springfield's most eligible bachelor due to again his incredible likeable personality and being seen as such a catch. Like seriously even if we're going by "oh the distinction is how it's handled as a comedy" well as a comedy the jokes typically weren't centered on just bashing Apu's culture or how he sounds unlike say a lot of other characters of stereotype NO ONE COMPLAINS ABOUT. And even some that were happened in the world of Simpsons where generally everyone is a target and gets mocked at some point. I'm not going to get mad at the show just because they had an episode where a drunken Marge didn't even think Long Island was a place that existed because again it's not a show where that sort of thing really matters so honestly I don't think it should of ever been made such a big deal especially when it's a complaint that addresses one specific factor of the show and seems to ignore how the rest of the series operates.

Like I said though it depends on the cartoon and the specific production and the tone they're going for and for some shows I don't know how specific that tone is as I haven't watched it. Thus why I don't know how to take this specific news bit.

Jenny Slate Will No Longer Voice Missy on Big Mouth: 'Black Characters on an Animated Show Should be Played by Black People'

Big Mouth will be recasting the role of Missy with a Black actor

www.tvguide.com

Because yeah I haven't seen Big Mouth and though I have seen a few clips and heard people talk about it, still haven't gotten enough of a grasp on the show to know if it would be off hearing Jenny Slate voice this Missy character. Again I don't have a problem with say Vanessa Marshall voicing Irwin but I know the tone and kind of series Billy and Mandy is. Not so much Big Mouth. However I will say this: I think it's fine for voice actors and people in that field to voice whatever characters but feel differently if you're getting a celebrity to voice a specific roll. And looking at the cast of Big Mouth to me it feels less like they were focusing on getting VAs and more focused on getting celeberties who yeah obviously had VA experience but were likely chosen more because they were names you could sell of some kind. Not to the extent you'd see in say a Dreamworks or Blue Sky movie but still Nick Kroll and Jason Mantzoukas and Maya Rudolph are known by everyone first for their life action series way before any of their VA roles. So there probably should be more attention given to focusing specifically on casting the person determined by what best represents them if you're not fully going by VA talent. But again I'm not going to claim this one as good or bad because again I don't know the show but I do feel it's important to bring to the conversation especially for those who do know it.

 

[Fone Bone]

And Luigi's accent is a terrible Italian Stereotype.
And Akira's accent (which BTW Akira was originally played by George Takei but due to George being a guest they couldn't always get went to Hank Azaria) is a terrible Japanese Stereotype.
And Groundskeeper Willie's accent is a terrible Scottish Stereotype.

How come no one ever went after them, especially now?

Italian and Scottish people are white so white producers feel comfortable giving people protected by white privilege the business. As for Akira he appears rarely and I haven't seen him in years.

 

[SweetShop209]

I found this interesting set of tweets from Bruce W. Smith, creator of The Proud Family. Despite the show using plenty of black actors, Bebe and CeCe were voiced by Tara Strong even though she's Canadian American (and white). According to him, they tried to find appropriate voices for them, but eventually settled on Tara given how well she can make baby noises. He then mentions this casting as a blessing due to inspiring people of color to be more active in pursuing these roles.

 

[Fone Bone]

I would very much love it if what is happening on Big Mouth and Central Park is panicking the hell out of Mike Henry.

 

[Red Arrow]

Nah we don't need to do that. We're all adults here and can discuss these differing opinions in mature interesting ways that make for conversation not for pointless bickering back and forth. For example...



Well if it was a series like The Simpsons and meant to mostly just be a general goof towards anyone I doubt anyone would of really cared for years. And honestly I never would of cared at all, and I'm from New York. Well specifically Long Island but still New York. And just because someone represents where I come from doesn't mean they specifically represent me and if they're meant to be a silly stupid character in general it shouldn't really matter whey they are from.




And Luigi's accent is a terrible Italian Stereotype.
And Akira's accent (which BTW Akira was originally played by George Takei but due to George being a guest they couldn't always get went to Hank Azaria) is a terrible Japanese Stereotype.
And Groundskeeper Willie's accent is a terrible Scottish Stereotype.

How come no one ever went after them, especially now?




Yeah but even when the show started the joke about Apu wasn't "LOL it's funny he's Indian" but rather he was more the sort of straight man and voice of reason character to play off other's absurdity. Like his annoyance at Homer offering a statue of his god Ganesha isn't funny because "LOL Apu sounds silly and prays to an Elephant" but rather "LOL Homer's an idiot who has no idea what he's doing" like a lot of Homer related jokes. Same with him tearing down Skinner for his terrible attempt to make a Jurassic Park story and of course the classic line "I can't believe you won't shut up!" Like Apu actually was by far one of the most evolved secondary character as they spent a lot of episodes on his backstory and fleshed out his personality of being incredibly hard working and dedicated to sometimes an unhealthy point and sometimes being kind of being a bit shady in his business practices but not ever to like an evil degree or anything and having been before his marriage Springfield's most eligible bachelor due to again his incredible likeable personality and being seen as such a catch. Like seriously even if we're going by "oh the distinction is how it's handled as a comedy" well as a comedy the jokes typically weren't centered on just bashing Apu's culture or how he sounds unlike say a lot of other characters of stereotype NO ONE COMPLAINS ABOUT. And even some that were happened in the world of Simpsons where generally everyone is a target and gets mocked at some point. I'm not going to get mad at the show just because they had an episode where a drunken Marge didn't even think Long Island was a place that existed because again it's not a show where that sort of thing really matters so honestly I don't think it should of ever been made such a big deal especially when it's a complaint that addresses one specific factor of the show and seems to ignore how the rest of the series operates.

Like I said though it depends on the cartoon and the specific production and the tone they're going for and for some shows I don't know how specific that tone is as I haven't watched it. Thus why I don't know how to take this specific news bit.

Jenny Slate Will No Longer Voice Missy on Big Mouth: 'Black Characters on an Animated Show Should be Played by Black People'

Big Mouth will be recasting the role of Missy with a Black actor

www.tvguide.com

Because yeah I haven't seen Big Mouth and though I have seen a few clips and heard people talk about it, still haven't gotten enough of a grasp on the show to know if it would be off hearing Jenny Slate voice this Missy character. Again I don't have a problem with say Vanessa Marshall voicing Irwin but I know the tone and kind of series Billy and Mandy is. Not so much Big Mouth. However I will say this: I think it's fine for voice actors and people in that field to voice whatever characters but feel differently if you're getting a celebrity to voice a specific roll. And looking at the cast of Big Mouth to me it feels less like they were focusing on getting VAs and more focused on getting celeberties who yeah obviously had VA experience but were likely chosen more because they were names you could sell of some kind. Not to the extent you'd see in say a Dreamworks or Blue Sky movie but still Nick Kroll and Jason Mantzoukas and Maya Rudolph are known by everyone first for their life action series way before any of their VA roles. So there probably should be more attention given to focusing specifically on casting the person determined by what best represents them if you're not fully going by VA talent. But again I'm not going to claim this one as good or bad because again I don't know the show but I do feel it's important to bring to the conversation especially for those who do know it.

Well, I'm also not offended personally by for instance Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers films (even though his accent doesn't sound remotely Flemish, but I think that's the point ) (he is by the way th ONLY Hollywood character from Flanders/Belgium that I can think of ). But some people are more sensitive than others and Hollywood is trying to make international hits. I was hoping my example would have given you a better perspective.

I am not sure what to think of the "I am not offended so neither should you" attitude. It reminds me a lot of the current blackface debate in Belgium... Asking people not to be offended doesn't help at all.

I agree with Fone Bone. Europeans have a long history of laughing with each other. Compare it being laughed at by your friends versus being laughed at by people you have just met. One is called teasing and the other bullying.

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

Italian and Scottish people are white so white producers feel comfortable giving people protected by white privilege the business. As for Akira he appears rarely and I haven't seen him in years.

Well it's still giving specific characters very obvious accents and stereotypes not played by actors who represent those nationalities. Plus even after this whole Apu controversey and this new one, I don't see anyone asking Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer, obviously very white actors to stop voicing the black characters they play, Carl Carlson and Dr. Julius Hibbert respectively at all because with those characters though they do race jokes it goes beyond their character's voices and again it fits within the zany madcap world of Springfield. Plus yeah Azaria and Shearer were hired for their vocal talents and for how amazingly verstaile they are. Remember that period when it looked like Shearer might of left the show and it was revealed they'd need to get at least 3-4 other VAs to cover all the various characters he played due to how amazing the guy's range is? So yeah these are very talented people who even if they don't match the character's nationality still fit and voice the character so well 30+ years in I wouldn't want to see them stop doing that.

I would very much love it if what is happening on Big Mouth and Central Park is panicking the hell out of Mike Henry.

Mike Henry's a bit of a different story IMHO though. Because though the guy does have range and has done well voicing his characters for like two decades... Henry wasn't hired because of his talent or because he's put in a lot of hours getting a bunch of roles and showcased how deserving he is of the part. He got the role of Cleveland Brown originally because he's friends with Seth MacFarlane thus why most projects Henry's in are associated with Seth not because of his own specific merits. Then again I don't expect that to happen because Family Guy in general just gets off on the idea of offending and making fun of religion and politics and issues and racism in general. Honestly I can see them actually doing a joke about that and just referencing how much they don't care then them actually going through with it though. Heck they already did that joke in "Emmy Winning Episode" so I would just expect them to do it again if this becomes more of a thing.

I am not sure what to think of the "I am not offended so neither should you" attitude. It reminds me a lot of the blackface debate in Belgium... Asking people not to be offended doesn't help at all.

Uh that wasn't my point at all. It was "it should really depend on the talent of the VA and what exactly kind of role and series it's in then just trying to make all VA casting more "appropriate" because that will dig you into a never ending rabbit hole of trying to be overly too PC about everything." I specifically said even about Vanessa Marshall "IMHO though I have no right to tell her how she should feel, I personally think" so yeah same thing here man. If you are offended I have no right to tell you otherwise just giving my own thoughts on this whole thing which i even said up top in my first post on this thread "Okay guess I'm going to be the controversial one here" knowing what my views are won't align with others but still giving my thoughts on what exactly they are.

 

[Red Arrow]

I don't think of it as a endless rabbit hole. Your many examples make it clear that people are fine with most mismatches (Samurai Jack, Mario, Avatar etc.). But if the accent specifically is part of the joke (and in case of Apu, it is, it really is), then people are going to get offended unless you hire a local actor. I don't believe in slippery slopes, neither should anyone. It is considered a logical fallacy.

I find the notion that there is only ONE proper voice-actor for a character a bit absurd. Disney is able to find excellent voice-actors in every country. Some voice-actors sound exactly the same, like the English and Dutch voice-actor of Stitch, or most voice-actors of Mickey Mouse, only the language and accent is different. (Mickey Mouse in Hungarian) Other companies should be capable of that as well.

Do you really think that if Apu had been given an Indian voice-actor, that you would have thought: "Hmm... doesn't sound right." No, most people would think that voice-actor would be the perfect match, no matter who he would have been.

It's just a matter of what you are used to. If F.R.I.E.N.D.S were called P.A.L.S, that would have been normal.

 

[creator]

I don't think of it as a endless rabbit hole. Your many examples make it clear that people are fine with most mismatches (Samurai Jack, Mario, Avatar etc.). But if the accent specifically is part of the joke (and in case of Apu, it is, it really is), then people are going to get offended unless you hire a local actor.

As pointed out, Groundskeeper Willie and Luigi have stereotypical accents but we're not upset about those characters. Clearly this isn't an issue about the role of accents in jokes; instead, as @Fone Bone suggested, it's an issue of white actors playing non-white characters.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Tangentially related: Pete Holmes had a funny and true bit about some still "acceptable" stereotypes in a Conan interview: