A Brief History of the Racist Autobots Exiled from Transformers 3
My heart can't take all this bad news today! First, Jeff Fahey attempted to drag me out of denial, forcing me to finally acknowledge that Lost's Frank Lapidus was really, truly dead. (But we didn't see a body, Jeff!) Now, Michael Bay has revealed that the racist, gold-toothed Autobots named Mudflaps and Skids will not be returning to Transformers 3 after their jaw-dropping introduction in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Though I have no doubt that Bay will replace them with something equally mind-boggling, I think we need to pay those two their due first.
We first met these robots last June, just prior to the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, when Movieline singled them out as one of the 9 most shameless aspects of that movie:
There are two robots in the film called Mudflap and Skids, and despite being red and green, respectively, they are voiced in a way that clearly designates them to be the "black" robots. Also, Skids has a gold front tooth (no, I'm serious) and both cannot read.
We were so innocent then! Little did we know that these two creatures would jive-talk their way into our hearts, all summer long. First, though, we had the blame game: When Movieline asked writers Alex Kutzman and Robert Orci whose idea it was to give Skids a gold tooth, they passed the buck. "That was Michael," Kurtzman said, laughing. "That was definitely Michael." Later, Orci told Film School Rejects, "I'm not easily offended, but when I saw it, I thought, 'Someone's gonna write about that.'"
"But what's to be offended about?" Bay argued. In an AP piece called "Jive-talking twin Transformers raise race issues," the director laid out his case:
"We're just putting more personality in," Bay said. "I don't know if it's stereotypes -- they are robots, by the way. These are the voice actors. This is kind of the direction they were taking the characters and we went with it."
Bay said the twins' parts "were kind of written but not really written, so the voice actors is when we started to really kind of come up with their characters."
"I purely did it for kids," the director said. "Young kids love these robots, because it makes it more accessible to them." [...]
"Listen, you're going to have your naysayers on anything," he said. "It's like is everything going to be melba toast? It takes all forms and shapes and sizes."
And yet, now they're dead. Which is also a stereotype.
The Twins Won't be Back for Transformers 3 [SuperHero Hype]
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Comments
That is EXACTLY what I thought they were going for.
I DID think "Oh man, some people are going to read into this as being racist" for sure. But it clearly wasn't racist in intent.
Those charactors were stupid anyways, even if they were black or not. They make a serious action movie into a stupid comical one. If people are getting killed and shot at with lazors, lets cut the dumb robots out and save them for the cartoons.
it's racist to recognize racial stereotypes being exploited on screen?
you are shockingly naive.
What the hell? Whether this is racist or not is debatable, but how the hell would considering this to be racist make you a racist yourself? According to your logic, nothing could ever be considered racist because to do so would be to take race into consideration and that itself would be racist...
Are you serious?
They're a stereotype of black people. There may be people of other races who behave in the same way, but that doesn't change the fact that that behavior is a black stereotype. The robots were modeled after that stereotype. That's racist.
You Cockhole! I made it one sentence into your post before you spoiled an episode of Lost.
Racism isn't the travesty here, it's your inability to acknowledge the PVR.
To be honest I thought they were white robots who were trying to act black
Are the 2 Transformers on welfare and have child support?
Here is a funny thought those are 2 robots that look nothing like humans so to assume they are black is acknowledging that black people act like that.
He made it for the kids? That's just stupid. When you were a kid, and you watched Star Wars(the good ones, I mean), did you want to play with the Darth Vader and Han Solo toys or the Ewok toys? Kids don't want the things that are supposedly "for kids". Bay made some racist robots, for kids or not.
No, "Transformers" is the Jar-Jar Binks of films.
So what stereotype will MB unleash on us in Transformers 3?
Ling Ling - The Autobot that transforms into a Honda from Asia?
Mook - The Autobot that transforms into a caddy from New Jersey?
Fabuloussss! - The Autobot that transforms into a BMW from San Francisco?
I'm willing to bet anyone's Salary or Job for that matter that neither the 'Dinobots' nor 'Unicron' will ever be in this film (maybe even any film for that matter). 'Unicron' is too big of an element to be in the sequel, and the 'Dinos' are too irrelevant in today’s world. I'm guessing that it will be based on the mythology of "Energon" and the “Life” of any 'Transformer' on Earth as we know it. How will the “Transformers” continue to live on Earth without an energy source to live off of? According to Hasbro's CEO, "You’re going to see that great core mythology brought to the fore, and Michael is hard at work at making this a reality and we’re very excited about it," Hasbro's head Brian Goldner also quoted Mr. Bay stating, "What we’re really doing is getting back to some of the core character development and storytelling. And I think there’s some elements of the core story that the filmmakers, Michael in particular wanted to tell..." With that said, this sequels cast includes Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, John Turturro, Patrick Dempsey, Ken Jeong, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Ramon Rodriguez, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, and Kym Whitley, they really are focusing on character placement and development. It will be pretty difficult for Bay & Spielberg to come up with something historic as well as original. Possibly by now everyone has read the “Leaked Script,” that was release immaturely late last year, knows how that story was told, but everyone should remember that not everything presented from a leaked script is considered a complete fake, or that most of it is false. This same leaked script does point out that the humans are or being to revolt against the same “Transformers” that have turned up here on Earth, which coincidently has been told and shown online with pictures depicting city walls and garbage cans spray-painted with crossed-out “Autobot” or “Decepticon” logos depicted in a circle with the words “Go Home” sprayed below. Many of you believe stories related to the comics and cartoons may seem too “Old,” while others may believe the stories that are original and/or new may not seem too “Traditional.” Either way, Hasbro, Paramount, Michael Bay, and Steven Spielberg can't make everyone happy at once. It will take several creative ideas to come together that will touch all generations. Basicly, from everything I've read (real or not) and stated here, Transformers 3 will be very simple (similar to Part 1) and less complex (similar to Part 2) where the storyline will be easy to follow, more understanding, as well as the dialog between the Humans and Robots; Which will return with improvements and essentially being more in depth. By just adding a few newbie’s (Autobots / Decepticons) as well as bringing back all "survivors" from the last two films, I believe this film could be more epic than the other two combined; But, I believe that it will just resemble its predecessors and fail after its first opening weekend. The Transformers 3 story will feel dehydrated while being supported by an aging cast that will somehow bring some type of human emotion to the forefront.
wow i know people are so touchy . i am gay and i get called names all the time fag queer aids catcher and shit like that i get racist comments all the time . I have learned just ignor it people theres more important shit going on this world some little comments in movies . wow people get a life .Its just a movie
So what? A lot of black people talk like that and have the gold teeth, then why not show it in movies? If a movie that is made more for black people did something like Transformers did, then there would be no complaints. But if a movie like Transformers did it, you get pissing and moaning from the the liberals and blacks... So double standard...
Really? Are you 12? The twins were a waste and who would have paid any attention to them except to wonder why they were even in the movie. Racist? How about just stupid! Get over this "reading too much into everything" crap. Like Joshua said, "it's just a movie".
That's the problem , We were alot smarter back then. Today the younger generations have become so Brain Wash by the idiots that get thier feelings hurt over the Stupidist thing including if you wear the wrong color clothing to to school or even wearing an American Flag on cinco del mayo... Which do you know is NOT celebrated in mexico!
You know what's prett funny?I saw this movie in a theatre filled with black people and none of them were offended.
I wonder why there wasn't a stink about 'Mater the redneck tow truck in the movie cars?
I think that this is just the meida overeacting to a simple thing, Much like the reaction to the superbowl doritos commercial witht the little black boy. Everything is not race-based. i didnt see ANY black people crying out racism so why is this a problem? if it dnt offend the people its abou than leave it alone. Plus, theyre hilarious!
there are more toothless rednecks on welfare than blacks a--h--e.Plus you a--holes should give back what you stole from the black race.So shut up back end of a chicken mouth rednecks and work.
there are more rednecks on welfare than blacks a--h--e.plus you devils should pay back blacks.so work crackers.
if they had not made these characters, then bitches would complain that it shutting out blacks. good God, that's not the point, in order to sell something, you have to make it grab the audience, the method chosen in this circumstance was to make them relatable to the audience, because people, that's right, real people, actually talk like that (shocking, I know).
every time you believe that people who think this way have died some horrible death people like Micheal bay and Simon,and Daniel and the others raise their hand to let us know they're still alive and kicking.I don't think anyone asked Micheal bay to make sure there were black voices represented when they were finding the voice actors for robots.Whats funny,is the only time you don't have to fight for equality in film is when is comes to white people volunteering racist stereotypes.Since the actions of these two robots aren't seen as racist by the few readers and writers on here who see nothing wrong with there characteristics,well then in transformers 3 just make sure that there is a robot that is a serial killer(95%white)oh and a robot that is a rapist(52%white)of course the robot that is a pedophile(77.6%white you guys love to touch your kids)then we will be square.Micheal bay isn't a visionary,hes just a dude with a camera,and your not brave, or cool or standing up for anything moral SERIOUSLY,your just a loser who can type.good luck.
Do your history there are more blacks on welfare,in prison,with aids,than any other race on the planet not just the U.S.And you are right we should have never tried to civilize you we should have left all you over there and spared the U.S. in gun crimes drugs aids ebonicks the black race is a bunch of savages they would still be throwing speers and dying from malaria.So you are right we do owe ya's
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