m00g00: Up, up, and away we go! Asian in summer movie phenom.

The burning question: Is Russell Asian?

I don't care what anyone thinks. The kid is definitely A-Z-N.

"UP" is the Pixar summer hit about an ambiguously ASIAN boy scout who gets caught up in a wild adventure with a cooky old man, giant rainbow Emu looking bird, and a talking dog. The movie was great, but completely irrelevant to the issue at hand.

It's not like anyone else is rushing to claim him. He's certainly not Black. I wouldn't say Hispanic or Indian either. So, what's the issue here?! And after all the fuss because Miley Cyrus did the slanted eye gesture in a picture, and now you get a slanty-eyed star of a blockbuster film and you can't figure out what he is?! Make up your minds!

If you want to get all court room on us...here is the evidence:

Evidence #1 What he looks like. CHECK!

Evidence #2 Genetics. Was that his mom at the end of the movie and wasn't she Asian? Check!

failure of a retort: even if it was his babysitter or something... Asians like to hire their own ^_^

Evidence #3 Russell is played by an Asian kid. In some sort of context at least, he IS Asian (hence picture above, our buddy, Jordan Nagai). Checkmate.

Some of the controversy over this debate stems from the fact that Disney is normally very open about racial boundaries being broken in their films. The Princess and the Frog is one example where the lead happens to be a young black heroine. So if he was Asian then why not tell the world?

Yet, our evidence still holds regardless of the marketing decisions of Disney. Ashamed to say he's Asian? Or just not really relevant to the film? This aspect is still in the air.

But some would argue that maybe we shouldn't be complaining about them not blatantly announcing Russell's Asian-ness because it may be a sign of acceptance and equality. I mean technically it would be the second lead Asian in a Disney film ("Mulan" being the first). Maybe that was our cherry popper and now we're old news. Who knows.

Regardless, I still think its pretty cool to have an Asian kid be such a hilarious, memorable, and lovable character. Mulan was cool and all, but that was an asian film with dragons, fighting, samurais, etc. Disney had to make one of those one day. But this is just a film with an Asian lead in it. Quite different. Quite ground-breaking!

So who or what exactly is the highlight of today? Is it the character of Russell? Is it Jordan our voice actor? Is it Pixar/Disney for releasing the film? NO. It is all the people who care enough to debate, hypothesize, and care to defend that the kid is Asian! The big finale! Some very welcomed pride in our pop culture world. Still not convinced? Check out some of these articles and get at me.

Boom

Pow!

Scout's Honor. m00g00.