discuss: is it progressive and woke or problematic and yikes that the main zombie characters in Z·O·M·B·I·E·S (zed and eliza; sorry gorbo but you are not a main character in any form of like, narrative) are played by a black woman and an orthodox jew, who come from cultures that were uh, very overtly mined for the literally pastel-ized oppression their characters faced
bc tbh i feel like it's both (i was really appreciative that it seems like way more thoughtful casting than trying to pretend like the jonas brothers or ross lynch or dove cameron ~get it yk) but i also really hope kylee and milo had support while filming such a candy-coated version of like... a sundown town slash the warsaw ghetto...? but with... zombies... like... "here's your cultural experience/history, but as PREDATORY MONSTERS"... but also the recognition that like, they DID draw from real practices of oppression and didn't whitewash the casting... but then... they LITERALLY whitewashed their makeup... but it's also not done flippantly... but is it inherently flippant to make a zombie high school musical romcom about entrenched governmental and societal oppression... I'm HAVING FEELINGS AND I JUST WANT TO KNOW THE ACTORS DIDN'T FEEL EXPLOITED? (but also disney channel is... exploitation of child actors 101... BUT ALSO IT WAS AN ENJOYABLE MOVIE THAT I FELT LIKE WAS SENSITIVELY DRAWN? but...)
