Rumor: Ernie Hudson is Mr. Popo in Dragonball Movie

The Dragonball movie had kind of fallen off my radar, but somehow I had ran across it again the other day. I seriously thought it wasn't ever going to come out, but it's dated for April 8, 2009. I looked over the list of actors, and it seems that they have a pretty solid cast. Live-action adaptations always have the possibility of being a flop, but since I used to watch a lot of Dragon Ball Z, it's hard not to look forward to it.

However, as I was looking through the cast list, one thing struck me as odd. Mr. Popo, a character who I had completely forgotten about, might be played by Ernie Hudson. To most, the name probably won't ring a bell, but you'll likely remember him as Winston from Ghostbusters.

Now, what made me chuckle was the realization that Mr. Popo really looks like a racist character. This didn't occur to me when I first watched the show; for all I knew, he just looked like an alien creature. But upon further inspection, the signs are all there: dark face and big red lips -- that sounds like blackface to me. Not only that, but he's an immortal , loyal servant. I'm not the first one to notice this by far, but I find it funny.

I should certainly mention that he's apparently intended to be Arabic in origin, so the creator, Akira Toriyama, didn't mean anything racist by it when he first created him (I guess?), but the American public won't particularly care when they see this character on the silver screen.

There is no question that they will have to change his look. They can keep the attire, and have a Kazaam-esque genie as the character. However, if they keep the red lips, America will be outraged. Now, I'm all for keeping the character true to its source material, but not everyone feels the same. How do you think the general public would react to a character like this?


-Rusty