Far from over the moon about Glen Keane’s “Over the Moon”

As we are in the midst of turning a much needed (and long overdue) critical eye on the people making our content and informing our perception of the world, Netflix’s “Over the Moon” presents a glaring lack of creative team diversity. In the midst of ongoing conversations about highlighting work by artists of color (and particularly Black voices) Netflix has decided to drop the trailer for “Over the Moon” – the feature directorial debut by Glen Keane, and that’s a problem.

The current conversation in the world right now is on Black Lives Matter (because without a doubt they do) and as a fellow minority my aim has been not to distract from that conversation. Gains for Black creatives are gains for all underrepresented groups. As someone who often focuses on Asian and Asian-American representation the past few months have been about understanding that we are not in the middle of the “Oppression Olympics” and that now is the time to listen and support. But as a group that gets labelled as “the model minority” – look up the problems there/I won’t digress for now – are we expected to stay quiet and say thank you when an opportunity we likely should have had is snatched from us? I don’t think that helps advance anyone’s agenda, so here we go.

Glen Keane is a legendary animator, there is no doubt about that. For those not familiar with his work he is the driving force behind the Beast from “Beauty and the Beast”, Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” and Rapunzel from “Tangled.” Basically if it’s appealing and from Disney in the past 30 years, he probably had a hand in it. 

He won an Academy Award for his short film “Dear Basketball” with the late Kobe Bryant and has produced some interesting short VR stories.

Nothing against Glen personally, he’s actually a really nice person as far as I can tell and from limited interactions with him. 

However after watching the trailer my heart sank a bit. The story is drawing heavily from the myth of Chang’e, the Moon Goddess. The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, which celebrates the myth,  was one of the more memorable Asian community experiences for me growing up. So to see the story told by a white male director, co-directed by another white man, and written by a white woman, I cannot help but feel that an opportunity was taken from talented Asians.

The vibe and style of the film feels caught between authentic representation and some weird Westernization. As it appears to take place in China, it’s disappointing that they felt the need to Westernize it, but what else can you expect from well… Western directors?

There are so few Asian and Asian-American stories being told on screen, and to have one of the “big” ones not be made available to Asian storytellers is pretty disappointing. Because so few opportunities to direct non-Asian stories are available to Asian artists, to take a prime opportunity away from them seems so tone deaf. 

Take “Raya and the Last Dragon” which is in production at Disney as another example. A story that clearly takes place in Southeast Asia and is inspired by Asian art and culture, but is being directed by Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins. They are (you guessed it!) white. At least Raya has an Asian screenwriter in Adele Lim (“Crazy Rich Asians”). “Over the Moon” can’t even claim that.  

If there were a dozen NON-Asian centric stories being directed by Asians at big studios with the budget these films have I’d go ahead and say no problemo.  This is also not to say that this creative team is not capable of telling this story. A good story is a good story. The writer, Audrey Wells, is also responsible for the screen adaptation of “The Hate U Give” which I thought she did a good job on but cannot personally speak to whether or not it authentically represented the Black experience of the protagonists. Wells also unfortunately passed away of cancer in 2018. Her terminal illness seems to play an important tonal role in the film. However it still smarts to know that this is one less Asian story being told by Asians, and they are not being given a comparable opportunity in it’s place.

The voice cast is a cornucopia of Asian and Asian-American (or Asian-Canadian) talent, and much of the production and financial backing is Asian.The release notes tout the inclusion of fashion designer Guo Pei, of creatives taking exploratory trips to China, of the Asian executives involved, but none of it makes up for the fact that at the end of the day if this won awards the majority of the people getting on stage to accept them would be white. 

I hope that we continue to push for opportunities for all storytellers who represent the narrative diversity that reflects our world. 

Over the Moon stars Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Ken Jeong, Robert G. Chiu, John Cho, Ruthie Ann Miles, Sandra Oh, Kimiko Glenn, and Margaret Cho. www.netflix.com/OverTheMoon