When you read a book, you have a picture in your head of what the characters look like, right? And sometimes, when there's a movie made where the actor looks nothing like you pictured, you can't help but be a little disappointed.
That happened to me yesterday.
I went to go see Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters with my two best friends from elementary school, who were the ones who introduced me to the series. We did not have high hopes. Therefore, we were pleasantly surprised! The movie got the broad strokes of the book right, and overall, even as an adaptation, it wasn't bad. We agreed that Clarisse was a little too small and we were all SUPER DISAPPOINTED at the lack of guinea pigs, sirens, and man-eating sheep, but overall, well worth the six bucks we paid.
But one thing majorly kept throwing me. Tyson. The guy who played him was great, and perfectly fit my mental image, except for one fact.
He was white.
In my head, Tyson is a big, African-American-looking dude. He's dark. Darker than Grover, even! So when this pasty white kid shows up with dreads and one eye, I had to do a double-take. It kept weirding me out, even though I don't think it really caused too much of an issue -- the guy was spot on in every other characteristic.
Now, it's been a solid three years since I've read any of PJO. I've read some of Heroes of Olympus since then, but it's been a couple years on that front as well. I have no idea what the canon description of Tyson is, but I'm fairly sure that his race is never explicitly stated. But still -- I think it would have been awesome to have a little more diversity with the campers. Luke, Annabeth, Thalia, Clarisse, Percy, they're all white. At least Grover provides a LITTLE color.
*sigh*
Oh well. Maybe in the next one?
(THEY LEFT OUT THE PARTY PONIES WAIT A SECOND THIS IS NOT OKAY.)
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