[@Dynamo Frokane]

I was never a fan of any of these series or their movies, but the portrayals from their original media are legendarily egregious and shameful. My only contact with them was by proxy, typically by interaction between fans or viewing the reviews of critics on their subjects, but there seems to be fairly universal hate for these incarnations.

A bit more on the topic itself, I find myself of the affiliation that adaptations - wherein race or gender are changed among other things - should be toward the lower end of priority. I prefer material that stays more true to its canon in its adaptation where possible. The exception to this is when you add qualifier's such as someone's reimagining or in scenarios where the fantastic or unusual do not seem out of place. The latter I refer to was when I had seen both the recent [i]Jungle Book[/i] and [i]Beauty and the Beast[/i], a great number of characters had changed, including some core ones as with Shere Khan being played by Elba and Kaa by Johansson. In this case where the actors are already exceptional beings that are only remotely anthropomorphized - either speaking animals or animate objects - there is not a disconnect that creates any real dissonance with their person; there is no direct connection in mind between what you expect "reality" to be - you more willingly suspend your disbelief. And for reference, I do think the modern incarnations of these two films are better than their originals once you remove the childhood nostalgia - and no, not just because Elba as Khan is an impressive feline villain and absolutely ruthless.

But when dealing with exclusively human actors in scenarios where there is a tremendous amount of lore and story supporting them as to who they are? The changing of race, personality and portrayal are... less than faithful to the persona to be portrayed; more significant than say the "fantastical France" in [i]Beauty and the Beast[/i]. It comes off as very transparent and flimsy. It feels insincere in this time and age, a product of corporate pandering to the social justice arm and more moderate mainstream.