I’ve talked a lot about Percy Jackson on this blog. I’ve reviewed the books and the the spinoffs. I’ve told you why I left the fandom and don’t regret it. I even destroyed the arguments presented by the Leftist nutball Unclaimed Demigod. But what I haven’t talked much about is the garbage adaptation from hell that’s going to be coming out on Disney+ this December. I remember being really excited about this when it was announced, but now that I’m not as rabid about Percy Jackson as I was in 2020/2021 and have my head screwed on straight, I have one very important question: WHAT THE HELL IS RICK RIORDAN DOING?! Have you seen the trailer that just dropped?
#1: TCINPJ (That Child Is Not Percy Jackson)
One of the biggest complaints I have with the trailer is that Percy looks more like a young Will Solace. Percy Jackson is played by actor Walker Scobell who has been in The Adam Project, and Secret Headquarters, who does not look like Percy at all. Here’s a picture of Percy from the books done by the artist Viria…
and here’s a picture of Percy in the Disney adaptation…
The Fans: Corporate needs you to find the difference between these two pictures.
Disney: They’re the same picture.
Now here’s a picture of Will Solace:
Could Disney not even afford black hair dye? I know they’re hemorraging money like a burst water pipe, but come on. You can pick up black hair dye from Walmart for $8-15 dollars. Rick Riordan, if you need some, here’s the link for where you can buy it on Amazon.
Seriously, what is happening here. At least Logan Lerman (the actor who played the original Percy Jackson in the 2010 movies) actually looked like an 17-18-year-old version of the demigod.
#2: What is that CGI?
Once again, Disney’s budget on this show seems to have been $20. In the scene in the trailer where Mrs. Dodds shows up and attacks Percy, her CGI body looks terrible, to the point where instead of being terrified for Percy, I was rolling on the floor laughing.
Seriously, the 2010 version of Mrs. Dodds looked way scarier than whatever the hell this is. To be honest, she looks more like a harpy in this version; a very poorly CGI’d harpy. Not to mention the face she’s making. Her face is less “I’m going to flay your flesh from your bones and eat you alive!” and more “How dare you misgender me!”
The second example of the terrible CGI is the background for Olympus. It has the same problem that Rings of Power did in that you can clearly see where the background has been CGI’d in and where it’s an actual set piece.
#3: Percy Jackson and the Missing White People
Almost every major character except Percy has been race-swapped. Why? Because that’s how you do equity and diversity. Apparently, diversity doesn’t mean that everyone is different in appearance, culture, etc. No. It means everyone looks the same and has the same political leanings. The only white people I saw in the trailer were Percy, Luke Sally, Mrs. Dodds (obviously since she’s a bad guy), a few background people, Nancy Bobofit and her gang of bullies, and Ares. Everyone else is representative of some racial minority, including characters that are canonically white. Annabeth is now black (which is weird since Annabeth was originally witten as a blonde to combat the “dumb blonde” stereotype, which makes me wonder what Rick Riordan is saying about black people if Annabeth being black fits the atmosphere of Percy Jackson), Clarrise is black, Grover is Arab, Hermes is Hispanic, Zeus is black, Chrion is black, etc.
I realize Greece was the cultural/racial melting pot of the ancient world, but why must we swap out everyone? You could make the argument that since the gods move with where Western civilization is strongest, that Zeus could be black in the books, but that makes no sense since the books went with a somewhat modernized version of what he looked like in the original art made by the Ancient Greeks.
Here’s what Zeus looked like to the Greeks:
Here’s what he looked like in the books:
And here’s what he looks like according to Disney:
Another example of the race swapping of people from Ancient Greek mythology is Chiron. Here’s what he looked like in mythology:
Chrion in the books:
Chrion according to Disney:
Greece, can you do like what Egypt did and sue Disney for erasing Greek culture by blackwashing everything? After all, Disney is one of the biggest companies in Hollywood. If you get a job with Disney, you’re likely to become a household name. Why didn’t Disney hire any Greek actors? Not only would that have helped the Greek actors, but it also would’ve made it more book-accurate. Why aren’t we getting any Greek representation?
#4: Why does everything look very plastic-y
The quality of the set pieces and costume armor is terrible. If you watch the trailers like I did, everything looks very shiny and fake. The cabins are the worst example of this, where they look like they could be so light that a good gust of wind would send them flying. The big “wood” columns at what I’m assuming is the front of the Big House are so painfully shiny that it’s obvious what they’re made of. The armor looks cheap and I seriously think that with some spray paint and cheap acrylics, I could probably make some costume armor from Party City look very similar to what we see in the trailer. It’s sad how the crappy 2010 adaptation of Percy Jackson still looks better than whatever this is.
#5: Color? What’s that?
What happened to Disney being bright and colorful? Why does everything look so dark and depressing? In all the fanart of Camp Half-Blood, even in the art done by the official artists, it’s very bright and colorful. Why does it look like a really dull, boring summer camp now in the middle of the woods? In some scenes, I can’t even see what’s happening, just the occasional silohuette of someone. The background music of someone’s cover of “Riptide” by Vance Joy (which was actually somewhat of a highlight in the trailer) doesn’t help it at all.
All in all, I am not excited for this show to come out.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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