#also ambulatory wheelchair users exsist so the point these people try to make about them not being able to do some scenes still doesn't work | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cy-cyborg · 7 months

Text

People on the internet: they can't hire actors who are actually in wheelchairs to play wheelchair users in movies! What if there's a scene where they need to stand up? A wheelchair user can't do that!

Robert Rodriguez: hold my beer

This is a scene from spy kids 3 - a movie in a series famous for its shoe-string budgets, where Ricardo Montalbán's character is in a wheelchair, but spends most of his screen time in a digital reality where he doesn't need it. Ricardo Montalbán was actually in a wheelchair though in real life, so they just used a combination of VFX and camera tricks (and a dolly for a few shots) to film those scenes. Also if I remember correctly the movie ends with him back in the real world, fighting a mech with his jet-pack wheelchair lmao.

The disability rep is dated (as is the VFX lol) and does fall into a lot of tropes I personally dont like, but it's so earnest in their attempts, and the visible effort behind the scenes to include a real, disabled actor outweighs it for me - even as a kid who wasnt fully aware of why.

Bigger studios have no excuse.

I've linked the video I got these screenshots from, they talk a lot about how they handled Ricardo Montalbán's character being out of his wheelchair there. If if you like behind the scenes stuff for campy old movies, I highly recommend it!

[ID 1: a screenshot of the movie Spy kids 3D, showing Juni, the main character in a suit of yellow power armour, talking to his grandfather, who towers over him in red power armour. his grandfather is kneeling so he can be at eye level with him.

the caption underneath reads "where he kneels down and talks to Juni" /end ID 1]

[ID 2: a photo of the same shot but without the effects. Grandpa is shown to be in a wheelchair, and is being held at the needed height by a moveable platform his wheelchair is sitting on. Juni is wearing the armour, grandpa is not, and there are green screens behind them.

the caption underneath reads "but we just had him lowered in a dolly" /end ID 2]

#disability #physical disability #disability representation #disability in media #spy kids 3 #wheelchair user #wheelchair #representation matters #disability in movies #vfx #image descriptions #also ambulatory wheelchair users exsist so the point these people try to make about them not being able to do some scenes still doesn't work

2K notes · View notes