Hm, doesn’t seem like much attention was given to this young little Asian-American talent, yet, or maybe the attention was given in a single post or two in the older threads.
It sure makes the Asians proud that an Asian (or half-Asian) is finally casted for a Pixar movie. How rad is that? And that boy is so adorable, too, I could just eat him up…
Seeing the character you voice giving you thumbs up must had been a weird experience, though…
I burst out laughing at the picture. The little smile he’s giving Russell is so cute!
He’s such an adorable kid with an equally adorable voice. I hate how fake certain voice actors sound in the roles of children, but he brought a sense of earnesty no professional actor could duplicate. At least in my mind. His performance was heartfelt and believable, and really made me love Russell. Thumbs way UP to Jordan Nagai!
Oh, and Nagai’s scheduled to appear in a Simpson’s episode, according to Wikipedia. So it looks like he wants to keep using his great talents after all
From the trailers, it does seem that he knows how to play an innocent and likeable character really well. That’s a great picture, though- he looks almost scared!
Jordan Nagai is quite adorable and very talented. He did an amazing job voicing Russell. He truly brought Russell to life with his genuine and heartfelt performance. Hard to believe he hasn’t had any prior experience. He’s a natural! He had some great inflections in his voice to invoke different emotions. I hope to see, well hear, him in other roles in the future.
I think Jordan did a marvelous job. He probably did so well because he’s not really thinking of it as acting, he’s just being himself in front of a mic. That’s what voice acting is all about. He probably hasn’t matured to the point where he thinks of it as acting, and more like he’s being asked to just say certain lines or act a certain way. In essence what I’m saying is that Jordan acts exactly like Russell in real life, Pixar just moved him into a character. That’s just my opinion. I think it’s pretty cool
omg that picture is so cute and funny. I like Asian kids >__> So naturally I love Jordan I really like how they picked someone with Russel’s ethnicity, even though Pixar really didn’t have to. It was really neat
Someone else can probably verify this, but I thought Russell was somewhat modeled after Pixar’s Pete Sohn (Emile in Ratatouille and director of Partly Cloudy), who is Korean, hence Russell is presumably Korean.
Ha-ha. Yeah, he’s a cute kid, and one with exceptional talent at that. The fact that he acted out his role the way any normal kid would behave just made his performance all the more believable and natural.
On a lighter note, he kind of reminds me of a kid in my martial arts class. Kinda of… Either that, or I’m imagining things.
rachel - I’m with karly05 in that I’d harbor a guess and say Korean. The only reason as to why I say that, though, is because there’s quite a few Koreans here in California. Actually, let me clear that up. Jordan Nagai looks Korean to me, whereas Russell looks Chinese, in my opinion. That’s just me, though…
This is just my opinion, but I don’t think Russell is meant to be Asian. I think he only looks Asian because he’s overweight. I have an obese Caucasian friend who looks Hawaiian, but that doesn’t make her Hawaiian.
Not necessarily. It’s the eyes that do it. As ffdude1906 mentioned, [spoil]Russell’s mother appears to be Asian, and she’s not oveweight at all[/spoil].
Speaking of the Hawaiian nationality, I suppose that there’s a possibility that Russell could have some Hawaiian/Islander descent…
If I’m not mistaken, Jordan’s Japanese-American, so I think his character’s supposed to be that. Although I keep thinking of Russell as Chinese, Jake-Long style (although we’ll never know his dad’s race). I guess we can interpret Russell as any Oriental-Asian race for that matter.
He is most certainly Asian. Remember the brief shot of his admiring clapping mom [spoil]in the second to the last scene in the movie, when Russell is finally getting his award[/spoil]? She isn’t fat or Hawaiian looking, she is clearly Asian.
I really like Jordan’s voice-work: [spoil]“Phew. I thought you were dead.”[/spoil] lol!
Uhh… what? Russell has almond-shaped eyes, not to mention his skin tone and the jet-black hair, and his mum at the end. He is obviously Korean (Peter Sohn is Korean), or Japanese (Nagai is Japanese), or another type of East Asian.
Now Colette… I could understand it if you thought she was Asian, as I did too, but I don’t think she is meant to be, or at least they didn’t confirm one way or another in Ratatouille.
And that boy is so adorable, too, I could just eat him up…
