I actually remember a pretty big backlash against GITS and Last Air Bender for casting white actors as characters that were clearly Asian. Depp playing Tonto was less criticized but that was more....I think everyone was less concerned with the red face and more the "who the fuck asked for this" part of the whole thing. Prince of Persia was probably the least criticized but there was definitely still talk of it in the zeitgeist. In fact I'm pretty sure that the backlash Disney got for both of those last two was a pretty big part of why they approached the Aladdin reboot the way they did.
I actually remember a pretty big backlash against GITS and Last Air Bender for casting white actors as characters that were clearly Asian. Depp playing Tonto was less criticized but that was more....I think everyone was less concerned with the red face and more the "who the fuck asked for this" part of the whole thing. Prince of Persia was probably the least criticized but there was definitely still talk of it in the zeitgeist. In fact I'm pretty sure that the backlash Disney got for both of those last two was a pretty big part of why they approached the Aladdin reboot the way they did.