Avatar: The Last Airbender

[tapdiggy]

The new movie raised my interest from occasionally watching reruns on Nickelodean to wanting to know the story. So I just watched the entire series over the course of 5 nights this week. It is a true epic: great story; a bottomless pit of character depth; over 24 hours long without commercials, but I would have watched it marathon-style if I had the time. I found myself invested in what happens, which is rare for me when dealing with TV series. I won't be going to see the movie because it is not possible to effectively compress the first 20 episodes to a couple hours. I'll stop geeking out now.

[jonthechron]

Too bad The Last Airbender was an epic-failure and I really hope it was the LAST Airbender.

[sombo]

Yah, the movie was a major disappointment for anyone who's a fan of the series. No, it won't be the last, he is making all 3 books. Also in 2011 they are making a new cartoon on Nick that picks up about 70yrs later with the next Avatar after Aang. I can NOT wait for that one.

[JokerSeven]

I agree. It was a great cartoon series. My son and I loved watching it together. But the movie was a train wreck!

[RedCromwell]

Totally agree; the movie was an utter failure.

My entire family loved the cartoon series and was sorely disappointed by the movie's bad acting and lacking storyline.

As for a sequel to the cartoon series, I thought they'd create a series following Zuko?

[Samer]

This is my public service announcement of the day. Go to rottentomatoes.com before you go to see a movie. I just checked and that movie gets an 8%. I know if you're a big historic fan of the series you might still be tempted to see it but at least you'd be pre warned.

[Talonne]

Worst movie EVER. I'm surprised M. Night is still bothering with the next two considering how badly this one tanked.

Looking forward to the cartoon sequel!

[Sound Wave]

i have never seen one cartoon avatar episode... i didn't even know it was originally a cartoon until recently. my friends wanted to see it, so despite the horrible reviews i went along.

maybe my expectations were so low, but i actually kind of enjoyed it. i can see how fans would get irritated though.

[Xoulrath]

Originally Posted by Sound Wave

maybe my expectations were so low, but i actually kind of enjoyed it. i can see how fans would get irritated though.

That's simply human nature. Something can actually be good, or at the very least passable as entertainment, yet fans get upset if it doesn't meet the lofty expectations they have.

I, for example, am going to pick up StarCraft 2 at midnight and I expect certain elements from the story and gameplay. If the game doesn't line up with my expectations, then I will consider it a failure, despite the fact that it would more than likely be a good game all other things considered. Just the way it is.

For what it's worth, my daughter, who is a fan of the show, saw it with my mother. My mother knew nothing about Avatar, er, The Last Airbender and thought it was a decent movie. My daughter thought a few things were irritating, but liked the movie for the most part.

[GeneJunkie]

I won't see it because I heard they don't pronounce many of the names incorrectly like Aang and Sokka, and they clearly did not take into account the obvious Asian influence in the cartoon by making an all white cast. Seriously all they had to do was watch 1 episode of series.

When I heard comments from my friends on how bad it was, all I could think of was that awful Dragonball movie, and instantly wanted those 2 hours of my life back after I saw it.

[Momaru]

+1 for the crowd thinking the movie was abysmal. That said, I was introduced to the cartoon by friends years ago, have seen about all of it and enjoyed most of it. The mispronunciation of names really niggled, as did numerous other aspects. There were redeeming qualities, but for me they were overshadowed by all the negative aspects. That they're letting M.Night direct the other two books simply amazes me.

[Sound Wave]

Originally Posted by tapdiggy

So I just watched the entire series over the course of 5 nights this week.

where did you watch it? i went to nickelodean's site and checked veoh, but i couldn't find it. did you buy the dvd set?

[sombo]

Originally Posted by GeneJunkie

I won't see it because I heard they don't pronounce many of the names incorrectly like Aang and Sokka, and they clearly did not take into account the obvious Asian influence in the cartoon by making an all white cast. Seriously all they had to do was watch 1 episode of series.

When I heard comments from my friends on how bad it was, all I could think of was that awful Dragonball movie, and instantly wanted those 2 hours of my life back after I saw it.

Yes the show was made with Asian influence in it's philosophies. However, only one of the characters was ever done with an Asian actor in the series. Also realize that this is a fictitious world. Meaning that the characters do not have to be Asian just to use Asian philosophies.

Many of the characters didn't even look Asian. Show me one Asian that has blue eyes like many of the characters in the series did? You can't unless they are wearing contacts. That goes to say that they are not necessarily Asian. I wish people would stop and think about that aspect before complaining about "affirmative action" in casting for movies.

[tapdiggy]

Originally Posted by Sound Wave

where did you watch it? i went to nickelodean's site and checked veoh, but i couldn't find it. did you buy the dvd set?

The entire series is on instant streaming through my Netflix account. Since the commercials are cut out, you can watch it all in just over 24 hours.

[Sound Wave]

cool... thanks for the info. i just went to netfllix and found it.

[tapdiggy]

Originally Posted by sombo

Yes the show was made with Asian influence in it's philosophies. However, only one of the characters was ever done with an Asian actor in the series. Also realize that this is a fictitious world. Meaning that the characters do not have to be Asian just to use Asian philosophies.

Many of the characters didn't even look Asian. Show me one Asian that has blue eyes like many of the characters in the series did? You can't unless they are wearing contacts. That goes to say that they are not necessarily Asian. I wish people would stop and think about that aspect before complaining about "affirmative action" in casting for movies.

There is a population of nomads in mongolia and the siberian steppe grasslands that have a high instance of blue eyes, and even blonde hair. They live in remote regions, similar to the water tribe, who were the only characters to be blue-eyed. ( Wow, I am such a geek) As for characters not being Asian:

Earth Nation=China and Japan. Ba Sing Se the impenetrable walled city like the Great Wall of China. Kyoshi Island that split away from the mainland and aggressively remains untouched by foreigners like Feudal Japan.

Water Tribe= tribal societies like (obviously) the Inuit, also Pacific islanders.

Air Nomads= most likely modeled after followers of Buddhism, specifically the monastaries of the Himalayas.

These are all very "Asian" groups. Of course there is one other thing...

Fire Nation= industrialized, imperialistic cultures; this can be taken to represent a number of societies from around the world; I will let individuals interpret as the wish. (to yourselves please. Let's try to keep this thread geeky and politics-free )

[Cuongism]

Originally Posted by sombo

However, only one of the characters was ever done with an Asian actor in the series.

Just curious where you get this info. There's about 19 Asian voice actors in the cartoon series.
Also, going by the characters names alone, they are all Asian. The intro has chinese writing on it, the martial art styles these use are mostly northern shaolin Kung Fu and tai chi (water tribe). Also, I'm not sure if you've watched any "real" anime, but generally none of the characters will have black/brown eyes even though the characters are Asian. I haven't watched the movie and don't care who they cast for it, but the characters of the cartoon are definitely meant to be Asian.
FYI, I'm Asian with green eyes and I've dated someone Asian with hazel eyes. Not the norm, but I've met many Asians with light colored eyes (I also know many Asians over 6 ft tall).
Also as a side note, voice actor =/= character played. Two prime examples are Cleveland from the Cleveland show is voiced by a Caucasian character and Bart Simpson is voiced by a female.
Posted via Mobile Device

[sombo]

If you look at most of those voice actors you'll see that only Mako (uncle Iroh), Dante (Prince Zuko, Filipino decent) and Jennie (Suki) are truly of Asian decent. Even then only Mako came from Japan, the other two are all American with Asian decent. The rest are white American that might have like 10% Asian in them if they are lucky. They have Mark Hamill as the fire lord for crying out loud. How in the hell is he even remotely Asian?

Full cast listing.


And again, it's a FICTIONAL land. If you want to yell at anyone for not making them Asian go yell at Nickelodeon who created the series. They took Asian this and that, but used mostly non-Asian voice actors.

[GeneJunkie]

Originally Posted by sombo

And again, it's a FICTIONAL land. If you want to yell at anyone for not making them Asian go yell at Nickelodeon who created the series. They took Asian this and that, but used mostly non-Asian voice actors.

Voice actors have nothing to do with the actual way the series was animated. In the dubbed version of Naruto, Naruto is voiced by a woman (which is the trend for boys in cartoons). Heck in all anime that has been dubbed is done by white actors, ie Chris Sabat for Vegeta and countless other animes, or Terry Klassen who has done Krillin/Gyro/etc in DBZ/DB GT. I have met most of those voice actors and they are the whitest people you could meet but the characters are all clearly Asian.

Regardless, they actually put out a casting call for white actors when Sokka and Katara are clearly animated with dark skin. I can understand Aang being cast as a white actor but at least they could have got the Water Tribe right.

[Cuongism]

Originally Posted by sombo

If you look at most of those voice actors you'll see that only Mako (uncle Iroh), Dante (Prince Zuko, Filipino decent) and Jennie (Suki) are truly of Asian decent. Even then only Mako came from Japan, the other two are all American with Asian decent. The rest are white American that might have like 10% Asian in them if they are lucky. They have Mark Hamill as the fire lord for crying out loud. How in the hell is he even remotely Asian?

Full cast listing.


And again, it's a FICTIONAL land. If you want to yelll at anyone for not making them Asian go yell at Nickelodeon who created the series. They took Asian this and that, but used mostly non-Asian voice actors.

Like I said above, voice actor does not equate to character. Would you call Bart a girl or cleveland white just because of who voiced them?
Honestly, I'm not bothered by the cast, but by the belief by some here that the characters are not supposed to be Asian. Go back to that imdb listing and read the characters' names. How can you dispute what they are supposed to be?
Posted via Mobile Device

[Talonne]

To me, it's not a matter of whether the actors should or should not be white. Movie actors have to portray the characters visually, and it'd be nice to have the movie actors actually resemble the characters they're playing.

For example, Ozai... At the very least, they could have given him a wig. :P



This random dude I found in a Google image search pulls it off a million times better than Cliff Curtis.



At least the guy playing Sokka, despite being Caucasian, actually looked pretty darn close to how the character was supposed to look.

[Blackwidow]

i wanted to go see that movie, the graphics looks awesome! I haven't seen the cartoon as you guys are talking about...but besides that lack of relation with the cartoon and bad casting, was the movie in general good? is it worth renting at least?

[Cuongism]

I had not seen the movie, but I highly recommend the cartoon series. If you have access to Netflix, all three seasons are available without commercials.
Posted via Mobile Device

[tapdiggy]

Originally Posted by Blackwidow

i wanted to go see that movie, the graphics looks awesome! I haven't seen the cartoon as you guys are talking about...but besides that lack of relation with the cartoon and bad casting, was the movie in general good? is it worth renting at least?

If you have not watched the series and plan to watch it to any extent, go see the movie first so you have have no expectations of how it should be. Then if you like the movie, you can go watch the real (animated) thing and see the full 8 hours of story from the first season that was somehow fit into 1 1/2 hours.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by Blackwidow

i wanted to go see that movie, the graphics looks awesome! I haven't seen the cartoon as you guys are talking about...but besides that lack of relation with the cartoon and bad casting, was the movie in general good? is it worth renting at least?

Are you sure you aren't confusing it with James Cameron's Avatar?

[Blackwidow]

No, i've seen avatar. isn't the airbender the one with the previews of a little asian kid doing some crazy stuff? If it is, then i am talking about the right one.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by Blackwidow

No, i've seen avatar. isn't the airbender the one with the previews of a little asian kid doing some crazy stuff? If it is, then i am talking about the right one.

Yeah, you got it. Just wanted to make sure, considering that the CGI "graphics" were what JC's Avatar was all about and both movies had trailers/teasers in theaters at the same time.

[Blackwidow]

from the previews the movie looks like it has some awesome graphics, I usually don't follow the story line, because to me, and this is only MY opinion, 95% of movies now a days have lame, repetitive story lines. I go to the movies to be entertained, not to follow a story line or critic the directors imagination.

Avatar was a great movie, because the graphics were amazing, especially the since i saw it in 3D...the story line was lame and overdone....if someone asked me if Avatar was a good movie, i'd say yes. (again, due to the graphics)

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by Blackwidow

from the previews the movie looks like it has some awesome graphics, I usually don't follow the story line, because to me, and this is only MY opinion, 95% of movies now a days have lame, repetitive story lines. I go to the movies to be entertained, not to follow a story line or critic the directors imagination.

Avatar was a great movie, because the graphics were amazing, especially the since i saw it in 3D...the story line was lame and overdone....if someone asked me if Avatar was a good movie, i'd say yes. (again, due to the graphics)

A storyline can and SHOULD be entertaining. Yes, it often isn't entertaining, as you say, but, rather than ignoring it and enjoying the movie anyway, why not call it a waste of time and demand better?

There is no reason not to demand and expect an entertaining storyline as well! Maybe it's why I hate so many movies that other people like (Transformers... UGH!), but I'd rather raise the bar/expectations than lower it just to enjoy a movie that probably isn't worth my time.

[Blackwidow]

i liked transformers....it was great!
but then again, i'm into the visuals...so i guess it does make a difference if you want to follow a good story line.

[sombo]

Originally Posted by Cuongism

Like I said above, voice actor does not equate to character. Would you call Bart a girl or cleveland white just because of who voiced them?
Honestly, I'm not bothered by the cast, but by the belief by some here that the characters are not supposed to be Asian. Go back to that imdb listing and read the characters' names. How can you dispute what they are supposed to be?
Posted via Mobile Device

I can dispute it because they are not in Asia, they are not from Asia, they are not even on or from Earth. When it's a fictional land they can use any name they want with any style of humanoid they want. This is because it's not Earth and doesn't have to follow our set ideals of rules for where a name is from. They are not Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. They are Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Temple people. Learn to separate fiction from reality. They could have animated them as black, pink, purple, gray, or of the color of their respected elements for that matter and still used those names.

Heck even here we don't follow that. I lived in Moscow.... Pennsylvania, nothing Russian there other then the towns name. So does that mean the town should kick out everyone that's not Russian or change it's name cause it stole the name from Russia? How about Lebanon PA, should they do the same there? You can see it all over the USA of using inspiration, borrowing parts of, or just flat out copying another country/city's style, name, whatever.

And sorry, but Sokka and Kitara were no darker then Aang. Not sure what color lenses you were using but they were clearly different from the rest of the water tribe villagers who did actually look more Asian.

[Cuongism]

I understand your point and agree that it is fiction. I still think writers intend to have some association there for names even if it's fiction. For example, Harry Potter is a fictional series, but when you read Cho Chang or Patel sisters, you think Asian and Indian respectively. But you're right, "technically" they can be anything. I will still envision them as Asian though since that seems to be the biggest influence and it is what I feel like the writers intended.
I feel like your analogy of city names does not correlate to people's names. (BTW, do only Russians live in Moscow, Russia and do they kick out anyone who is not Russian). When it comes to names for people, I feel like you can tell a person's ethnicity a majority of the time by their last name (obviously there will be many exceptions out there).
Posted via Mobile Device

[sombo]

For the most part you are right about last names. However in the US that is no longer the case. Many people are so intermixed that their last name is just that, a last name. They could have 10+ nationalities in their bloodline from all over the world. I know people who are black, native American, Italian, and only a small bit french which is where their get their last name.

Even me, my last name is Russian (of course it's edited by when my relatives first came here whenever that was), but I'm half Lithuanian from my mom's side being 100% Lithuanian. My dad's side however is a freaking mutt with Russian and like 4+ others I can never keep straight.

I won't try to make you think of them as anything other then what you want to think of them. If you wish to think of them as Asian, that's your choice. I think of them as Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, but that's just me.

Now that we have come to fully understand each others side, we can continue on complaining about how else the movie was horrible as compared to the show.

In it's defense, every person I have spoken to that has seen the movie but not the series thought it was a good movie. Everyone that has seen the show and then the movie can't stand the movie. So if you want to see the movie then go see it w/o watching the cartoon series. Oh, and don't waste your money on seeing it in 3D. I did, and I can tell you 100% that there is NOTHING 3D about the movie...... AT ALL!! So upset that they didn't even try to use 3D special effects in a 3D showing.

[Sound Wave]

wow.... i just finished watching the whole animated series. i can't believe how much i enjoyed watching a cartoon.

[tapdiggy]

Originally Posted by Sound Wave

wow.... i just finished watching the whole animated series. i can't believe how much i enjoyed watching a cartoon.

I understand exactly what you mean. I was blown away by the quality put into the series. Even though the live-action movie was poop, maybe it will get some more interest going for the excellent original.