"The Last Airbender" Controversy

So I found this article on the film based on the Nickelodeon's Avatar, the last airbender.

http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-primer/#casting

It pertains to the fact that in the movie, the main characters aren't the same skin color/race as the main characters from the show.


Personally, I dislike the fact that the characters barely resemble the main characters of the show.

Aang- he looks too sad/serious to be the aang from the show I saw, also, his arrow is just a bunch of scribbles, it's supposed to be solid. At least he looks 12 though...

Katara- She's not dark enough at all, her voice sounds similar to the voice actor at least

Sokka- He's not dark enough, but his face looks a little like the character design. I haven't heard his voice

Zuko- His skin color is okay, but his eye is not nearly burnt enough. In the show, it took up a large portion of the right side of his face, but in the movie it looks like he has a black eye.

Most of the characters aren't dark enough. Come on people, is it really too hard to tan the actors?

So what do you think? Is it okay for the main characters not to resemble the originals? Or is it ridiculous?

 

I agree, they could have at least tanned the actors. Both Aang and Sokka look WAY too serious. For some reason Sokka doesn't talk in any of the trailers, but his voice BETTER sound like Jack De Sena's. Seriously, that voice MADE the character, and in my opinion, the show.

Also, they're pronouncing Aang as "awng"(as in gong), Iroh as "ear-oh" and sokka as "soak-uh".
This seriously pisses me off. It's sounding like this is going to be another DBZ Evolution or whatever it was called.

 

Well, I don't really think that's an issue. I thought they looked fine, but thats just my opinion of course. I also thought the people who portray Aang and Katara were down right. The acting is the ontly thing that matters to me. Hopefully they can act the part and not ruin their personalities.

 

This is ridiculous. The idea of making a live action movie based of the animated series is just a way to squeeze some money out of genre.
No more remakes. Just stop it! There have been some good remakes, but I have grown so bored of them. The original is always better.

I don't want to see the Avatar summed up in 2-3 hours, and I don't want to see it with actors that look nothing like their animated counterparts.

My fears have come true.

 

This is another thing I forgot to mention, some of the best parts in Avatar happen in some of the subtle episodes, and I know they're going to have to skip some of it. Apparently they're going to make 3 movies, 1 for each book, and that's probably not going to turn out so well.
Granted, the show was pretty slow paced, but I'm still not sure how this is going to turn out, and I'm really worried.

I was hoping the movie would spark the fanbase, increase popularity, and open up the opportunity for a new season, but if the movie doesn't turn out well or represent the series good enough, that probably won't happen.

 

That makes sense, but still OMFSM. Three movies?
That would explain why they haven't picked Toph yet.
Damn I love her personality. Anyway I'll stick with the prolonged, animated story line.

 

The race thing, aside from Zuko's scar, didn't really bother me that much, but this?

Did they even WATCH the show? How could they not PRONOUNCE things correctly?

 

According to the director, the writers of the show say they were originally supposed to be pronounced that way. "Soak-uh" is apparently how Sokka was originally supposed to sound, and I guess the voice actors screwed up or something. Sokka's name is based on the japanese term for "I understand", which is apparently correctly pronounced "Soak-uh".

But dammit, it's annoying. I don't know anything about the other pronunciations.

 

i actually finished watching this a few weeks ago after a friend lent me his DVDs. also i LOVE the name of that website, "racebending", lol. anyways, i really don't mind that much about the race changing. as long as the plot and script are true to the original source it's fine, though i hope it's nothing like that Dragonball movie where they changed the race of the character AND was untrue to the original source.

 

I really hope they don't ruin Toph. If they pick some girly girl I'm going to burn down the nearest movie theater.
Also, what's OMFSM?
EDIT-never mind, Urban Dictionary FTW.

 

I personally think that this is to be expected with any animated to live action remake( these remakes imo are also the hardest to pull off. That's why they almost always get messed up.).
Face it guys it will never be as good as the real thing.
Just getting the characters personalities right will be amazing, but story matters too.
The Percy Jackson movie was gigantic letdown because of that.
Character ascetics are not important because there will always be one character that's "messed up". Always.
Personally I would just stop getting picky and hope it makes it to the "decent" standard.

 

Aang looks really damn stupid in the movie.

I agree that it's foolish to have hired actors/actresses that barely resembled the characters, but its not really racist.

 

I've seen several trailers in which you can hear and see Sokka say "We've started a rebellion." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x1FiP6i2dw At around 0:54 you hear him talk. He sounds somewhat similar.

I also could have sworn I've seen a trailer of a TV spot where you can hear Katara yell "AANG!" or something.
M. Night Shyamalan is a huge fan of the show, he wouldn't mess up the names like that.


On terms of the races of the actors, I think they casted generally unknown actors (save Dev Patel) for a reason. I would think that they were looking for people who fit the description and could act. Perhaps they found kids who fit the description better, but couldn't act as well, so they went with the better actors. Personally, I would rather watch kids who can act even if they don't totally match the appearance of the character rather than a kid who matches the description but can't act as well.

 

Oh, damn. In the trailers I saw, you can hear him but you can't see him. I didn't know it was him until now.
Ugh, he is NOT dark enough to be Sokka :/ he looks nothing like him. WHAT IS WRONG WITH A TAN? He doesn't really sound like him either.

 

Dude, this isn't anywhere near being racist. Plenty of actors and actresses have been cast before for an ethnic role and haven't been that race. Jake Gyllenhaal in the Prince of Persia? He isn't Arabian or whatever.Natalie Wood wasn't Puerto Rican yet she was still cast as Maria in West Side Story.

This is ridiculous. A big deal is being made of something minor.

 

Source .

 

i really don't like that they changed the pronunciation of names but that was interesting read though. i do like the change about firebenders having to have a source of fire to bend because the fact that they could make fire out of thin air did pick at me.

though, there was another interview about there being a glass ceiling for minorities in filming. i don't know about that. i could be wrong but i think there's just less people of color trying out for lead roles, that's why i think we don't see many minorities with lead roles, but i've never been to an audition or anything like that so i could be completely off base.

 

....are you serious?
THAT'S bullshit.
why would he change names?
i dun get it.

 

They don't make it out of thin air though, they make it out of their energy. Remember that whole "breath" lecture that Iroh gave Zuko?

Again, I don't care very much about the race of the casting choices, but why couldn't they just tan the Caucasian leads to be more accurate to the show? It's infuriating.

 

All I care about is if the actors can work witht he part they're given. I don't care what they look like as long as they aren't a bunch of hobos. I really don't think it matters.​