Since we now know what the actors will look like playing the characters, a new comparison image has been created.
Yes, Zuko is seen and portrayed as the enemy in Book 1 – which we assume will be covered in this first movie. Yes, we know he is eventually redeemed and he’s conflicted and we love him for it.
However, Paramount Pictures doesn’t give a damn what fans know about Zuko, because us fans won’t provide them with the main revenue. Their concern is hooking movie-goers who haven’t even heard about Avatar: The Last Airbender to see a movie about brave white-skinned heroes battling the angry dark-skinned enemies.
First off, why isn’t no one commenting on this???
Guys, if you care for avatar, better pour in your support.
My childhood was filled with wholesome cartoons, and nowadays, stuff like that is rare!
Avatar is the best thing that came out for kids in this generation!
BTW, I am Asian, and this is a huge outcry for me. Seriously, I will not watch this movie! YouTube petition here I come!
Hey! I love the updated graphic, it brings everything across so well! Thanks for your hard work.
Wow, this is excellent work – it really justs sticks in your head and keeps you thinking about the issue.
But, ew… Rathbourne makes me nauseous. His eyes are so creepy…
Man o man i will not watch this movie, not for that fact that i’ve been disapointed before, *ahem* dragon ball? lol but anywho like like justin chatwin destroying the beloved goku from a fun loving inocent boy to a boring teen, u can tell by the face that the kid playing aang just makes me depressed…. and same with the kid playing sokha, wats up with the pouty lips? strange choice of cast i frown upon.
oh yeah and i check up on this page constantly, the updated look and feel is great ^_^ amazing
very unfortunate that this had to happen. i wonder what the creators of the show were thinking when they signed the movie rights to hollywood.
that said, i loved avatar, bought the box sets, and still re-watch it once in a while. what a fantastic story.
I always thought aang is chinese, Katara & Sokka were eskimos and Zuko I always thought would be White
While I understand your outrage against the casting choices and believe that Asian culture is a key part of what the Avatar universe is, I must object to your portrayal of Zuko’s casting as the “dark-skinned baddies” against the Caucasian heroes. The inclusion of someone distinctly non-white in the cast is a considerable step up from the original casting choice for Zuko, actor Jesse McCartney, who was unable to play the role due to schedule conflicts. Yet you still play the diversity card, claiming simultaneously that all four main cast members are white and that the decision to cast Zuko as dark-skinned was racist. While I understand where you’re coming from, I think you need to ask yourself a question: Would you rather have some diversity in the cast, even in the form of the villain, or have no diversity at all?
@ Mike Cohn
Point taken about the term ‘dark-skinned baddies’ being too casual and off-the-cuff. It has been edited.
However, no – I don’t believe diversity is equated to first purposely white-washing Inuit-based characters, and then repopulating the evil Fire Nation with brown-skinned people. I am not just tired of seeing white-washing in movies, I’m also tired of seeing dark-skinned actors relegated to the bad guys, non-speaking background and sidekicks in movies.
There is no card. This is not a game for us.
I personally would be disappointed if I saw a movie that had a lot of proprietary content and assumed that I knew anything, it SHOULD be designed where anyone can watch and enjoy it. It has nothing to do with the fact that it’s “main revenue” for the movie company. Yes that is a factor, but we’re talking about M. Night Shyamalan, not Mike Jones here.
to Mike Cohn:
Your view that “diversity” means inclusion of actors of color only as villians, minor characters, or extras in the background as opposed to the main heroes who can only be white is typical of liberal white racists especially those who run Hollywack. It is at best disingenuous and at worst bigoted. What is even more ludicrous is that the very character of the heroes ARE Asian in every sense with names and culture only that whites were chosen to portray them! Only in Hollywack can a white boy play the character of Ang whose name is Sino-Tibetan or white people play Katara and Sokka who are Yupik/Inuit based people. Your decision to white wash the nations of Tibetan based Air Nomads and the Inuit/Yupik based Water Tribes is so absurd I couldn’t help but laugh despite the blatant and appalling discrimination! Yet there is absolutely NO question that if you were to make a fantasy movie based on EUROPEAN culture, there wouldn’t be a snowball’s chance hell you would pick Asian actors as lead characters!! Face it! You guys ARE racist!!
Maybe the best progress is if we show and spread the news about Avatar the animated series to people who have not seen it and then show them this site to see the hypocrisy that is Hollywood… In Australia, Avatar is not widespread as in the states so it was hard for me to spread the news of the boycott to people here!! My best bet for now is through the racebending group in facebook and try my best to recruit more people to the cause…
if they don’t put Asian actors in lord of the rings…why would they put white actors in avatar…you think it would just be that obvious…I think KT Takara a comedian said it best “Asians are the only race that gets made fun of while we are still in the room.” I support all of your feelings on this but the movie company is still gonna make a huge killing opening weekend. No one cares about Asians, even most Asians don’t, well not enough to hurt the wallets of the movie corps. Hollywood is a world monopoly, the government has a cap on how many foreign films can enter the US, that’s why you see a Chinese movie that was made earlier released in theatres later i.e. Drunken Master 2 aka the Legend of the Drunken Master. That’s why Asians went nuts over Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, it was given a fair shot.
You people honestly need to grow up, if you don’t wanna watch the movie don’t, they don’t cast movies by race just by what/who is available for them at the time these actors we’re probably the best suited for the roles watch the movie and then make your bias decisions based on that.
@Mike, I’m not sure what the difference is between blatantly pandering tokenism and “no diversity at all.” Things are not all OK now because the white guy had schedule conflicts and they were sooo enlightened as to not replace him with another white guy. The casting of an Indian actor to play a role that’s distinctly Chinese in look, feel, and martial arts style is the same kind of patronizing asininity as “If you’re Korean, wear a kimono” or a white actor needing “a tan” to play Sokka. It says “All those brown and yellow people look alike, and India is the same as China because they’re both east of Europe, so take this One Brown Guy and shut up.” It’s fake diversity, and it’s so obvious that I could swear M. Night and his crew are snickering at us behind their hands.
As far as worldbuilding, character arcs, character design and storytelling go, this is the best TV cartoon series I’ve ever seen come out of the US, and I’m 44 years old. I’m pretty sure any movie that tried to reduce Book One to two hours would fail, but does it have to fail while spitting on its fanbase and abusing so much of what was good about the original show?
@Joshua, I suggest you read and educate yourself before making wrong assumptions. racebending.com has easily debunked your notion that Paramount Pictures ‘don’t cast movies by race’.
You honestly think that our letters will make a difference? What in the world are you people thinking? Do you think hollywood will remake the Last Airbender to appease a few disgruntled fans? The movie is produced. The sequels are on the burner. Whites are the majority. The producers want to make their money back in a huge way. The majority will not go out in droves to see a bunch of asian kids in a movie. Give it up. This is Business.
Dont be fooled. EVERYONE here protesting will go out the first day and see that movie. EVERYONE.
May I just add that whoever made these images made the ones of Noah, Jackson, and Nicola very pale, and the one of Dev very dark.
@Ron Congratulations, you have enrolled in Racebending 101.
@Caleb – Wrong.
So, the actor who plays Sokka was born in Singapore.
But because he looks white, that apparently doesn’t count?
Thank you Admin. I only speak the truth. And the truth is, everyone here will see the movie, regardless who is playing the starring roles, including you. We can grip until our faces turn blue, Hollywood is not interested in fairness, they want their invested money back. And everyone knows if white kids are the stars in this movie, then they (including minorities) will go in droves to see this flick. Period. Nothing personal, it’s just business.
@Ron, your attempt to derail the matter at hand into arguments of “yes you will” and “no I won’t” has been duly noted. Try a tactic that isn’t illogical. Again, what you’re saying is still not making sense, given the nature of our cause. Clearly you’re not just not understanding, but you also don’t care to understand – again, duly noted.
@Tina, ‘nationality’ and ‘ethnicity’ are not synonyms.
Hey, Ron. No matter what you say, I know lots of people who aren’t going to see the movie. I know I’m curious to see what the movie will be, but the unfairness and racism of Hollywood is helping me stick to my goal. Also, in the show, Aang is funloving but by this picture he looks…boring. This is a great update. Oh yeah…and one moe comment. Ron, you are sounding racist. “Everyone knows if white kids are the stars in this movie, then they (including minorities) will go in droves to see this flick.” is the words you said. RACIST!
Admin…been there done that. I can’t tell you the countless forums I’ve been involved with the same complaints about using the correct ethnicity that fits the original property. Shall we go down the list? Here’s one…How about ‘Spawn’ and the use of a white actor for the character Terry Fitzgerald, instead of a black actor, even though the character in the comic was black. Hollywood’s reason? “We don’t want all of the protagonist to be black and all the antagonist to be white in the movie.” It happens when properties hit that big screen and millions are at stake. It’s their way of saying; we want to appeal to a broader market to make our invested money back. Don’t you think it was discussed how ‘The Last Bender’ would be received if all the main character were Asian? If people are here to just blow steam, then your job should be commended, Admin. It’s certainly not going to change the Hollywood machine. And more importantly, it’s not going to change ANYONE here from not boycotting the movie or sequels. See you at the movies.
@ Hidden Dog: You are correct that the best chance Paramount has at cashing in big is through the general public that is totally unaware of the original cartoon, and the problem is many people are NOT aware of the cartoon. Children probably, but not most adults. And IF by any chace the studio company knows this, then they are obviously lying to themselves if they believe most Americans (including whites) are racist enough to want to see such absurd white-washing such as this fiasco of a cinema!
@ Laurel: Yours is the best post since my last response! Indeed ‘Avatar The Last Airbender’ was the best American animated show I’ve seen in a long time. It’s so sad that American cartoons are really not worth watching these days which is why I mostly watch anime, and that when FINALLY a great American cartoon is made it had to be anime-inspired! And you’re absolutely correct that tokenism is just as bad as “no diversity” at all!! It is still just beyond me how one can put whites in the starring roles of a story that originally had NO white people in it and whose identities are based on non-white/non-European cultures! And definitely Dev Patel as Zuko is a cop-out and a BAD one at that! I even hear they have other actors of Indian descent for the role of Fire Nation characters. Sorry, but it’s more than a coincidence that the director M. Night is of Indian descent himself! He may not realize it, but he is only insulting his own people for putting them in these silly tokenized roles! Trust, me I have plenty of Indian friends and even THEY are pissed off about this movie and about M.Night’s role in this!
And as for the stupid responses…
@ Joshua: I suggest you take up the mod’s advice and look up racbending 101 here: http://racebending.com/raceinavatar.php I must also say that you have to be lying to yourself if you think the producers chose the starring actors simply for their ‘talent’. Not only did the role-calls for their characters specifically say “CAUCASIAN”, but come on now! Noah Ringer, the boy who plays Aang is not even an actor but some random white karate champ from Texas; Jackson Rathbone who plays Sokka is only known for a minor role in the movie ‘Twilight’ where he barely said one line; and Nicola Peltz who plays Katara, I’ve never even heard of her! Yet there is an entire community of Asian American actors who are way more talented and have had lots more experience but were not utilized at all! Definitely “talent” was not a factor in their choosing!
@ Tina: Don’t be foolish. Being born in Asia does NOT make one ‘racially’ that is phenotypically Asian! This is like saying Charize Theron can play the role of an African queen because she was born in Africa!
Finally @ Ron: You are obviously the most deluded of all the posters here and your response is the most irrational if not insane. Apparently it hasn’t occurred to you that just because America is a white majority nation that every movie that gets made here has to have whites as the stars– especially if the characters of that movie are of non-white/non-European backgrounds!! YOU may be interested in only seeing movies with white leads, but apparently most Americans are not as shallow and racist as you. Heck, the majority of people boycotting this movie are WHITE so that should tell you something. Also, you definitely must have lost your mind to project your bigotted feelings on to us– the people protesting– and declare that we are somehow infatuated with white stars as YOU! You’re only half right..
The first day this movie comes out we WILL go out in droves– to make our protests public by picketing in front of movie theaters!
The main problem of people today is that most don’t care or don’t want to understand (like Ron, as the administrator put it). If people understood or listened they would see this issue.
Sadly, most white people don’t seem to care, unless they have parents who are Asian or of color. If people listened, the world would be a better place.
@Ron – perhaps I didn’t make myself clear in my last comment to you. Your comments are parroting each other with nothing further to add to the ‘yes you will/no I won’t’ futility. We welcome all forms of discussion on this website, but repetition doesn’t make a point right. If you have nothing new to contribute, your comments will not be approved.
@Ray – I really appreciate your comments, thank you very much for reading and your support!
@Lord-Kai – thanks for keeping the discussion going and adding your own two cents on the arguments presented.
@ Ray: I disagree with your generalization. Most whites are not as irrational or insensible as Ron! Most whites like most people in general are just the opposite– they are logical and compassionate. The main problem is that most whites just don’t know what’s going on. I’m not just talking about the Airbender movie specifically but in general about the overall problem with racism in Hollywood and other forms of visual media. The problem can be so pervasive that even some people of color themselves may be unaware of it until someone points it out to them. I believe that should be the goal here in Racebending.com– to expose the persistent racism in Hollywack!
@ admin: Your welcome and I thank you for allowing me privilege to participate in this site. As a fan of the original series AND as a conscientious person I plan on doing a lot more than just writing in this board although I’m quite busy with personal matters at the moment.
By the way, I recently came across a blog on the issue in Seeking Avalon: http://seeking-avalon.blogspot.com/search/label/%28Avatar%20Whitewash%29
I have to say I’m very impressed with what a lot of people wrote there on the ‘race-fail’ issue, and it is my wish that these people as well as all others do their part as sort of independent journalists in spreading this news of injustice. Already I’m gathering up a circle of friends in the net to disseminate this news to the public.
Ugh, I had a more verbose post that was DESTROYED so this is more to the point. Lot of posts about how we are wasting text space: But it got to me and I am biggest Avatar fan I personally know of and will spread the word. If I start mocking Avatar movie, everyone I know will KNOW that something is horribly off.
Originally started doing research simply because I thought Noah was way off in regards to role. It is not merely his ethnicity, his facial expression and aura is always dreary and depressing. Aang is supposed to be a cheerful ball of optimistic ADDish energy, and Noah is so NOT that it unnerves me. To not only find my casting sucpicions both true and applied GLOBALLY to the Avatar world is just disturbing/hilarious. But I say hilarious in a very depressing sort of way, of course…
look this racism thing is stupid. i dnt care wat color the persons skin is that acts the part as long as they are a good actor. now i would have liked them to get actors that closer resmbled the character from thee cartoon, but that rarely ever happens. maybe all the asian actors that tried out werent good, or watever idk. i just kno that i think that every1 should have an equal opportunnity, and not just have a part handed to them cuz they most resemble the character.
and im guessing that all white ppl are goin to start boycotting japanese films because they dnt have any white ppl in them?? its dumb. im mean come on the director isnt caucasian. i believe they cast on the actors ability AND who they think will fill the seats. Which is the main purpose for them to make a movie. they need to make money, sry thats the way things work, cuz i dnt like nicholas cage as an actor, but aparently other ppl do so he is alot of movies. and tell you the truth i like some of the movies he is in. im just sayin grow up, there is not racism in the casting its all about making money. (money is wat makes the world go round.) like it or not.
Thanks, Lord-Kai. In case it helps provide evidence of the counterexamples you mentioned, I’m Caucasian. Not only do “many whites not know what’s going on,” we don’t notice. White privilege means it takes effort for us to notice, whereas we are rewarded for going remaining blind to our own privilege. It isn’t quite that we don’t care, it’s that it never occurs to us there is a problem, and that’s part of what makes the subject of race in the US so maddening and complicated.
Ron, say what you will, I won’t go see this movie. I won’t even rent it using money Netflix is already getting from me, because I’m not interested in seeing one of my favorite TV shows get crapped on. Why is that so hard to believe? I thought making a movie out of The Golden Compass, one of my fave books, was a bad idea. It seems to have been, in fact, a terrible idea. I still haven’t seen the movie. See how easy that is?
@Bryan Cruse: Congratulations, you are now enrolled in Racebending 101. Topics covered in this session:
- they choose actors for their talent, not their looks
- Asian actors aren’t good enough for heroic roles
- movie-goers (and their children) will only pay/want to see white heroes
- Hollywood just wants to make money, doesn’t care about diversity
@Jordan: It’s a little off-topic, but I know what you mean not just about Noah Ringer’s appearance (since I do feel that photos don’t necessarily encompass the personality of a person/character/actor), but the teaser trailer really threw me off. I appreciated the epic quality (the Fire Nation ships at the end pained me because it just reminded me of how much AWESOME POTENTIAL this movie had if it was done with care!) but the dour, fantasy-opera style of the trailer was such a difference from the cartoon.
It looks like the Last Airbender doesn’t just intend to strip the world of its inherent Asian/Inuit culture, but it is also stripping the world of its unique conceptual essence. See Willow’s review of Shyamalan’s interview to see what I mean.
Ron’s last post is a perfect example of what we’re fighting against– the Hollwood status quo. A status quo based on racist notions pure and simple. Hollwack companies believe if they don’t uphold these debunked notions then they can’t make money from the mainstream that is white audiences. But how true is this??
–Here’s one…How about ‘Spawn’ and the use of a white actor for the character Terry Fitzgerald, instead of a black actor, even though the character in the comic was black. Hollywood’s reason? “We don’t want all of the protagonist to be black and all the antagonist to be white in the movie.” It happens when properties hit that big screen and millions are at stake. It’s their way of saying; we want to appeal to a broader market to make our invested money back.–
So you really believe what that want the studio wanted was based on what the mainstream audience wanted?? You truly believe that white audiences including fans would be disturbed by a movie featuring all black protagonists and all white antagonists?? Clearly the white mainstream can recognize that the story is not about good blacks agains evil whites but rather just plain good vs. evil! Unless you view the demonic forces in charge of the antagonist in that movie as ‘white’ also. And apparently you’re not aware that the very creator of the Spawn comics is a WHITE guy himself, or that the vast majority of fans of the comics are WHITE despite the African American protagonists! The same can be said about ‘Avatar the Last Airbender’. The creators of the series were WHITE and despite the ALL-ASIAN based world and characters, the cartoon was THE MOST POPULAR animated show in America and won various accolades and awards including Emmys! Also, the majority of people protesting against this mess of a movie version are WHITE!!
So tell me Ron, do you really think Hollywacks’ casting choices are based on what the mainstream (white) audiences want, or rather what they themselves want– to perpetuate the propaganda of white supremacy in the big screen??!
Hey, Ron! I agree with Lord Kai. I’m WHITE! Or I quess Bi-racial (my mom’s white, Dad black). Anyway, I don’t think people would care (the general audience) if they were Asian at all! Actually, lots of people would rather them be Asian! We should have a survey and see if people would care if they were Asian or white…I’ll do that on HOL…maybe put an article on Teen Ink…spread the word!
^ Of course lots of people would rather have them be Asian as this website and the very protest movement of the movie show. Again, most of the protestors are WHITE! Which proves my point that most white people are NOT stupid or racist! Hollywack is! And they lost their minds if they think they can get away with it! Oh and one thing I forgot to mention about Ron’s ‘Spawn’ example. He thinks whites would have a problem with all black protagonists and all white antagonists, but apparently there is no problem with having all white protagonists and all off-white or dark-skinned antagonists as was shown in the human forces of Sauron in ‘Lord of the Rings’, the Persians in the ’300′, and now THIS debaucle of a movie turning adversarial Fire Nation dark-skinned South/Southwest Asian as well! Again, the hyporcisy is duely noted!
The very casting of this movie is so absurd that one can’t help but laugh to see whites play characters with Asian names and cultural backgrounds! All four nations that make up the world of ‘Avatar the Last Airbender’ are Asian (Yes, even the Water Tribes whose Inuit/Yupik culture is of Paleo-Siberian origins). Yet Paramount made the deliberate decision to white-wash two of the nations– the Tibetan based Air Nomads and the Water Tribes and then ‘darkened’ the enemy Fire Nation! Only the Earth Kingdom is left Asian with some Africans! Now one might argue “creative licensing” which is an all too common custom in Hollywood translations of stories from books and other media, but there is a fine line between making small changes to the storyline and minor editing of the characters to full blown destruction of the characters very identities!! The latter is what Paramount has done when they ‘race-changed’ the characters! And again this is all done to perpetuate the racist status quo! Unfortunately this is especially the case with stories of the fantasy fiction genre being translated onto screen. Even within the genre of fantasy there is a double standard to label only those stories that are European based as strictly fantasy while non-European based stories tend to be labeled as “magical realism”! I mean what the hell is that?! Last time I checked, the definition of fantasy did not include any criteria to be European based! See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy This is no doubt the reason why whenever a work of fantasy is made that is non-Euro based and made into a movie such as Ursula Le Guin’s ‘Earthsea’, all the characters end up white! As if the non-Europeaness must be compensated in someway by European descended actors!! We even see this with Neil Gaiman’s work ‘Anansi Boys’ which is about the adventures of two brothers who find out they are descendants of the West African spider god Anansi. When Gaiman tried to sell the movie rights, he found out movie studios would only take it if either they make the characters white OR keep the black characters but drop all the magical elements altogether!! Fortunately Gaiman told them to “bugger off”! So you see?! This sh*t is the reason why ALL people regardless of color should join together to protest this movie– The Last Airbender. It is to show that we really mean the last RACEBENDER! That Hell no! We don’t want anymore movies to be white-washed and deprived of it’s original non-white non-Euro themed identities and it were such identities that made them popular in the first place!!
I don’t understand, I’m sorry. Should actors be denied a role based on race? Racism goes both ways, that being said, it’s sad that the cast of Avatar upset so many people that this website was created.
@admin: really ONLY white heroes??? wat about jackie chan, bruce lee, jet lee, wesley snipes, tony jaa, will smith, martin lawrence, and even chris tucker. all of were heroes in great movies. and guess wat.. white ppl watched the movies. i mean most of the villians in movies are rich white guys or crazy white scientists. it happens both ways. so get off your judgemental high horse and open your eyes.
@Bryan Cruse, you just contradicted your original points (which I had listed). racebending.com completely agrees – yes, audiences WOULD indeed like to see non-white heroes in movies! Hence, since Avatar:TLA is an Asian-fantasy, Asians should be the heroes in The Last Airbender.
@Casey, we agree that actors shouldn’t be denied lead roles because of race. In particular – despite the Avatar world being Asian – Paramount Pictures nevertheless saw fit to cast the heroes as white actors, specifically showing a preference for Caucasian actors in the casting call over all ‘other ethnicities’. You can see their casting sheets for the four lead roles (and then compare it to their casting sheets for extras and background characters) here:
http://racebending.com/raceinavatar.php
@ Casey: Racism does NOT go both ways! Racism by definition is the belief not only in races but that some races are superior or inferior to others. The fact of the matter is that when you have characters in a story that are of specific ethnicities, it is expected to hire actors of correlating phenotype or ‘race’ to portray them! This is not a matter of racial superiority but logical sense! In the movie ‘Lord of the Rings’ the overall culture is European based, thus the characters are white. So it would make sense to hire white actors to portray them! People of color did not complain about the stars of that movie being all white because the STORY is all white! Now here we have a story that is overall Asian based in culture and theme and as well as characters, but when it’s made into a movie all of a sudden white actors are hired to portray them instead of Asian ones!! What kind of crap is that?! I’ve just explained in my last post that the theme of Hollywood is quite clear– when it comes to potential blockbuster movies, ESPECIALLY those of a fantasy epic type, only whites can be the stars!! So you see, racism only goes ONE way– with one race on top– and that of course being WHITES!!
So please don’t give me that reverse discrimination BULLSHI*T. Because unless I see a Asian or black stars of ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Chronicles of Narnia’, or ‘Harry Potter’, your claim is a LIE, and your logic is bankrupt!!
@ Bryan Cruse: The Admin is right. You did contradict yourself but in more than one way. Not only do white audiences not mind seeing non-white heroes, but the issue here is Hollywood and the racial discriminatory practices of U.S. movie studios! Apparently you don’t notice that the vast majority of Asian movie heroes you listed are the heroes ASIAN MADE films and not American ones!! With the exception of Jackie Chan who seems to always star in U.S. movies paired up with another person. Jet-Li’s American movies where he is the lone hero are like what? A couple? And they prove to be the exception. Interestingly, not ONE of the asian actors you mentioned is Asian AMERICAN or American born but all! As for African-Americans, while there is still discrimination against them in the movie industry, it is nowhere near as great as against Asian Americans. It’s likely because African-Americans possess what the movie studios call a “cool factor” which makes them more apealing to white audiences than I assume (lame?!) Asians! That said, apparently blacks aren’t cool enough to star in fantasy adventure movies of their own as with the example of ‘Anansi Boys’ I just mentioned!!
I’ve been a fan of Avatar: The Last Air Bender for quite a while now. Initially I was reluctant to watch it because it a Nickelodeon cartooon and, as I am constantly reminded my parents, ‘I’m a grown ass woman’. However, nagging from my siblings finally got me sitting down and watching. And it was pure love from there on. Avatar created a rich fantasy world, obviously taking it’s platform from eastern culture and tradition. In many ways, Avatar could be considered to be America’s first succesfull attempt to reproduce something akin to anime/japanimation (Bravo Nickelodeon!).
When I heard they were making a live action version of Avatar, I was excited. I told absolutely everyone I knew who likes the show and several people who had never heard of it before. Cheerfully, I made plans to drag my friends to go see it with me (separated said friends into different groups, since I had inteded to see it more than once). Then the announcement about the casting choices came out……
WHAT. THE. SHIT.
I want to start out by saying that I am not at all of eastern descent, and while there is noteworthy discrimination and racism directed at practically all non-caucasian ethnicities, I think those aimed at Asians are given the least amount of attention. I read a quote mentioning that had Avatar been based on a foundation of African cultur then (considering that they touched it at all) there’s no way they’d risk filling the cast with caucasian actors. Unfortunately there seems to be a Hollywood notion that asian and caucasians are ‘inter-changable’ when necessary. However, the casting for The Last Airbender is not only inappropriate on a race level, but also on multiple levels.
First of all, WHO THE HELL TOLD JACKSON RATHBONE HE COULD PLAY A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD BOY!? Are you kidding me? I am well aware that actors often play characters younger than they are, but that’s because they are able to LOOK the part. Jackson Rathbone does NOT look fifteen. In the only movie he’s known for he played a vampire who was hundreds of years old, for pity’s sake. I might also mention that he was so pale he was practically translucent in said movie. Meanwhile, Sokka has a noticible dark complexion. …….. Anyone else seeing a problem here? Apparently Jackson Rathbone’s suggestion is that he could “get a tan and ask viewers to suspend disbelief”. (a) He looks so far from tan, I’m still wondering if he’s seen any sunlight at all. (b) It’s not a suspension of disbelief, it’s a complete deviation from the character. (c) It’s just generally such an insulting thing to say that I wanted to punch my moniter (but didn’t because I’m breakable). The entire thing makes me wonder what they chose him for. His acting in Twilight (what little there was) was almost as painful as the expression he wore for half the movie. It’s like the studio saw how well Twilight did and said ‘How can we attract some of that revenue! We know! We’ll attract the love struck teen girls who go to see the movie for it’s hottie-factor by using one of the hottie-actors’. If they could have got Robert Pattinson, I’m sure they’d have been asking us to ‘suspend disbelief’ and accept this twenty-something year old British man playing Aang. (They’d also probably ask us to believe that Aang started off with hair, since you can’t draw in crazed Pattinson fans without his sex-hair…..as an ashamed fan of his sex-hair I say this with knowledge)
And who is this girl playing Katara? Where the hell did they get her!? She has all of two tv/movie appearances despite having been active in the industry for four-five years so I can’t imagine they picked her over thousands of asian actors because of her sensational talents and/or popularity. The fact that they were considering JESSE MCCARTNEY for the role of Zuko makes me want to breath fire. Just because he likes to that tormented, “edgy” look for his album covers and music videos does not an exiled-fire-prince make! I was relieved when the casting was changed to Dev Patel, hoping it would be the begining of general cast changes.
But of course, it wasn’t. And after considering the singular alteration of the enemy character to a non-eurasian actor, it’s extremely suspect as well. I flat out REFUSE to see this movie and am hell bent on making sure no one I know goes to see it either. I also, to be perfectly frank, hope it does horribly in the box-office. As for me, I’ll keep the animated version, thanks, where my characters don’t need to be white-washed to make them acceptable to the viewing public.
You know whats sad. I was checking out a sight where they were talking about the new movie. Half of the people there, well actually all, except me, thought that the reason why they were white, was because they couldn’t find good enough people, that were Asian!!! Of course I left comments…I just wished people knew more about this site!
Okay, I think a lot of people missed the point. This is not a simple thing as casting caucasian/indian actors vs east asian/inuits actors. The key point of the argument is casting actors that is a “Faithful adaptation” of the show and characters.
It is not about the eye shape of the cartoon characters, the character american accent done by the voice over actors etc that makes the character non-asian. This is just the most idiotic reasoning I have ever heard. It is clear, the characters are asian as the whole avatar world is too.
If the animators and creators of the show wanted to create a non-east asian world, they would not have painstakingly created the whole world that is like east asia. Everything from costumes, cuisine (chop sticks, tea), martial arts, architecture, manners, philosophy down to the littlest details are all drawn from ancient East Asia. It is a fantasy world but it pays homage to East Asia.
With reference of costumes, I can tell you as I like to study costumes from around the world that the four nations are very specific to east asian costumes. With the exception of the water tribe which is more inuits, the fire nation costumes are drawn for Ming dynasty from China, the earth kingdom is a mixture of Qing and Tang dynasties from China. There is some korean influences as well. The warrior maidens are specifically japanese down to the details of masks and fans (japanese created the open and closed fans).
The only non-asian thing I can see is the animals which are a creation of the show. Even, the ying yang symbols, east asian dragons all are taken directly from East Asian culture and mythology. It would be illogical to say that in this asian inspired world, the characters are non-asian. How stupid is that reasoning. If the creators of the show did not want to show anything related to this earth, then they would have created a world like Star Wars, where it is not very specific reference to our world.
I love fantasy in general and all the european influenced fantasies like Lords of the Rings, Harry Potter etc. But this show is refreshing because it is a fantasy world of East Asia. It is very different than what we are used to and many people find that they liked it. It is what attracted us to the show.
I think the problem with some people is that they love the show, love the characters and setting because it is a “fantasy”. But when it comes to real life or movies on screen, they find it hard to accept that Asian peoples, cultures and civilization can be beautiful and just as interesting as those of europe. Deep down, I think some people find it discomforting that there is any other culture and civilization that is sophisticated too but not european based.
For God sake, all the things you see on Avatar, although it is a fantasy, pays homage to the thousand years of the culture and civilization of East Asia. It is very insulting to billions of people around the world of East Asia by stating what is so obvious to them.
What are you exactly doing ?
You, all know that the movie will be. But you continue to protest, by protesting in front of Paramount, screaming “don’t watch this movie !” even though you haven’t even seen it !
So what are you doing ? You are making a pain in the ass, and decreasing the box office potential, which can result with no second and third film. We, real fans, are pleased that there IS an ecranisation of probably the best show on Nickelodeon, and we are happy with the director, we scream of happiness after each update, and you are just trying to ruin it all.
I don’t know how much time you’ve heard it, but avatar world is asian INFLUENCED ! How do you supposed a world from just one race ? Racism ? Than why do the main characters have to be exactly asian ? that seems more like racism from YOU.
And why, would a movie company, in america, populated with black and whites – make a movie about asians ?
Why doesn’t japan or china make their own Last Airbender ?
You, should be happy, that there is a movie, and that it’s filmed by a great producer, director, actors and other crew. But if you don’t, don’t ruin our happiness ! Show your opinion in a better way…
Why don’t you use your time with more sense ? Donating blood for chinese hospitals ? Donating money for poor orphans ?
No of course. You found something more “popular” – Hollywood.
You guys, are egoists, white-race hatters, and people who don’t know what to do.
Here’s my message to you – Stop it. In the sake of ATLA.
@Joshua, I suggest you read and educate yourself before making wrong assumptions. racebending.com has easily debunked your notion that Paramount Pictures ‘don’t cast movies by race’.
And of course that ruins the movie ! That definitely means it will suck !