Racebending.com » General

Racebending.com’s San Diego Comic Con Panel!

Marissa — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 03:21:33 +0000

Racebending.com and Racialicious.com will be co-hosting a panel at San Diego Comic Con 2011!

Diversity and Fandom 102: How You Can Make a Difference

<Sunday, July 24 · 10:00am – 11:00am
Room 24ABC

In the wake of campaigns like Racebending.com’s protests and the rise of safe spaces like Racialicious.com, fans, consumers and creators from underrepresented groups have more outlets for speaking up. This panel explores how those voices can be added to conversations with geeky business interests and fan communities.

Actor Dante Basco (Avatar: The Last Airbender), showrunner/writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (The Middleman), author Malinda Lo (Huntress), Arturo Garcia (Racialicious.com), Phil Yu (AngryAsianMan.com) and USC Professor Henry Jenkins (CivicPaths Project) promise a lively discussion, moderated by Racebending.com!

We’re currently collecting questions for our panelists, so you can participate even if you can’t make it! Leave your questions in the comments section on this page!

Check out the Facebook page for the panel or the page for the panel at MySched!

Follow our Twitter page! We’ll be live-tweeting the panel!

Our Panelists

	Comic book writer, television writer and showrunner Javier Grillo-Marxuach has written comic books and for TV shows like Lost, Medium, and Ghost Whisperer. He’s best known for his nerdtastic comic book The Middleman, which he brought to ABC Family as a television series in 2008.

	Author and journalist Malinda Lo‘s young adult novels, Ash and Huntress, both feature LGBTQ women of color as protagonists. Lo has a Master’s Degree in cultural and social anthropology and has also written for AfterEllen.com

	Actor, dancer, and spoken word artist Dante Basco‘s breakthrough role was as Rufio in the 1991 Peter Pan film Hook. He’s probably best known to Racebending.com readers as the voice actor for Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

	Arturo Garcia is the Site Lead at Racialicious.com, a blog that tracks the intersection of race and pop culture. As one of the primary contributors to the site, Arturo has covered several fandom rallies for diversity, including RaceFail’09 and the Airbender protest.

	Phil Yu is the blogger behind AngryAsianMan.com, which regularly comments on the representation of Asian Americans in mainstream media. Phil has a Master’s Degree in Critical Studies and works as a content producer for Yahoo!Movies.

	Media scholar Professor Henry Jenkins studies fandom and activism at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. Check out his blog on “aca-fandom” at HenryJenkins.org

Sucker Punch

Mike — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:01:31 +0000

Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch releases in theaters at the end of this month. Racebending.com was lucky enough to catch an early screening of the film. Below are our thoughts on the film. We assess its entertainment value, but also look into the deeper social messages of the film.

Walking into Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d seen the trailers. I knew that Snyder was looking to do a female-led action flick, opposite what he’d done for the testosterone-heavy 300.

Snyder’s described the film as “Alice in Wonderland with guns.” The film could easily have been another standard, Hollywood-stamped popcorn flick, heavy on explosions and titillation, light on story and plot.

I admire Sucker Punch because it dared to be more. The story has heft, tackling serious topics such as child molestation, rape, and the sex trade. The lead actress, Emily Browning, carried the film well and when she had her triumphs, the audience (mostly male) cheered as hard as I’ve heard any audience cheer. If nothing else, the film defies the notion that women can’t carry movies – something Warner Bros. firmly believed, as recently as three short years ago.

I also enjoyed seeing Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung in supporting roles. I hope the work they did for the film helps them find more work in the future.

The action in the film – choreographed by Damon Caro (of the Bourne series) – is dynamic and novel, without suffering from the melee confusion that afflicted pictures like Batman Begins. Combined with the fantastic elements of the story, and Snyder’s unique cinematography, the picture becomes wholly unforgettable.

There’s a definite anime influence here, and with the talent that Snyder’s production team brings to the table, the overall effect is nothing short of stunning. Dragon-slaying with automatic rifles? Pistol-whipping steampunk Nazis? And with a layered, compelling story? This is the sort of film that deserves every penny of its $85 million budget.

As much as I loved the film, I realize it’s flawed – but probably not for the reasons most people expect.

Are the women sexualized in the film? Yes. Absolutely. You just have to look at the makeup used (exquisitely long fake eyelashes and perfect blush) and the costuming (schoolgirl skirts and fishnet stockings) to see that the sexuality of these women is wholly on display.

But I would argue that the display of sexuality in the film is muted. It’s nothing compared to the raw, sweat-slicked displays of ab-ripping masculinity from Snyder’s 300. Even more generally, their sexuality is never casually flaunted.

It’s not as groundbreaking a portrayal as, say, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, where her sexuality was completely secondary to her role as a powerful, skilled killer. But the characters have depth as something more than romantic interests and simple eye-candy and I think that’s something to applaud.

The fact is that misogyny is at the root of the film’s story. It’s one girl’s struggle against misogyny in every aspect of her life, explored through the lens of her unstable psyche, laid out in dreams and visions of dragon-slaying. The men in the film are, almost without exception, vicious and brutal. The film attacks the naked form of misogyny: the sex traders, the rapists, the child molesters.

It’s not perfect. Near the end, there is a monologue that smacks of things a frat guy would say trying to get laid. I think an opportunity was lost there to emphasize that misogyny is rarely as blatant and obvious as when found within the walls of an underground brothel. It feels like the writer hesitated to put a film out without one male character to redeem the gender, at least a little. Something unnecessary in the grand scheme of a Hollywood machine where 90% of lead roles are given to men.

I was also slightly disappointed by the real-world ending. There was a chance to translate some of the women’s empowerment of the fantasy world into the real one (especially with Carla Gugino’s character), but instead things ended on a somewhat weak note after all the sturm und drang of the visions.

Is the film less groundbreaking because the dragon-slaying heroics were imagined?

I don’t think so. It was amazing to witness an audience so engaged with female action stars, and feel more excited by the explosions than by the short skirts. And the way the visions are implemented, like short love letters to different action genres, allowed for the actresses in the film to play several kinds of action hero. If making the visions imaginary is a “cheat,” then it’s one that allowed for the exploration of women in a diversity of roles that are rarely open to them in modern media.

Racebending.com at the CAPE Soiree

Mike — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 20:35:16 +0000

Last week, Racebending.com was invited to attend the CAPE 2010 Holiday Soirée. The Coalition for Asian Pacifics in Entertainment was founded in 1991 and is the largest Asian American professional entertainment industry organization in Hollywood. CAPE is dedicated to advancing diversity and cross-cultural awareness by educating and promoting Asian Pacific Americans for key artistic and leadership roles in the entertainment industry.

At this year’s soirée, we were lucky enough to be able to cover the red carpet event. We spoke with many performers, including Heroes actor James Kyson Lee, Community actor Ken Jeong, Philip Wang and Wesley Chan of Wong Fu Productions, and Guild actors Sandeep Parikh and Amy Okuda.

Check out our interviews below! We asked actors, actresses, and directors about the future of APAs in media and the dream roles they want to pursue. And for fun, we checked out what they thought of the Racebending movement (if anything!).

Future of APAs in Media and Entertainment

Dream Roles and Projects

Have you heard of Racebending?

featuring:

Leonardo Nam – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

James Kyson Lee – Heroes

Tim Kang – The Mentalist

Steve Tao – CAPE President

Randall Park – Dragon of Love

Ken Jeong – Community, The Hangover

Archie Kao – CSI

Jae Suh – Purity

Sandeep Parikh – Legend of Neil

Philip Wang & Wesley Chan – Wong Fu Productions

Lina So – Scream Queens

Amy Okuda – The Guild

Camille Mana – One on One

Justin Chon – The Twilight Saga

Sean Michael Afable – Akeelah and the Bee

Katee Shean – So You Think You Can Dance

Kristina Wong – Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Bai Ling – Lost

We were able to speak with many other amazing actors, actresses, and directors, including Adrian Zaw, Aaron Takahashi, Francois Chau, and Koji Steven Sakai. Unfortunately, technical difficulties prevented us from including everyone’s footage in the final cut.

We’re very grateful to CAPE Press Director Ken Choy for extending the invitation for us to cover the event.

Depictions of Gender and Ethnicity in The Last Airbender

Marissa — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:02:40 +0000

M. Night Shyamalan has repeatedly said that his movie, The Last Airbender (2010) is “the most culturally diverse tent-pole [movie] in history” and that “everyone is represented.” But did the movie live up to his claims? This seven-part article explores the depictions of underrepresented groups in The Last Airbender.

“Except for a few lines from some victimized Asian villagers, every minority character with a speaking role is a bad guy, and every white character with a speaking role is good!” – Guy Aoki, founding President of Media Action Network for Asian Americans

“Every character of color in the film who takes an action against the Fire Nation invasion needs inspiration from a white character before he can take the action.” - Ken A., Racebending.com volunteer.

“Shyamalan affirmed he’d made a conscious effort to include all races and ethnicities in the movie. We believe him. We simply think it was rather important for him to have tried a little harder with the main characters.” – Magda Knight at Best for Film

“The biggest crime, for me at least, is how completely disempowered the female characters Katara and Yue are. Instead of the strong, caring motherly-type of personality we see in the series, Katara is this whiny little girl almost always on the verge of tears in the film. We don’t get to see her fight her way through gender discrimination to train in waterbending in the Northern Water tribe. We don’t get to see Yue conflicted about her true love for Sokka even though she’s a princess engaged to another young man.” - Racebending.com staff member Dariane N.

“The people of the noble, peaceful water nation are lily-white hippies. The people of the dirty earth nation are exotically grubby Chinese peasants. The people of the villainous, imperialistic, world-ruining fire nation are dark-skinned Indian jerks. The people of the air nation are extinct, so whatever. It’s so transparent you can see all the way to China.” - Film critic Lindy West, The Stranger

“Caucasian actors in the movie tend to get lines; non-Caucasian actors tend to be used as background.” - Film critic Stephen Whitty, The New Jersey Star Ledger

Next Page: Depiction of Circumpolar Indigenous and Inuit People

Fall 2010 TV Season Preview

Marissa — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:46:34 +0000

The Fall TV Season always brings in new shows, and this fall, shows that feature actors of color are featuring them in innovative ways. There’s an Afro-Cuban president, and a Latino Supreme Court Justice. Two spy shows both feature actors of color as the titular leads!

From Left to Right: Terrence Howard is District Attorney Jonah Dekker on Law & Order: Los Angeles, Maggie Q. is Nikita, Daniel Dae Kim is Hawaii Five-0‘s Chin Ho Kelly, Gugu Mbatha-Raw is Mrs. Samantha Undercovers Bloom, and Jimmy Smits is Outlaw Cyrus Garza

Despite these advances, Ray Bradford, the national director for equal employment opportunities at the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) describes the Fall 2010 television season as “really troubling.” “What I’m seeing is, with a few exceptions, not only shows that are predominately Caucasian with a smattering of minorities, primarily black or Asian in some roles; I’m seeing primarily Caucasian shows period,” Bradford said. “So while for each quarter you may have a handful of African Americans or Asians or Latinos, the bulk of the work in these shows is white.”

Some shows stick to formula, using actors of color in key roles, but still orbiting the white, male, featured lead. But we hope that the shows that are willing to take risks will do really well this fall and encourage more network television studios to offer equal opportunities to actors of color.

Here, Racebending.com takes a look at some of Fall 2010′s diverse network television offerings. Thankfully, these are not the only shows this fall that will feature people of color in key roles!

Nikita

The CW (Thur. 9/8c)

“When her fiancé was murdered, Nikita escaped the Division. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation.”

It’s also not often that women–particularly women of color–get to star as the lead in an action series. Maggie Q.’s casting is The CW’s highest-profile minority casting in the network’s history, and highest-profile series role for an Asian American actress (Q. is of Vietnamese, Polish, and Irish descent) on a broadcast drama series, ever. [source].

When asked about the significance of her casting at Comic Con 2010, Maggie Q. said: “I am not the typical choice for this, and am glad to be able to represent a group of people who are underrepresented.” [source].

What We Don’t Want to See: In a genre that tends to sexualize and objectify women–in an industry that particularly sexualizes and objectifies Asian women– it would be easy for Hollywood to, well, go there and reinforce the “Dragon Lady” stereotype. Series creator Craig Silverstein said he wanted to write the lead as “beautiful and exotic” and it looks like critics are already thinking that “exotic” is a great word to use when describing Maggie Q. (Here’s to hoping the use of the word “exotic” won’t bleed over into the show’s racy advertising.)

We also really hope the show doesn’t go the way of other recent shows with women leads in action roles, like Dollhouse and Sarah Connor Chronicles. Maybe this one will be an Alias instead of a Bionic Woman.

What We’d Love to See: There’s a lot of women in the lead cast, including the very talented Melinda Clarke, so it would be great to see the show regularly pass the Bechedel test! (Bechedel test: Two women in a scene, having a conversation, talking about something other than a man.)

Aside from Maggie Q., the supporting cast is a bit monochrome, but we hope the show will feature the secret Division of the CIA as a globe-spanning organization with a diverse set of operatives. Given that 60% of the world population is Asian, an Asian spy-assassin can probably go places and blend in where Sydney Bristow from Alias could not!

Law & Order: Los Angeles

NBC (Wed. 10/9c)

“In the criminal justice system the people are represented by two separate legally important groups…This is Los Angeles. These are its stories. Welcome to the Wild West.”

By setting Law & Order in one of the most diverse cities in the world, the producers of the show have a great opportunity to showcase several actors and communities of color. Los Angeles has a population that is 48% Latino, 28% White, 14% Asian American/Pacific Islander, 9% African American, and 1% Native American.

In the initial casting breakdown, the lead role of Rex Winters was open to Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic actors (but not Asian, Middle Eastern or Native American actors?). The role has ultimately been cast with Skeet Ulrich, who will headline the show with Corey Stoll (playing his partner, TJ, a role only open to Caucasian males).

Ulrich and Stoll’s characters will report to Lieutenant Arleen Gonzales, played by actress Wanda De Jesus. We’re thrilled to see that the Commanding Officer of the LAPD Robbery Homocide Division will be a Latina. The workforce of the Los Angeles Police Department is comprised of 42% Latino, 37% white, 12% black and 7% Asian. [source]. The LAPD also hired America’s first female police officer, Alice Stebbins Wells, in 1910.

The show’s courtroom scenes will feature African American movie star Terrence Howard as Deputy District Attorney Jonah Dekker. Other courtroom scenes will feature African American actress Regina Hall as Prosecutor Evelyn Price, and veteran British actor Alfred Molina as District Attorney Peter Morales, a Latino character.

What We Don’t Want to See: While it’s true that Los Angeles has a ton of cultural enclaves (Thai Town, Koreatown, the Russian District, barrios, West Hollywood, etc.) we don’t want the presence of actors of color on the show to be limited to stories set in those locales. And please, please don’t do a “Chinatown” episode!

What We’d Love to See: We were disappointed to see that the character of Korean American Captain Park was scrapped and that no Asian Americans will be in the leading cast – particularly since 13.4% of Angelenos are Asian American and Asian Americans make up 7% of the real-life LAPD’s workforce. We hope that as the show grows, Asian Americans will feature in the supporting cast–not just as the “techie” or as a mafia bad guy–and join the main cast ASAP. Given Los Angeles has one of the largest Persian communities in the country, we also hope the show will feature Perisan American characters.

The Event

NBC (Mon. 9/8c)

“The Event is an emotional, high-octane conspiracy thriller that follows Sean Walker (Jason Ritter), an everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his would-be fiancée Leila, and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history.

With a vast ensemble cast and a non-linear plot, The Event generated a lot of buzz at San Diego Comic Con 2010. The early plot line seems to focus around the United States government’s illegal detaining of a mysterious group of people in Alaska.

Major players include an Afro-Cuban American President, Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood) and his wife Christina (played by Latina actress Lisa Vidal), as well as an Asian American CIA agent, Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale.) Latino actor Clifton Collins Jr. also stars as “Thomas.”

What We Don’t Want to See: We definitely don’t want to see this show pull a “Heroes” where women and characters of color are treated as stereotyped bit-players who are expendable to the primary plot revolving around white and/or male characters. A lot of shows have a diverse cast while making it obvious who the “essential” and “important” players are; we think The Event can defy this trend.

What We’d Love to See: There isn’t enough smart sci-fi out there! And science fiction has always been an interesting way to approach representation in the media, from Star Trek, which showed 1960s America a diverse cast and TV’s first interracial kiss, to LOST, which kicked off a new trend of diverse casting. We hope The Event can leverage its diverse cast to create some really interesting storylines, and bring prominence to a new set of actors of color the same way LOST did for Daniel Dae Kim et. al.

Undercovers

NBC (Wed 8/7c)

“Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe) and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), are a typical married couple who own and operate a small catering company in Los Angeles. Secretly, the duo were two of the best spies the CIA had ever known, until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When a fellow spy and good friend goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are reinstated to locate and rescue him…”

This J.J. Abrams spy thriller-meets-romantic comedy is generating a lot of attention for featuring two African American CIA agents as the lead characters. Biracial actors Kodjoe and Mbatha-Raw were discovered in a colorblind casting process. Kodjoe is from Germany and Mbatha-Raw is from the United Kingdom.

At a press conference, Kodjoe said about his role as one of Undercovers‘ two black leads: “I think it’s important to recognize the fact that it’s not the norm, although it should be the norm because that’s the way the world looks like. The world is diverse and we come in all shapes, sizes and shades. Let’s inspire people to regard it as normal so more and more people don’t consider it taking a chance, but just being creative.” [source]

What We Don’t Want to See: As a globe-trotting spy drama, we hope that the supporting cast is also diverse. It will be interesting to see what challenges and advantages an African American spy would have compared to a Caucasian American spy, so while it shouldn’t be a central foci, we hope that their ethnicity isn’t completely glossed over.

What We’d Love to See: This show looks like so much fun! We hope that its success will encourage other productions to consider casting actors of color in lead roles…

Outsourced

NBC (Thur. 9:30/8:30c)

“Mid America Novelties sells products like whoopee cushions, foam fingers, and wallets made of bacon. Yes, this is the stuff upon which the American way of life is built, but try explaining that to someone who lives on the other side of the world. Well, that’s exactly what Todd Dempsy must do when he’s sent to run the company’s call center in India. Talk about culture shock, and not just for Todd’s employees. While Todd has to teach them how to make the up-sell to the Deluxe Twin Beer Helmet, he’s going to have to adapt as well…”

What happens when a naive, young, white American man is sent to India to corral a quirky band of call center workers? Outsourced takes the workplace comedy genre and transplants it to a foreign-at-least-to-Americans setting.

For actors of South Asian descent, the setting means jobs and visibility–this ensemble cast has more Indian characters than any other American sitcom. The comedy, based on the movie, is shot in Los Angeles and cast with British, Canadian, and American actors of South Asian descent.

But could a comedy about culture clash and the controversial practice of outsourcing jobs to India end up being culturally insensitive or offensive? To forestall accusations of cultural insensitivity, NBC has screened the show for Asian American organizations and taken feedback.

“It is certainly not coming from a mean-spirited place. A third of the writing staff is Indian,” executive producer Ken Kwapis said. “I think there is a way to treat cultural confusion without being offensive.” [source]

What We Don’t Want to See: Hopefully, the show won’t make fun of other cultures or make Americans look like uncultured buffoons or people who go to other countries to learn “deep lessons.” Will the show go “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” where Todd, a white character, is always the center of attention and the characters of color are interchangeable backgrounders? We hope not, and we hope that characters of color will also be depicted as “representative” of Americans abroad, in addition to white characters.

(NBC marketers, which one of you came up with the tagline “Outsourced: where the Midwest meets the exotic East”? Because…yeah. Real smooth, buddy.)

What We’d Love to See: India is a really, really diverse country and we hope the show will be an opportunity to showcase that! Even though Todd will be teaching his employees about America, there is a lot for him (and the audience by proxy) to learn, too.

The trailer seems to set up a romance between Todd and Tonya (Jessica Gower), blonde Australian living in India. But rather than go down that conventional road (“Westerner visits exotic land, find loves with the other Westerner who happens to be around and relates to him”) we would be way more interested in seeing an Indian guy portrayed as a romantic lead. Can you think of any in Western media?

We’d also like to see some characters who are Indian American on the show. It’s not inconceivable, especially in this economy, that an American born-and-raised South Asian American guy (or girl) would end up in India, completely lost.

Outlaw

NBC (Fri. 10/9c)

“Few jobs are guaranteed for a lifetime, and a Supreme Court appointment is one you just don’t quit. Unless you’re Cyrus Garza. A playboy and a gambler, Justice Garza always adhered to a strict interpretation of the law, until he realized the system he always believed in was flawed. Now, he’s quit the bench and returned to being an attorney. Determined to represent “the little guy,” he’s using his inside knowledge of the justice system to take on today’s biggest legal cases…”

Outlaw starts Jimmy Smits as Cyrus Garza, a former Supreme Court Justice who steps down from the bench to change the system as an attorney. Smits played the proto-Obama Presidential candidate Matt Santos on The West Wing; this time he’ll be playing a conservative activist judge. David Ramsey, Ellen Woglom, Carly Pope and Jesse Bradford play supporting roles.

Executive producer David Kissinger said he was inspired by Latina Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor: “People were writing about her life and the dues she had to pay to get to that point, so it struck me that someone who worked that hard and achieved that incredible position, what would it take for that person to give it all up and what would they give it all up for?” [source]

When asked about the dearth of Latino Emmy nominations, Smits recently said: “We have many more Latinos that are in prominent positions on shows all across the dial than ever before. I’m happy that just about on every other show there’s a Latino somewhere present and we’re not all the cooks anymore.” [source]

What We Don’t Want to See: So…the premise of this show seems a little hokey. But it will be interesting to see the premise play out. In the show’s universe, is Garza’s ethnicity as significant as Sotomayor’s?

What We’d Love to See: Edward James Olmos as Cyrus’s liberal dad! And interesting court cases with diverse clientèle!

Detroit 1-8-7

ABC (Tues. 10/9c)

“What does it take to be a detective on America’s streets? Get an in-depth look at some of Detroit’s finest and watch the crisis and revelation, heartbreak and heroism of the cops assigned to an inner city homicide unit.’

ABC’s Detroit 1-8-7 boasts a strikingly diverse cast and will be filmed in Detroit, Michigan, but it’s also trailed by some controversy. At least one Detroit City Councilman has asked the show to change its title–1-8-7 is a police radio code for “homicide” in California–given how the title reinforces the negative stereotype of Detroit as “Murder City.” And the show’s “documentary” premise had to be dialed down after a little girl, 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, was shot in the head after Detroit police threw a grenade into her home–all while cameras were rolling for a reality show. [source]

Unlike many other police shows, Detroit 1-8-7 will actually be filmed in the city it is set in, and Detroit native T.C.Real, a local hip-hop celebrity, is rumored to be playing a supporting role. Detroit has an 80% African American population; the cast includes three African American characters, newbie Detective Damon Washington (Jon Michael Hill), veteran cop Sergeant Jesse Longford (James McDaniel),and homicide chief Lieutenant Maureen Mason (Aisha Hinds.)

Rounding out the characters of color, Natalie Martinez plays Detective Ariana Sanchez, a former vice cop, and South Asian Canadian actor Shaun Majumder plays Detective Aman Mahajan, who disappointed his immigrant parents by becoming a cop instead of an engineer.

What We Don’t Want to See: Honestly, we were shocked to see that ABC would make a show set in Detroit–of all places–and still have a white main character. While there are certainly people of color in the ensemble cast, Michael Imperioli has top billing playing Detective Louis Fitch, “the smartest guy in the room.” It’s a little disappointing, since there are already so many procedurals with a white, male actor in top billing. This would have been a great opportunity to have an African American actor headline a police show. Dreading a show that looks like the promo picture, with lots of diverse secondary characters, but a focus on the white male lead as the central character.

What We’d Love to See: We hope that all characters on this show get equal amounts character development and that it truly becomes an ensemble show! We hope the show has a diverse writing staff that can handle issues of race, discrimination, and policing in a nuanced and sensitive way. (More than just having Longford say stuff like, “I been here so long, when I started, half the suspects were white.”)

Off The Map

ABC (TBA)

Welcome to “la ciudad de las estrellas” (the city of stars), a tiny town in the South American jungle which has one understaffed, understocked medical clinic. In this ensemble drama, five doctors who have lost their way will go to the ends of the earth to try to remember the reasons why they wanted to become doctors in the first place.

This show is produced by Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice), one of only non-white, non-male show runners. It stars Martin Henderson as Dr. Ben Keaton, formerly Chief of Surgery at UCLA, who moved to the South American jungle to found a clinic with Dr. Otis Cole (Jason George). A trio of newbie doctors–Dr. Lily Brenner (Caroline Dhavernas), Mina Minard and Manny Diaz, join them.

26% of doctors in California are Asian or Pacific Islander, yet doctors of Asian descent are rarely depicted with that frequency on American television shows, and when they are featured, they are members of the supporting cast and not the lead. We were disappointed to learn that an opportunity to buck this trend was lost when Meena Mital, the name of a South Asian character in the original script, was changed to Mina Minard and cast with actress Mamie Gummer (Meryl Streep’s daughter). The actor originally cast to play Manny, Enrique Murciano, has also left the show. [source]

The original ensemble of five doctors would have been comprised of two white doctors (Henderson and Dhavernas in the lead roles), an African American doctor, a Latino doctor, and an Indian American doctor. With the Indian American doctor cast and rewritten to be white, and the actor playing the Latino doctor off the show, the ragtag gang of doctors without borders looks a lot less colorful.

What We Don’t Want to See: Benevolent white American doctors hoofing it in the jungle, tending to the ignorant, but noble, native savages, while discovering more about themselves in an exotic jungle land at the “ends of the earth.”

What We’d Love to See: More doctors and nurses played by actors of color on the show, and hopefully the re-casting of the Manny Diaz character with another Latino actor to replace Enrique Murciano. It would be important to see the protagonists grapple with the concept of being first-worlders imposing on the native community, and their preconceived notions of international field work. Ideally, the doctors will help empower the community instead of simply treating it.

Hawaii Five-0

CBS (Mon. 10/9)

“Hawaii Five-0 is a contemporary take on the classic series about a new elite federalized task force whose mission is to wipe out the crime that washes up on the Islands’ sun-drenched beaches. Detective Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin), a decorated Naval officer-turned-cop, returns to Oahu to investigate his father’s murder and stays after Hawaii’s Governor persuades him to head up a new team. Joining McGarrett is Detective Danny “Danno” Williams (Scott Caan), a newly relocated ex-New Jersey cop, and Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim), an ex-Honolulu Police Detective. Chin’s cousin, Kono (Grace Park), is a beautiful and fearless native, fresh out of the academy and eager to establish herself among the department’s elite.”

The original series exposed Americans to a dramatized version of life on the 50th state, and was a huge boon to the State’s tourism economy. [source] The series, which ran from1968 to 1980, was very progressive for its time in that it employed many actors of color, including Kam Fong as Chinese Hawaiian Detective Chin Ho Kelly, and Zulu, a Native Hawaiian actor, as Kono Kalakaua. Of course, the show was heavily focused on its main lead, Steve Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) – even though at the time only 2 out of 5 people in Hawaii were white. A previous attempt to resurrect the show acknowledged the diversity of Hawaii (47.5% Asian Pacific American, compared to a 27.1% white American population) by casting Gary Busey and Russell Wong as a younger Five-O team, but the pilot did not test well and the show was never aired.

With two Asian Americans in the lead cast and guest stars D.L. Hughley and Masi Oka (Heroes) as the city coroner, Hawaii Five-0 might just continue the progressive legacy of its forbearer and provide actors of color with opportunities. And hopefully these opportunities will also expand to actors of color living on the islands. The Honolulu Advertiser wrote, “There’s already been grumbling about the lack of local faces among the stars of the new ‘Five-0′ (sorry, Daniel Dae Kim, you don’t count), but we’re not hung up on that. It’s not just about who gets top billing. Producers of the original show tapped a long roster of local performers and regular people, whose talents and authenticity added to the richness of nearly every episode.” TV Guide also noted that while Hawaiians are enthusiastic about the revival, “it has not been lost on them that Kim and Park–both of Korean descent–are playing characters originally portrayed by Hawaiian actors.” According to TV Guide, the producers “insist they are actively looking to populate their on-screen canvas with Hawaiian natives.”

Despite the original show’s progressive racial casting, there was very little gender equality–except for a brief stint in the first season, all of the detectives on the Five-O team were men. The revival has countered that discrepancy by rewriting one of the show’s main leads, Kono Kalakaua to be a woman, Kona Kalakaua (nicknamed “Kono”), played by Grace Park

Park has starred in two revivals of 1970s shows; in both Battlestar Galactica and Hawaii Five-0, she plays characters originally portrayed by male actors of color. “Back in the day, we used to have much more male-centric shows,” she said. “You still have male-heavy shows, but having a woman in there adds a new dimension.” [source]

What We Don’t Want to See: The show goes the same way as the old series, with an unwavering focus on McGarrett.

What We’d Love to See: We’d love to see a large, diverse, and well developed ensemble cast, and lots of featured Hawaiian actors, including in the lead cast.

Marvel Responds to Runaways Casting Concerns

Marissa — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:05:30 +0000

Marvel Studios has responded to Racebending.com and the Asian American community’s concerns about the casting of an Asian American actress to portray the character Nico Minoru in Runaways (2012).

A statement Racebending.com received on Thursday, August 26th read:

“Thank you for reaching out regarding your concerns over Marvel’s recent casting notice for THE RUNAWAYS. We appreciate your interest in our production and with Marvel Entertainment.

“To address your concern over casting for the role of Nico, as we do with all of our films, we intend to stay true to the legacy and story of the comic when casting these parts. Thus, our goal is to cast an Asian American actress as depicted in the comic series and the casting notice will be adjusted accordingly.

“We thank you again for your correspondence and the opportunity to clarify our process.”

Marvel Studios

On the public open casting call website for Runaways, smallfacescasting.com, the breakdown (revised on August 25th) now reads:

“Girl 1: Uniquely beautiful, nurturing but guarded
Female, Asian-American, must play 16-18
Must be at least 16 by January 2011

The submission deadline for audition tapes has also been pushed back to September 15th to allow Asian American actors time to prepare their monologues.

Nico as depicted by her designer, Adrian Alphona

The statement and change in the casting breakdown is the result of several phone calls and emails between Racebending.com staff and the Runaways production, Marvel Studios’ corporate communications, and Walt Disney Studios executives in the Multicultural Initiatives division. We had the support of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans and other Asian American advocacy groups during this process.

Marvel was respectful and responsive to our calls and emails, and did not give us the “run-around.” We felt they were very open to feedback from the Asian American community. (This is the huge contrast from the way Paramount and the production of The Last Airbender treated concerns from the Asian American community in early 2009.) We are really relieved and excited to have this clear response from Marvel.

Why the Casting Language Mattered

Racebending.com was first alerted to a discrepancy in the casting breakdown for Runaways on August 5th. The breakdown for the comic’s Japanese American character did not mention that the character is Asian, or that Asian American actresses should audition. This was in stark contrast to the casting breakdown for the comic’s African American character, where the ethnicity was clearly indicated, giving African American actors unfamiliar with the comic greater access to the role.

The casting breakdown for Alex Wilder noted that the character is African American.

In Hollywood parlance, when ethnicity is not clearly stated in a breakdown, the default assumption that the character is intended to be white. Because nondescript listings are frequently used to cast white characters, a nondescript listing does not guarantee actors of color a fair chance. Casting calls interested in seeing actors of all ethnicities are usually more emphatic (ie: “submit any ethnicity,” “submit all ethnicities,” “all ethnicities welcome.”) [source]

The Hollywood view that a nondescript breakdown defaults to a white character is so entrenched that casting director/producer Rueben Cannon estimated in an interview that 85-95% of agents would not think to submit a black client for a role that does not explicitly say “black” or “African American” in the breakdown. [source]. When Racebending.com spoke with people working in the entertainment industry about the breakdown, they also confirmed that without the keywords “Asian” or “Asian American,” actors of Asian descent would face barriers in accessing the role. Including the keywords would mitigate systemic discriminatory factors prevalent in Hollywood.

Nico by Takeshi Miyazawa (left) and Jim Cheung (right)

“While this is a comic book character, the public has always seen this heroine as an Asian American,” Floyd Mori, National Director of the Japanese American Citizens League, said. “Staying true to the story as it is known is critical in helping the American public to understand that heroines are not always white, but that all ethnicities can and do play that role in real life. This is a giant step in the right direction.”

Our Efforts

In our communications with Marvel, Racebending.com encouraged the production to change the casting breakdown to be more inclusive to Asian American actors, and stressed that the best person to portray an Asian American character would be an Asian American actor.

“I am sure that efforts Marvel and Small Faces make to ensure authenticity will pay off in a richer, more successful film,” Daniel M. Mayeda, Board Member of East West Players, said.

In addition to our work speaking with Marvel to encourage them to change the casting breakdown language, Racebending.com disseminated the existing breakdown language to over 30 Asian American theater troupes and performing arts organizations. We let them know that even though it is not stated clearly on the breakdown, the character was Asian American in the comic and that actors should audition. We also encouraged the Screen Actors Guild’s Affirmative Action and Diversity division to share the listings for the Alex and Nico characters with their actors. We will be contacting them with the updated breakdown, shortly.

While the significance of Marvel making a concerted effort to reach out to Asian actors through the wording of their casting breakdown is not something Racebending.com can replicate, we hoped that by spreading the word, we could ensure that Marvel will be able to find the best actor possible to represent this Asian American character.

“I want to thank Marvel for this quick response to the concerns of the Asian American community,” MANAA Vice President Lori Kido Lopez said. “We take this action as an indication that Marvel is dedicated to seeking out minority talent for this project, which is one of the most important steps toward diversifying our media landscape and providing more balanced representations of minorities. ”

We are thrilled that Marvel has changed the casting breakdown to align with their goal of casting an Asian American actress as Nico! They heard loud and clear that people of color want to be represented in their movies. We hope that more studios begin to understand, appreciate, and respect our desire to see more diversity in our entertainment!

Racebending.com takes to the streets, protesting The Last Airbender in front of theaters!

Marissa — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:03:21 +0000

On July 1st, Racebending.com, the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, the Korean Resource Center, Avatar: The Last Airbender fans and other concerned members of the public gathered to protest the discriminatory casting of The Last Airbender in front of theaters in Seattle, Wash. and Hollywood, Calif.

Photos by Jason Lopez, Marissa Lee, and Camilla Pohle-Anderson

Behind the Protest against The Last Airbender
Hollywood Demonstration
Seattle Demonstration

Behind the Protest against The Last Airbender

The Media Action Network for Asian Americans and Racebending.com, a grassroots organization comprised of fans of the franchise, contended that Paramount’s production of the “Airbender” film adaptation discriminated by selecting white actors to play the Asian and Inuit characters from the Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Only white actors were cast in the film’s lead protagonist roles, a decision the protesters alleged was rooted in Hollywood’s historical bias against casting actors of color in lead roles.

Since December 2008, thousands of outraged members of the Avatar fan community have mobilized online to protest through letter writing, petitions, and live protests. Demonstrations that started in pockets on the East Coast at early 2009 casting calls in Philadelphia and New York City culminated in protests on the day of the film’s release on the West Coast in Seattle and in the heart of Hollywood.

Characters from the animated series and their depictions in the film adaptation.
Lead protagonists (played by white actors) are on the left; lead antagonists (played by actors of color) on the right.

Over the past year and a half, fan protesters and the Asian American community have argued that actors of color are not represented equally in “Airbender”. The three lead heroes are white, while the villain and background roles are largely played by actors of color–included only after the initial public outcry against the casting of the lead roles. Actors of color play the film’s antagonists, and have been repeatedly described in marketing materials as “evil.”

The protesters confirmed their concerns about unequal representation in the The Last Airbender on Monday, June 28th, when they were given a belated screening of the film at the Paramount Studios lot a day before the red carpet premiere.

“It was even worse than we’d expected,” Guy Aoki, founding President of MANAA, said. “Except for a few lines from some victimized Asian villagers, every Asian or minority character with a speaking role is a bad guy, and every white character with a speaking role is good!”

The Hollywood Protest

In Los Angeles, Racebending.com volunteers, Avatar fans and Asian American organizations and actors demonstrated in front of the marquee of the historic Arclight Cinerama Dome, the largest Hollywood theater showing The Last Airbender. A group that began building at 5pm quickly swelled up to over 100 protesters at it’s peak, drawing honking horns and cheering from the cars driving down Sunset Boulevard during rush hour.

“It was really important for us to stage a demonstration in the heart of Hollywood,” Marissa Lee, co-founder of Racebending.com, said. “So many big entertainment industry decisions are made here. Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the entire world; now Hollywood knows we’re not afraid to call them out.”

Racebending.com staffer Dariane Nabor rallies the Hollywood demonstrators as they circle the front of the theater.

The protest also drew attention from news media, with reporters on the scene from print media and the Los Angeles Times, as well as NBC, ABC, and FOX News for live coverage in the local nightly news.

Two of the Asian American organizations, the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium and the Korean Resource Center, said that they were moved to protest by a young Korean American from the community center, an eleven-year old girl who had brought the casting controversy to their attention.

Korean American Pungmul drummers energized the crowd of Hollywood demonstrators.

“Young Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders do not need to grow up discouraged and feel like they need to seek other avenues to feel proud and confident of their identity and race,” NAKASEC wrote. “This is our America that we helped build and an America we are continuing to make vibrant and dynamic. America is changing and the youth of today will not support continued whitewashing of their history, culture and community.”

Racebending.com volunteers stood on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to the Cinerama DomeTheater.

Employees at the Arclight Cinerama Dome were supportive of our cause, and allowed us to peacefully protest in front of the theater with minimal interference. One employee told Racebending.com that during the midnight screening for the Airbender movie the night before, the theater had only filled 40 of it’s 800 seats.

Members of East West Players, an Asian American acting troupe founded by late Avatar voice actor and fan favorite Mako Iwamatsu, came out as individual citizens to show their support. Actors Jodi Long, Tzi Ma, Elizabeth Sung, Chris Tashima, and director Gene Cajayon also attended the protest.

As protest wound down over two hours later, the remaining demonstrators piled in for a group picture.

Winner of the Racebending.com Avatar: The Last Airbender art book raffle. The art book was signed for Racebending.com supporters by the creators of the animated series.

The Seattle Demonstration

In Washington state, where there has been considerably less publicity about the controversy than in Hollywood, supporters set out to educate the public. In addition to protesting on the film’s Thursday opening day, July 1st, the group also came out on the holiday weekend. A group of demonstrators assembled displays in front of the Regal Thornton Place Stadium 14 & IMAX in north Seattle and handed out literature, including over 150 fliers fliers and 70 full-color brochures.

“We stood on opposite sides of the main street and shouted our slogans at each other and the cars that would pass between us,” Catherine Bugayong, Racebending.com’s Seattle Street Team Coordinator, said. “The noise would attract people’s interest, and we had a few posters and people nearby who would help explain the issues. We had more fun than we thought possible.”

The Seattle group fanned out in small groups around the IMAX movie theater

A Seattle Racebending.com street team member hosts a display.

The demonstrators professionally answered many passer-byers’ frequently asked questions, including what the original casting calls looked like, whether or not there are Inuit or Asian American actors, and how media can affect children’s self esteem.

“Many people stopped to talk to us and listen to what we had to say,” demonstrator Camilla Pohle-Anderson said. “We had a little bit of negative attention–the worst moment was when a guy shouted across the street, ‘If you want Asians in movies, just leave the US!’ — but most people we talked to were very respectful and even quite interested.”

“It was a very positive experience to meet fellow fans who had enjoyed this show as much as I did, and felt just as strongly as I did about equal opportunities and better media representation for people of color,” Bugayong said. “To do a protest for hours is hard work, but they made it so much fun– we wouldn’t have made as strong a statement in Seattle without everyone’s passionate participation!”

Avatar: The Legend of Korra – 2011

Mike — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:33:11 +0000

Cutting it close, the promised “Korra announcement before Comic-Con” popped up this morning.

Nickelodeon sets `Last Airbender’ sequel for 2011
(AP)

LOS ANGELES — A sequel to Nickelodeon’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is in the works.
The channel said Wednesday the new animated TV series will premiere in 2011. It has the working title, “The Legend of Korra.”

Nickelodeon says the series will build on the “mythology” of the original “The Last Airbender” series, which inspired this summer’s live-action movie from filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan (SHAH-muh-lahn).

The “Legend of Korra” is from the creator-producers of “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Nickelodeon executive Brown Johnson says the new series will focus on a teenage girl avatar named Korra. Brown describes her as hotheaded, independent and “ready to take on the world.”

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” has ranked among the highest-rate series on the Nickelodeon and Nicktoons channels.

An “independent” female lead? Perhaps not unlike a waterbender already familiar to us? “Water” follows “Air” in the Avatar cycle.

Racebending.com Supporters Out to Protest: LA and Seattle

kateryne — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:03:37 +0000

Join Racebending.com on Thursday July 1, as we protest the discriminatory casting practices in The Last Airbender! We’ll have protesters on the ground in Los Angeles and Seattle. Hope to see you out there! Check out the details below.

If you’re in Los Angeles…

Where:
Arclight in Hollywood, Corner of Sunset & Vine

When:
Thursday, July 1st at 5pm

Contact:
Mike (mike@racebending.com)

LA Event Page

If you’re in Seattle…

Where:
Regal Thornton Place & Imax in Northgate

When:
3:30 to 7pm

Contact:
Catherine (promote@racebending.com)

Seattle Event Page

The Last Airbender Film: Changes from the Cartoon Series

Mike — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:21:05 +0000

As with any movie adaptation, there are bound to be changes. However, fans are always interested in what’s different between a film and the source material. This is intended to shed light on what has changed, not to pass judgment (positive or negative) on the changes.

The lists below are meant to document the differences between the feature film and the television series. We made an attempt to document the differences in as neutral a manner as possible.

Thank you to Paramount for allowing Asian American groups to watch a screening at their studio in Los Angeles. The Paramount representatives were very gracious and we will have a write-up of our discussion later this week.

Credit to AvatarSpirit for the screenshots; they’re an amazing site.

The changes fall under three categories:

Events now explained by exposition (monologue or voiceover), but no longer actually depicted on-screen.
Alterations to characters or sequences of events.
Events removed entirely from the film.

Spoilers follow.

Events Explained but not Depicted

Aang flees from his home in the middle of a storm, goes crashing into the ocean, enters the Avatar state, and is frozen in a sphere of ice.

The Fire Nation storms the Southern Water Tribe and Katara’s mother is killed.

Almost all of the scenes depicting Zuko as a young boy, struggling to impress his father are explained, not shown. There is a brief look at a young Zuko as he backs off from his father during the forced Agni Kai.

Sokka and Yue spend time together, growing closer despite cultural and socioeconomic differences.

Gyatso is shown in many flashbacks, but he is never shown speaking. His personality and relationship with Aang are explained through voiceover/exposition.

Alterations to Characters or Events

ORIGINAL:
The Air Nomad elders sit before Aang. They inform him that he is the Avatar and that he must be sent away to begin his training in the four elements. Aang makes the decision to run away.

FILM:
Aang stands before the Air Nomads as they inform him he is the Avatar. They kneel before him. He is told that as the avatar, he is not allowed to have a family. He decides to run away because he is afraid of not having a family.

This is different from the original series, where Avatars were allowed to have families. Avatar Roku’s descendants, in particular, have a dramatic impact on the lineage of important characters in the Airbender television series.

ORIGINAL:
Katara inadvertently frees Aang from the ice as she yells at her brother. Her anger manifests when she waterbends, breaking the iceberg surrounding the frozen Aang. After the ice is cracked open, Aang and Appa awaken. They ride back to the tribe on Appa’s back, with Appa swimming.

FILM:
Sokka notices that the ice beneath them is glowing. The sphere rises up, cracking open the ice surface. He yells “Katara! Don’t touch that sphere!” Katara cracks open the sphere and there is an explosion of light. The camera reveals a crater, where Aang and Appa lie unconscious. Katara and Sokka argue, then decide to bring them back to the village.

ORIGINAL:
Aang wins over the hearts of the young children in the Water Tribe. He explores an abandoned Fire Nation ship with Katara and inadvertently sets off an explosion/flare. Sokka demands that Aang leave the village. When the Fire Nation arrives, Sokka is easily defeated by Zuko. Aang allows himself to be captured, then escapes. In the process, he uses the Avatar State. Katara and Sokka leave the village with Appa and help save Aang. Katara helps Aang escape by freezing several Fire Nation soldiers. They escape on Appa.

FILM:
The Fire Nation arrives almost as soon as Aang awakens. He allows himself to be captured. Iroh performs a test where he sets four items, one of each element, before Aang. Each object’s element reacts to Aang’s presence, proving he is the avatar. Aang uses his airbending to escape. There’s some fighting, then Aang flies away from the ship and meets Katara and Sokka on Appa.

ORIGINAL:
Haru, a young Earthbending boy, uses his bending to protect an innocent. He’s captured and sent to a metal coal processing camp, with other Earthbenders. Their powers are vastly limited by their metal surroundings.

Katara allows herself to be captured and is taken to the camp. She shows the Earthbenders that they can fight – and (with the help of Aang and Sokka) arranges for a huge supply of coal for the prisoners to use as they win their freedom.

FILM:
A nameless Earthbending boy hides behind Aang, Katara, and Sokka. Fire Nation soldiers arrive and accuse the boy of being a bender who “bended pebbles at their heads.” They are all captured when it is discovered that Katara is also a Waterbender.

They are taken to an internment village. Aang rallies the captured Earthbenders, telling them that they are surrounded by earth and can fight back. He begins to fight the handful of Firebender soldiers guarding the village. Katara and Sokka join. Finally, the Earthbenders intervene, and together are able to defeat the Firebender guards.

ORIGINAL:
Aang arrives at the Northern Air Temple to find it is overrun with new occupants. They have changed so much about the temple that Aang is offended and upset. He comes to appreciate, however, that they have the “spirit” of Airbenders, if not their lineage or bending abilities. It is revealed that the Mechanist is making weapons for the Fire Nation and they must eventually battle off a Fire Nation siege, using a war balloon design that Sokka is able to finalize.

FILM:
The Northern Air Temple is abandoned when Aang arrives. There is one Earthbending citizen who informs Aang that he enjoys walking through the temple. He takes Aang to the room full of his previous incarnations, then reveals that it is a trap. Firebenders storm the room and the Earthbending villager takes his payment in the form of metal coins and leaves.

ORIGINAL:
Katara faces off with Zuko before the ocean and moon spirits. She uses her recent training to defeat him, with the power of the moon behind her. When the sun rises, Zuko frees himself and is able to defeat Katara.

FILM:
When Katara faces off against Zuko before the moon and ocean spirits, she loses after a very brief battle. She never gains the upper-hand.

ORIGINAL:
After Zuko defeats Katara, he takes Aang (whose body was left behind as Aang traveled to the spirit world). He immediately sets off with his captive across the ice, leaving the battle between the Water Tribe and Fire Nation behind him.

FILM:
Zuko takes Aang and hides with his captive in one of the many buildings in the Northern Water Tribe. He decides to wait until nightfall to escape. It is not implied that his Firebending strength is linked to the sun.

ORIGINAL:
Zhao pulls the moon spirit out of the water and captures it in a bag. He pretends to show mercy and releases the spirit back into the pond. He then kills the moon spirit by firebending into the spirit pond.

FILM:
Zhao pulls the moon spirit out of the water and holds it in a bag. He then stabs it with a knife.

ORIGINAL:
During the siege of the Northern Water Tribe, Aang and the Ocean Spirit La join. They act with one combined strength, knocking back many navy ships with their power, and beat back the invading Fire Nation Navy.

FILM:
Aang stands alone at the wall of the Northern Water Tribe. He enters the Avatar State. From the wall, he bends the water into a large tidal wave. The Fire Nation soldiers and navy grow fearful and retreat. After, Aang walks down from the wall where he is greeted to the sight of both waterbenders and defeated firebenders wanting to accept him as their avatar.

ORIGINAL:
Zhao is pulled beneath the ocean waves by the Ocean Spirit, as revenge for killing the Moon Spirit.

FILM:
Zhao does battle with four waterbenders. They use waterbending to drown him.

ORIGINAL:
On the winter solstice, Aang travels to the Fire Temple, where he encounters Avatar Roku. Roku explains that Sozin’s Comet will arrive at summer’s end, granting unprecedented strength to the Fire Nation. Aang has only months to master all four elements.

FILM:
At the end of the film, Ozai explains that Sozin’s Comet will arrive in three years, granting Firebenders the ability to generate their own fire (instead of relying on existing sources of fire). Normally, only very high-level Firebenders are able to generate their own flame (unlike the series, where all Firebenders generate flame from their own chi). He states that they must prevent the Avatar from mastering the elements in that time.

Absent from the Film

Katara is not shown fighting with the Northern Waterbending Master, or earning the right to train along with the men in the tribe. The subplot of Katara’s grandmother and the Waterbending Master from the Northern tribe is completely cut out. The focus is on Aang and his training.

There is no mention of Avatar Roku.
Instead of Roku, there’s a “spirit animal” for Aang – a dragon. He provides exposition.

The Kyoshi Warriors, despite showing up in some promotional material, are never mentioned or shown. The statue of Aang’s previous incarnation, Avatar Kyoshi, is shown and discussed.

Jet and his freedom fighters are not depicted.

Aang and his allies never travel to Omashu or meet King Bumi.

Aang never encounters Master Jeong Jeong, his first Firebending teacher in the television series.

Zuko never challenges Zhao to an Agni Kai duel. In the film, when Zhao publicly insults Zuko, Zuko walks by him and states, “One day you will bow before me.” Then he walks away.

Teo, his father the Mechanist, and the other occupants of the Northern Air Temple are not shown. The temple is depicted as completely abandoned.

The Yuu Yan archers and the demonstrations of their prowess and talent. The Blue Spirit is taken out by one scared Fire Nation soldier with a bow, who is pushed by Zhao to action.

There are no examples of Aang learning to bring people together or resolve differences, or to solve problems between the human and spirit world. His trips into the spirit world are all about learning how to use the Avatar state (or at least “let his emotions flow” to allow it to happen).

Aang never crosses “the Great Divide” (the largest canyon in the world), and as a result, never solves the 100-year feud between the two Earth tribes.

Aang never travels to the Fire Temple to receive a message from Avatar Roku.

The pirates are not depicted. The Waterbending scroll is found in the first Earthbending village, among confiscated items from the Fire Nation.

The Fortuneteller and Bato, from the Water Tribe, are not encountered.