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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.