Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Well, I wanted this to be somewhat of a debate, but I didn’t think that the “Politics” button fit the topic.

I’m talking about M. Night Shyamalan’s casting for “The Last Airbender”. “The Last Airbender”, of course, is the movie version of the first “book” of the popular cartoon “Avatar: The Last Airbender”.

Many people, including fans, actors, and even producers/directors/etc…, are not pleased with the casting of white actors to portray the members of the two water tribes (which are supposed to be of Inuit ethnicity) and the casting of Dav Patel and Shaun Toub as Zuko and Uncle Iroh. Not to mention that most of the fire nation is portrayed by people of Indian ethnicity as opposed to the fairer skinned Chinese ethnicity.

There have been many arguments against this cast choice, but some of the most brought up points is the problem of authenticity to the original cartoon and that with a big name franchise such as “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, lesser known ethnic actors could have been proper cast without hurting the profit that the movie will receive. People who are arguing in favor of Shyamalan’s casting choice have stated that it would’ve been more costly to run such a casting session in order to find ethnic actors and that despite the races of the actors being different from the original characters, the ethnic aspects of each of the four bending nations are kept the same (i.e. The Fire Nation’s Chinese inspired architecture; The atmosphere and tools of the two Water Nations, the Buddhist influences on the Wind Temples).

Here’s what the original voice actor for Zuko, Dante Basco, has to say about the subject.

Now, what do you think about the casting decisions made for “The Last Airbender” movie? Is the cast important to you? Are you going to watch the film regardless of your opinion, or are you going to boycott it if you do not support the casting?

Honestly? I Lol’d when I saw that there were mostly Middle eastern/Indian actors for the fire nation, because I knew that it was going to start some trouble. Although I probably won’t see the movie simply because of lack of interest.

I’m just hoping they don’t screw up the movie overall.
The actors better portray the characters properly, I don’t care too much on ethnicity.

SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER!

Now keep in mind, I’m a serious fanboy of the cartoon (not THAT serious, guttermen).

They screwed it. 3-D does NOT work for it. They had little character development. The history was forced into everyday conversation. They over-acted. THE FIRE NATION’S INDIAN AND THE WATER TRIBE IS CAUCASIAN (there, something topical). The only actually moderately accurate ppl were Aang and Northern Water tribe princess (also topical). I think this kinda ruined it.

Now. You’re free to your own opinion. Go see it, and by the gods, have fun.

They cutted out the Kyoshi Warriors part, from what I heard.
And how was the actor for Aang?
From the traliers, he looked too serious.

What a tweest!

Nobody cares

NO ONE CARESSSSSSS

I’m not going to get into the whole racism spill, because I’m not the casting director and I don’t know what was going through his head. On the other hand, I’m terribly sad to see that they weren’t the races as they were portrayed in the animated series. That bothers me as a whole because… Well… I liked the diverse introduction of culture, it was awesome. It’s a sad tale indeed that they did not stay accurate.

Perhaps they were trying to go for “facial resemblance” and that’s as close as they got… but that doesn’t exactly add up to all the other side-characters. I don’t know, it seems kind of ridiculous overall. I won’t be seeing the movie twice, but I’ll see the sequel if there is one. They’ll probably screw that one over too.

those ae possibly the whitest inuits ive ever seen, and Indian people are nt chinese, someone needs to punch Shymalan in the dick

The reviews say the movie is worse than expected, I disagree, while I don’t really plan on seeing it I’m sure it’s just as bad as I expected. Such a suprisingly good cartoon, why’d they have ruin it?

It’s M. Night Shyamalan. What the Hell did you expect?

i swear to god if he end it with a huge twist (it’ all happening in rural Ohio in the future Ow wee ow!) Im going to sodomize him with salad tongsl if you havent guessed im a big fn of the show

Watching the trailers, it didn’t seem like Aang was anywhere near the happy-go-lucky kid that he was in the series. I know it was probably a measure to make the movie feel more epic-y, but it struck me as a huge mistake since, you know, they’re messing with the personality of the titular character.

I read the graphic novel version in passing and if it’s a decent reflection of the movie, then the film seems rather lackluster. But the Zuko-centric prequel seemed pretty good. Certainly had better art.

@ Triplesmex: Spoiler alert.

They f***ed up Aang’s personality. Oh. And Monkiatsu (or however you spell it), Aang’s old, now-dead teacher? HE’S BLACK. Seriously, wtf?

The ember Isand players did a better job with the avatar story than the live acction movie did… (does anyone acctualy get this joke?). But I saw the movie and it was hilariously bad. I mean really really bad. All the name are pronounced wrong, there is no humor what soever, and there is (almost) no charactor development! It was still fun to laugh at though.

I get the joke sadly…

CRAPFEST 2010

M. Night Shyamalan is the new Michael Bay.

Jason McCartney was Shamelan’s first pick to play Prince Zuko…

…

Jason McCartnet. Was Shamelan’s first pick… The guy who best suited the role in his head…

JASON MOTHERF***ING MCCARTNEY!

What did we Avatar fans do to deserve Shamalamadingdong taking a dump all over our beloved franchise?

The ethnic thing bothers me greatly as well. Purely because they used unknown actors anyway, so they’re not even relying on star power. Just out and out racial descrimonation.

They changed the gender of Avatar Kiyoshi, if you were paying close enough attention…

@ Maverik: You created a large enough following that some corporate asshole figured they could make instant cash by using that franchise for a movie. You think you’ve got it bad? Super Mario Bros.: The Movie. I rest my case.

i havent even seen this movie yet and my anger is uncalcuable Jerk get the salad tongs!

Right away, Triplesmex.

The Racebending deal was just the tip of the iceberg with what was wrong with this bomb of a film.

Never mind the moments from the trailers being the only decent eye candy. Never mind the 3D being minimal and tacked-on. Never mind the lack of good acting.

Why on earth did Shamalamadingdong try to fit in 18 episodes of material into an hour and a half, letting the exposition TELL us what happened instead of actually freaking SHOW us? You WATCH a movie, not listen to it.