This film is going to BOMB!!!

He looks so serious as opposed to the animated character who was almost happy-go-lucky with perpetual smile on his face.

And I think many fans are still up in arms, it’s just too late to do anything about the film except to boycott it and any liscencee [we're talking to you McDonald's or Burger King] when the film comes out. And I’m definitely going to encourage boycotts here in the USA and around the world.

Seeing as how we’re only looking at still shots, I’ll reserve my final judgement for the first trailer. But my initial reaction: AWKWARD.

“Beyond that, so long as the rest of the cast is diverse with a slant to Asians, then the movie is fine. ”

Heh. Heh heh. Heh heh heh.

Avatar is probably the best cartoon ever produced. The stories were consistently spot on, but the show never got the treatment it deserved from Nickelodeon. Even we I went to the store while the show was still new, there were never any toys available. While the idea of film is a great one, there are 3 strikes against it so far…..1)Live Action, bad idea. 2)Shayamalan 3)This photo. It exudes a stench that tells fans how bad this film will be………such a shame.

Man that kid has a baby face. Hard to look at that face and then see a taller ten-year-old body. But it’s a still so I’ll reserve full judgement until I see the film, as I have been saying all along.

I used to be a big fan of the cartoon. Not anymore. This whole casting thing has left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m glad to see from the photo that the movie is going to bomb.

Ayres, Robert Downey Jr. is a European American. It’s appropriate for him to be playing a European. I would be fine if the cast were Asian Americans or Asian Australians or Inuit Canadians. BTW Latino people generally have Caucasian and indigenous Central/South American ancestry. Thus the term Latino as in Latin as in Spain.

DBZ all over again.

Nuff said.

Here is an idea for the next Anime to be ruined….Hellsing…most likely a black dude will play Allucard..Oooohhh! Brilliant!

@ Huong: Why should any objections you have about the movie stop you from being a fan of the cartoon? Enjoy the cartoon for being the wonderful show that it was, and then boycott the movie if you wish.

Anyhow, I’m mixed in my feelings… On the one hand, this kid definitely has the look of Aang about him (even if he’s not smiling… Aang didn’t ALWAYS smile after all). I can look at him and believe it’s Aang. Don’t know about the rest yet. The photo of Zuko that I saw didn’t really strike me as Zuko, but then I’m just glad Jesse Freakin’ McCartney’s no longer involved!

The thing about Avatar’s faux-anime style is that anime characters generally look caucasian all the time… Why is that? Even though I loved Avatar, I was never a fan of “real” anime so I don’t have enough knowledge to know why that is. That might be part of the problem here. I do hope the rest of the movie’s cast will have more of an Asian slant to it. Maybe having Aang, and any other air-benders we might see, look a bit different than the rest of the characters will actually work? Too early to say.

Ultimately, however, I think trying to condense three seasons of a TV show into three films is a big mistake. Almost as big a mistake as letting that hack Shyamalan get his grubby paws on this project.

“A Latino actor playing a generic role that could have been a white actor is actually a positive step up, as it shows that the talent of the actor supercedes the notion of what might have been on the page. Whitewashing a cast is indicative of larger social problems, and if those symptoms aren’t addressed, then some people won’t learn more awareness or sensitivity when it comes to the larger issues.”

Troy, the intrinsic flaw of this logic is that racial oppression will always exist when people think this way. First, AYRES said a Latino in a Caucasian role, not a Latino in a generic role. Every Caucasian role shouldn’t be viewed as generic, that takes away from the wide variety of racial differences and pride within Caucasian culture. Lots of Irish people would be pissed to be called Italian or German.

And just because white people are cast in “Asian” roles doesn’t mean its whitewashed. Its possible that the director simply found these actors to be the best choice available. After all, M. Night isn’t a white guy himself.

Bottom line, knee-jerk reactions to race are an indicator of racist ideology on the part of the reactionary.

If anyone wants good evidence as to *why* the casting is racist, you should check out the http://racebending.com site. As well as their (very image-heavy) “essay in pictures” that demonstrates just how deeply ingrained Asian culture is in the Avatar seres: http://racebending.com/essayinimages.php

What’s glaringly racist is the way the casting calls were worded:
http://racebending.com/raceinavatar.php#paramount
http://vejiicakes.livejournal.com/255699.html

@Troy Brownfield

don’t worry. I’ve already contacted Nelson Mandela…

This entire comment thread is such a festival of race!fail.

You people make me ashamed to be white.

“Jomma Says:
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:13 pm

DBZ all over again.

Nuff said.

Here is an idea for the next Anime to be ruined….Hellsing…most likely a black dude will play Allucard..Oooohhh! Brilliant!”

Wouldn’t he then be Allucalb?

Show me a white kid raised by monks who live monastically in temples and maybe then I’ll consider a non-Asian perspective that defends the casting choices.

Liem

Show me an asian kid who can bend air, water, fire and earth and flies around on a six legged bison then I’ll consider the need for the kid to have the “correct” racial background.

I don’t think Bruce Lee is rolling over in his grave, but he’s definitely shaking his head in disgust. It’s been almost 40 years and things still haven’t changed in Hollywood. Sad.

Meanwhile, David Carradine is doing his happy dance.

Bruce Lee would of kicked azz in “Kung-Fu”.

I always thought:

The Air Nomads were Tibetans

The Earth Kingdom was made up of Chinese people

The Fire Nation was made up of the Japanese

and

The Water Tribe were Eskimos/ Pacific Islanders.

closer photo of zuko is up now.

http://lastairbenderfilm.com/2009/05/23/a-closer-look-at-the-scarred-prince/

What do I think? I think this ‘article’ stinks. Instead of just giving us the picture of an upcoming movie we might have an interest in, the article directs us to see ‘race bending’, ‘whitewashing,’ racism.

Give me a break and get over yourself. This article is written more and more like any other general piece of news these days: not at all unbiased but actively directing the reader into thinking in a certain way, not giving them the choice to make up their own mind. Creating news rather than reporting it.

“[...]many fans were up in arms[...]” Then you click on the link and count a whopping five responses.

Besides, I doubt the majority reading this is appalled by this to such an extent that they actually do something about it (lazy internet petition not withstanding), proving that people do not really care that much at all about this ‘whitewashing.’ In other words, if all you do is moan about it here on the internet, you act as if you care without caring enough.

Steamblade said: “Oh, and by the way, Avatar isn’t Anime.”

I never said it was… I even referred to it as “faux-anime” in an earlier comment. Not the real thing, but clearly influenced by it.

“The amount of self-righteous ignorance is staggering.”

Et tu, Brute? I’m pretty sure everyone here knows it’s not real. That hardly seems the point here.

Never watched Avatar in my life, so I wouldn’t know Aang from Adam, but litle kid ninja kicking some ass? M. Night Shyamalan directing something that ISN’T suspense? Pending a decent trailer I am so ON BOARD!

Well in response to Andrew, The series writers are totally involved in the story for these films, so It’s really their way of telling the story without having to fill a seasons quota of episode orders.

Things always get ugly as soon as race gets involved but the fact of the matter is there are plenty of lead roles to go around for caucasians and its rare when you have a lead role that fits a person of another etnicity.
there are 2 main arguments here:
#1 Hollywood not very supportive of giving lead roles to asians and the lead roles for avatar should beones that they should be able to tolorate but no the role go to white kids who would have an easier time finding lead roles. (Specialy on the disney channel)
#2 the other argument is that since they don’t seem to show much concern in th lead roles being very close to the cartoon incarnation what else do they not care about the story that they are easily willing to replace.
really this is more about making a good movie then a race issue cause the more things they change from the original story. the more it will feel like a cop out. just look at dragonball the movie it was pushed back a bunch of times then it came out and it sucked. Dragonball itself has billion of fans worldwide do you know how easy it should’ve been for them to make millions of that movie. changing parts of the story is fine as long as you keep it limited and it makes it a better movie. but when you change things just for being lazy fans notice this and feel cheated cause if its not making the movie any better then while did you do it in the first place.
i understand the need to change the story a little cause some people might not want to see the exact things they’ve already seen in the cartoon but at least try to make it visually the same you have to have the key things that the fans connect with from the cartoon if you want them to support it.

Hello
I took the time to read everyone comments about the casting of Avatar. But not matter how you look at, it is a form of “whitewash” and for minorities take roles that was white for a long duration of time shows the “glass ceiling syndrome”. Example Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury or Jessica Alba as Sue Storm.

But if look at the business perspective, Marvel 401k, it will tell who is their selling audience white, male, teen to adulthood. so when characters, race change from one medium to anoher, its about the time frame and pleasing the audience aka money.

The anime/manga style you got to know your history because its borrowed off of the Walt Disney way of drawing. Or better yet, look at the books “How to Draw Manga” it will tell you anglo-saxon features. So if someone decides to make a character from anime or manga white, and it the character look it, its not much you can do about because it seems already did its job of selling to the audience. if you read manga you know its truly not a white character, just an art style (some are!!)

The bottom line its about business, yes i know it get personal but step to the plate to make it change

This is a smack in the face of the people and the culture from which the animated series has drawn from. It seems that just as this country continues to struggle with a black president in the 21st century they still have issues with people of color in major motion pictures. As if all the white Americans who voted for Pres, Obama and love Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Phat (SP), Luci Lu, etc would not go see an strong character portrayed by a young Asian boy….terrible and pathetic that we say we are the home freedom and progressive thought…NOT!

Zuko is Indian and the Fire Nation is now played by Indian or middle eastern decent but according to the cartoon, the Fire Nation is East Asian decent and Zuko is East Asian. His uncle and sister is East Asian with strong Chinese characteristics. The tea and noodle his uncle eats are of East Asian food. I really cannot see Zuko as Indian but then again, the director and writer for this movie is M Night Shyamalan and he is of Indian decent.

I do not want to get into the detail of the main characters being played by white actors/actress because I strongly believe this point has been made by the previous comments about how the main characters are East Asian decent.

The actors/actress casted to play the part just means that the movie WILL NOT follow the cartoon where the influences are of East Asian culture. Since the important characters are played by white people then this just mean that Western culture will play a big part in this show while East Asian culture will play a minor role.

Yo frown you prove my point, ask yourself what was the reason of changing a character that been one race from the begininig to change later on. And yes I know they recreated the character, because it was talked about it looked dead on samuel l jackson before the ultimate series started. And Vina i’m not white you should read how i was typing and how to draw books one more time or ask an art teacher.

@cedric

Glass ceiling – refers to situations where the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination, most commonly sexism or racism, but since the term was coined, “glass ceiling” has also come to describe the limited advancement of the deaf, blind, disabled, aged and sexual minorities.[1]It is an unofficial, invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities from advancing in businesses.

I guess this applies if you are saying this is the reason why Asian actors were not chose. White do NOT go this in this country on the regular. And as for as the black Nick Fury goes… I am sure it was on many bad attempts of Marvel to get more black people to read their comics…But neither they or DC have done well here at all.

“And Asians in general have an horrible time in Hollywood. Unless it’s a kung-fu movie, they’d never get cast as the lead characters because they’re not “marketable”. It’s a very typical Hollywood way of casting and it is discriminatory.”

Well, isn’t that true? Don’t forget, this is an american, Hollywood movie being made from an american audience. The studio isn’t making this movie because they think it desperately needs to be adapted into film, they are making it so their market will buy it. Filling it with asian actors will, they believe, lower its appeal to their market, making them less money. And that might very well be true. They want to make as much money as they can so they appeal to the widest audience possible. If the market rejects a film because of the colour of the main actors’ skin, that’s the audience’s problem, not the studio’s.

You can’t really blame them for playing the odds.

(I’m not saying its right or wrong, I’m just pointing out that its money first, integrity second.)

PS. I STILL can’t post comments on this site through Firefox! I have to use IE Tab add-on…

“Well in response to Andrew, The series writers are totally involved in the story for these films, so It’s really their way of telling the story without having to fill a seasons quota of episode orders.”

Yeah, but that doesn’t address Andrew’s point… Other than a total cash grab, really what is the point of turning Avatar into a motion picture? Andrew’s right that the animated show worked just fine, better than just about anything else – live OR animated – on the tube the past few years. Other than Lost, the only show I’ve regularly followed in that time. Other than cool special effects, perhaps, I don’t know what this is supposed to tell us that show couldn’t (and in more detail).
I think $$$ is the only thing talking here.

Also, with the actual creators of the show involved, shouldn’t they have had the good sense to cast the most differently, more racially appropriate, and avoid the controversy and ill will it’s created? I mean, I’m certain they know what nationalities and customs they based their characters on!

From the looks of it, this movie has already changed A LOT from what the cartoon has shown. The movie was suppose to be heavily influenced by easter asian culture, regardless of whether the person looks caucasian or not, that being said, there should be at least some easter asian casts ( from cultures being mainly chinese, japanese, korean, tibitan…etc). yet, there isnt ANY eastern asians in the movie.

Also, AVATAR is not indian of culture, just look at the style of martial art, clothing and architecture. it should be clear that the director only made half the cast indian because he himself is indian, and wants to bring more indian influence to hollywood. thats a fine and patriotic, but it is ruining the integrity of the story.

I for one, will not go watch the movie. I think it will only lead to disappointment considering how good the show was and how much they have changed…

I am asking Asians to deface any and all Avatar posters by spray painting RACISTS on them. Also, I heard they are makig a Genghis Kahn movie starring Mickey Rourke. Jews in Hollywood and the media have always been racist towards Asians. Unless Asian Americans take a stand and stomp these assholes out in their tracks, they’re going to keep on commiting to their divisive and racist policies against Asians. All it does is minimize Asian Americans who have been in this country for the last 150 years. These racist Hollywood Assholes don’t want Asian Americans to be Americanized. It’s always been about divide and conquer with them. There are enough starving actors looking for work. Stuff like this is racist and these idiots will keep on doing it unless Asian Americans come togther as a group and threaten them with either physical, fininacial or social consequences. This country has a problem with selective racism. Apparently, it’s only racist if something negative is done to blacks, Hispanics, gays or Jews. With Asians, they just don’t care.

I say if there is the next Martin Luther King Movie, Martin Sheen should play it. Or maybe Tom Selleck as Saddam Hussein. How about a fictional play about the Confederate Army, they should cast blacks!!!! They have taken a wonderful story and turned it into something we all loath, the best way to protest this movie is not to go see it and to tell everyone else not to see it. To say that the characters did not specify any particular race is ridiculous. Even children who do not know Asians or been around Asian cultures can identify that some were either Chinese, Korean or Japanese etc .so to say otherwise would be completely insulting. How would Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight fan feel if they were to cast white people to represent the Indians on the reservation as the were wolves. I think this movie should be postponed and recasted, they are sending the wrong messages to our younger generations.. if not all characters can be Asians at least all main characters should’ve been Asian I am ashamed of the director and his choice and choice of words to defend his actions., I love the air bender series but I will not support this movie when it comes out.

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Hope this helps. And by the way, who cares if the phone stopped ringing -it does not mean you’re unimportant. You require to learn who you’re when you’re alone and value your self outside of what others believe about you. So as the Sage of Samos wrote on the Temple at Delphi -Know Thyself.

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