Exclusive Last Airbender Interview: How Filmbender M. Night Shyamalan Mastered CGI and Indulged His “Secret Passion” for Martial Arts

Share on Facebook posted 05-14-10 by Julina Tatlock

When I spoke with M. Night Shyamalan the other day he was on a land-line phone, far away from Hollywood at his home in Pennsylvania. Night, it seems to me, does an excellent job of removing himself from the showbiz fray, bringing to his work a single-minded concentration worthy of a director who might just turn out to be Hollywood Nation’s first “filmbender.”

For those of you who aren’t Avatards, a “bender” is a person who can manipulate one of the four essential elements on the planet — Water, Fire, Earth, and Air — at will. The Last Airbender, the Shyamalan movie hitting theaters July 2nd, is based on the hugely popular and critically acclaimed animated series that premiered on Nickelodeon in 2005. Both the movie and the series take place in a fantasy world where every human belongs to one of four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nations. The Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom and the decimated Air Nomads are all fending off domination from the Fire Nation and the “Avatar” is the only bender with the power to bend all four elements, keeping the four nations in harmony and balance.

These are powers Night is going to need, since he faces warring perceptions about his upcoming film. On one side, he’s got fans posting on message boards wondering why their favorite thriller director has decided to do a fantasy-action film for children; on the other, he’s got the massive Avatar: The Last Airbender fan base, who are terrified that Shyamalan’s film will be an embarrassing CliffsNotes version of their beloved series. Winning over both of these camps will take all of Night’s filmbending powers, and so far, it looks to me as if he might succeed. The Last Airbender stars newcomer Noah Ringer as the boy-child Avatar and Slumdog Millionaire sensation Dev Patel as the firebender Zuko. The movie, Night told me, is Shyamalan’s chance to join “big boy” filmmakers like Spielberg, Lucas, and Jackson by using big visual effects for the first time in his career. Night’s enthusiasm and affection for the original animated series comes across clearly when talks about the project, as does his excitement about the martial arts that he got to use in the film. But, as you’ll read below, his concerns were very similar to those of his fans: Could he make The Last Airbender both faithful to the series and faithful to himself.

You Mean Even the King of the Thriller Can Be “Scared to Death?”

JULINA TATLOCK: The Last Airbender has major elements in it that a lot of your other films don’t have: huge action fighting sequences and the big use of special effects. Was there anything about specifically the fighting and the action or the CGI that you were either concerned or particularly excited about?

M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN: Well, the fighting part of it was something I was really excited about, because I’ve been studying martial arts on and off for eight or nine years and probably, if somebody broke into my house or something, I would run like a schoolgirl, but I theoretically have been training for that moment for quite a while.

JULINA: [laughs] I study taekwondo, and the more I practice it the more I think my only winning fighting strategy would be: “Hit really hard and run as fast as I can.”

NIGHT: [laughs] Exactly. I’d like to believe that my mind would stay clear and all the training would just flow, but I’m not sure that would be the case. [laughs] But yeah, out of the applications you mentioned [fighting sequences and CGI], all of that is an understanding of the physics of fighting, and being able to apply that for the first time, really, in an acute way, was really exciting for me. I got to work with the choreographers in a real specific way, you know? If I was a dancer and I was choreographing a musical with the choreographer, it would be a similar relationship. I could say: “I’m not buying the stands on that punch; I’m not buying why you would do such a roundhouse at that moment.” All of those things, and the language, and I would talk to the two fight choreographers before, in the first days, and say: This [fighting] is dialogue, and the dialogue can’t be: “I hate you, you hate me. I hate you, you hate me,” you know? That’s not dialogue. [laughs] It’s got to be: “I don’t wanna fight you, please don’t make me fight you, please stop, I don’t wanna do this to you, OK, you’ve given me no choice.” That needs to be in one fight — that “conversation” that you’ve added to the fighting — and we would work through each fight sequence with, What’s the dialogue? What are they both saying to each other [through their body language]? Where there’s a change, who’s affecting who? And then we had the added one-of-a-kind choreography that this movie is forms against other forms … For people that aren’t familiar with martial arts, the form is where you learn particular techniques or you learn each belt. Or in Kempo, which I studied, there are different forms you learn for each belt and they teach you different movements and different stances and different katas [forms] for different purposes. It’s like tai chi — one of the four nations [in Airbender] is based off of tai chi, so there’s a lot of tai chi in the movie. There’s a lot of poetry in the martial arts. Let’s say, hypothetically, there’s a movie that my wife might not be into, but one that I would love — this [movie, Airbender,] is something that would speak to her because she would understand the emotion and the physics behind it, because we really spent time on that. It speaks to the beauty of what it’s like to control your body.

But the CGI part of it definitely scared me to death. It was something I had to learn, and really I felt like to be a “big boy” I had to learn this as part of my storytelling. [laughs] I felt like Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Jackson and all these people were just naturals at it, and this was my training ground — just like if you want to play professional basketball you gotta learn to do [certain] types of moves. I definitely, probably, put everyone through the wringer as I was learning on the job, but I feel much more confident now where if I were given the opportunity to make parts two and three of this franchise I would love to continue the education.

JULINA: It was baptism by earth, air, fire and water!

NIGHT: [laughs] Yeah, exactly right.

“Could I Still Make Movies The Same Way I Make Movies … ?”

JULINA: I’d like to elaborate on the marriage between the CGI and the fighting in this film, since the weapons aren’t your standard martial arts weapons of simply hands, feet, staffs, knives, and guns. Rather, they are, I would assume, largely computer generated since they’re the elements of water, fire, air and earth. How did you work with the visual effects supervisors to come up with the fight choreography and VFX at the same time?

NIGHT: Yeah, you know, the real thing for me was: Could I still make movies the same way that I make movies, but make it on a such a complicated scale, with so many variables and so many different people [on the crew] that needed to know? When I’m doing a thriller and I storyboard everything, really, it’s just for me and the cinematographer. It really isn’t for anybody else. I can walk everybody through it on the day, and it’s really clean and everyone follows, ’cause it’s a normal street in a normal town and, for instance, it’s a scene where the guy fights with his neighbor and it’s pretty clear. [Unlike in] this situation, [where] there are so many people involved. But the bidding of the movie — how much the movie costs — is based on such precision, really, that the way I make movies actually lends itself really well to this process. When I board it, instead of it being in my head and just the cinematographer, I literally had to either put it on paper or [do a previsualization of] it so everybody could see, which is an extra step. The previz process was difficult because to do it to my satisfaction, I’d have to put a lot of effort in, and there I’m making a product that’s never going to be seen [publicly] — it’s just for the process. But to do that part of the process, they have to put so much effort in to get it the way it’s in my head. And so you’re making the movie in a different format before you make the movie. So, it’s tricky.

JULINA: Did you previz?

NIGHT: I did. I prevized the most CGI-heavy area of the movie, primarily to get a proper bid. But to do that was like an art form. I did that as an art form, and I went — my neurotic issues — that became like a final product. I spent forever making this little twenty-something-minute previz that you could release as a little short. Really, there’s no purpose whatsoever other than to get, as I said, the bid right [laughs].

But what it did, I think, was hone my timing on when I wanted the effect to happen based on movement and things like that. But it was “take”-specific for the animator, so the character would be doing part of a form and I’d say, “I’m not feeling the chi right yet, and when he releases the chi, that’s when I want the event to happen.” You know, that kind of thing. And it would be different for each actor and each take because I would believe it [only] at a certain moment. Part of it was just like pumping an air gun and the pressing the trigger was the moment the chi came out. And so I was like, “No, no, no, he’s still pumping and then there — there’s where he throws the element.” And we would look for it with each actor and each moment. Most of the background was all martial arts experts, so it was much easier. But with the actors I would spend a lot of time in the warehouse with them, getting them to understand what each move was if they weren’t martial artists, and what was meant behind each one.

You Say You’re A Fan But Were You Faithful to the Fighting Styles?”

JULINA: And do you use the same corresponding martial arts as they do in the series? The Hung Gar for earthbending, tai chi for waterbending, and -

NIGHT: And the ba gua and all that stuff?

JULINA: Yeah.

NIGHT: Somewhat …

JULINA: Ba gua isn’t a realistic martial art, is it?

NIGHT: It’s very circular and all that stuff. We generally kept to that; we definitely kept to the tai chi for the waterbenders, and the Northern Shaolin for the firebenders. But we were a little bit more Bruce Lee about it and let in a little bit more of a mixture of stuff because it became a little bit constricting. The Hung Gar, for sure, we kept in terms of the very low stances and the groundedness of it all, so I would say the answer is yes, yes we did.

JULINA: How awesome. It sounds really fun.

NIGHT: Yeah, it was fun — as you can tell, the martial arts part of it was really fun for me. It was just kind of a secret passion of mine.

JULINA: Was it difficult training the actors to do it?

NIGHT: You know, as it turned out, no. First of all, I hired a martial arts expert as the lead — the kid. He’s phenomenal, his martial arts is so beautiful and he won some tournaments in Texas. He’s a staff expert and he has incredible style. When he performs martial arts he’s very expressive. You know, there’s a lot of technically perfect martial artists, but he has a great musicality to his martial arts, so that was, like: “Hey, let’s anchor the movie.” [One question was] do we get an actor and teach him martial arts to play the lead, or do we get a martial artist and teach him to act?” And I decided on the martial artist and teach him to act. Which worked out well. Noah’s such a sweet, sweet boy, and such a hard worker from his martial arts, that he just dedicated that same kind of work ethic towards his acting and really conquered it. And now he’s in Jon Favreau’s new movie, Cowboys & Aliens, which is so cool. And then Dev [Patel] knows martial arts really well. He’d studied for six years. I didn’t want it to be the cutaway kind of situation; I wanted it to be so from the very first tease that we did of the movie, I said, “Let’s just put Noah in the middle of a group of candles and do a one-minute martial arts sequence.” And that’s what the original teaser for Airbender, which was last summer when it came out.

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76 responses to Exclusive Last Airbender Interview: How Filmbender M. Night Shyamalan Mastered CGI and Indulged His “Secret Passion” for Martial Arts

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Annie

@Victoria
“The greatest illusion is the illusion of seperation.” – Guru Patik

So you are saying it is ok to to change a character that is of Asian and Inuit decent to Caucasian?

Sharkman

@Victoria

Um…sure, that’s pretty easy. I generally don’t want to see the movie, and I don’t support it, so I suppose I *won’t* see it at all. Can do.

“The greatest illusion is the illusion of seperation.” – Guru Patik

How ironic. Using the words of the only decidedly Indian character in Avatar: The Last Airbender to justify casting Indians and other dark skinned ethnicities as villains.

That said I’m getting just a bit tired of people using Guru Patik’s words in such a careless manner. He was talking about the separation of nationalities and people during a time of war, when we’re all it’s children. It can apply here, but it should also be directed at the production, who prioritized Caucasian actors for arbitrary reasons.

@GreatLego33

Oh how cute. Where do we start?

“youre making it less enjoyable to read anything avatar related, and just because you make it less enjoyable doesnt mean youre going to make real avatar fans stop from going to see this movie. because real fans will watch it for curiosity or to see how close it is to the series.”

Being a “real” fan occasionally means thinking, not swallowing everything that has a label or a title on it. Under that logic, the people who went to see Dragonball: Evolution with actual expectations are “real” fans.

“if you want to see a movie with only asians, become a director and make your own asian dominated movie , good luck”

Money doesn’t grow on trees, buddy. Not everybody’s as lucky as M. Night that they can buy the director’s rights to a series they like at the time that the movie’s a viable prospect.

“THIS MOVIE LOOKS AWESOME AND SO FAR, IT IS VERY VERY VERY SIMILAR TO THE SHOW”

Let’s see, they totally changed around the races for every single character, they removed the actual Chinese calligraphy from the movie in place of made up scribbles. Iroh is skinny and has *dreadlocks.* Firebenders can’t make their own fire. Shyamalan *always* talks about how he’s making this darker, edgier, while grounding characters and removing a lot of the humor (one of the pre-screening reviews even says that Aang doesn’t smile except for a moment at the beginning when he’s at the temple, and in a flashback.) All of the changes are enough that he encouraged his actors not to watch the show, and the only staff member from the original show involved with any creative aspect whatsoever is the voice actor for Appa and Momo.

Oh yeah, it’s totes the same.

Jeremyx7

@GreatLego33

I totally get that some people have a problem with the casting cause some of cast (if not allot of the cast) look nothing like the original characters visually and at first I was kinda upset myself since I absolutely loved the animated series. However I realized all that should truly matter when it comes to a fantasy show (which never btw once mentioned they were a certain race or ethnicity in any episode) adaption based film is how well the characters are portrayed in terms of their ‘inner essence’ and ‘persona’. In the end it’s simply Art whatever the form may be visually and/or whatever medium it is in.

I agree with you and many others that they could have taken this opportunity to really go all out with Diverse castings for the main characters but just because they didn’t does not mean they did it because they were looking at skin tones here. Nor does it mean they’re on a passive aggressive subliminal crusade of influencing hollywood to run a certain way. EVERYTHING that I personally have read up about ‘The Last Airbender’ film on various sites, blogs, interviews, studio files, ect…(including racbending.com) is really nothing more then presumptuous speculation with NO FACTS simply put.

I also agree with your view on facing and taking action against ignorant ideals such as baseless discrimination of any kind so long as there is factual evidence that such things are the case. Which in this case on this topic on this film there simply are none. Think about it though, what good are the racebenders accomplishing here complaining complaining over and over again about the same baseless ‘maybes’ that they ‘think’ they ‘might’ be right about?

Even if someone has facts about something they don’t (or at least shouldn’t) complain and whine to get their point across in order to accomplish change (not that you are btw) nor should they expect convincing others this way. You don’t fight fire with fire cause you’ll only make the fire bigger and in turn create potential negative barriers (figuratively speaking) among society. True change and true positive movements take time to soak in and require one to look on both sides of the argument at all times before taking a stance for truth.

All that being said I feel everyone (including myself) must try and be neutral as much as they possibly can be on anything topically touchy until things are proven other wise or in the very least be respectful of others viewpoints without trying to force their own ideas on them. Either that or give into allowing things to become a big messy rant of confusing, negative, and unnecessary debate.

Anyway, I must say you’re one of the few respectable and reasonable persons that I’ve talked to about this subject that has a difference in opinion from me. You’re not one tracked minded like countless many others I’ve talked to about this topic! You have an open mind which is good!!

Anonymous

@ESSEX

This is not based on reality!! So all the race stuff is absolutely ridiculous.

The cartoon never said anything about race so your all being weird for no reason.

Antiracebender

@ Essex

“This is not based on reality!! So all the race stuff is absolutely ridiculous.

The cartoon never said anything about race so your all being weird for no reason.”

The show never said anything because it’s so EFFING OBVIOUS! Do you need everything explained to you?

So hanbok and kimono are fantasy items? The bending styles are just random limb flailing? Noone uses chopsticks in real life? Noone lives in igloos? Don’t you know that decent fantasy is based on REAL LIFE? If you want complete and utter nonsensical fantasy, go watch Eh! Steve.

And if you don’t think race matters in fantasy, look up Ursula K. Le Guin. She wrote the Earthsea fantasy stories with red-brown skinned leads because she was sick of the idea of only white people being in fantasy. Then the Sci Fi channel did a miniseries on her work with a mostly whitewashed cast, especially the main character. Ms. Le Guin voiced her disgist with what Sci Fi did after the shows were aired because she couldn’t say anything while they were being made, much like Bryan and Micheal. But they probably won’t say anything after the movie’s aired since they have a bigger stake than Ms. Le Guin. They could be prevented from working in the animation industry. Ms. Le Guin can always resort to self publishing.

@ Jeremyx7

Get this through your head. Racebenders are people who commit racebending, the act of changing a character’s race so that an actor of a different race may play it. The definition’s literally in the word; it should’ve been obvious. Manoj and company are the racebenders. Anyone opposed to that are antiracebenders.

Jeremyx7

@Essex

Heh, I guess I just don’t view antiracebenders as antiracebenders but instead as racebenders themselves for looking at a fantasy based world adaption film and going “I see race and the casting is not right because of it”. Which sounds really hypocritical especially when it should not matter who gets the role in the first place. Therefor I call them ‘racebenders’ at times on purpose. Shouldn’t be offended if you truly believe it’s not pertaining to you and ‘antiracebenders’ as you say.

Jessica

You know I’m really confused. Im thinking back on all the episodes and I cant remember there one time being a place called Asia…..it seems that it DOESNT EFFING EXIST. Its a FANTASY. Do any of you people understand what that means? Stop seeing with your eyes and see with your heart. You cant be true fans if the show obviously didnt touch you in anyway. This kind of bullshit is what the whole show was against. BTW,ITS ONLY A MOVIE. You dont have to watch it if it really bothers you that bad. Just go watch the show.

Jessica

@Annie
“So you are saying it is ok to to change a character that is of Asian and Inuit decent to Caucasian?”

That is one of the most ridiculous sentences I’ve ever read in my life.

Sharkman

@Jessica

Asia is a continent, a vast one. Without the various political and geographical climes in our world, the nomenclature of the landmass doesn’t exist.

That said, since we have to describe the show on *our* terms, everything says “Asian fantasy” when it comes to describing Avatar, even the IP Bible when it’s laying down the fundamentals of the world. And if you honestly figure that it either doesn’t matter, or might not be Asian simply because you weren’t specifically told, then you need to reevaluate your thinking processes, because you can’t use context clues.

Fantasy needs grounding in real life to make it believable. Real life needs fantasy to keep it interesting.

I mean, everything about the world is taken from specific parts of Asia, and some parts of North America and various circumpolar regions. It should follow that if you model your whole world of something so specific that unless you specifically state otherwise, it extends to the people in your world, too.

What if I made an *African* fantasy world? And I took from places all over Africa to make it? From Kush to Mali and everything in between, above, below and sideways. North to South, East to West. Aside from maybe a few fantasy eye colors here and there, an animation style like Miyazaki’s, and things like throwing fire from your hands and the like, you can’t quite argue that it’s *not* an African fantasy. Is it okay to cast Caucasians, or heck, even Asians for a movie adaptation, if I never say the characters are African and it doesn’t technically take place in Africa, just because some director or some movie executive thinks the actor was the best for the part?

Still though, let me get this straight. We can’t be “true” fans of the show if we have enough of an emotional attachment that we’re outraged and saddened that the source material and the people and cultures that helped shape it are being treated with such transience and disregard?

Is there a “fan-ometer” of how much of a true fan you are? I doodle fanart and do little fancomics based around this show, I love it to bits. Am I not a “true” fan, because I don’t simply watch and enjoy *everything* tied to a franchise, regardless of anything? Does “true” fandom mean not thinking about the show, it’s franchise, what it says about us, and how it might affect us, living in the heavily media-driven culture that we do?

Jeremyx7

@Sharkman “What if I made an *African* fantasy world? And I took from places all over Africa to make it? From Kush to Mali and everything in between, above, below and sideways. North to South, East to West. Aside from maybe a few fantasy eye colors here and there, an animation style like Miyazaki’s, and things like throwing fire from your hands and the like, you can’t quite argue that it’s *not* an African fantasy. Is it okay to cast Caucasians, or heck, even Asians for a movie adaptation, if I never say the characters are African and it doesn’t technically take place in Africa, just because some director or some movie executive thinks the actor was the best for the part?” -Sharkman

If it’s an adaption, and not exactly like the original but instead your own artistic vision/version of the original source then no nothing would be wrong with that. Which is what ‘The Last Airbender’ actually is. An adaption that is M. Night’s version and vision based off the original series. There are no rules to what can be or can not be in a ‘Fantasy Adaption’ nor are there any rules as to what can be or not be altered. Thus the meaning of the phrase ‘Fantasy’ as well as ‘Adaption’ exist.

Victoria

Hats off to all those who think they can win at battle of opinion. I’m giving up. No one will ever win and the battle will never stop. Believe what you want and enjoy the original show, please.

Thank you.

Antiracebender

@ Jeremyx7
“@Essex

You replied to the wrong person.

Jeremyx7

@antiracebender and Essex

You’re right I did reply to the wrong person. >_< I must have been tired or distracted with something when I put '@Essex'. My apologies Essex.

Shaun83

You know what this is a “fantasy” movie. For God sakes, in the show people control fire, air, water and earth, they kinda look asian but speak like the are from the Valley; some have blue eyes (i havent met an asian with blue eyes unless they are mised) so get over it already. At first i was skeptical of the casting even though i hadnt watched any of the shows myself but now that i have i’m wondering why no one complained about the way the kids in the show speak. Mae Whitman (who talked for tinkerbell) talked for the lead female Katara, so why cant a caucasin play her; its a bit hypocritical to get upset now.
I think the important thing is Night actually chose some pretty good actors, as well as Martial Artistist to bring out the best movie he could. I have seem the trailers and have become a fan. If it is true about their being a lack of humor in the movie that is too bad cause i rather liked it in the series but it wont stop me from seeing a good movie. And please Asians dont take what i am saying personally. At no time were the characters said to be asian and i wish there could have been asian actors in the movie if Night could find better choices, but none of us were in the casting room with him or casting director so whatever!

reacebenders.com

We, asians, are greatly offended by these wrecthed movie (which i’m not gonna see i will force everyone i know not to). Zuko is supposed to be asian and asian only. Indian doesn’t cut it!.. Indians are poor replacements for asians, yes, MNighty i am talking to you. And Aang is supposed to asian too. Yet he played by some texan white boy. How stupid can one be to not to get it? At least now that we know how he looks like we (offended asians, protesters and members of racebending campaign) can find him in real life, talk to him, and make him not to destroy his life with involvement in this stupic pile of crap that this movie is going to be (no need to look into crystal ball to know it: it was destroyed the moment casted their first non-asian actor in what was supposed to be all-asian cast). Katara and Sokka are supposed to be asians as well. Come on! Everyone are! Only racists can think that there is a place for a single non-asian actor in this movie.Apparently, that is exactly who all of the crew of this horrible movie are. I’m asian and now they’re going to destroy what was going to be the best thing that Asia could give to USA and a rest of the world. I would never got my self interested in a show if it hasn’t featured people who look like me (slanted eyes, tan), because it just would be deep enoough. Take hits of the last years. Transformers? They’re making an apaptation of originally japanese-made show, and they don’t have a single asian in the cast???… Stupidissimo. Dark Knight? All asians that are in the movie are villains (that mob bookkeeper and chinese cops). Stupid movie. Sin City. The only asian in a movie was a killer and sword master (oh! the stereotypes!!! how come all roles asians can get in hollywood are swords master or kung-fu masters!! i hate those stereotype!! every single movie that has an asian as a kung-fu master is bad by definition). And she even had a shuriken shaped like a german swastika!! Can it get more offensive that that? Of course i haven’t watched the movie, but due to reasons listed above it can’t be good. Even “Up”, which hit the theaters this week is racist — it features asian boy who looks stupid and inferior to some white old guy. I didn’t watched “Up” because of just that (and am not gonna to — i won’t — the movie is bad cause it’s racist and that’s it). This practive needs to be stopped. We must stop Hollywood from doing this. We must hire lawyers and bring multi-million suits for every second movie they’re doing becase every other movie they make is a obvious and offense in our faces.

anthony

thats stupid theres no asia in avatar he live in his own world

people are nuts.

this film is adapted from the cartoon not a 100% copy. thats why its called a live action film adaption.

the world of avatar is based on asian culture but it isnt refered to as asian culture. key words being BASED ON.

the film should look to be unique in its own way like the cartoon did whilst keeping close to the storyline.

avatarfan

Well I guess the point would be somewhat mute if the actors actually produced some good acting. Then you could say well they were the best for the job no matter what their skin color. Sadly, judging from the reviews, the racebending is the least of this movie’s problems. As a fan that just makes my heart ache. =*(

But to those who don’t think the racebending is a problem, let’s not forget that in days gone by male actors used portray women’s characters in the theater and Caucasian actors used to put on “makeup” (to be kind) and play asian, black,etc. characters. Mickey Rooney in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” anyone? Why is that unacceptable/unbelievable now, but this current casting is ok? I’m not saying let’s sue everyone involved, I’m just saying that you can label something as an “adaptation” all you want, but in the end you’re just getting the story wrong. The scar’s on the wrong side, and Aaang is not a woman…. =)

Also David Carradine was not Chinese!

BrianM

Movie is EXCELLENT
No the characters (other than Aang and Appa somewhat) don’t look exactly the same
The “race stuff”, I agree with others, is ridiculous to focus on
Shyamalan “got it” – the movie is engaging, characters are BETTER than the cartoon and the magic and elemental fighting is WOW
go see it

Gaddez

@BrianM

Avatar the last airbender is one of the greatest works of western animation produced in the last 20 years, and featured an intelligent, well written story that mixed legitimate humor, philosophy, and probably the most well thought out magic system I’ve seen in any television series to date (the way the benders move has a clear link to how their element responds, and each bending style had a very different martial art style linked to it).

By contrast, The Last Airbender had extroardinarily bad acting, a famine of (intentional) humor and Bending was flat out ruined by making the system ridiculously complicated and ineffectual.

I would have expected an addaptation this bad from the likes of Uwe Boll.

felixnonymous

Let’s have six men dance on their spot so they can make a single rock levitate because a bald Texan child just stated the obvious about the surface they stand on to them!

Up to Airbender II: Three White kids save poor multicultural kingdom with the help of nameless “Short Round” Earthbender Girl from the evil spoils of Indopersian-Italian nation!

cesare.borja

It’s pretty messed up that people think you can use Asian culture in such a substantial and important way, and then not have the people who are part of that culture take part, just because Avatar takes place in a “fantasy” world. Somehow I doubt that the same people who use this argument would have been okay with a Lord of the Rings where all the protagonists were Asian and black, and only villains are token characters or white, in the face of Tolkien’s intent to write a fantasy drawing on the culture and mythology of Northern Europe.