Great interview! Illuminating insight into what his thought processes were in making the movie. And nice to know how well grounded he is in his knowledge of the martial arts. Can’t wait to see the second part of the interview.

Did this guy just compared himself to Bruce Lee… ahhaahahahahhahaahhahahaahhahaahah… he truly is such a pretentious bastard.

Yes, it’s illuminating to see just how little regard M. Night has for the source material. Sorry M. Night, but a 1st black belt in taeknowdo does not an “expert” make. And if anything has the fan community up in arms, its the fact that characters who are clearly Asian and Inuit have been replaced with Caucasians. Not to mention that the previously Asian villains have been replaced with actors of Middle Eastern and Eastern Indian descent. That’s right everyone, the brown bad guys are chasing around the white good guys while the ethnic extras sit back in awe. Oh and the martial arts that the show was built on have been relegated to a minor role and they’ve replaced the show’s authentic Chinese script with gibberish.
Need I go on? I won’t be spending any money on this train wreck and neither should anyone else.
I won’t

Very informative and well written interview. Looking forward to part 2 of this article!!

@Ms.Troy In my personal view point and in the view points of many others besides myself there is only one true race, which is the human race as a whole with no bias and no partiality. We’re all mixed with various ethnic backgrounds and share the same seeds from our past fathers. My point being is, that when I go to see this movie regardless of their reasons for casting, I’m going to see it for the movie’s storyline, originality, art, & characters no matter what they look like or what they are because every culture/society in this world are a collective whole in the end.

I’m not going to sit here and assume about something that I could be totally wrong about. For all you know they casted based on who could play the character best regardless of skin color. Also, you say Zuko is a “darked skinned bad guy”, really now………..so would it be better for white skinned people to be the bad guys and “dark skins” good guys? Do you realize how racist your argument sounds in it’s own way? Besides, you seem to forget(or have no idea about the animated show) that Zuko turns out to be a very likable character and actual great good guy in the end. So by your own logic shouldn’t you be at least a little pleased about who they casted for Zuko since he turns out to be an amazing guy later down the road and makes the main plot more interesting for the series?

This is why I have no respect for the so called “racebending” movment. It’s full of extremely ignorant, hypocritical, narrow minded, self assuming, one sided thinking group of people. Any out side logic that might be right that challenges their ideals on the matter are either not thought upon deeply enough or just out right ignored by them. It’s one thing to get upset about the casting that’s fine, but to assume they’re racist because you want a specific race yourself *cough*kinda racist(understatement?)*cough* is just ridiculous. It’s a fantasy world with real world references so what, it’s not like an actual event that occurred in history. If it was then I could see people getting up and arms about it, but it’s not.

One of my favorite lines from the original animated series was “The Greatest Illusion is the Illusion of Separation of things” something along those lines meaning that we are really a collective whole as ONE RACE and should not be viewed any differently to avoid unnecessary indifference and self-centeredness.

Obviously ms Troy hasn’t been doing he homework.

Great interview.

@Ms. Troy, you really are clueless, I never once had a thought about race when watching the series. Funny none of the targeted 8-12 yr. old’s never thought of this race issue either. You racebenderers need to just stop. Be nice for the creators to tell you all to shut it, the series is roughly based on Asian myths not races. So Aang is played by a kid who is skilled at taeknowdo who really cares. The bending looks well done in the previews.

is there any auditions for the last airbender book2 earth???!!!

It’s great to see read all of your comments. I wanted to let you all know about our comment policies in case you see some comments vanish.

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Thx for the info on the text policies here Julina. Sorry if I bent some of the rules here, my comments were only intended to compliment the article and logicly debate on another sub topic related to this film. I’ll be sure to keep these rules in mind for future posts here. Anyways, I agree, this article is very great! Btw I discovered this site yesterday and I love how you guys/gals cover things here at 30 ninjas! Keep it up ;D

@Jeremyx

>In my personal view point and in the view points of many others besides myself there is only one true race, which is the human race as a whole with no bias and no partiality.

Stopped reading there. You obviously don’t have any grasp on the concept of race and ethnicity and you are not Stephen Colbert (he is the only person who truly “doesn’t see race” and he’s a character on a comedy show, take the hint). If you want to bury your head in the sand and ignore how poorly handled the casting was in this production along with the blatant disregard for the source material’s martial arts, that’s your prerogative.

The whining about the race bending is getting so old it is ridiculous. I haven’t heard one decent argument that truly supports the claims made by aangaintwhite.com. First of all, the character of Aang did not look Asian in the cartoon, nor did many other characters. I will admit that a select few characters did (especially Toph), but certainly not all of them. I am not saying they looked Caucasian either. There was CLEARLY a variety in the show.

Please tell me how the Northern and Southern Water tribes would be Asian? There may be a few Asians running around but that wouldn’t be the majority of the population. Yes some of them (quite a large number of them would in fact be Caucasian). Anyone who thinks that they would seriously needs geography lessons. Every place on the map has a mixture of races, and even if they didn’t, evey Nation certainly wouldn’t be asian.Tell me how every character in ANY world, even a fantasy world would be of a single race.

To claim that the casting is racist is racist in its self. In a way it is even racist toward the Asian population when one looks at it a certain way. How it is racist to not discriminate based on race? How is it less racist to say, “You must be Asian! I just want Asians, No one else waste my time!” Most of all how can these people not know how ridiculous they sound arguing their “racebending” propaganda.

@Julina:

You might want to do some more research on the original cartoon (Seriously, watch it, it’s great! In any case it’ll be much better than the movie!). There are a few sentences in your article that don’t make any sense if you knew the source material. Like “the 4 nations are at war with each other” which is not true. The Fire Nation attacked the other nations and wiped out the Air Nomads and Aang is the last remaining Airbender – hence the title.

The show also had an excellent martial arts coordinator: Sifu Kisu, who bacisally came up with the concept of the different martial arts (and yes, Ba Gua is a realistic martial art! Honestly, Julina, that was a pretty weird comment to make. You should probably also do more research about different martial arts when you write about them). He offered to help with the martial arts for the movie but was turned down. Later M. Night Shyamlan claimed in an interview that the show’s martial arts were copied from martial art movies which Imho 1st shows his lack of respect for the hard work that was put into the creation of the cartoon and 2nd shows that he has no clue what he is talking about. Ever since M. Night is displaying the same ignorance in all his interviews and sadly this one is no exception.

As of now I haven’t seen a single martial arts expert listed to supervise the stunts or fighting scenes. The only guys known to work in that position have no advanced experience in martial arts, yet alone martial art movies.
Saying that a kid is a “martial arts expert” is also showing that he has no idea what real martial art training means. You have to train more than just a few years to be an “expert”. But maybe Shyamalan is just easy to impress?

Honestly, it is worrying me a lot that such a guy is making a martial art movie. He has no idea what he’s doing, he turned down the help from people who would know what to do with martial arts, but instead he hired stunt coordinators who just have experience with regular action fight scenes.

Another thing regrading that Shyamalan has succeed in satisfying the fanbase: He has not. With his decision regarding the cast, the martial arts, the overall handling of the characters and making it all darker and edgier he has divided the fanbase. There’s a huge backlash and honestly, that’s not a good start at all. His attempts to explain himself so far were less than satisfying and miraculously he managed to dig himself a deeper hole which each new interview. He is constantly displaying that he has no idea what to do with this franchise and thus is turning more and more fans off.

“The whining about the race bending is getting so old it is ridiculous. I haven’t heard one decent argument that truly supports the claims made by aangaintwhite.com. First of all, the character of Aang did not look Asian in the cartoon, nor did many other characters. I will admit that a select few characters did (especially Toph), but certainly not all of them. I am not saying they looked Caucasian either. There was CLEARLY a variety in the show.”

My assumption for why you haven’t heard a decent argument is because 1) you didn’t make an effort to grasp the race shown in the show (which you practically admitted) and 2) that the arguments of the anti-casters probably don’t interest you. If you aren’t interested in being a person against this movie for its racebending of the characters and the many other changes that M. Night has performed on the story and the world of Avatar, then you probably aren’t going to ever find a decent argument from us. You’re right about the variety though, there was definitely variety in the show. A variety of ASIANS. The show presented more than just characters with an East Asian (or as you call them, “Asians”) appearance, it also presented races from across Asia. We saw characters that were made to look Southeast Asian, South Asian/Indian, Pacific Islander, Middle Easterner, Yupik/Inuit (Inuits did originate from Asia in the first place) and much more. As for certain characters appearing white to you, Avatar utilize an Anime-influenced animation style. In Anime, Asians characters don’t have those exaggerated stereotypes they are drawn with in western animation. They aren’t going to be drawn with yellowish skin, squinty eyes, or any of those other common stereotypes that Asian characters are given to “show” that they’re Asian. Aang is Asian and small details such as him having jet black hair just go to show that. The large eyes he are drawn with (and Asians can have large eyes btw) are there to show innocence, not “whiteness”. He is a young character who likes to have fun and to show that he is a innocent and fun-seeking young child, he was given large eyes. Look at the older Air Nomads such as Monk Gyasto on the other hand, look at how he has smaller eyes. Also, look at Zuko, who has what you would call “squinty Asian eyes” during his teenage years, is shown with large eyes when we see him as a child in Zuko Alone. Notice how when a character gets older, they start to get smaller eyes and other features that you would normally consider “Asian”. If you pay attention to these details, then it will help show you that Aang is meant to have an appearance based off of real world East Asians. Aang may reside in a fictional world, but his appearance is shared by a real life race. His pale skin also does not make him white either, if you do a Google search for Asians, you will find that Asians can be very pale, even paler than whites.

“Please tell me how the Northern and Southern Water tribes would be Asian?”

This point is moot since every anti-caster is well aware that the inhabitants of the Water Tribe should be represented by actors who are Inuit and Native American. There are plenty Inuit and Native American actors ready to get a big role in a movie, you just need to be willing to seek them out.

“Tell me how every character in ANY world, even a fantasy world would be of a single race.”

Like I explained above, Avatar features all the races from Asia. Not just East Asians, but really, you need to realize that East Asians themselves are very diverse and they all aren’t the same. Anyway, I understand that fact that Avatar is only an Asian world still may not sit well with you, but many movies based on European fantasies work fine with just white actors. I highly doubt you were complaining about every actor portraying a human/human-looking character in LOTR was white, so I don’t know why you’re finding it so hard to wrap your head around a world just containing East Asians, but hey, that is a non-issue since Avatar contains all the diverse races of Asia and I pointed out some of those races to you eariler in my post

“To claim that the casting is racist is racist in its self. In a way it is even racist toward the Asian population when one looks at it a certain way. How it is racist to not discriminate based on race? How is it less racist to say, “You must be Asian! I just want Asians, No one else waste my time!” Most of all how can these people not know how ridiculous they sound arguing their “racebending” propaganda.”

A pathetic argument that attempts to turn the tables on us, despite your logic containing alot of ideas based on discrimination and racism. To notice race is not “racism” and I find it rather sad that you’re tossing the word around without even fully understanding its meaning. Here is how Google defines racism: “the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races” and also “discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race”.
I don’t recall people of the Racebending group ever showing discriminatory or abusive behavior against any race and they haven’t stated or done anything to state that Asians are superior over any other race. See, you do not understand the issue here. Racebending is instead showing support to a group underrepresented in the acting industry and you’re misintrepretating that as racism. Anyway, Avatar is a show that takes place in a world filled with ASIAN and INUIT/NATIVE AMERICAN culture and this world is populated by people who have an ASIAN and INUIT/NATIVE AMERICAN appearance. To say we’re being racist because we would like to see Asians, Inuits and Native Americans in general representing these characters that were so obviously made to look Asian and Inuit is inaccurate and stupid. There will always be movies out there for white actors to play the lead role in, but a movie is rarely released that feature actors of Asian ethnicity in the lead role. Unless they’re making some martial arts movie, you will NOT see an Asian in the lead role.

The Last Airbender was a PERFECT opportunity for Asian and Native American actors to be featured in the lead roles, but instead M. Night handed the roles over to white actors (and Dev Patel was only hired once Jesse McCartney, the original Zuko, dropped out). A white child is playing a character who was drawn with an East Asian appearance and comes from nation that has a culture based off of the Tibetan culture, yet you find no issue with that. If Noah Ringer didn’t get picked for this movies, he would of had plenty of chances to get his big break if he truly wanted to be an actor, but that is not the case for actors who are Asian or Native American. These kids (and adults) have a tiny chance currently to get picked for the lead role of a movie since practically every movie wants a white actor in the main role. Black children also will find it easier than Asians and Native Americans to get a starring role, but their chances are nowhere as high as a white child’s. My point is Asian and other non-white actors are UNDERREPRESENTED in Hollywood.

Your argument about how it would be racist for the movie staff to only request actors of Asian and Native American for TLA is idiotic by the way. First off, they would be showing respect to the world that Mike and Bryan created by hiring a cast made up of primarily Asian and Native American actors. Second, do you know how many movies just simply demand white actors and put together a cast made up of purely white actors? Every movie about an European fantasy will definitely be only asking for white actors for the majority of the cast. If you are willing to accept movies with a cast made up of whites, then why are you against a cast made up of Asians and Native Americans? See, you’re the one showing hints of racism here, not purposefully, but because of your ignorance. You are willing to have a cast of whites since white actors are the norm in American movies, but Asians actor are rare and barely play any importance in movies, and you find these uncommon actors strange and thus you act like they must abide by a different set of rules than white actors, who are the norm.

Also, you made a point about how it is racist to look at the Asian population is a certain way. Once again, you’re having Asians abide by different rules than whites since you see them as “exotic” and “not the norm”. It is racist to portray whites as knights living in castles, riding on horses, owning serfs who farm the land, and having joust matches? Is it? If whites are allow to embrace their European culture and it is not considered “racist”, then Asians are allowed to embrace their own culture in movies. It is only racist if you portray Asian culture as a caricature; through an uneducated viewpoint. The creators of Avatar did a ton of research to get the Asian culture in Avatar as right and true as possible and then to see M. Night disrespect that by getting non-Asian actors and removing the culture in the movie is insulting and disappointing. That is the true discrimination here. Not the members of Racebending for calling M. Night out for his casting choices. ThinkAgain, I’m sorry, but your arguments are flimsy and seem to stem from your own ignorance or you having a sort of privilege. See, whites have a privilege and you showed that privilege by saying Asians can’t be featured in a world full of their culture and that an all-Asian cast would be uninclusive of other races and thus racist. Well, guess what, alot of movies are inclusive of actors that aren’t white so I guess there is a problem with Hollywood.

@Murph When I say “one race with no partiality and no bias ect..” I am talking about how the word “race” in itself is often miss used and taken out of context as well as how I feel that we really should view ourselves as a collective whole and not separate ‘races’(There in lies part of the problem,’perception’).

Just because I have a positive outlook on the subject does not mean I have not done my own research and/or have my ‘head in the sand’ as you say. I am very aware of the stupidity on discrimination of skin color out there and am disgusted with it. But that does not mean that it happens everywhere nor does it mean I cannot have my own viewpoints based off what I know nor does it mean I should sit here and be presumptuous about the casting where there is NO FACTS supporting they’re racists.

Honestly speaking, how do you really know people like myself haven’t checked out racebending.com or other various blogs and topics that explore and speculate on the possibilities of the casting? How do Really know I haven’t thought about the subject matter deeply on both sides of the argument? You don’t, you’re just ASSUMING that I have ‘no grasp’ just because my own logical thought process differs from you on this topic, plain and simple. As I said earlier,”one sided thinking group of people”.

When I was a kid in the 80s, most of the shows I watched had an all Caucasian cast with maybe one or two minority characters which most of the time weren’t stereotypes. Not to say that it never happened that way, but things were certainly progressing away from stereotypes back then. One show stood out as the exception, that being ‘The Mysterious Cities of Gold’ which like A:tLA was on Nickelodeon. This show featured Hispanic and Native kids, just like the kids in my neighborhood. Most of the show takes place in South America and Mexico and coming from a Mexican family (and mostly Mexican town) it was really something to see these kids who looked like me and my friends out having adventures. To this day, MCoG remains one of my favourite shows. It was refreshing to see kids like myself and the myths of my ancestors portrayed positively in the media.
Today in A:tLA, we have a show that is steeped in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Inuit cultures (just to name a few). And when I say steeped I mean the architecture, the food, the clothes, the martial arts, the mythology, the style of art (sculptures and paintings), all these things reflected the above mentioned cultures and a few more besides. The show even had consultants for the martial arts and Chinese calligraphy to be certain everything was as authentic as possible. Its a labour of love that is evident in every episode of the show. So being the more informed adult that I am, it was no stretch at all to see Aang as Tibetan and Sokka and Katara as Inuit. Nor did it bother me that there were no Hispanics, Caucasians or Africans in the show. It wasn’t a sign of exclusion, but a sign of further immersion into the cultures of a very specific part of the world.
So when the casting call goes out for the live action film with the phrase “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” and when the casting director asks Koreans to wear kimonos and Belgians to wear leiderhosen, its kind of disconcerting. Would it have been so hard to put out a casting call based on age rather than race? Why was a preference shown for Caucasians? Why did the casting director make such uninformed and insensitive remarks? If you’re going to ask these questions you also have to ask why the Chinese script was removed from the film and replaced with something that was made for the film? Why did the makers of this film find fault with using a real living language recognised by literally millions upon millions of people around the world? None of those actions makes any sense when you put them against the work that was done to make the show itself as accurate to the cultures portrayed. And like many fans of the show, this isn’t something I’m assuming. I’ve watched the show in its entirety at least four times. I’ve read articles and watched interviews with people who worked on this show talk about how they quite purposely were crafting a pan-Asian fantasy world. Everything about the show and the work that was done on it screams that the leads, at the very least, should have been actors of Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Inuit descent. But no, we go back to the Hollywood stand by of the white heroes saving the day from the brown bad guys while the ethnic extras look on in awe. And here I could’ve sworn we were living in 2010, not 1910.

@Ms. Troy I totally get and understand that you wish the casting was better for various reasons, and in some aspects of your last statement here I agree. However there are many other aspects of your argument I have to disagree with.

I agree with you that the casting does not look 100% or even close to the original animated characters the way the show portrayed them visually and because of that alone it is a bit disappointing. The only one that actually looks 95% close in my opinion to the original look is Noah Ringer(which btw could very well have Asian in him not that it matters either way). I disagree with you however that the casting was done this way because of ignorant racial viewpoints in the studios themselves.

Yes it’s extremely unfortunate that whoever wrote the casting calls like that wrote it the way they did but that still DOES NOT PROVE that the actual studio,director, producers or anyone else working on this film had anything to do with it. I mean have you seriously considered the possibility that whoever wrote that was acting alone against Paramount? Crap like that in society happens allot so it’s not an impossibility. The words may have been harsh and ignorant yes but that does not mean it was indicative of the Casting or the Director. That’s more the problem of the person who wrote it and the person who signed off on it. It’s much more accurate to blame those 2 instead of just saying something that allows people to assume “oh it must have been someone important in Paramount” without concrete evidence. See the difference now?

Another point I feel I must reason against is the “but it’s based off real world Asian culture so everyone should be Asian” argument. Yes it’s based off of real Asian Culture, East, South, West and a whole lot more, that part I agree that the show is. But that does not mean another ethnicity can’t exist in there with them especially since it’s a MADE UP STORY in a MADE UP FANTASY WORLD and not something that actually took place in our world’s HISTORY. Even our real world has a mix of many different ethnic groups in every continent and country even if there is a minority in each land. Also the movie IS going to have a ton of Variety and Diversity of ethnic groups which goes completely against your side of the argument.

Allot of what you and somdude45 consider valid points are honestly mostly just assumptions from what I’m reading thus far.

If the movie was really deviating from the show as much as you claim wouldn’t you think the creators of the show and PRODUCERS of the movie have said something to stop it from happening? I mean producers do have just as much if not more say with what happens with a movie than the director

This whole Racebender/Non racebender argument reminds me of the great divide episode. Aang would probably find all this nonsense very annoying. (WWAD!)

@Stratisfire Very Excellent Point!!

@Jessica haha I thought of that before too xD, I totally agree with you!

Mike and Bryan are *executive* producers. This title means one of two things. You handle the business and legal issues of the movie as a representative of the studio, or, it’s a vanity title given to the original creators of a work when they have nothing to do with the movie outside of acknowledgment. Given that the real Excec producer is Kathleen Kennedy, wife of the line producer Frank Marshal, how M. Night joked that he might let them say action once, and how reports only involve them visiting the sets, we have to assume it’s the second.

However, in either case, they would have no creative say over any decisions made in the movie.

At the same time, Mike and Bryan are under Non-Disclosure agreements, just like Sifu Kisu, the martial arts coordinator of the original show (and a supporter of the protest.) This means they can’t spoil the movie, and they can’t say anything *bad* about the movie. They’re free to hype it up, but I believe their extended silence speaks more of their possible reservations, particularly since breaking such a thing entails legal action and blacklisting (they’re working on a new A:tlA show, they don’t need to get fired right now.) Also, Sifu Kisu has said that neither of them had anything to do with the casting, and would have made different decisions, race-wise. Something that’s partially confirmed by Bryan saying:

“”AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER” FANS PLEASE NOTE: Thanks for all the support and interest! However, as always, I WILL NOT BE READING OR REPLYING TO ANY MESSAGES OR COMMENTS regarding the ATLA series or “The Last Airbender” feature film, no matter how desperate you are or important you think your message may be. Sorry, it has got to be this way… I have NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CASTING WHATSOEVER for the feature film.”

on his music project’s MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/ginormousmusic)

On the note of the “diversity” of the cast, let’s play a game, here, one I’m already familiar with, sort the characters we know about by their alignment, importance, and note their race:

***Heroes/Protagonists important enough to have a name***

*Noah Ringer (Aang) – White American (he’s not Asian, we’d have been told this a long time ago.)

*Nicola Peltz (Katara) – White American (Daughter of super-billionaire Nelson Peltz, CEO of the Wendy’s-Arbys Group)

*Jackson Rathbone (Sokka) – White American (Before anybody says he was born in Singapore, that’s because, like Peltz, he’s loaded. His father travels a lot because of his work for Mobile Oil. His family has a long history in the oil industry, his great great grandfather was even chairman of what would become Exxon.)

*Katherine Houghton (Kanna/Gran-Gran) – White American

*Francis Guinan (Pakku) – White American (don’t give me any of that bunk that since the Northern Water Tribe is white, it makes sense to have Peltz and Rathbone, even when the Southern Tribe is cast with Inuit extras. Katara and Sokka would be 3/4 Southern Water Tribe/Inuit and 1/4 Northern Water Tribe/White. The only way they could be 100% like the actors they chose, would be if the movie versions of Hakoda’s father and Kya were also white, despite the two being native to the Southern Water Tribe.)

*Ben Cooke (Avatar Roku) – White American (Even though he’s from the now dark skinned Fire Nation? Odd.)

*Seychelle Gabrielle (Yue) – American, mixed race [caucasian, Latin/Hispanic, Sicilian, French] (One of Jackson Rathbone’s love interests, obviously. On MySpace, she lists herself as merely “white.”)

*Jessica Andres (Suki) – American, half-Filipino, half-White (She’s gotten a few awards from local Asian cinema groups, I think. *Also* one of Jackson Rathbone’s love interests.)

***Bad Guys/Antagonists***

*Dev Patel (Zuko) – British, Indian (I know, I know, Zuko redeems himself…5/6ths of the way into the series. In the meantime, all of the advertising says “evil” Fire Nation this, “evil Firebender, Zuko” that.

*Shaun Toub (Iroh) – Iranian/Persian Jew (Never much of a bad guy in the first place, but he *is* on the Fire Nation’s side for a good chunk of the beginning, only deserting the Fire Nation at the start of Season 2.)

*Cliff Curtis (Ozai) – Maori Native, New Zealand

*Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) – Indian-American

***Good Guys not important enough to warrant a name***

*Issac Jin Solstein (Earthbending Boy) – Asian (He’s also a 12 year old martial arts champion by the way, like Ringer, only he’s got a bit more acting experience.)

*Keong Sim (Earthbending Father) – Asian

*Randal Duk Kim (Old Man in the Temple)

*Lauren Mary Kim (Kyoshi Warrior #3) – Asian (Actually she was removed from the IMDB cast list, she’s going uncredited after all, so are all of the Kyoshi Warriors, actually.)

So let’s tally that up. All of the named protagonists are white, unless they’re one of Jackson Rathbone’s exotic love interests, in which case, they’re only part white.

If the character is *ever* on the opposing side, their actor is of a darker-skinned ethnicity from *somewhere* in the world. It’s never anything specific, the uniting factor seems to be “brown,” if I may be cynical.

And if you’re a good guy, but you’re not important enough to have a name at all?

Asian.

And not a single one will come along until the second movie…if this thing doesn’t pull a Golden Compass and sink.

Learn to recognize the difference between actual diversity and tokenism with a dose of White-centrality. Also recognize that the fantasy world argument goes both ways. The real world has a diverse mix of people, but this isn’t our world, it’s the Asia-based fantasy world that featured many ethnicities from East Asia and Inuit Tribes which can stretch to Greenland, just like Lord of the Rings would only feature people that look British or could pass as British in *it’s* movie.

But I still have to ask: what does a character have to do before their ethnicity is no longer a question? They’re totally surrounded in every aspect of their lives by East Asian/Inuit cultural markers, and in many cases, the characters actually have physical features that tie them to these ethnic groups, in particular the adults like Hakoda or Monk Gyatso. If this isn’t enough, what do they have to do? Are we unable to fill in the blanks without thee show stooping it’s expectations down and telling us? Do we have to rely on tired stereotypes that don’t even apply to many Asian and Inuit people? Why do we have to “otherize” them so much before we can believe “ah, yes, this character would look Asian in real life?”

Quite frankly, the intent or character of the people involved in this production is irrelevant. They may not be racist themselves, but what they have done has perpetuated a system that discriminates, whether they intended to or not, and whether they believe it or not.

@Stratisfire, Mike and Bryan are NOT going to say anything because they have signed a non-disclosure agreement. It’s basically a contract that forbids them from saying anything negative about this film, the casting, etc. The MOST that was said about it was on Bryan’s blog, where he states neither he nor Mike had ANYTHING to do with the casting.

Any bad talk from them about this film would result in them losing their jobs and make it next-to impossible to find work in the industry again. Who’d want to hire two guys who bad-mouth their last employer?

Secondly, while Mike and Bryan ARE the creators of the series, they don’t have the kind of power say, J.K. Rowling has. They don’t OWN the series, it was a for-hire project for Nick Studio’s. Creators of animated series never fully ‘own’ the stories they create. Case in point; Doug, an animated series that first showed up on Nick, but was later taken by Disney when it was shown that the creator of the series presented the idea while he was working for THEM. Look at the situation with the ‘BRATZ’ dolls’ The guy who came up with them was working for Mattel when he presented them to his higher-ups. They said no and when he left the company later, he brought the BRATZ idea to another toy company who bought it. Mattel sued and won because the ‘creator’ was a Mattel employee when he developed the idea.

Thirdly; the title of ‘executive producer’ is just that; a title. That is mostly in regards to the business end. ‘Executive Producers’ almost never get a say in the creative process of the films the work on. it could mean anything and in the case of this film, it’s not really much.

Sometimes the most damning thing you can do is stay silent. If everything was hunky-dory, then why aren’t they promoting this film, as it’s based on their work?

@ Stratisfire

Don’t you know? Manoj bought the film rights from Nickelodeon. Bryan and Michael have no say as to what Manoj does. I’ts likely they are also in a nondisclosure agreement, which only allows them to say positive things about the movie. And they only “positive” things they have said is that they wanted to see the movie after the teaser was released. They haven’t said anything about the actualk actors and their portrayal of the characters, or anything specific. They also drew a very Asian looking Aang for a poster that was available at the San Diego Comic Con 2009.

Look up Ursula K. Le Guin. She wrote the Earthsea books who have red-brown skinned heroes and the SciFi channel did a miniseries based on her work. Of course, the characters were whitewashed. Ursula couldn’t say anything bad against the miniseries until after it was aired, to which she admitted her disgust. She wrote the Earthsea books specifically to counter the “only white people can be in fantasy” idea. That’s why saying race doesn’t matter in fantasy is just ridiculous.

@ Jessica Aang would say he’d want an Asian to play him.

And what is with the whole Ba Gua isn’t realistic thing? It’s a real martial art!

@ ThinkAgain Yep, you do have to think again. As stated, the Southern and Northern Water Tribe are based on Inuit people and culture. It’s incredibly insulting that in the film, the Southern Tribe is Inuit, but the Northern is white. In the show, they were one race, but Katara and Sokka were one quarter Northern and three quarters Southern Tribe. In the movie, they do not look Inuit at all, and their grandmother is white. I’m sure their parents will also be white, which would make the ACTUAL INUIT EXTRAS in the background set pieces! That’s insulting for white actors to have big parts, but people of color have minor parts, villian parts, or are just in the background. Manoj recognized the Inuit aspect of the show, but felt it should just be in the background for his movie. Disgusting.

@Someguy45

I believe your argument to be much more “idiotic” than thinkagain’s argument, which made some good points, though not perhaps as clearly as they could have. I feel much more stupid having read your blog, so if mine isn’t perfect you must forgive me.

First you say that it is a diverse group of asians in the cartoon and then you turn around and admit that they are Inuit and Native American. Inuit and Native Americans are not asians! Besides this, there is a large number of caucasian inhabitants. The race bending issue is annoying. I wish people would shut up about it.

The movie is cast and Mike and Bryan are not upset about it. They have expressed nothing but praise upon the film and if it is good enough for them everyone else should chill out. You aren’t accomplishing anything (except making the public relations department work overtime at Paramount). Seriously! What are you accomplishing. They aren’t going to reshoot the film. They aren’t going to recast the main actors for the second film (if they are smart). Let the issue rest! Troublemakers.

“Also the movie IS going to have a ton of Variety and Diversity of ethnic groups which goes completely against your side of the argument.”

That doesn’t go against his argument at all. I’m not sure you read the blog if you think it does.

To clear up something, when I said, “First you say that it is a diverse group of asians in the cartoon and then you turn around and admit that they are Inuit and Native Americans are not asians! Besides this, there is a large number of caucasian inhabitants. The race bending issue is annoying. I wish people would shut up about it, ” I meant that you said that the watertribes were Inuit and Native American, not the entire list of characters…

Great interview. I’m glad to find out Night will keep the essence of the different nations forms for the movie. That was actually pretty high on my wish list.

I personally find the racebending issue to be detracting from the movie as a whole. For those who are unfamiliar about the issue it boils down to this:

A group of people are mad because the 3 leads for this project are the “wrong” color. Shyamalan cast the best actor he could for a role then cast the entire nation of that character around the race of the actor for the role.

Oh and for what it’s worth here’s the racial breakdown.

Water Tribe:Northern Water Tribe = European, Southern Water Tribe = Iniuit.
Earth Kingdom: Asian and African.
Fire Nation: Middle Eastern
Air Nomads:Mixture of all other races.

The Earth Kingdom will dominate the second movie so expect to see the majority of people in that movie be a mixture of Asian and African.

For those of you unfailing with the show you may be interested to check it out based on the forms. They just didn’t animate them just punching and kicking.

The forms were as follows:

Water Bending was based on Tai Chi.
Earth Bending was based on Hung Gar.
Fire Bending was based on Northern Shaolin.
Air Bending was based on Ba Gua.

The animators truly did animate genuine martial arts forms for the different nations. The waterbending fight between Katara and Master Pakku was excellent and a highlight of Season One. The waterbending Tai-Chi Master Pakku vs the powerful yet untrained Katara was a gem of the series.

Other highlights where real forms were animated:

Zuko’s fire duel against Zhao.
Katara’s duel against Zuko.
Aang vs King Bumi
Aang’s airbending as a collective whole.

This movie takes place on a world similiar to the size of earth. There are many diffrent races in the world, and diffrent races can travel mix and blend, or not. The race issue is dead. The movie will be excellent. M. Night will direct the next two and it will be a smash with a cult following. (why complain) what we should be talking about is how are we going to get more than 3 movies out of this. We are going to need more than 3!

@MissThang56

It was about changing the cast back when they hadn’t started filming yet, now it’s mostly about a boycott and spreading the word. Quite frankly, if we’re not allowed to make trouble when something is going on that we honestly feel should not be, we may as well not leave our rooms or vote for anything ever again.

Also, refer to my earlier (very long) comment:

Mike and Bryan gave a generic compliment to the very first trailer with the candles, and that has been the extent of their praise thus far. But, since they’re under non-disclosure agreements, I find it very odd that though they are not barred from promoting the movie, they haven’t done so to high heaven if they’re honestly fine with it. The only other thing is that Bryan said he had nothing to do with the casting.

Also, that’s why I’ve been constantly saying Inuit and East Asian. But if you wanna start getting complicated: One, Inuit and Native American people have more in common, ancestry-wise, with Asians. At the same time, those same groups extend all the way from parts of Mongolia and Siberia, all the way to Greenland. For the rest of the problems with the Inuit idea, you can read mine, or some of the other comments.

That said, even if you don’t buy into the whole deal where the Inuit are closer to Asians than they are to Europeans, why does it matter that a people were modeled after a group that technically didn’t reside in Asia? Avatar in general was specifically modeled to be an Asian fantasy with primary focus on China, but it didn’t stop them from going to other places to model their characters around, once again actually adding authentic cultural artifacts to make sure their world wasn’t just some generic fantasy, but one that had the touch of real-world recognition to it.

@art

You know, I always hear, “The second movie focuses on the Earth Kingdom” so, so often, but let’s play another game, here.

So, how many Earth Kingdom characters can we expect to see? Bumi was cut from the movie, and Jet wasn’t introduced in this one, so that leaves:

Toph Bei Fong: Actress will presumably be Asian, since M. Night said so. The first non-white, non-exotic love interest that could be added to my list of heros/protagonists important enough to actually get a name.

Earth King Kuei: Actor could be presumably be Asian or African, not sure, they haven’t said. With that in mind, make sure you remember that he’s a naive, ineffective figurehead and the *real* threat is:

Long Feng and his Dai Li agents: A character and an entire group that can be added to the bad guy team, presumably made up of Africans and Asians.

Also you get Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee added to that same list, so three Fire Nation antagonists to make up for Iroh not being an outright antagonist anymore.

So what does that leave us?

All seven of the protagonists and heroes from the previous movie are still white, but they’ll start getting one of the antagonists to join their team, and three of them would take his place as the villains. So to be a named hero/protagonist in this story, you’re white, unless you’re a previous or current love interest for Jackson Rathbone, a useless monarch, a repentant old man who’s seen the error of his and his nation’s ways, or Toph.

Meanwhile, if you’re an antagonist you’re from somewhere in the world, nowhere specific, with the only unifying feature being your slightly darker skin color, oh but you might also be Asian, that too.

And if you aren’t a bad guy, but you’re still not important? Asian (or African! Yay for diversity for the nameless.)

(I also wonder about that whole “Middle Eastern” thing. They have Padogas and samurai looking armor with Chinese weapons, and Cliff Curtis said his outfit has Greek, Chinese, and Japanese elements in it. Makes you wonder if the Fire Nation was Indian or Middle Eastern, or if they just tossed together every last thing they could think of without any regard to consistency. Meanwhile, the Fire Naiton of the show was pretty much Tang Dynasty China to a “T.”)

So, of all the people that the Earth Kingdom would introduce, the only one who isn’t a villain, or uselessly in need of saving is Toph Bei Fong. Yay…tokenism? And considering how weepy and wallflowery Peltz is laying Katara out in this movie, I get the feeling she won’t quite be the same little bundle of ball-busting she should be, either.

For that matter, here’s one thing I’ve been wondering…how the *hell* are they doing to deal with the three separate times somebody in the show takes on a different identity and hides themselves inside another Nation? If Azula and her group aren’t Asian or African, why the hell would a Kyoshi Warrior disguise be effective at all, when they sneak into Ba Sing Se? You’ve seen the screencaps, they’re just little red lines under their eyes, the heavier makeup is gone, and even when it wasn’t, they weren’t arrested immediately when they took it off. How will Patel and Toub, as Zuko and Iroh, hide themselves among the Earth Kingdom citizens? How will Ringer, Peltz, Rathbone, and the thus far hypothetical Toph actress hide themselves in the Fire Nation being two lily-white kids, a fully grown Caucasian man, and an Asian girl?

Maybe *this* is why they shouldn’t have deviated from the whole Inuit/Asian fantasy world. At least the kids would have had a *chance* as passing off as somebody from another nation. I’m not implying that all Asians or Inuits look alike, but we do have to at least admit to ourselves that in a pinch, they can probably pass off as somebody from another country for a little while, if they tried. It would have been like a French person impersonating a British one. Now, they may well have to re-write major plot lines when they started to matter more and follow a less stand-alone episodic narrative come time for the second season.

@Sharkman

In all honesty I’m sick of the issue surrounding the cast of the crew being beaten to death. Again, it all boils down to one thing. A handful of fans are mad that the 3 main characters are white. The majority of the fans simply don’t care and even members of the the cast are cool with it. Shaun Toub even went on record as saying he ENJOYS it this way because he feels an all Asian cast would have been stereotypical of the subject matter so he’s glad it’s not an all Asian cast.

All I’ll say is this: If Toph is a “token” then she was a token in the original series as well since that’s who she’ll be based on.

You don’t know how Katara will be portrayed since you haven’t seen the movie. If you think she’s all weepy then that’s how she was directed by Night. Oh and an Asian would have been all weepy as well since she would have been directed the same way (then you guys would be complaining about that). An actor does what a director tells them too. If Night tells her to look like she’s about to blow someone away that’s what she’ll do. If he tells her to look all weepy then that’s what she’ll do.

The racebending movement is coming off as the most racist aspect of this entire “debate”. When you strip away all the crap and fluff from the arguments all you are left with is “we don’t want these people playing these roles because they are the wrong color.” All the discord is fired off from the same handful of people with the same tired base argument. Katara, Sokka and Aang are the “wrong” color. There is no injustice being fought, there is no “raising of awareness” and “equality of casting” or “yellowfacing” (because *gasp* they are not trying to be Asian. They are being portrayed as actual Europeans in a fictional world with an Asian influence).

3 people in a fictional movie based on a fictional cartoon show are the “wrong” color in the eyes of a handful of fans and they won’t stop complaining about it. That’s literally it. Nothing more and nothing less.

I swear this is the absolute last thing I’ll ever say about this dead horse because I’m SICK of it.

Can we please talk about the movie now or at the very least this interview rather than this tired topic?

“Can we please talk about the movie now or at the very least this interview rather than this tired topic?”

No. Hollywood has been pulling this schtick for nearly a century and this adaptation was the final straw for a LOT of people. This movie was a great opportunity to break a glass ceiling that was in place for decades and the production not only “dropped the ball”, it ran the “ball” over with a monster truck with its casting policies and inept Public Relations on all fronts.

And now I’ll copy-paste an argument I’d used before. Heck, I’ll even start it with a few of the things off the protest’s website:

–an all Asian cast would have been stereotypical of the subject matter–

“Casting actors who are white to play characters of color does not protect people of color from discrimination or stereotypes.”

Nice and succinct. I’d have copy-pasted my longer reply, but I think I’ll at least try to stay brief, rather than toss out an essay this time.

When you shove actors of one race to portray members of another, you’ll end up with cultural appropriation, and one of two messages. If you do it clumsily and with stereotypes, you’re in essence mocking entire ethnic groups. If you do your research and present it with the intention of authenticity, you imply that you really like the culture, but the people behind it aren’t as important, or perhaps, undesired.

Also, it’s just a bit hard to be a “token” character when the entire world and the people in it are East Asian or Inuit out the wazoo.

Also, let me copy-paste just a few more segments from the protest movement’s site:
“Our issue is not with the actors selected, but with the production, which did not think children of color were suitable to play in a movie based on their own cultures. We will, however, hold adult actors accountable for culturally insensitive statements, such as Jackson Rathbone’s assertion that he would get “a tan” to play Sokka, a person of color.”

As well as:

“By writing “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” on the casting sides for the lead roles, the production made their preference for Caucasian actors to play PoC clear from the beginning. (Normally when ethnicity is left open-ended, casting sides read “Any Ethnicity.”)

Jackson Rathbone and Jesse McCartney (the production’s first selection for Zuko) may be considered great thespians, but there are equally talented actors of color. When the production says these actors are “the best for the role” they are also reinforcing an appropriative glass ceiling. We believe Hollywood could have cast this film without reinforcing the glass ceiling, using equally talented actors of color. If in Hollywood, actors who are white are considered “the best” to represent people of color, then where does that leave actors of color?

70% of speaking roles in Hollywood go to male actors. 82% of lead roles in Hollywood go to actors who are white. This is not because they were always casting for the best actor and the best actor always happens to be white and male. This is because of discriminatory bias and not because women and people of color cannot act. ”

And that’s about how I feel. I don’t mind the actors themselves, but I absolutely hate that the production prioritized Caucasian actors first and foremost before any others and in defiance of the original source material’s origins.

We might have complained about the movie before, but rest assured, it wouldn’t have warranted a protest movement. Disliking changes in an adaptation is just a *wee* bit different than being morally offended by discriminatory casting.

You’re all being quite riddiculous! Stop caring about race because we’re all human here! Also, you are racist if you make rude comments about Indians not being fit for roles. Have you not heard of Bollywood?! True, I am a white girl, but I am not racist. EVERYONE should have the opportunity to act if they’re equipped and love to do so. Skin color matters not– PERIORD!

“The greatest illusion is the illusion of seperation.” – Guru Patik in The Guru (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

SHARKMAN:
LOL! You’re a bit behind, hon.

Jordan Hoffman with UGO.com was contacted recently by The Last Airbender producer Frank Marshall, to clarify the insensitive casting calls, and the race of the characters in general.

“agree[s] that this casting notice was poorly worded and offensive. However, it was not written nor distributed by the production, or the studio, but by a local extra casting entity that did not consult with either. “Ultimately, we all take responsibility for not doing a more thorough job monitoring these frequently used third-party agents and Paramount has since been in regular dialogue with Asian American advocacy groups including the Japanese American Citizens League and the Media Action Network for Asian Americans to ensure that such a mistake does not happen in the future.”

Marshall also produced the original casting breakdowns as they were first made available.

You also need to catch up a bit, it seems.

The Media Action Network for Asian Americans fired back that they haven’t kept a word of any of their promises thus far, even though they’ve screened the movie and had a catered breakfast with members of lastairbenderfans.com. And yet, still no “regular dialogue.” The meeting Marshall is referring to is a meeting that took place months ago, brought about by protest over the movie “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,” not Airbender, even if some of the protest’s leaders helped with the protest against *that* movie.

They were promised an exclusive screen of the film, and another meeting with the CEO (who wasn’t CEO at the time of the casting calls, for what it’s worth) and the promise that this would be avoided in the future, and nothing has come forward thus far.

That said, you do realize that Frank Marshall a year ago on his Twitter said that casting was finished and that they didn’t discriminate? Do you also realize that the MANAA and the East West Players both contacted paramount months before filming began to try and discuss the casting, and brought up the issue of the casting call, only getting a generic message back, months later (two months after filming started, by the way) saying that the movie was very diverse and not to worry?

Marshall and Paramount knew about it for months, and they’re only trying damage control *now* because news of the controversy has reached places like UGO and the LA Times.

A few other things to consider is that the wording went out through every outlet, even the now defunct website they used to promote the casting call, (the domain was owned by Paramount, by the way.) Why did nobody catch this sooner? Who thought it would be a good idea to write it this way, and why did they disseminate it through a local extra casting company when this was for the *main characters?*

If Marshall is willing to stretch the truth regarding the production’s meetings with the MANAA and the JACL, I’m willing to make the logic jump that he’s stretching the truth regarding the casting calls as well.

(If he isn’t outright lying.)

@ Sharkman, Someguy45,

Inuit and Native American people have more in common, ancestry-wise, with Asians. At the same time, those same groups extend all the way from parts of Mongolia and Siberia, all the way to Greenland.”

Having things in common, does not make them asian.

Has it occured to you that you are only helping promote the movie? People go to see films that are subversive and are surrounded by controversy. Sure many may boycott it but you are really just making the film much more interesting to many others. Negative publicity sells tickets too. Your boycot isn’t accomplishing anything either. Which is part of what I meant. Actually you are helping to sell the film. Sure, you are doing it in an annoying way but perhaps paramount should thank you for the added publicity.

It is getting old though. Make all the trouble you want. It sells tickets… the few butts that aren’t in the theatres because of your propaganda will not outweigh those that are. Many want to see it because of the controversy.

“People go to see films that are subversive and are surrounded by controversy.”

That only applies to the subject matter of the movie. See: Passion of The Christ, Eyes Wide Shut, Natural Born Killers, Brokeback Mountain, and the like.

The controversy surrounding this film concerns the production and the productions terrible public relations that managed to split a built-in fanbase. The subject matter is not controversial.

@MissThang56

Which is why I always say Inuit/Native American and East Asian, because those two groups are the ones they modeled the people of the series after.

By the way, Siberia is a huge area in Asia that holds everything from Russians to Mongolians to local groups. Still, the world is, quoting the Intellectual Property Bible “an ancient, fantastical Asian environment, primarily Chinese.”

As well as a side note:

“We generally do not show signs or writing in the show. If there needs to be a sign, it should be in Chinese with the proper translation, accompanied by subtitles.”

(Though they never showed subtitles.)

Source: http://www.racebending.com/v3/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ipbible.pdf

I know it’s hosted on the protest movement’s website, but that’s the actual Intellectual Property Bible, which lays out very basic ideas and rules for a show.

That said “Many want to see it because of the controversy?”

Sorry, but this isn’t a Sacha Baron Cohen movie, this isn’t the kind of controversy that can lead to improved ticket sales.

Controversy leads to ticket sales/good publicity under one or more of these three conditions: when it’s funny, sexy, or intentionally done to grab attention.

If a restaurant was making headlines because it served scorpions and bugs, or something we’re unused to in terms of our typical palette, that’s good publicity. Everybody wants to say they ate at the bug place, at least to try it, or they’re curious. Some might say to try judging the place on it’s own merits before making a decision about it.

But I don’t think a restaurant making headlines because it’s refusing to hire or serve blacks gets the same treatment. “You wanna eat at that one place?” “Hell no, there are better places to be.” “I don’t know, it probably has good food, maybe we should eat there before making a judgment?”

Do you see why that sounds a bit off?

As for “intentional,” look at Passion of the Christ or any Sacha Baron Cohen movie.

And for a mix of intentional and sexy (depending on your definition of sexy), Paris Hilton’s infamous video is a perfect example.

But this? This is something that the studio doesn’t want, something they’re defending against, it’s not particularly funny or sexy. Hell, none of the controversy is a part of the actual movie itself, how is it supposed to bank off this?

Most people I bring this up to, who have an inkling of the show, tend to look confused or think something’s wrong with it at best. Unless the human tendency about hearing a movie that pushed Asian actors to the wayside is “haha, those dumb Asians, let’s go check this movie out!” or something equally unrealistic.

Oh, and if the producers weren’t concerned about the controversy, Frank Marshall wouldn’t have been playing Fireman and making a statement to UGO.

They a-scared.

@MissThang56.

‘Has it occured to you that you are only helping promote the movie? People go to see films that are subversive and are surrounded by controversy. Sure many may boycott it but you are really just making the film much more interesting to many others. Negative publicity sells tickets too. ‘

If that were the case, then Paramount wouldn’t be making such an effort to stave off these claims of racial discrimination. It would not have to keep defending itself from these criticisms from numerous groups like MANAA (Media Action Network for Asian-Americans) East West Players and racebending. Plus a whole host of other concerned fans, parents, teachers, professors, industry professionals and insiders are decrying this film and

While controversy certainly can generate interest, it does NOT always = profit. Case in point ‘The Golden Compass’. It was certainly controversial in regards to themes of atheism and anti-Christian themes. People went to see it and in the end, reviews were very mixed. From Wiki:

‘Overseas rights to the film were sold to fund the $180 million production budget for the film, so most of these profits did not go to New Line, though they gained considerably by selling the foreign rights, and 60% of the film’s budget was already recouped by the film’s release; by the time the film had earned a global box office of $330 million in March 2008, it was estimated that the decision had cost New Line 75% of the film’s return.’

In short, despite the controversy surrounding the film and despite having stunning special effects, it ended up being a financial loss for New Line Cinema. So no, controversy does NOT always equal profit, as New Line discovered.

While it may gain attention and interest, in this case I believe it will have the OPPOSITE effect. People curious about the controversy will most likely first do a comparison between the animated series and the film. Such a comparison between the animated and their live-action counterparts will certainly raise enough eyebrows and bring into question whether the casting was motivated by discrimination, in that the belief that studio’s think White=safe and profitable vs. POC= risky and questionable profit. Given these alternatives, studios will almost always take the ‘safe’ route.

Doing that, people will come to their own conclusions, however, general consensus seems to err on the side that questions ‘if they weren’t faithful to the character’s ethnicity in the original series, what ELSE was changed?’ (while people expect changes for film adaptions, this is something too clearly up-front and obvious to be simply overlooked). And given that M. night’s name is attached to this film and given the box office failure of his last THREE films, many people will not be too eager to line up to see this, having been let down by him before and weary of his ‘twists’.

@Murph

“That only applies to the subject matter of the movie. See: Passion of The Christ, Eyes Wide Shut, Natural Born Killers, Brokeback Mountain, and the like.”

That’s not true. People hear that some aspect of production is causing an uproar and it elevates curiosity. It elevates curiosity in similar ways that subject matter does. There have been studies. And this “racebending” publicity, however negative it may be raises curiosity and people respond to it. In the 80s, PR firms used to create controversy around certain products on purpose (this probably didn’t stop in the eightys) and many times it had nothing to do with the subject matter. For example, I have a friend who agrees with all of this “racebending” propaganda and she wants to see it simply to rip it to shreds. Do you think Paramount cares that she isn’t going to enjoy it? Not really, because it is money in their pockets. This is someone who AGREES. Now, I don’t suspect this is the majority because I know many refuse to see it because of this but those who do not feel the same way have gotten a lot more exposure than they would have without the racebending controversy and the controversy only fuels the desire to see it. It doesn’t have a thing to do with the subject matter…

I heard about the film from one of those Aang Aint White Tshirts and that made me look into the movie and I even watched all of the episodes on the show. It’s the movie I most want to see this summer. So it is getting the word out. I don’t want to see it because of the controversy, but it is what brought it to my attention and I’m a fan now.

“For example, I have a friend who agrees with all of this “racebending” propaganda and she wants to see it simply to rip it to shreds.”

If your friend truly agreed with the “racebending propaganda” she would refuse to contribute any of her dollars to the movie’s boxoffice, which is whole *point* of the movement in the first place.

“Now, I don’t suspect this is the majority because I know many refuse to see it because of this but those who do not feel the same way have gotten a lot more exposure than they would have without the racebending controversy and the controversy only fuels the desire to see it. It doesn’t have a thing to do with the subject matter…”

Dragonall: Evolution had a similar casting controversy to TLA’ and it was an utter box office bomb.

@Sharkman, Murph, and anyone who is a racebender

So tell us again simply, you all know for a fact the casting was morally wrong how?

MissThang56 is your friend going to pay to see it or just snick-in to see it? I hope she is smart enough to not give her money to paramount.
In my case, I will see the movie but I will be giving my money to some other movie.

@Murph

“Dragonall: Evolution had a similar casting controversy to TLA’ and it was an utter box office bomb.”

Logical Falicy… there is no way to prove that the reason it bombed is because of the controversy… that movie sucked. That probably had something to do with it.

@MissThang56
Yeah, but “Dragonall: Evolution was a cheesy adaptation that everyone was gonna hate regardless. The Last Airbender is a “fully realised” adaptation of a very popular American franchise. Yeah I said it AMERICAN.
Are we forgetting that this is based on a cartoon. A cartoon that uses Chibi (ちび and Super Deformed characters for humor. 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.

@Jeremyx7, I completely agree with the one race thing you stated however historically there still is this biased institution in Hollywood. Hollywood needs more diversity, which ethnically and physically it doesn’t have. People should be represented right. I think we all can agree that the foundation of the show was eastern influenced. Once we see that I think becomes easier to see what would’ve been the best choice. I would have loved to see a movie filled with a diverse world. But given the way they casted this film makes me question what were they thinking. don’t you? it stinks because majority of the good guys are of “Euro descent” and bad guys of other. We still have this mindset in our culture that light is the hero where as darker not so much. How can we get over that when majority of the films we watch shows that? its tough. I think that’s why a lot of people protest about these things. I hate this division of skin color but I believe if we want to get rid of it we must recognize it’s there. It has been there for years guys, and its a process to get over it. But I believe we can do it we have to right the wrong for our lives and the generations to come. I think more roles should be open for different ethnic peoples even the roles that depict there own ancestors culture. I realize why people are pro TLA and anti TLA but it comes down to how we look at our worlds past, present and future. The media effects our lives as well as our lives effects the media.

ugh all you racebending people need to backc off, if you dont want to watch the movie, then dont watch it. 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. just back off and stop being so annoying. you guys are so ignorant, if you want to see a movie with only asians, become a director and make your own asian dominated movie , good luck. THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO ROCK, IM TELLING ALL MY FRIENDS TO GO WATCH IT, IMA WATCH IT AT MIDNIGHT WITH SOME FRIENDS THAT ARE FANS OF THE SHOW, AND THEN IMA WATCH IT ON THE WEEKEND JUST WITH FRIENDS THAT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A:TLA IS BUT AT LEAST THEY’LL PAY FOR THE MOVIE , THIS MOVIE LOOKS AWESOME AND SO FAR, IT IS VERY VERY VERY SIMILAR TO THE SHOW

Simple. If you don’t want to see the movie and don’t support it, then don’t see it at all.

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