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A few days ago during that big sports event thingy some Americans watch every year, there was a new teaser for the Last Airbender movie.
I have to say, I was sceptical at first, but this looks like it could really, really work.

What big sports thingy are you talking about. The only really big sports thingy this month hasn't happened yet.

OMG! HE IS A TIME TRAVELLER! MARTHA GET MY GUN!

Nice, it looks good.
One of my worries was that the Special effects wouldn't be very good, but that trailer has sated fears.

I really love the cartoon, but I am torn about going to see the movie. While it looks awesome in the trailers I don't know if I can support the decision to cast only one non-white character and cast him as the villain.

For a show with major cultural themes this seems like a huge slap in the face.

Anung Un Rama wrote:A few days ago during that big sports event thingy some Americans watch every year, there was a new teaser for the Last Airbender movie.
I have to say, I was sceptical at first, but this looks like it could really, really work.

The. . . the probowl? I don't know what you're talking about.

Clthomps wrote:I really love the cartoon, but I am torn about going to see the movie. While it looks awesome in the trailers I don't know if I can support the decision to cast only one non-white character and cast him as the villain.

For a show with major cultural themes this seems like a huge slap in the face.

I haven't given that much thought, but you got a point there. Still, the Guy they casted as Zuko is the best of the bunch from what I've seen and he's not really that much of a "villian" anyway.

He is for 85% of the series. Also the fact that they changed the water nation from Inuit to Norwegian really chaps me, it was like he wanted to find more ways to squeeze WASPs in.

Clthomps wrote:He is for 85% of the series. Also the fact that they changed the water nation from Inuit to Norwegian really chaps me, it was like he wanted to find more ways to squeeze WASPs in.

You mean like casting a white guy as a Tibetan-esque monk? Hell, this movie has coined a new term: Racebending.

It's a shame, because the Animation was, without a doubt, the best piece of work I have seen come out of an American Studio. In Fact, it is one of the (very) few series I have invested in buying the DVD releases. That is how much it impressed me.

I am guessing the change to the Water Tribes is because they need to market this to Americans to make a profit, and since we all know what 99% of Americans are like... (hey, don't blame me for the stereotype!) the producers probably thought that the American Audience they are trying to sell it too won't know what an Inuit is.

I think this the first time I ever agreed 100% with a post by Gwar!

hmm m night shamalamdingdong? i wonder what the twist will be?

"The only movie you're staring in is the one where you lose, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and the plot twist is, you're adopted!"

"By the way, I may be adopted, but at least I don't live with my Grandpa!"

The last airbender...isn't that the show about the anime cailou with the arrows on his head?

Can someone definitively say that the cartoons weren't white? I bet the (white) creators could--and they have not. This is a pathetic thing to get angry about.

Also, the trailer does not look good.

Not "white" (White meaning Caucasian).

How is she not white?

Manchu wrote:How is she not white?

Well for one, her skin?

I guess you don't see many tan girls in Ireland?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The only indication that any one in Avatar was not white was their name. But given that the entire story takes place in a world that is entirely fictional--with the exception of the inclusion of Chinese characters--that really isn't so determinative. It seems to me that the characters were drawn in an intentionally ambiguous way. If you want to see Asian, you can see Asian (like how Japanese people see Japanese when they look at anime characters). I suspect, however, that the characters could have been drawn in a way that made their ethnicities perfectly clear. Of course, this might have been damaging to the animated series' performance.

The Racebending group is laughable. The fact that they refer to "faces of color" is only the most obvious tell. Apparently they have never heard of Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Wesley Snipes, etc . . . I don't blame anyone who isn't American for not getting this kind of Civil Right piggy-backing (the gays do it all the damn time) but even so the idea that this a "need to be mad about something" organization should be pretty apparent otherwise.

To be honest, it doesn't bother me that much.
Michael Clark Duncan as Kingpin was the best thing about the Daredevil movie.

Or is that a false comparison because they changed him from caucasian to afro-american?

I dunno, i was kinda pissed they made Kingpin black..

Lets be honest, no comic book loving man can say with a stright face that ANYTHING was good about the daredevil movie.. BEN AFFLECK?!!

Well, you gotta admit, the way they portrayed his radar sense was pretty good. And Clark Duncan was good at what he did. Bullseye was amusing. Sometimes.

But Affleck was bad, I agree with that. And Garner as well.

nothing is as bad as what they did to Dr. Doom

Deadpool.

Deadpool was servicable; Doom was not even close

At least Doom was still an evil guy with a metal face wearing a green bathrobe. Deadpool was rejected Mortal Kombat concept art.

At least Deadpool had the correct personality and backstory.

I think this could go on all day, so I'll just stop at this and agree with you that Doom was indeed aweful.

Can someone definitively say that the cartoons weren't white? I bet the (white) creators could--and they have not. This is a pathetic thing to get angry about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBda7b9tRdk&feature=player_embedded

Can you show me an example of a movie were Hollywood changed a main character to be Asian, Black, or Native? Make sure you find an example were they don't change a villain just so whitey can stomp Mr. Minority.

So your telling be that you wouldn't be angry if you had a 8 year old Native american child who grew up watching Avatar, and was really excited to see the movie, but then found out that the only show with a positive representation of your culture has been striped for marketing?

Of what about an asian child? You go to watch the movie and you see an amazing culture that shadows your own, but alas white people are there instead of someone you can relate to, and they are doing it better. Ok lets try to find an Asian role model.... searching..... searching... Oh theres an Asian boy! Wait hes whinny, aggressive, and everyone hates him (even his own crew)...



If you can't find reasons people would be upset, then you are living in the middle of white bread america, are upper middle class, and oblivious.

Manchu wrote:At least Deadpool had the correct personality and backstory.

But he shot laser beams out of his fething eyes!

Clthomps wrote:If you can't find reasons people would be upset, then you are living in the middle of white bread america, are upper middle class, and oblivious.

And am in the target audience for Avatar. Bravo. (Although I do appreciate your attempt to conflate being white with being stupid.)

Your youtube video would be a good retort--to the totally ridiculous claim that there was no Asian influence on the art of Avatar which no one has made. While we're analyzing your logic, what does it matter that a white character be replaced with a black or Asian one? Would that somehow make what you think is going on with the Last Airbender better? I would guess not . . . so that leaves me wondering what your point is. Are you trying to clue me in that mainstream media in the US caters to white people. Hurr durr, thanks for the insight. Furthermore, by demanding I provide such an example you're trying to rope me into acknowledging that race/ethnicity is a valid parameter of discussion in this instance and that there is in fact a "controversy" to begin with. I don't think that race matters here and I don't think there is a "controversy" at all. I think we have in the show ambiguous animation that is meant to capture the attention of white children predominately and whoever else additionally (like all mainstream media, professor) through the use of pretty generic Asian images. I think what we have in the movie is the unsurprising, amoral issue of casting white children in parts that could as easily be white as any other ethnicity.

Manchu wrote:

Clthomps wrote:If you can't find reasons people would be upset, then you are living in the middle of white bread america, are upper middle class, and oblivious.

And am in the target audience for Avatar. Bravo. (Although I do appreciate your attempt to conflate being white with being stupid.)

Your youtube video would be a good retort--to the totally ridiculous claim that there was no Asian influence on the art of Avatar which no one has made. While we're analyzing your logic, what does it matter that a white character be replaced with a black or Asian one? Would that somehow make what you think is going on with the Last Airbender better? I would guess not . . . so that leaves me wondering what your point is. Are you trying to clue me in that mainstream media in the US caters to white people. Hurr durr, thanks for the insight. Furthermore, by demanding I provide such an example you're trying to rope me into acknowledging that race/ethnicity is a valid parameter of discussion in this instance and that there is in fact a "controversy" to begin with. I don't think that race matters here and I don't think there is a "controversy" at all. I think we have in the show ambiguous animation that is meant to capture the attention of white children predominately and whoever else additionally (like all mainstream media, professor) through the use of pretty generic Asian images. I think what we have in the movie is the unsurprising, amoral issue of casting white children in parts that could as easily be white as any other ethnicity.

Well seeing as you are eight to ten, I will chalk this one up to you not having enough world experience to make a valid judgement on racism. Maybe if you ask your parents about what children's shows of there generation were like and contrast them to Avatar you might get a feeling of why there IS a controversy.

Manchu wrote: I don't think that race matters here and I don't think there is a "controversy" at all.

Definition of controversy: "A dispute, especially a public one, between sides holding opposing views." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/controversy

Are you saying that there is no dispute between sides holding opposing views?



http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-primer/

You don't think it's disconcerting at all that the casting call for the main three heroic characters are all white children, while the rest of the Waterbending tribe was primarily cast with Inuits from Greenland, or that the Fire Nation has been cast almost exclusively with actors of color? http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-primer/#extras

While we're analyzing your logic, what does it matter that a white character be replaced with a black or Asian one? Would that somehow make what you think is going on with the Last Airbender better?

The point is that no one ever replaces a white character with an actor of color (unless that character is a villain), but no one thinks anything of replacing a character of color with a white actor because that makes it more acceptable for "mainstream America," which is becoming less and less white everyday. I would like my children to grow up in a world where they get to see characters of all colors and cultures as the heroes of their stories, and where they get to see actors of all colors and cultures representing those characters.

Modern America and the current generation of parents/almost parents has the best chance ever to make this happen. Shouldn't we be fighting for it?