Comments on: The Last Airbender gets cast of unknowns

By: whitney

whitney — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:54:47 +0000

i think that it should appear exactly like the animated version as much a possible for the young viewers.

By: me

me — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:07:51 +0000

this movie is gonna effin suck. i know it.

By: Thegirl

Thegirl — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 06:42:50 +0000

F them all

By: Stivie

Stivie — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:30:44 +0000

Ok just thought I would have to throw my opinion in on this, because it is really bugging me now.

I dont get why you fans are complaining about the Avatar cast, sure SOME of the are white, and the others are not, yes the show was based alot in asian CULTURE, but you have to take your head out of the ground and think about this little nigget of info you people forget…M.Night isnt the only person on this project, the creators of the show are on bored with it as well, they helped choose the cast, I dont think its right to place all of this on M.Night.

Also as a little side note, I dont get why you people must bash M.Night for his movies, I personally liked most of them (the village sucked I admit it), you guys got no right to talk about what movies are good and what are not, when crap like Highschool Musical and Twilight are “smash hits”…also if M.Nights movies truly sucked I dont get why he is able to keep making more.

By: Stivie

Stivie — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:30:44 +0000

Ok just thought I would have to throw my opinion in on this, because it is really bugging me now.

By: C.J.

C.J. — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:14:02 +0000

Even though this is late...I have one thing to say.

This might be next year's

DRAGON

BALL

EVOLUTION

Godforbid.

By: tamiikahrae

tamiikahrae — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:26:10 +0000

I am a 27 yr old woman who watches Avatar. i got hook from my best friends son n husband. i am also afro american. the casting for the movie is beyond ridiculus. i am SOOOOO upset that my man sokka is not going to be portrayed as the sokka i’ve been watching. just by hearing and seeing the cast memebers is making me wonder if the humor that the cartoon brings is gonna be there? the movie show be in the origanal format cartoon or at least something like Shreks animation. but over all they made a VERY BAD DECISION and i hope they fix it before its too late

By: koyoru

koyoru — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:51:41 +0000

Did anyone notice that Jesse McCartney had to back out? Dev Patel is now playing Zuko. This doesn’t seem to be a bad casting from my view, because at least he’s not white. And the girl cast for Suki seems to look pretty good for the role. Otherwise, I agree, the casting sucks.

By: Skybender

Skybender — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:42:32 +0000

First off, I agree with the points made by all the above, about racially motivated casting. It’s a sad truth that many producers,investors, directors and the rest of the Hollywood ilk believes that white people can sell anything. In Japan, the basic Anime has a ‘white-washed look to their characters, due to the fact that the Japanese believed that Asian=looking cartoons would only sell in their own homeland. In order to gain universal appeal, they leaned more so to European features, allowing them to distribute to their discriminating world audience.
Some believe that Disney played a big influence on the large eyes…but the point being is that the main people in their stories were Asian, but with a little ambiguity and ‘tip-o-the-hat’ to Europe, mainly to Germany.
Now, Hollywood is guilty of two major things: first, they don’t believe that non-white actors can sustain a movie, series or show. They think that everyone will be offended or threatened by a strong ethnic lead, be it male or female. Second: they also don’t think that there is an ‘ethnic audience’ or enough of us to make a financial dent to justify an Ethnic cast. If you look on the UPN or similar networks, the shows with a Black or Hispanic or even those rare Asian shows, there always has to be a tolken ‘white person’ to even things out or bring in the white viewers. I can cite many shows and movies that were accused of being ‘too black’ or ‘too ethnic for a white audience.’
On the general whole, we don’t count, unless we are just ‘comedy relief’.
As far as the creators of Avatar are concerned, Nickelodeon owns Aang and crew, and they are not well known for contractual fairness. Just ask Johnen Vasquez about ‘Invader Zim’ to know what I’m talking about. If you think about it, It could be the ‘powers that be Nickelodeon’ who had the final say of a predominately white cast, after all, Native American (which I am also partly)Asian and Hispanic audiences don’t exist, according to the rumors. Personally, I want a good movie. If whites can come across and make me believe that they are who they are supposed to be, then I’ll be a happy camper. Besides, they can do amazing things with make-up and CGI, look at Joel Grey in the movie Remo Williams: the adventure begins, which could either make or break my point…you decide.

By: Annoyed

Annoyed — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:36:29 +0000

I think there should be a law that says Hollywood should stay away from anime. They always whitewash the main lead, if not the WHOLE cast, just for the sake of American television. Seriously, they’re not interested in preserving any sense of culture, if anyone were to really think about it. Well, more like, “I’m okay with the whole non-American scene…as long as the main’s a caucasian.” I mean, look at Forbidden Kingdom! And Dragonball! They cast a chinese girl as Android 18, when obviously a causasian woman would be more suitable (I mean, COME ON! Blue eyes, blonde hair? Is that so hard?); and Goku with a dark-haired non-asian guy. What’s up with that?!

Avatar is probably just an opportunity for them to have an all-out martial art action film with white people doing fancy – though probably not accurate – kung fu. I doubt that they’ll get Noah Ringer to even learn the basics of Ba Gua, so he can ACTUALLY pass it off. Even in an asian martial art film like “Ip man”, a veteran martial artist like Donnie Yen, had to learn Wing Chun first before playing his part as Ip Man – a GRANDMASTER in the art. It’s not, “Ah, he knows martial art for decades! Who cares if it’s not the right one? No one’s gonna know.” It’s just downright disrespectful.

Who seriously thinks Hollywood will bother with that? Seriously?

Martial art is martial art is martial art.

THAT’S probably what they think.

By: Heather M. Glover

Heather M. Glover — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:06:44 +0000

Sorry guys. I know that the quote is a bit off; but I tried to remember it strictly from memory. I think I did a pretty good job though….

By: Heather M. Glover

Heather M. Glover — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:42:11 +0000

I just finished re-watching The Avatar again for the 6th time. I can honestly say: IT NEVER GETS OLD. This series will by far go down as a favorite american classic. I’m actually astounded as to how good it actually was and the depth and intensity that DiMartino, Ehasz and Konietzko put into it. They do get a 2 thumbs up from me; but I am thoroughly upset that they can let such a blatant disrespect for their franchise to be wrought. I certainly understand everyones reasons for being against the movie. I am mad and extremely disgusted myself. We all clearly know that in every one of M. Knight’s movies, he has put a “twist” at the end in a bid to make the movie seem better than what it wasn’t. I’ll be damned if he puts a twist in The Avatar. I’m pretty sure he will and I will most definitely get my money back from the box office. I mean, look at the people he casted. I’m not racist or against caucasian actors at all; but to stay true to the integrity of the original, why is there no single splattering of asian or asian descended actors and actresses? It simply boils my blood. It would be nice to see a black actor in this film, but lets be truthful with ourselves—–there was no black person in the series, and as much as we try to justify the reasons why M. Knight used caucasian actors, none of the characters were caucasian. It is true that Sokka, Katara, Suki and Aang do look caucasian, the fact is they are not. Sokka and Katara are Inuit or Native American, Suki is from the Island of Kyoshi, which in my opinion is wholly based off of Japan’s Kyushu, which is also an island. It would be safe to presume that Suki is Japanese in essence, and Aang is clearly Chinese or based off the Tibetan monks that reside at Sera or Drepung Monastery. I also have a sinking feeling that the major supporting characters like Toph, Uncle, Ty Lee and Mai will be casted and a role reversal will take place, they will be nothing like their original counterparts or they will not be casted at all. This casting, that has probably already been finalized (since production starts next month), is a slap in the face to all Avatar viewers worldwide and the asian culture. Can M. Knight, who is south Indian, really sleep well at night and be okay with the lineup for such a movie? The last 4 of his movies flopped and it seems he is doing nothing to try to break the vicious cycle that he has created. Lets break it down shall we? I think I am fairly more that correct in assuming that M. Knight has watched The Avatar like we all have. He went through the emotions, he sat in waiting as the writer’s strike flourished on and he rejoiced just as we all did when The Avatar finally broke through our television screens again. I cannot fathom, for the life of me, why he has the audacity to portray The Avatar with such disrespect? Bringing a cartoon or anime to the Hollywood screen as a live action movie, is hard enough as it is already. Why add insult to injury by flipping the script and incorporating something that was never there? Its like kicking someone who is already down, dead or dying. Like CorpseVendor already stated: Mike and Bryan! Why are you not saying anything about this? Why are you not doing anything to stop this injustice? Your fans are hurting. We are crying. We are upset and we have arrived at a point were we have exhausted all of our efforts to try to do something about this and make our voices heard. We most certainly want our AVATAR BACK!!!! We want you to make us proud again and let justice prevail. We want back what we have cried over, debated each each other against and waited for. We will not be fooled and led astray by this lie of what M. Knight is going to call a film. “Since the beginning of time, darkness thrives in the void; but will always yield to purified light.” We want our light back. Please….We just want it back….

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:35:53 +0000

I for one am extremely disapointed with the stupid casting. And i know for one that there are actually asian kids, or even mixed kids who could have been chosen. I could have cast all of the characters from my middle school class and gotten it better than M Night. Stupid .
Aang is actually the one that looks the most “caucasian”. He’s a monk, and theoretically his ancestors could we water , earth , or fire. People from all over china go to the temples to become monks.
I think the bet bet would have been to cast them all a some sort of caucasian and asian mix. Why not , there are plenty of mixed children and the number is only growing.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:03:36 +0000

I’m okay with the Noah kid playing Aang (At least he knows some martial arts) but I am truly insulted by the rest. Did this guy even glimpse at the freaking show?? Why in the heck of it all are they casting Jesse McCartney?! That’s just stupid. And when did Sokka and Katara even look remotely white? This is so stupid, if he doesn’t change the cast quick then this movie is seriously gonna bomb.

By: A and C

A and C — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:57:26 +0000

We want every person and everything the same as in the cartoons. Not blonde…