Avatar: The Last Airbender: Live-Action Remake Achieves Success with Added Gravitas
By John Kirk
Rating: A
When fans of animated franchise Avatar: The Last Airbender learned of the release of the live-action film in 2010, there was a lot of held breath. Its eventual disappointment set the scene for new worries when Netflix announced a partnership with Nickelodeon to produce another iteration of the series.
This time, they got it right even though its problematic to change mediums of a story. Originally created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Avatar: The Last Airbender was an animated production released by Nickelodeon Studios in 2005. It ran for about three seasons and won almost instant adoration from television viewers.
If you don’t know this delightfully intricate fantasy, the world of this story is divided into four nations that coincide with the four elements: the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, the Air Nomads and finally, the Fire Nation.
All these nationalities have people in their populations who can summon the power of these elements, known as “benders,” such as Airbenders, Waterbenders, etc. Every hundred years, there is an Avatar who can control all these elements and who is born to one of these nations in turn who can bring balance to the world.
Young Aang (Gordon Cormier) is an Airbender who learns that he is to be the Avatar of this cycle. However, when he travels away from his home for one night, the Fire Nation decides to launch a war against the other nations to take control and upset the balance.
Knowing the Avatar will be an Airbender, they attack Aang’s home first and kill all the Air Nomads. Aang falls prey to a storm and is blown off course, only to be trapped in ice for a hundred years. He awakes to discover that as the Avatar and the last Airbender, it is his responsibility to bring balance back to the world.
Watching the story for the first time, without any of the knowledge of the 2005 series or the much-maligned 2010 live-action motion picture, it’s the sense of drama that accompanies this youth-oriented show that is both completely striking and unexpected. A well-developed sense of pathos is welcomed and surprisingly effective despite the majority of young cast members. Not only does this add to the enjoyment but is also a nod to the quality of the young talent.
However, if you are a viewer with a historical awareness of the show and a fan, then despite some acceleration of the storyline and some underplay of the characters, it’s difficult to see how you could be disappointed too.
What Avatar: The Last Airbender does right is take itself seriously. This is a property that is so loved by fans that they need a production to match that sense of appreciation. There is good attention to important details and the casting is rock-solid.
For instance, Cormier plays Aang as optimistic and scared, afraid to take on the mantle of Avatar and simply wanting to be a kid. His companions Katara (Kiawentiio Tarbell) and her brother Sokka (Ian Ousely) are initially concerned with the protection of their own Water Tribe village. They then realize Aang is not just someone who needs their help in the world that he has awakened into but is the hope for bringing peace to the world. These are the characters fans will remember.
Sokka’s misogyny that was evident in the animated series is glossed over in this production and there is more overt recognition that the world of the Avatar just doesn’t include Asian cultures but indigenous ones as well. These are details that have been skillfully omitted or inserted. Still, to get the full effect of the original series, it’s best to watch the series with a die-hard fan who can point these details out.
There is also an impressive array of seasoned, veteran performers. They provide the gravitas needed to give this series its authenticity and success. Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae-Kim) is decidedly evil in his ambitions to maintain his control over most of the conquered world.
Meanwhile, kindly Uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) is the mentor hot-headed young prince Zuko of the Fire Nation (Dallas Liu) needs to discover what his real objective should really be. Fans of the Karate Kid franchise will recognize Tamlyn Tomita in her role as Yukari, the Mayor of the village on Kyoshi Island.
What’s impressive about the show is the amount of physical detail present in the series imported from the animated series. When you compare the backgrounds of the different scenes from different productions, it’s an incredible what this production manages to achieve. Just look at episode three “Omashu” to see what I mean.
When the creators of this show left the Netflix production, citing creative differences, there was a definite sense of worry, shared by Showrunner Albert Kim. However, he made the claim in Variety that all the production’s writers were Avatar fans and that they “drew upon their own personal experiences and the things that they loved the best.”
Despite this discouraging blow to the integrity of the show, the production maintains itself close to the original, if not in the creators’ perspective, but in the popular perspective. At least, it seems fairly true to mine. Plus, it’s possible the bad 2010 film provided some wisdom in what not to do.
In this case, with impressive attention to detail, incredible CGI, and some kick-ass martial arts, Netflix has given us a production that will entertain existing fans and even entice new ones to the franchise. All they needed to do was to take it more seriously. And add a little bit more gravitas.
Avatar: The Last Airbender. Starring Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio Tarbell, Ian Ousley, Arden Cho, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Danny Pudi, Daniel Dae-Kim, Dalla James Liu, George Takeii, Amber Midthunder, and Tamlyn Tomita. Available on Netflix February 22.