when the adaptation comes close but still misses
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- Опубликовано: 15 мар 2024
- Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show that I truly didn’t want to see a remake of because, in my eyes, it’s essentially the perfect cartoon. It establishes itself as a creatively interesting universe that is not too far from our own, but it also shares so many beloved characters and sub-stories with equally poignant reflections of life.
Of course, with anything so original and popular, there’s always going to be those wanting to cash in on it. Enter Netflix and its live-action rendition, which thankfully isn’t as bad as the unspeakable M. Night Shyamalan live-action film we got the first time around. That probably isn’t saying that much, either.
However, while it isn’t as terrible, it’s also not really that good overall. It’s below average and, in some cases, just as bad as the live-action film because it still lacks many of the elements that made the original so wonderful.
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What is Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Avatar: The Last Airbender, also known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang in some regions, is an American animated fantasy action television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio.
Avatar is set in an Asian and Arctic-inspired world in which some people can telekinetically manipulate one of the four elements-water, earth, fire or air-through practices known as "bending", inspired by Chinese martial arts. The only individual who can bend all four elements, the "Avatar", is responsible for maintaining harmony among the world's four nations, and serves as the link between the physical world and the spirit world. The series is centered around the journey of twelve-year-old Aang, the current Avatar and last survivor of his nation, the Air Nomads, along with his friends Katara, Sokka, and Toph, as they strive to end the Fire Nation's war against the other nations and defeat Fire Lord Ozai before he conquers the world. It also follows the story of Zuko-the exiled prince of the Fire Nation, seeking to restore his lost honor by capturing Aang, accompanied by his uncle Iroh-and later, his sister Azula. Avatar is presented in a style that combines anime with American cartoons and relies on the imagery of primarily Chinese culture, with various other influences from different East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, North Asian, and Native American cultures.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was a ratings success and received acclaim from critics for its characters, cultural references, art direction, voice acting, soundtrack, humor, and themes. These include concepts rarely touched on in youth entertainment, including war, genocide, imperialism, totalitarianism, indoctrination and free choice. It won five Annie Awards, a Genesis Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Kids' Choice Award, and a Peabody Award. The show is regarded by many critics as one of the greatest animated television series of all time.
Avatar aired on Nickelodeon for three seasons, from February 2005 to July 2008. The extended Avatar franchise includes an ongoing comics series, a prequel novel series, an animated sequel series, and a live-action film, as well as a live-action remake series produced for Netflix. The complete series was released on Blu-ray in June 2018 in honor of the tenth anniversary of its finale and was made available to stream on Netflix in the United States and Canada in May 2020, on Paramount+ in June 2020, and on Amazon Prime Video in January 2021.
The Avatar is an international arbiter whose duty is to maintain harmony among the four nations, and act as a mediator between humans and spirits. When the Avatar dies, their spirit is reincarnated in a new body, who will be born to parents in the next nation in a set order known as the Avatar cycle: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. By tradition, the new Avatar will travel the world to learn all four bending arts, after which they will begin in earnest their role as global peacekeeper. The Avatar can enter a condition known as the "Avatar State", in which they temporarily gain the skills and knowledge of all their past incarnations.
And if you’re still reading this - hello.
This video is made through Fair Use under copyright law for the purposes of education in criticism or review; as well as parody or satire. www.copyright.gov/title17/92c www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod 
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That scene in 12:00 is enough to make a grown man cry
watched it yesterday as I bingedwatched the serie again , and I cried ...
🥺🥺🥺
After what Nflix did to Cowboy Bebop, they will not get my eyeballs in front of these superfluous remakes. All that money could be going to creators with cool original ideas and yet the "cult of the established IP" is happy to reiterate things that were once great in diminished form, several times even. Shame.
"Bring something new that fits into the story's universe": this is the definition of a good adaptation, which is to imagine the original story from a new vantage point. Unfortunately Netflix got it backwards changing the STORY while keeping the original perspective. This could've worked if the original creators hadn't left the project but still, imo, a successful adaptation of ATLA would only work as a spin-off that takes place during the events of the original saga, like what Rogue One did for A New Hope.
when i went to like the video i saw it had 400 views and thought something was wrong with my youtube LOL amazing vid man sorry the comments havent been up to par. You said everything i was thinking during the painful watch of the netflix series
Not to nitpick (jk I am) but One Piece is about the 20th longest running manga series, not the first.
apologies, thanks for the pickup
20th??????
@@Jords250 Yep. Most of the longer running ones are things no westerner has ever heard of, but one popular one is Baki the Grappler.
I always tear up when they hug at 10:26 😭😭😭. The live action really did not do these characters justice.
I just see the Netflix version as a novelty nothing more
Wouldn’t all tv and entertainment be a novelty? Otherwise it wouldn’t be entertaining
I wouldn’t say it’s great but most of the effects are good. You mentioned the bad cgi but ignored the good and said, see? This is was the budget got. I mean, yeah, but it also got some cool bending and city backdrops, etc. Now I don’t think it’s nearly as good as the original, and I think most of the script was ass, but I think it was mostly a fun time
The Netflix adaptation was boring
@@sillau9 thats a matter of opinion. It’s still disingenuous to point to the worst example of cgi and claim it represents all the cgi when most of it is way better
Avatar the Last Airbender proves Netflix got lucky with One Piece
Perhaps
I really enjoyed Netflix’s The Last Airbender! I think the actors, story, and costumes were great! The CGI was good too. I’m looking forward to two more seasons!!
I love this live action. This brought me chills.
Mmmm
yes
I enjoyed the series 100% and thought the ending was astoundingly good. The special effects were great! I truly hole there is a second season.
each to their own, better than the original though?
I agree, I really enjoyed it! Yes, seasons two and three are going to be made!
@@motioninartRemakes will *NEVER* aim to be better. Why should it though? 🤔
First
But... isn't your math off?
Live-action is 8 episodes about 50 min long, that's 400 minutes.
Cartoon is 20 episodes about 20 minutes long, that's also 400 minutes.
So shouldn't you say, they take, technically, more time, but only leave other stuff away?
The episode about the canyon, for example, isn't actually that important to the journey.
I personally liked the remake. And obviously nothing can ever beat the original. But that's something remakes never aim to do in the first place 😉.
motioninart is a fan of the cartoon series, is disappointed with the live-action adaptation due to his high expectations. Don't challenge him. You're end up arguing with a brick wall.
More than happy to be challenged, it’s part of why I enjoy discussions and getting to the truth that we believe in.
In terms of the math elements you’re correct. But it doesn’t account for the length spent on action set pieces versus between the two and choosing to skip over different parts of the story while combining other elements from others into one (eg the owl from the desert library is now in a forest with the spirit of that forest).
Also it adds to that idea that there’s no need to be concise if time wise you’re essentially at the same level, so what more can be brought about.
@@motioninart I guess I should say *SPOILER*, even though many might know the cartoon, so technically there is not that much new and surprising 🤔, but anyway...
*SPOILERS* (duh)
Episode 1:
They use the first half to show us how this war started. So they used some time, they were about to save to give us a little bit more info.
They also showed use some interactions between Aang and Gyatso.
Then we have nearly the first eposide we had in the cartoon, obviously slightly different approach, but pretty similar. It finishes off with the Team visiting the southern air temple.
Btw. maybe it's a win for Germany (don't know for other languages) but the voice actors are nearly the same for the main and for some side Characters, besides Iroh and Aang, if I'm not mistaken.
Episode 2:
The part with the pirates gets cut, as Katara receives the waterbending scroll from Gran Gran. The pirates are not necessary for the story so they saved about 16 minutes or so.
The Team enters Kyoshi island. Here they chose to make it a tribe that wanted to isolate itself to protect it self from the war. The interactions between Sokka and Suki are much more pronounced. Meanwhile General Zhao is introduced. They picture Avatar Kyoshi as a warrior and I would say there is nothing wrong about that. Why shouldn't she think like a warrior? She isn't a monch like Aang, that's why he said he shouldn't have asked her in the 3. chapter in the cartoon. All in all they gave that island more attention, about 35 minutes instead of just like 16. They chose to let Kyoshi be the avatar, that fights against the fire nation, instead of Roku.
Episode 3:
Here they chose to do a 2 in 1 episode in Omashu with Jet and the mechanist. First we get introduced to Azula. Then they enter Omashu with jet and meet the mechanist. Jet ends up doing jet things, mechanist ends up being caught having a deal with the firenation. They use the time they get to go deeper into the characters interacting with each other. And some background stuff, for example Azula helping Zhao.
Episode 4:
It continues in Omashu. Now we get the episode with Bumi challenging Aang and the mechanist breaking the deal with the fire nation and some more interaction with jet. Sokka and Katara use the tunnels under Omashu. Zuko freeing his uncle. Also the scene between Zuko and Iroh at Lu Ten's funeral was in my opinion pretty nice as well as the boarding scene.
Episode 5:
We have, the Jungle and some of the visions, June, Koh, Aang getting "medicine" for Katara and Sokka, the blue mask, and the trip to Roku's shrine merged into 2 episodes.
Again, some time is used for background stuff that is happening with Zhao. We have one nice encounter between Aang and Gyatso. And we see Wan Shi Tong (the owl). We don't know if we might encounter him in season 2. Remember, Toph did try to defend Appa and hold the library up. Toph was encountered in chapter 2 in the cartoon. So who knows, maybe we'll see him again 🤷🏽♂️.
Episode 6:
The continuation of 5. Aang talking to Roku, June capturing Aang, Zuko taking him to his boat but being intercepted by Zhao, Zuko going blue mask on them. We see the Agni Kai between Zuko and Ozai, and some scene after the Agni Kai. We learn, the crew on board is the 41. that Zuko didn't want to sacrifice, which in my opinion is a nice touch.
Episode 7:
Entering the northern water tribe. More interaction of the people, some background stuff with Azula. Katara learning to heal, and the fight between Katara and Pakku. Here he doesn't change his mind just because of some accessory. This is way more understandable than in the cartoon. He will change his mind later in a time of need.
Episode 8:
It's the Siege of the northern water tribe. Also, Aang is talking to Kuruk, which he didn't talk to in the cartoon until right before the end of the series. And some more exposition, like telling us about Omashu being captured and that Zosin's comet is coming.
My result:
Now, all in all, we see that they put more attention to the key places Aang visited. Kyoshi, Omashu, northern water tribe.
They also put more attention to the interactions the character have with each other.
They also took the more darker side of this war as an approach to tell the story. We already saw more death than we ever did in the cartoon.
Yes, it's a little bit sad that it's taking longer for Aang to bend water, here he only did it when Kyoshi controlled him, or the ocean ghost controlled him, but he has more time here, than he did in the cartoon.
I liked the cartoon pretty much too and I liked this live-action too, as it had some nice touches to it in some points.
I personally think that some of the merged stuff still worked out good. Obviously, you have more ressources to draw and animate stuff, it isn't nearly as expensive as a live-action series. So it's a little bit understandable that they didn't want to have all parts of the journey, as well as more interaction between characters and stuff. As I said, the canyon, or the pirates were not important, also Aang's first time firebending isn't that important. They all only served one thing, plot. Aang learning to be a mediator, Katara getting a scroll for waterbending, Katara learning to heal.
And they didn't really use anything from the second chapter as you said (if you did), we only saw Wan Shi Tong ahead of time, technically. Again, we don't know if they will use the library or not, that Appa got captured played a huge role in the cartoon as well as the knowledge of the dark sun.
They also didn't really have any kind of affection between Aang and Katara, maybe because in live action, it might be a little bit weird 🤷🏽♂️.
It's still interesting to see a different perspective on this adventure, and I think even hard-core fans shouldn't mind a different perspective. Remember, nothing will ever reach the original. If it's like the movie, then yes, you definitely can mind that piece of garbage and say how absolutely bad it was 😅.
If you are wondering, these are 6030 characters 😅.
No it wasn't. Get off the drugs.
or so the Germans would have you believe
That reply explains A LOT about you... @@motioninart
Anime purists are the worst. Just enjoy getting good shows in an era where that’s incredibly rare. Don’t be a snob
When you get given a beautiful meal but someone says they can remake it but give you McDonald's you would not like it either. So how about you don't be a snob
^exactly
@@jasonotto9126A remake *never* aims to be better, or as good, as the original, it only wants to tell the story in a slightly different way. You actually knew what you were up to. Saying stuff now like, "Buhu... It isn't like the cartoon" is actually just stupid, now isn't it? 🤔
@@Sh4dowKing1998 ^exactly
@Sh4dowKing1998 such a simple take over something you know little about. I'm not the biggest avatar fan but I know when a remake will be bad. I respect the fans dislike and I won't mock it till people like you try to mock them or me. Take your simple minded argument somewhere else mate. Or actually watch the vid again and others. Hey maybe get attached to something and watch it get butchered and see how it feels.
every incarnation of this show looks incredibly bland, including the original
what do you mean including the original?
@@motioninart i mean i also think the original cartoon looks bland
Aside from their mostly horrible choice in actors, it was the best live action avatar they've ever made. lol I'd watch a second season. Compared to all the horrid crap THEY have been putting out these last few years you "influencers" are some bipolar grifters. Funny how they ALL have the same EXACT criticisms as if they all got a script to read...
chatgpt dialogue ass show