The Last Airbender

I stopped watching Nickelodeon a long time ago. It's funny how things change so quickly. Back in the old days I was addicted to Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network was a close second. I remember the days when I used to watch Nicktoons every day like Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, and Doug. Then, some other shows came on like Rocko's Modern Life, CatDog, Ahh! Real Monsters, Rocket Power, etc. I even watched SpongeBob and Fairly Oddparents for a while. However, I grew up and my favorite toons from the past got canceled. So I really stopped watching.

Then, a show called Avatar: The Last Airbender comes on and I am hooked. It is not an anime series because it did not come from Japan, but it a cartoon with anime elements spliced into it. A basic summary of the story is that there are four nations (Earth, Fire, Water & Air). Each of these nations have people who can bender a certain element. Then, there is the avatar, who is reincarted into different nations every 100 or so years. The avatar is suppossed to bring balance to the world and everything. One day the Fire Nation decides to get all power hungry and wage war on the other nations. Then, when the world needs him most, the Avatar disappears. Cut to about a century later and two teenagers (Katara and Sokka) find a boy frozen in a block of ice. The boy (Aang) awakens and he is the avatar. Now he has to master all four elements so he can bring peace to the world before the Fire nation burns it all to the ground.

It is an intriguing premise and I still like anime. However, I am a very casual fan and I don't really go to anime festival and dress up as a ninja at these things (I hate Naurto so much)! I heard to show was good, but I still wasn't interested. I actually had to force myself to watch this show to find out for myself. I watched several episodes and I started to like it.

Unfortunately, the show is over and the episodes are all out of order. In fact I saw the series finale before I even watched the first season. The show doesn't really break any ground plot wise and you know what is going to happen in the end. The cartoon has some slick action sequences and some surprisingly funny dialogue at times. I find the title character to be a little flat, but the one character who stands out is Prince Zuko. He is the heir to the Fire Lord, but when he speaks out of term he is challenged to a fight with his father. Zuko loses and part of his face is burned by his father. Then he is banished and tries to hunt the avatar hoping he can gain his father's love again. Eventually, he becomes a protagonist, but through most of the series he is a classic tragic hero.

Now Nickelodeon is making a big budget live action movie about Avatar and it looks promising. Of course it is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who is pushing out trite shit ever since The Village. I am leery because he has never done an action film, and I wonder how he will handle the fight scenes and everything.

Another thing that the fan boys are pissed about is the choice to cast white actors in the three main roles instead of Asian actors. Although race is never really discussed in the show the premise takes place in a presumed East Asian world so it does make sense to cast Asian actors. This topic came up in Dragonball: Evolution where Goku is played by a white guy. I think it was the same guy who played the Tom Cruise's rebellious son in War of the Worlds. They really couldn't find anyone better I suppose. Anyway i still did not have a problem with that because Goku is an alien! People tend to forget that and I tend to forget also. It helps if Goku is played by an Asian actor, but if a white actor can pull the character off then more power to him. Unfortunately, Justin Chatwin (that's his name) failed miserably and that piece of shit movie failed miserably.

Shyamalan is pissing off the fan base and it is never good to piss off the fan base with piss poor decisions. Dragonball: Evolution is a good example of this. I really don't know how this is going to turn out. Avatar really didn't really become a cultural phenomenon like with some other similar cartoons. There are supposed to be three movies for each season of the show. However, if the film doesn't do decent business you can forget about the other two films. It is up with some strong competition like Toy Story 3, Knight and Day, Grown Ups, and Twilight: Eclipse. It might get lost in the shuffle, but if it gets some good reviews then things will start to look up. I hope it is successful because I would be interested in seeing the other movies.

P.S. M. Night Shyamalan, if you ever read this post then do not put a twist at the end of the movie. If you do I will never forgive you. I forgave you for the Happening, but not if the twist happens. Seriously, the flowers are making people kill themselves? That's Fucking bullshit!