Netflix Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender reboot

[Terthna]

I never thought I'd see the day when M. Night Shyamalan would be outdone as having made the worst attempt at adapting Avatar: The Last Airbender, but apparently here we are.


It seems they're going for the Dragonball Evolution approach again; setting it in our world so that they can make the whole "Avatar" thing one giant puberty metaphor, and shoehorn in a bunch of Californian school drama to replace all the adventuring around in a fantastical world from the original show. Sokka and Katara aren't even going to be Inuits in this; just "Native Americans". Also Aang has adoptive parents, for some reason.

This is going to either be a massive, entertaining trainwreck; or a tiny, pitiful one that no one pays attention to. I'm hoping for the former, personally.

 

[prinCZess]

The original article the video references, just because I have a personal dislike for all Youtube commentary stuff:

https://www.cbr.com/netflix-live-action-avatar-rewrite-aang-backstory/

Most relevantly most immediately...

"Adopted at birth, Aang has struggled with questions as to how he fits in. But his loving parents have worked hard to make him feel accepted.

And then further on:

"When Zuko discovers he has developed mysterious powers and is competing with Aang for a key role in their project, Zuko's father tells him to stop at nothing to win.

Ho-dam. There's...dramatic and rather theme-influencing divergence from the series suggested in both of those. The first most obviously and the second with how it kind of...drastically rejiggers what the world sounds like or has happening in it.

The article also references what was big news of the original creators leaving the project...and also quotes one of them in a way I hadn't heard.

DiMartino stated on his Facebook page that "Whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make."

So...Yeah, taken altogether it does NOT look promising for Avatar live-action adaptation Round Two.
Whether it can outsuck the first would be a feat, but the elements seem to be there. The sun and the moon are aligning, if you will...hehe.

Longshot chance it's maybe something good that does the 'alternate take' type of thing well enough...But I doubt that, and it looks more like some director wanting to make their mark on a big thing whilst using the nostalgia/established-fanbase as a vehicle to production and potentially turning a profit. Which is a sadly common Netflix or Hollywood story, really.

 

[Terthna]

The original article the video references, just because I have a personal dislike for all Youtube commentary stuff:

https://www.cbr.com/netflix-live-action-avatar-rewrite-aang-backstory/

Most relevantly most immediately...
And then further on:

Ho-dam. There's...dramatic and rather theme-influencing divergence from the series suggested in both of those. The first most obviously and the second with how it kind of...drastically rejiggers what the world sounds like or has happening in it.

The article also references what was big news of the original creators leaving the project...and also quotes one of them in a way I hadn't heard.


So...Yeah, taken altogether it does NOT look promising for Avatar live-action adaptation Round Two.
Whether it can outsuck the first would be a feat, but the elements seem to be there. The sun and the moon are aligning, if you will...hehe.

Longshot chance it's maybe something good that does the 'alternate take' type of thing well enough...But I doubt that, and it looks more like some director wanting to make their mark on a big thing whilst using the nostalgia/established-fanbase as a vehicle to production and potentially turning a profit. Which is a sadly common Netflix or Hollywood story, really.

That's fair, but there's also another article they cite which reveals more about where they're going with the setting:

AVATAR Netflix : The Last Airbender Plot And Character Descriptions

Live action Avatar coming to Netflix? Maybe your skeptical, but creators Michael Dante Dimartino & Bryan Konietzko are back as showrunners.

thegww.com

In particular, these bolded bits from Aang's character description makes it obvious that they're going to be setting it in something approximate to our world:

Aang is a typical twelve-year-old boy. A bit goofy, a bit nerdy, restless in school, aways eager to join his friends for fun and games. He’s nimble, energetic, and quick in the schoolyard. Adopted at birth, Aang has struggled with questions as to how he fits in. But his loving parents have worked hard to make him feel accepted. Aang has grown up to become generous, kind-hearted and cheerful. Aang had also been gifted with an incredible mystical power. He doesn’t really understand it, but it could be the key to saving the world from a global conflict. It’s a responsibility he’s reluctant to accept because it’ll take him away from his family, friends, and everything he knows. All he wants is to just be a regular kid.

 

[Navarro]

Lol, this isn't Avatar, this is a bloody damned High School AU.

For real.

 

[S'task]

I mean... how else are they going to have villians in the story to be overcome? The original Avatar doesn't have whites in it AT ALL, and everyone knows that white people are the root of all evil!

 

[Navarro]

I mean... how else are they going to have villians in the story to be overcome? The original Avatar doesn't have whites in it AT ALL, and everyone knows that white people are the root of all evil!

IDK man ... did the Ember Island Players somehow get into our world or what?

Another point: the original backstory has the Avatar as essentially a magical Dalai Lama, with the extermination of the Air Nomads as a direct reference to the Red Chinese invasion of Tibet. You see where I'm heading with this ...

 

[StormEagle]

I never thought I'd see the day when M. Night Shyamalan would be outdone as having made the worst attempt at adapting Avatar: The Last Airbender, but apparently here we are.


It seems they're going for the Dragonball Evolution approach again; setting it in our world so that they can make the whole "Avatar" thing one giant puberty metaphor, and shoehorn in a bunch of Californian school drama to replace all the adventuring around in a fantastical world from the original show. Sokka and Katara aren't even going to be Inuits in this; just "Native Americans". Also Aang has adoptive parents, for some reason.

This is going to either be a massive, entertaining trainwreck; or a tiny, pitiful one that no one pays attention to. I'm hoping for the former, personally.

Say what you will about Shamalan, at least he tried to stay true to the original series. The pieces are all there and it’s visually the Avatar world. He just failed miserably at dialogue and the action pieces.

But that kinda comes with the territory of trying to adapt an entire tv season into a feature length film. Somethings got to get cut somewhere, and I don’t honestly know if you can translate the Avatar fighting to live action without it looking goofy.

 

[Captain X]

Which again makes me question why there is this push to do animated works as live action to begin with.

 

[ATP]

Which again makes me question why there is this push to do animated works as live action to begin with.

Is it not obvious ? becouse right kind of people in movie industry need money.And girls,where they check potential actress.

 

[DarthOne]

I never thought I'd see the day when M. Night Shyamalan would be outdone as having made the worst attempt at adapting Avatar: The Last Airbender, but apparently here we are.


It seems they're going for the Dragonball Evolution approach again; setting it in our world so that they can make the whole "Avatar" thing one giant puberty metaphor, and shoehorn in a bunch of Californian school drama to replace all the adventuring around in a fantastical world from the original show. Sokka and Katara aren't even going to be Inuits in this; just "Native Americans". Also Aang has adoptive parents, for some reason.

This is going to either be a massive, entertaining trainwreck; or a tiny, pitiful one that no one pays attention to. I'm hoping for the former, personally.

Netflix really is determined to scrape out a....(counts)...fifth sub-level in the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Navarro]

Some folks are saying this is fake stuff to avoid spoilers, but I don't really see that as viable - plot of ATLA is already well known.

 

[Free-Stater 101]

Really?!!! Who green lit this? Who pat the writer on the head and said "Good Job!" This is beyond laughably bad!

 

[Navarro]

Really?!!! Who green lit this? Who pat the writer on the head and said "Good Job!" This is beyond laughably bad!

 

[ATP]

Some folks are saying this is fake stuff to avoid spoilers, but I don't really see that as viable - plot of ATLA is already well known.

Of course it is fake - Anng is not african jewish islamist lesbian,after all.Which made him RACIST !!!!!

 

[almostinsane]

Dear God. What were they thinking?! Did they pay any attention to what happened with literally any live-action adaptation?!

 

[Terthna]

Say what you will about Shamalan, at least he tried to stay true to the original series. The pieces are all there and it’s visually the Avatar world. He just failed miserably at dialogue and the action pieces.

But that kinda comes with the territory of trying to adapt an entire tv season into a feature length film. Somethings got to get cut somewhere, and I don’t honestly know if you can translate the Avatar fighting to live action without it looking goofy.

He was a guy who specialized in directing thrillers, trying to make a young adult action adventure film; there is no world in which that could have worked out.

Dear God. What were they thinking?! Did they pay any attention to what happened with literally any live-action adaptation?!

If there's one thing people in the entertainment industry are not lacking in, it's arrogance. So no; no they were not paying attention.

 

[ParadiseLost]

Huh. I had heard years ago that Netflix's Avatar sequel was supposed to be another animated series, but with a pair of Earth nation twins as the Avatar.

It was in development hell, though, so the fact that it got twisted into this does not surprise me.

 

[Terthna]

Huh. I had heard years ago that Netflix's Avatar sequel was supposed to be another animated series, but with a pair of Earth nation twins as the Avatar.

It was in development hell, though, so the fact that it got twisted into this does not surprise me.

I figured this was going to be garbage when the creators of the original show announced that they were no longer involved with the project, due to "creative differences". Now we know what those differences were.

 

[Captain X]

Honestly after Korra I don't much care for them anyway.

 

[Terthna]

Honestly after Korra I don't much care for them anyway.

There were a few things I liked about Korra, but none of them had to do with Korra herself; she was honestly the weakest link in her own show, followed by the inconsistent world-building, and terribly written plot.