“Avatar The Last Airbender” is a famous Nickelodeon cartoon from 2005 that tells the story of… Well, I think Katara can explain it better than I can.
The show has had a lot of success throughout the years, and people have been bold to try to adapt one of the most beloved series into a movie (which the fandom rightfully agrees to forget it exists). So, with this new live action, the public was a little skeptical about it’s quality and ability to recreate such an amazing piece of media. But for what is worth, I think they did quite a good job with it.
Tell, don’t show… or was it the other way around?
In most of the series, especially in the first episode, what I felt lacking was the classical saying “show, don’t tell”. The way that we are introduced to the premise and to this new fantastic world seems a bit mechanical, with all the characters pulling out monologues about everything and over explaining things all throughout the episode.
There is a specific moment where this bothered me, in which Gran Gran, Sokka and Katara’s grandmother, says, word by word, the same introduction I showed you earlier. I understand that the show runners wanted the fans to have that feeling of nostalgia, but with all the previous explanations, it didn’t have quite the desired effect, and instead made for a redundant first impression.
VFX, Casting and characterization
Now onto the good things, the overall VFX of the series was done quite well, I especially enjoyed the way the different forms of bending were portrayed, and also Appa and Momo, just look at this cutiepie!
The casting for the show was on point as well, with each member not only looking like their character counterpart, but also embodying their energy in such a unique and beautiful way. My favorites were probably Dallas James Liu as Zuko and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh, although TikTok also went crazy for Daniel Dae Kim as Firelord Ozai.
One thing that the public found a little problematic was the way the writers erased Sokka’s sexism in the early episodes. Ironic, right? But it’s because his sexism, in the original show, was part of his character arc, and later in the series he got over it and this allowed the fans to see growth in him. I can see why they removed it from the live action, and instead built another way of giving him this same growth by showing him in a more strict and serious in the beginning, but as the show goes on, we see him bond more with Katara and Aang and also the way he deals with his emotions better.
The soundtrack of the show is impeccable, there was one song (and scene) in particular that really made me so emotional, and if you are a fan of the original show, you probably know which one I’m talking about.
Now, to finish off, I leave you with one of the most iconic moments in the entire show…
The article below was edited by Fernanda de Andrade Silva.
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