Christopher Ruvo posted a new article at PhillyBurbs.com concerning the filming of The Last Airbender. Here’s an excerpt of the article:
Academy Award-nominated filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan began shooting footage for his new movie Thursday at a quarry in West Rockhill.
And like the Montgomery County director’s suspenseful films, there is much mystery about the happenings on set at M&M Stone Co.
“I know it’s only a movie, but it’s pretty top secret stuff,” a security guard said when asked if a glimpse of the set would be possible.
While access was denied, word is Shyamalan’s team has spent months constructing an elaborate fantasy world that’s to serve as the backdrop for “The Last Airbender,” an adaptation of Nickelodeon’s hit animated series.
A village, a fortress and a castle-like compound are among the large-scale constructions said to be built at the quarry, where security guards and police are stationed to keep trespassers out. Full-grown trees were also brought in and planted to help create the Asian-influenced realm where the movie takes place.
“It’s pretty much a circus down there,” said John Zdon, who works for M&M Stone. “It’s like a carnival. There are so many tents and buses.”
Movie trailers and trucks were parked in a roadside lot late Friday afternoon. Props, including primitive-looking twig constructions and earthenware, were lying around. Headset-wearing crew members were seen walking along the tree-shaded quarry roadway.
Shyamalan is expected to film on location for several weeks. Scenes at the quarry could feature in as much as 25 to 30 minutes of the actual movie, Zdon said.
Mysterious town for mysterious children I guess.
Update: Airbender Producer Frank Marshall has provided this photo of “AIRBENDER base camp.”
Tags: m. night, Movie Sets, Philadelphia, Shooting Locations
May 30, 2009 at 4:38 am |
Importing full-grown Asian trees? That just sounds like the making of a great movie!
A village? Maybe Aunt Wu’s.
A fortress? Maybe where Zhou holds the captured Aang.
A castle-like compound? Maybe the NWT or NAT.
Lots of maybes. Still, looking forward with optimism.
Mysterious town for mysterious children… haha!
May 30, 2009 at 5:36 am |
“Full-grown trees were also brought in and planted to help create the Asian-influenced realm where the movie takes place”
Wow how amazing this film could have been if they decided to have Asians as the actors to help bring to life that “Asian influenced realm”.
Trees get more respect than the people. Amazing Hollywood magic. lol
May 31, 2009 at 4:14 pm |
What I like most about the alleged “asians” in the cartoon show is their american english accent. VERY true to cultures the series is based on. If you are such a hardliner, you should boycott the cartoon, too…
May 31, 2009 at 10:25 pm
HAHAHA Are you being serious “alleged Asians in the cartoon”?
Umm have you ever watched any cartoons in other countries? You know they don’t use American accents or even English. Of course cartoons in America will have American accents because we here in America mostly only know American English. *roll eyes* In Japan they speak in Japanese(even American characters), in Spain, China, Russia, South America, Africa, etc all use their native language. They don’t use American English accents for American characters in those countries. Let me repeat, they use their native language for all of their character even ones that are American.
But I do know one character in Avatar that does speak with a “so-called” Asian/American accent and that is Uncle Iroh(voiced by Mako Iwamatsu a Japanese American actor for the first two seasons before his death). They even dedicated an episode (ep 15- “The Tales of Ba Sing Se”) in honor of Mako.
Also why would I boycott the cartoon when they highlighted the different types of Asian culture in their series?
Just because you wish not to see that these character are Asian, even though their customs are Asian, landscape and architecture are Asian, clothing is Asian, and even written text (when a character reads something in the show) is shown in Asian text, but of course to you these characters are only “alleged Asian”.
May 31, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I just wanted to show that your radical argument and your accusation of racism can be strechted VERY far. It is – in one word – dishonest. Aang may not be white – but he’s sounding like the all-american boy to me. On this ground I could even accuse the cartoon itself of racism – because clearly it is untrue to the culture it refers… Of course, I don’t do this because this whole argument is disproportionate and misrouted.
“Just because you wish not to see that these character are Asian,”
Such a cheap allegation… but the casting choices are made, that is for sure. And why not hope, that they catch the personality of Aang etc. rather than such petty unimportances like racial traits…
“even though their customs are Asian, landscape and architecture are Asian, clothing is Asian, and even written text (when a character reads something in the show) is shown in Asian text,”
Yes, that is right. And all these references can make it in the movie!
“but of course to you these characters are only “alleged Asian”.”
They don’t see themself as asians, first of all. So they can be insulted in any way. AVATAR mashes up cultural references but it doesn’t want to document real information in a serious way about ethnical groups of the objective world. So the whole racism-argument pretty much looses most of its relevance, if you ask me.
June 1, 2009 at 4:44 am
“I just wanted to show that your radical argument and your accusation of racism can be strechted VERY far. It is – in one word – dishonest.”
Umm the only thing you’re showing is how radical people on the other side are. And how am I being dishonest? The differences we have is that you think it’s okay to have Caucasian actors to play Asian roles and I feel they shouldn’t play roles that are not for them.
“And why not hope, that they catch the personality of Aang etc. rather than such petty unimportances like racial traits…”
Yes, why be bother who is playing the role of Aang and with these “unimportant like racial traits” other then that the creators of the show found it very important to give Aang and the other character these “unimportant like racial traits”.
“Yes, that is right. And all these references can make it in the movie!”
Wouldn’t it also been nice to see the people where these references came from to also represent them in the movie.
“They don’t see themself as asians, first of all. So they can be insulted in any way. AVATAR mashes up cultural references but it doesn’t want to document real information in a serious way about ethnical groups of the objective world. So the whole racism-argument pretty much looses most of its relevance, if you ask me.”
Now aren’t you know assuming to know what these characters see themselves as? LOL
Umm how did they not take it serious when had a culture consultant employed to review every script?
July 1, 2009 at 12:32 pm |
Ok, I will make this short, quick, and to the point:
THEY DIDN’T CAST ASIANS BECAUSE THE REAL CHARACTERS DON’T LOOK ASIAN.
There you go ^_^
So which would you prefer? To cast asians who look NOTHING like the characters, but you can still call them “asian”, or cast people who look more like the characters but come from other races? Take your pick, do whatever, just stop complaining you bunch of babies.
December 7, 2009 at 9:05 am |
So you’re saying that given all circumstances, caucasian racial types could never, EVER develop into Asian cultural types?
Culture != Race. Please, take yourself and your bigoted sense of self righteousness elsewhere.
May 30, 2009 at 7:04 am |
^ Wow. All you do is complain. Get over it. Truly pathetic. Get a hobby and quit bitching about casting choices in a movie that you’re going to watch and enjoy anyway.
May 30, 2009 at 10:07 am |
Umm did you even read any of my comments…..I am boycotting this movie.
But you go ahead and enjoy it when it comes out and I will keep bitching about, okay?
And I didn’t know that the comment section was only for people who are in favor of the movie…..you know I thought it was for everyone.
May 30, 2009 at 4:32 pm
If you’re boycotting the movie, why are you even here? Because you’re still interested to find out everything about it and will most likely watch it.
May 31, 2009 at 5:12 am
Blah- Why do you have a problem with me being here? The site doesn’t say “Only for Avatar Movie lovers”, so I am free to comment just like everyone else.
July 1, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Lol so you ENJOY arguing and rambling on about things that cannot be changed? Haha I doubt you make many friends in life that way, dear.
July 24, 2009 at 6:14 pm
well blah dose have a point if your boycotting the movie why worry about it ? its not like the aang says hey im Asian.
May 30, 2009 at 7:37 am |
Lol, trees to represent Asian setting.
Yes, because Asia is full of trees, you know.
Anyways, village? Kyoshi village is my guess since Suki’s known to be in the movie.
Fortress? The Blue Spirit and nothing else.
Castle? The walls around the Fortress maybe; the ones that Aang and Zuko must genius their way through.
May 30, 2009 at 11:24 am |
“Umm did you even read any of my comments…..I am boycotting this movie.
But you go ahead and enjoy it when it comes out and I will keep bitching about, okay?
And I didn’t know that the comment section was only for people who are in favor of the movie…..you know I thought it was for everyone.”
You may be boycotting but that doesn’t mean that you have to complain here. We’re excited for it. Shut up is basically what I’m saying. Shut up and go complain somewhere else. Somewhere made for the protesting. Not a site for movie excitement.
May 31, 2009 at 5:18 am |
Wow how rude of you, but no I won’t shut-up. I can complain anywhere I want. This site allows open comments, so I have the right to comment. Umm my message about boycotting is for people that don’t know about the controversy that is going on with this movie. So it doesn’t make sense to go to a site where others already know about the situation.
December 7, 2009 at 9:06 am
A man begs of you, get off his internet.
May 30, 2009 at 1:35 pm |
While I believe that everyone has the right to complain, I find the premise driving the current wave of complaints to be premature and based entirely on assumptions. You assume that the casting director is racist, and you assume that the spirit of the show will be lost without East Asian actors.
There’s little concrete evidence to suggest that either of those assumptions have merit. In fact, I would go so far to suggest that both of those assumptions may be entirely false. The movie is being shot in North America, meaning that the talent pool is biased toward white and Hispanic actors. The director was born in India, and has many Indian contacts in the business. The film landed an Academy Award winning actor (Dev Petal) for the role of Zuko, therefor in order to maintain visual continuity the other actors chosen to represent the fire nation are now Indian/middle eastern.
In a profit-driven industry, a movie like The Last Airbender (which does not have the kind of name recognition that a movie like The Lord of the Rings has) is often forced to sacrifice aspects of the source material in favor of convenience. It would be great if all the actors looked, and sounded exactly as the original characters did; but this movie simply doesn’t have the budget for that kind of accuracy. What’s important is that the spirit of the show be maintained, and none of us can say for sure that that is the case until we see clips of the film.
Honestly, I’d have been much happier if the powers that be had simply poured their money into a big-budget feature-length cartoon with all the same directors and voice talent. I understand why they didn’t, and I understand (in part) why they’re making the decisions they are now.
May 31, 2009 at 2:12 am |
I try to make this as short as possible.
Reason for the protest:
This production has no respect whatsoever for the cartoon and its sources of inspiration. They’re trying to squeeze some money out of the franchise – that’s it. And no. discrimination against Asian actors in the name of profit is not ok. There is a big pool of Asian and Native American Actors they could choose from but they rather searched for “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” and – oh surprise – came up with 4 Caucasian leads in the first place (later replacing one of them with Dev).
Since you bring up LotR:
LotR had a budget of $285 million – Avatar has $250 million. LotR had a screen time of more than 11 hours (extended edition) – Avatar will have how much? 6 or 7 hours for all 3 movies? So don’t tell me anything about budget! LotR shows what can be done with a similar amount of budget. You just need to know what you’re doing.
Last but not least:
I’m with you on the big-budget cartoon movie. That would have been awesome.
But I can’t understand the decision they made for the adaptation. Yes, changes have to be made. But when the end-product has barley any resemblance with the source material I don’t see why any fan of the cartoon should support it.
May 31, 2009 at 5:32 am
Sabrina- Thank you. You said the exact same thing I was about to write.
I find it funny how people are trying to justify the means of using Caucasian actors instead of Asian actors in a “Asian influence world” not a “Caucasian influence world” or “Ethnically diverse influence world”, but a “Asian influence world”. I guess the people of that “Asian influence world” just doesn’t fit right with a Hollywood movie.
Also if it’s okay to use unknown Caucasian actors then why is not okay to use unknown Asian actors?
May 31, 2009 at 10:22 am
Thank you for citing examples, rather than simply making declarations.
May 31, 2009 at 8:44 pm
“This production has no respect whatsoever for the cartoon and its sources of inspiration.”
That is nothing more than an assumption. Respect for the sources of inspiration can be achieved through many means: fighting style, composition of music and the style of the visual qualities, social pattern, architecture. It is not only a question of casting. It is a question of perspective and a highly gradual issue: Even the cartoon can be seen untrue to the sources of inspiration – all the main characters are speaking american english. Is this the mother-tongue of the diverse asian countries? No … so get over it! And think of that: The world and ethnic groups of Avatar are completly fictive categories. Aang don’t think of himself as an asian! So how in the world can anybody be a racist towards him, only when his character is played by a non-asian…? This whole insisting upon the racial matter has clearly a racist smack – but only on the side of the protesting fans. The persisting exalting of phenotypical traits is just tedious. The most important thing should be – can the actors transpose the loved mimic, gesture and personality of the main characters to the screen? Why are you so eager, to see purley racial characteristics transposed? Why are they so important to you? As said above – cultural allusions can be achieved with so many other means…
May 31, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I’m sorry, but this:
“This production has no respect whatsoever for the cartoon and its sources of inspiration. They’re trying to squeeze some money out of the franchise – that’s it.”
Is pure speculation of their motives, which is just bad form; not to mention the fact that “respect for the cartoon and sources of inspiration” is not only shown through casting (it’s also shown through costuming, props, set-design, philosophy, etc. etc. etc.). Innocent until proven guilty, correlation doesn’t imply causation, and all that good stuff. I certainly won’t charge them with something this serious until I see more solid proof; this kind of accusation deserves it.
Since this subject has been brought up again, I’ll weigh in. I guess you can call me an “anti-anti-cast” person, in that I, as an Asian person born and raised in Mainland China for the first 9 years of his 21-year long life so far, find the whole Aang Ain’t White movement distasteful, even though their core cause (fighting for equality for Asian actors) is noble. I’m not pro or anti cast, since I’ve yet to see them act in the movie. Frankly, since you say “I don’t see why any fan of the cartoon should support it.”, I’ll say that I don’t see why any person with an open mind would prejudge the movie based on a tiny portion of its parts. The movie, as is the series, was sooooooo much more than just the race of the characters (whose race was so vague that discussions are still being had whether they’re Asian or not!); in fact, IMHO, devolving it to just about that is an insult against the series, and the whole “everything is connected” philosophy; when I watched the show, I didn’t care or notice the race of the characters at all, even though I loved the Asian culture sprinkled in the background. Race ain’t important to me.
I guess what I’m saying is, I’m not justifying the use of Caucasion actors; I’m justifying the use of talented actors; whatever their race, I couldn’t care less. After all, for me at least, they’re just one tiny peg in the overall storytelling process. I’m eager to see how the cast and crew of The Last Airbender pulls this off.
And please don’t think that I think white actors are more talented than asian actors; that is just a heinous twist of my words.
May 31, 2009 at 10:57 pm
@pg15- I will like to make clear that when I leave comments I am only leaving my view point on this subject. I am not with “Aang ain’t white” movement. I am just a fan of the animation series that doesn’t like what I see is going on in Hollywood with this movie and others.
But about the “Aang ain’t white” movement what do you see as “distasteful” when you are also saying what they are doing is noble?
You know what I find distasteful is that the characters in the series and movie can have Asian customs, Asian clothing, Asian landscaping and architecture, but the characters themselves are not Asian or should not be assume to be Asian.
Are you saying it’s okay to take from a culture’s identity and not have the people of that culture to represent it as long as you can find someone who can?
Unbelievable!
Also “Asian culture sprinkled in the background.” I am just not going to comment on what you said.
But LOL!
June 1, 2009 at 9:29 am
“Are you saying it’s okay to take from a culture’s identity and not have the people of that culture to represent it as long as you can find someone who can?”
I think here is the main problem: You are assuming, the cartoon is charged with a cultural identity that isn’t american but rather asian. That is clearly an exaggeration. The cartoon clearly contains a typical american coming-to-age plot (with strong implications of highschool love stories) and a very epic, mythical arc of the kind western popular culture has produced many in the recent years. It is indeed so, that the cartoon has asian cultures more as an backdrop, to borrow elements, but not as a main concern. And this disposition alone is not a racist act. The existence of a culture consultant doesn’t prove the opposite. It just proves, that the cartoon wants its allusions to be authentic. But the fact remains – there are american culture influenced elements all the same. AVATAR is in the end a fictive synthesis of many elements… and the insisting upon the phenotypical traits of races is so truncated and limited in this respect.
July 24, 2009 at 6:20 pm
“This production has no respect whatsoever for the cartoon and its sources of inspiration.”
that’s bull.
May 30, 2009 at 4:30 pm |
HAHAHA! This is crazy… back at LAF we’ve been getting onto people since the beginning. Things have just started to die down now, and all the trolls are gone(except one, but he’s not really a troll). For those of you who are ticked off with these complainers, here’s how to get rid of them: don’t respond. That’s it. Don’t talk to them, that’s what they want.
May 30, 2009 at 5:52 pm |
I honestly cannot wait for the film to come out! And seriously, why are you here if you aren’t going to watch it?
Anyways I think the castle will be for the Northern Water Tribe
Village? could be any village on season one
Fortress deff for the blue spirit
how many days until the trailer?
May 30, 2009 at 7:15 pm |
a village?
may be where hei bai, the panda spirit is..
but it’s actually not that reminiscent.. or is it?
what i remeber is a burned forest, a panda bear/four-arms-spirit and a bamboo forest (asian forest?)
am I right? I cannot remember this episode well…
May 30, 2009 at 7:16 pm |
and roku is in that chapter!
and fang, his dragon!
May 31, 2009 at 2:40 am |
excuse me, that south pole picture it´s real? it´s from the movie?
May 31, 2009 at 2:43 am |
I’ve asked nicely about the language. Family site, keep it that way please.
May 31, 2009 at 6:01 am |
Sounds interesting….Oh btw I heard a rumor that noah is part asian is there any truth to this?………Also to those protesting I hear all of you say that there are are actors (asian and native american) that were better suited for these roles, yet you fail to produce any names would it be to much to ask if you gave a list?
May 31, 2009 at 6:29 pm |
As for Noah being Asian – no, there is nothing to back it up so far. It’s just a rumour.
For actors: There are a lot of “fan-cast” lists out there and many with Asian and Native American actors. I think everybody’s favourite for Aang would be Brandon Soo Hoo. I also heard that BooBoo Stewart auditioned for the role of Aang – like Brandon he’s a kid actor with experience in acting and martial arts.
May 31, 2009 at 10:35 pm |
Why do people keep thinking that people who are against the casting are “assuming” anything.
It’s in fact that in the beginning all 4 main leads had Caucasian actors only until Jesse McCartney had a scheduling conflict did they recast his role with an Asian actor. That still leaves 3 main leads with Caucasian actors in non-Caucasian influenced roles.
June 1, 2009 at 8:02 am |
what you want them to throw away millions of dollars and recast the characters travel back and forth so they can reshoot all the scenes they already did just for the convenience of a freaking idiot complaining about their casting. then please shoot yourself in the face
*at admin:I didn’t use any swear words this time. better ?
June 1, 2009 at 5:13 am |
well, if Toph is asian I will not have any problema
June 1, 2009 at 6:52 am |
Ok, I’m not sure what happened to my reply to Heavenly, so please pardon me if this is a repost:
@ Heavenly: Ok, I misspoke about that “sprinkled in the background thing”; I thought it was a little inappropriate when I wrote it, but was too lazy to change it, heh. I guess I should’ve.
What I find distasteful about that movement is the attacks on the production company of the movie for assumed motives. And yes, it is a bunch of assumptions. You are right that the results were 4 Caucasion actors, but again, correlation does not imply causation.
If I presented to you four math tests that I took, and they were all A’s, what would you conclude? That I was a good student? That I studied hard for them?
For all you know I could’ve cheated.
With a charge as serious as this I don’t personally throw it around without sufficient back up evidence, and what we have is not enough; but that’s just me. Now, again, it’s totally fine to not like the cast, but when you say that they had racist intentions, then that’s going too far. You weren’t there; none of us were; we don’t know their intentions.
When I visit AAW’s sites, all I find is complaining and whining and griping and snarking about the cast (or worse, other fans who *gasp* have a different opinion than them!); and yet, besides the few “they should cast these Asian people” lists, I find no evidence that they’re promoting Asian actors at all. Like most disgruntled fans, they’re just whining. Heck, take a look at their Racebending site. Do you see anyone getting anything done? Oh wait, one person in the most current post is gonna make a hate-filled vid; that’ll help!
And a few posts later, they compare Dev Patel with Sokka. Hey, I agree they look alike, but that has nothing to do with culture, does it? That has nothing to do with race or the cause, does it? Dev is Indian, Sokka’s culture is based on Inuit culture, so Dev is as far removed from Sokka as Jackson Rathbone is.
But they have nearly the same skin color, so that’s fine, right? That’s another problem I have with them: shallowness.
Any just cause can certainly have supporters who are doing things that are less than savory for the cause, wouldn’t you agree? That’s just a fact of life. When you’re the smaller group, you have to play the game; be diplomatic; be compromising; but be firm on your core principles. What do I see? A bunch of whiny babies snarking at every single new news item, and forming protests that are insulting as opposed to productive. They’re the same as any group of fans who aren’t getting what they want, and they are frightening similar to the fans whose books/comics/whatever are being adapted and things don’t look exactly like in the source material.
Anyways, since you’re not part of them I suppose this doesn’t apply; still, you asked me about them and…I rambled. A lot. Hehe. Oops.
As for the movie, if it were ok for Mike and Bryan to take Asian culture to make the fictional world of their American cartoon show, than I don’t see why the movie can’t do the same.
June 1, 2009 at 10:36 am |
I agree completly. The whole racism-argument and the extensive accusations seem nothing more than provocative und controversial words to aggressively affront every change from cartoon to movie. As a technique to quiet the huffy fan mind. I don’t object the fan mind – but in this case it is escalating into some ugly and risky thought patterns…
June 1, 2009 at 5:45 pm |
I agree whole heartedly PG.
The fact of the matter is, this has cesed to be a debate about Asian/Inuit, and has become anti White. I see a lot ot “THE CAST IS NOT ASAINRACISM RAWWWWR… But Dev should play Sokka, as the look similar LAWL”
Putting and Indian as an Sokka is just as Racist as putting a White. No more, no less.
I personally think NEITHER are racist, I think people just want to feel like their fighting a cause, even though they aren’t… I’ve noticed far too much “white bashing” on a lot of these sites.
As long as an Oriental plays Toph I’m fine.
June 1, 2009 at 5:38 pm |
WHY did this have to become another race debate?
WHY WHY WHY WHY…
June 3, 2009 at 10:18 am |
Thank you!
June 1, 2009 at 5:43 pm |
@pg15 & benwick
For the reason why I think the production lacks the respect the the original shows towards their inspirational sources:
No matter if you want to acknowledge it or not there’s an issue with the production favouring Caucasian actors as leads when the characters, story, setting and everything else is clearly inspired by Asian and Inuit cultures. This could have been a chance to feature young aspiring Asian and Iunit actors in a fantasy movie that is heavily inspired by their cultures. But this is yet another production were they felt the need to whitewash the story. This is actually the core problem and why this is not jut a fan-wank. It’s not that the people are complaining that Rathbone doesn’t have the right haircut.
Lots of people who defend the casting decisions claim that this has been done cause Caucasian actors seem to be more “bankable”, that no one wanted to see Asian actors on big screen or even claimed that there are no good Asian actors at all. I don’t see how these points prove the production hasn’t done anything wrong. Au contraire – it clearly demonstrates discrimination in the business. Racial discrimination for financial reasons is as bad as any other reason.
And because of this not just fans rightfully protest against the movie but also organisations like MANAA (who’s former vice president was cultural consultant for the cartoon), the East West Players (founded by Mako, also a member is Dante Basco) and Derek Kirk Kim riled up lots of professionals in the entertainment industry – he also has the support of Giancarlo Volpe who directed 19 episodes, wrote 3 and got some sweet awards for his work. If the people who worked on the show find this scandalous enough to write open letters and voice their protest openly, then you should know there’s something rotten.
Last but least the main mistake the production has made. I can let go that they didn’t reply to the fan letters. But what I find absolutely disrespectful and proves that they are just on the hunt for money is that they slapped MANAA and EWP in their faces with a more than sloppy written reply to their open letters. Particularly slamming the door in front of MANAA who wanted to discuss the issue with paramount and offered their help as consultants doesn’t show very good manners. Paramount even not wanting to discuss the issue is absolutely showing disrespect here.
June 1, 2009 at 6:33 pm |
But the MANAA uses unproved premises, when they say: “Even though all of the series’ characters were ethnically Asian or Inuit/Yupik” – That is nothing more than an allegation. From a narratological point of view the ethnical groups of the cartoon are fictive categories of their own – sui generis: air nomads, water tribes, fire nation, earth kingdom. It is absolutley right that these cultures share certain similarities with real cultures – but is is very farfetched to say, that these cultures in the cartoon ARE the cultures of the real world. Oh no, they are not identical! So the difference is a gradual question. I wouldn’t have objected asian actors. And I don’t object caucasian actors. It is an absolute legitimate decision of Paramount to cast whoever they want. That is because of the above said: In the fictional world of AVATAR asian, caucasian, inuit (and so forth) races does not exist. Of course it is a decision you don’t have to like, but it isn’t a racist one. Because they are no races to discriminate.
And you have to understand: The insisting upon racial superficiality does indeed withdraw so many vital elements of the show. From his personality Aang is the embodiment of the all-american boy for me. That doesn’t mean he had to be casted with a causcasian actor. But that means: The cartoon is SO MUCH MORE than the references to non-american cultural. It is clearly influenced by many elements of the american popular culture, too. It is a question of choice from the Paramounts perspective – and I can’t see the rascism in any of their options, the cartoon as a highly gradual matter (in cultural questions) allows.
June 1, 2009 at 7:09 pm
First of all, MANAA worked together with the creators of the show to make it the authentic Asian/Inuit adventure that it was. Dismissing their premises as “unproved” is a bit weird. They have much more insight into the production of the cartoon than you have.
Second, yes, there are influences of US pop culture. Noone is dismissing that. But US doesn’t equal Caucasian. It’s not you, but many supporters of the cast actually do state that because it’s an American show the actors have to be Caucasian which is nonsense.
Third, of course it is Paramount’s right to do whatever they want with the movie. But that doesn’t save them for being criticized for their actions.
June 1, 2009 at 9:56 pm |
Thank you for being courteous in your comment, Sabrina. I just wanted to say that; you don’t get many of those on the Internet.
I don’t agree with those who says that Paramount should hire Caucasians because they’re more profitable either; at least, I don’t agree that it’s an appropriate cause, no matter how true or false it may be.
That said, while you are right that American =/= Caucasian, the point is, there is no specific race of Americans, and thus any race is fine, Caucasian or Asian. For my part, I don’t care what the race of the characters are, as long as they can act well.
Like I said, the cause itself, the right for equal opportunities for Asian actors, is a great one, but IMHO if a studio doesn’t acquiesce to the cause, that’s no reason to attack them; it’s much more productive to think “next time”, if you know what I mean. You can’t expect people to change overnight, you know? So from my perspective, those who are in the AAW campaign either don’t know what they’re doing, or they do, in which case it’s even more horrible since they’re using a noble cause to justify their anger at the movie not looking the same as the show.
And I have seen people complain about Jackson!Sokka’s hair.
I also want to add that I don’t see how Mike and Bryan are any less guilty than the film makers (if you assume the film makers to be guilty, which I don’t); I’m well aware of the age-old voice-actors’ argument, but I’ll make this one: Mike and Bryan and their team could’ve hired Asian people/minorities to voice their heroes; though we might not be aware of the difference in front of the screen, those three Asian people would’ve had a comfortable job for 3 seasons; that’s worth it in and of itself. Instead, Aang, Katara, and Sokka were played by three Caucasians, while the “villains”, Iroh and Zuko, were played by Asians. At the same time, those who criticize the movie for having Suki, the love interest, be Asian, forget that Suki in the show was voiced by an Asian person as well, Jennie Kwan.
If they wanted to be authentic, then Bryke’s team could’ve found Asians to fill those roles, but they didn’t. Well, Asian for Aang, and Inuits for Katara and Sokka. Still, they didn’t. We’re talking employment for Asian actors here, so there is no difference between voice acting or normal acting.
To paraphrase you:
“This could have been a chance to feature young aspiring Asian and Iunit [voice] actors in a fantasy [series] that is heavily inspired by their cultures. But this is yet another production were they felt the need to whitewash the story.”
So logically, if you don’t like the movie for its ways, then you probably shouldn’t like the series either.
June 2, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I couldn’t agree more. The fact of the matter is, the races in Avatar don’t exist. They can be influenced by anyone, but they truly don’t exist. The art, archatechture, clothing, and even the people are all stylized, and therefore it’s up to the descretion of the creators to decide on the races of the actors.
Besides, something tells me that if a young Asian actor tried out for Aang, and did a better job than Noah in acting and martial arts, he would have gotton the part over Noah. and even if that isn’t the case, and they were looking for a white child specifically, who are we to say what influenced the choices of the director and castind dept.
At any rate, I would, personally, like to see more Asian actors in TLA, but I’m not going to lamblast the creators’ moral compass because I disagree with their casting choice.
I mean, this is their artwork, their job, and their lives. They made the choice they did for a reason, and I seriously doubt that the reason is bigotry.
I wonder how Bryan and Mike fell about the cast…
June 3, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Haha, no worries, I don’t like these debates where people screaming insults at each other.
Ok then, for your arguments:
If race doesn’t matter, why prefer Asians/Inuit of for a movie like avatar, you ask? The main reason why is that they are sticking with the Asian/Inuit setting. If they made the WT Scandinavian or the FN Indian to stick with the culture of their actors I’d have less of a problem with it. But in an all Asian/Inuit world it just looks weird. It looks like the culture is exciting and fun but their people are not. And that’s wrong.
As for AAW: The problem is that many people are confusing fan-complaints like the one about Rathbone’s hair with the real life issue that Asian and Native American are terribly under-represented in US media when it comes to lead roles. And when Asians/Inuit actors are not even allowed to play Asian/Inuit roles something is just simply wrong. The first step toward equality is that minority actors are cast for minority roles. AAW is not about “OMG the characters don’t look exactly like in the cartoon!!”
Changing the world never really works in a short time, that is true. Thus actors like Mako dedicated his whole life to fight against prejudice and discrimination in the entertainment media. Also organisations like MANAA are not just standing around accusing people of racism. They are offering their help. They offered their help to the production long before filming began! Paramount is the one who is not even willing to talk with them. If they think they haven’t done anything wrong, why not explaining their choices? Why not make people understand their decisions and open a dialogue? I’m not saying that they not acquiescing the cause makes them guilty. But it makes them and the production look bad.
In the end it is important to keep up the discussions to make people aware of the issues. Not to bash the film but rather to make people think about their actions and their mindset. And hopefully one day we don’t have to have these discussions anymore cause the world changed for the better. Problems don’t go away when you refuse to talk about them.
Last but not least, I actually find it somewhat weird to bash voice acting. O_o
Voice acting gives a lot of actors jobs and opportunities who just can’t have success in movies or series because of their looks. In voice acting there’s just the voice that matters. And unless you think all Asian Americans speak some weird accent I don’t see a reason to specifically searching for actors that look their part. It is important that they sound their part. And native speakers – not matter what colour – don’t sound different at all. So it doesn’t qualify as “whitewashing” – you cannot hear white.
“Whitewashing” in dubs is what they did with some animes like Sailor Moon – renaming the characters and make it look as if the story takes place in the US. They didn’t do that with the Avatar cartoon. If it was a show about Aaron, Katie and Sonny in Fantasy!Asia I’d go like WTF? O_o
But yeah, when I think of these arguments like “They should look like their voice actors!!” I really wished that they just would’ve cast a bunch of Asian American voice actors for the lead roles. That would’ve spared us these idiotic discussions. /facepalm
I wonder if people would support the protest more if that was the case?
Sorry for the lengthy post… XD
June 3, 2009 at 9:51 pm
@ Sabrina: I’ll just touch upon 2 things here; the rest I either agree with, or I disagree with but can’t argue back since it’s based on gut feeling. Hehe.
1. AAW: Again, I applaud them for trying to make a difference, and maybe that was what they were doing at the beginning, but believe me, I read through their most recent stuff on that Racebending LJ community, and it’s pretty much all-whining, all the time. It’s not like I just assumed that they did that; I clicked on multiple comm entries and pretty much all the comments are like that: whining, whining, whining. If you don’t believe me, feel free to go take a look. Just google Racebending.
That said, they did post a bunch of addresses to write to recently; that was somewhat productive, and a pleasant surprise.
2. Voice-acting. Indeed, we don’t “hear” their ethnicity if they are without accents, but my qualm has more to do with employment. What does MANAA and all the other organizations do? Well, from what I know, they promote the employment of Asian actors. I pose a very simple question: why didn’t Bryke hire Asian voice actors? They can sound whatever they like, but the point is, had they hired Asian actors (and Inuit actors), they would’ve done a great thing for the Asian acting community, by giving these people jobs in an otherwise “whitewashed” entertainment industry.
It’s much less to do what what WE, the audience, hear, and much more to do with what THEY, the Asian actors, get from this experience, namely, a salary, and another show on their resume. Also, the fact that the show is based on their culture is a bonus. So, why didn’t Bryke hire Asian and Inuit voice actors to fill the roles and do a nice thing for the Asian/Inuit acting community (regardless of what WE get out of it) from which they borrowed the culture they then used to make their fictional world?
At the end of the day, it’s not about us; it’s about the actors; in that sense, voice acting and normal acting are no different from each other. If you have a problem with the movie not hiring Asian/Inuit actors for characters that live in an Asian/Inuit world, then logically the same applies to the series not hiring Asian/Inuit voice actors for characters that live in an Asian/Inuit world.
Note once again that I’m taking the fans out of the equation; my argument is all about the actors and the opportunities presented to them via the movie, and via the series; in this case, both are exactly the same.
June 2, 2009 at 7:23 pm |
It’s a *bleeping* cartoon…they can do whatever they want with it!!!!
June 11, 2009 at 2:18 am |
Haha that ^ comment made me laugh
….anyways….for those of you people who seem to think that all the actors should be Asian, look at the cartoon. From what i can tell the one nation that looks Asian is the Earth naiton. And all the people they have so far in the movie for the earth nation are Asian, so i am happy with the casting. If you are calling the casting for the movie racist then you are calling the cartoon racist.
June 16, 2009 at 6:02 am |
ooh look! ANOTHER debate about racism. Wow. haven’t seen that before. Whats actually halariously funny is the more and more the two sides debate about “Aang Aint White!” “Well the Director can do what he wants!” “no he can’t” “yes, he can” blah blah blah… the less people seem to care. Its actually quite intresting.
Turns out, the more you whine about something, the more people start to tune you out… even if they were originally going to agree with you. No one wants to be associated with a little, whiney cry baby who is just out to pick a fight .
So, as a note of caution to both sides of this “horrible issue” (pardon my sarcasm) you may want to take your little spats somewhere like a chatroom or the thread of a forum… here, I bet you people are begining to recognize your names “Sabrina” “pg15″ “Hatter” and especially FRIGGIN “Heavenly”… pardon my language Carver… yeah, when i see your posts I know its gonna be the same thing over and over again so I just scan right past without reading them. Heavenly, that may not be what you’re going for since you do seem to desire to raise awareness about the discrimination and all…. actually, to let you know, I was siding with you on the issue till I saw your comments…. while I read them, they became so vindictive that i found myself taking the other side…. hope that helps you change your grand plan to get a million fans to boycott.
June 19, 2009 at 9:01 pm |
A movie with white kids dressed like Asians doing kung fu is going to be HILARIOUS! Can’t wait.
July 26, 2009 at 9:09 pm |
The only thing I have to ask right now is why the heck there’s this casting debate going on in the comments section of an article that’s mostly updating us about things they’re making for sets?
October 9, 2009 at 8:55 am |
Guys, just let them do their film their way.
It’s their film and if they fail it’s their fault.
March 6, 2010 at 1:48 am |
Oh goodie! Another discussion of Airbender that’s descended into complete retard-land debating non-existent RACE issues.
Here’s a concept for you race-baiters:
1) It’s based on a CARTOON which itsefl is based on a FANTASY world.
2) Ergo (that means “therefore”) ANY actor who is HUMAN is NOT faithful to the original series.
3) So hey, M Night – Let’s just forget the whole thing OK? There, is everybody happy NOW?
I actually made some weapons for the film, and was checking fan sites for developments on the movie. But I see this discussion is for a different movie: TARDBENDER.
Bye…
April 28, 2010 at 3:59 pm |
They gave Appa a human face. I’m not kidding. This is unforgivable.
July 1, 2010 at 8:12 pm |
You guys should really get a hobby