Problem with Avatar adaptations is that even a really good one will be bad in context of a series that has 100% rating (99% audience score!) on Rotten Tomatoes.
You simply cannot improve on perfection.
I think the main problem is that they keep inviting the original creators, they sign on, the studio heads explain to the creators how the studio has figured out how to tweak things, creators say “your ideas are horrible and if you execute on them as you’ve described, everyone is going to hate it”. The studio’s refuse to budge, creators depart citing creative differences, studio gets their way. Is a steaming pile of shit. Rinse and repeat.
I heard the reason they left this time was because the showrunners wanted to basically recreate the series, and the original creators were like, “but… we already made that series. Let’s make something new”.
Could be false though, because I don’t understand how they’d get so attached to the project knowing that it was supposed to be a live action remake from the start…
So basically, show runners wanted to make Scott pilgrim vs the world while the OGs wanted to make Scott pilgrim takes off
“but… we already made that series. Let’s make something new”.
And I think that was actually the best call possible when adapting an animated show to live action. You know, do something crazy, kill Aang in the first episode. Write an alternate universe where Sokka becomes a cartoon level dictator. Show the story entirely from the point of view of Suki and the Kyoshi warriors joining the war against the Fire Nation, or a prequel from the point of view of the Order of the White Lotus searching for, setting up plots or trying to find the Avatar during the interim 100 years of Aang’s absence. Almost anything else would’ve made for an extraordinary new creative addition to the universe, and would’ve been a more palatable translation from animated to live action. But all Netflix executives are creatively bankrupt.
That and most come at it with the standpoint of animation is for kids rather than recognizing animation as simply a medium.
If they just took the original series and drew an extra frame between each frame I wouldn’t be surprised if it made more than any of the live action works.
I think another issue is that when telling the Avatar story, all the main characters are necessarily children, and the themes of the show require some really hefty acting chops to deliver lines convincingly.
I can’t fathom why they didn’t tell a new story in the Avatar universe, or at least remake TLoK where the main cast are a bit older.
Precisely. OG show holds up so well, remaking it is waste of time and money.
You simply cannot improve on perfection.
You can weave in more relevant lessons about stuff, also about more current topics. Nothing about the old one is really out of date though so it’d just be additions here and there. You can even roll in plenty of Korra stuff, it’s not that the series doesn’t have anything to say it’s just all over the place.
What any adaption certainly needs to do is start out with a list of lessons, not plot points. Change the plot all you want as is necessary for whatever medium, as long as the lesson aspect is intact people wouldn’t mind, also keep the “reveal the world to the protagonists” vibe. E.g. Sokka doesn’t need to learn his sexism lesson from Suki, it doesn’t even need to be Sokka who learns that lesson, but that lesson needs to be taught. It doesn’t even need to be about Avatar Aang, there’s plenty of others. Earth is next, isn’t it.
I didn’t watch the show when it came out and when I tried last year I didn’t like it. That made me wonder if it’s just not my cup of tea or if there’s a lot of nostalgia behind the good reviews. While I absolutely agree that animation is just a medium and there’s great animation for adults, I didn’t like ATLA’s style. I haven’t watched the movie but I’ll give the new show a try.
The only adaptation I will accept is one where Dwayne Johnson is playing Toph.
All others are inferior.
This and only this is acceptable, but they should still be voiced by the original voice actors.
I hate how Hollywood thinks live action is the highest form of visual media. Like you want remake avatar? Up the budget for animators, pay the shit out of your voice actors, and pay some writers to add some darker themes. Would be better than any of the live action have been.
The original is pretty dark for a childrens show. Even as an adult episodes like the one about blood bending made me shiver a bit.
Yeah but they weren’t allowed to show or too directly imply death. That’s why Jet’s “death” scene was bizarrely vague. Getting rid of that restriction on the original writers would probably be interesting.
I’ve only seen 1 episode so far, but IMO the format shift is worth it for the visual effects. Like, Sozin just straight up incinerating that guy would not have worked so well in the anime. And the actors seem quite good (the leads at least). My only real complaint is with the writing. And I mean, it’s not as if the original didn’t also have some pretty badly written lines in the first episodes. Adding in an actual 100 years earlier segment at the start is a big improvement, and it also gives us a taste of the kickass action scenes that are to come. At least for the intro to the show, live action seems significantly better than animated was.
Japan makes shit lots of live action adaptations of anime. they just don’t usually make it to the west.
The Netflix show wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t better than the original.
It had some really rough moments intertwined with some really well done moments. Overall it’s fine. The shots of the cities and some of the fights were beautiful. I also really liked some of the zuko and iroh backstory that wasn’t in the original show. Some of the dialogue was very clunky and they mashed up a bunch of stories into the same episode which felt weird and didn’t totally work. I enjoyed watching it for the most part. It was never going to be as good as the original so I think going in with that expectation helped.
Which isn’t really possible so I don’t know why they keep investing money into trying. Just make more animated shows set in that universe.
Well… Paramount, which owns Nickelodeon, allows Netflix to make an adaptation and makes a fat check off the IP. They don’t really lose any money either way. The good news is that they’ve given the creators of Avatar their own studio now and tons of new animation projects are in the works.
I loved it. And I was (am) a fan of the animated show. I think the adaptation was creative, approachable, and overall excellent. Fans forget that there’s a big potential audience that isn’t interested in watching a cartoon, just the fact that it’s live action gives so many more people an opportunity to see this world.
First episode was shit though
Yeah first episode was shit.
I liked how they bypassed Sokka’s sexism and made it more about his insecurities with his dad and what it means to be a man.
I liked how Katara’s fight with Paku and her ability to lead all of the female waterbenders made her a master in his eyes which lead to him telling the teens to find Master Katara.
I like how all the previous Avatars have baggage about doing things alone or being vicious. It forces Aang to find his own path instead of following someone elses path. He no longer needs to live up to the previous Avatars, he just needs to be his own Avatar.
Dude, Sokka’s sexism was not even a plot point and it was touched upon BARELY in two episodes in the animated series. And they did touch on it in the show when he was mansplaining how to throw his boomerang and Suki showed him up.
But the Fantastic Four had a great movie called “The Incredibles”.