Avatar: The Last Airbender movie coming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W1dhqc-JBs

I am so looking forward to this; as I’m sure Wil is as well.

Its like EVERY character is the comic relief.

It could be good, but it could also be terrible. The visuals look nice, but the problem is that it might just be a hollow shell if they try to do too much in 1 movie. The characters need to be played well that’s a key component we don’t know will be there. That and Appa.

Mr. Shyamalan usually doesn’t do sequels, so I’d guess that there will only be this one movie as long as he’s working on it. He is good at what he does, though, so I wouldn’t worry so much about too much going on in the film as much that it could just be a really, really bad adaptation.

Edit: Also, there should be more information on it at Comic-Con so I’ll look for it when I’m there.

It could… and will.

I’m going to see it, but I’m not going to expect it to be anything close to a faithful adaptation. I know it’s going to be totally different, will tell a story that sounds familiar with characters that look familiar, but it won’t be the same.

With that in mind, it still might suck, of course, but I’m going to try and divorce the TV series from my mind before watching it and see how it stacks up.

So as someone who has never watched the series and knows virtually nothing about it…

Would it be worth checking out?

The series is pretty good. Just tough through the first 3-4 episodes and the rest flows pretty well, particularly seasons 2 and 3.

Yes. How do you get a pacifist monk to to realize what he has to do to end a war in abour 2 hours without a lot of meditation montages?

The animals in the series were just wacky ways to have fun with the writer’s imagination. I don’t know how well they’ll make it to the big screen.

I thought the series was one of the best things I’ve ever seen on TV, personally. You take the appeal, depth, and twists of an anime and give it Western dialogue and humor. I rarely enjoy myself as much as I did watching Avatar.

I really like Avatar. Which is why I’m apprehensive about watching a movie form of it. Shamalan (sp?) has not made good movies (in my opionion). I don’t think he wil do justice to this series at all.
Maybe I’m still revocering from the Dragonball movie. That’s therapy for years.

I’m really looking forward to this, but it could also turn out to be pure crap.

I’m wondering what Appa will look like

I wonder if they will still go ahead and use nonAsian kids as the main characters? Not that I care, and in fact the characters in the series don’t look that Asiatic (and it doesn’t even take place on Earth!) but I can see how some people might take it as an affront. Ironically, one of Avatar’s greatest achievements was making an oriental-culture-based animated series popular on this side of the World.

The story’s length is another problem: it would be very hard to do it justice in a two-hour movie. A good writer could do it, but Shmalayan doesn’t impress me much. A trilogy of movies (one per season) would be the best approach. The thing is, if the first movie flops, the story might stay unfinished. A good compromise might be: telling the main points of the story in the first film, then using the sequels as “prequels” filling out the details.

Cid also has an important point: no matter how good the source material is, the filmed adaptation must work AS A MOVIE; the experience of watching a live action film is different from an animated cartoon (or a book, as Harry Potter has proven.) Speaking of HP, if Avatar works out this might become the next family-oriented fantasy movie franchise after the Potter series ends. It has the potential, anyway.

That would be great if that happens. It doesn’t seem likely, but I know I was skeptical about the Harry Potter book series when it was still young and reading seems to be harder to make catch on than movies. As long as the film can stay PG or at least a mild PG-13, a bunch of people will see it if it makes theatre’s as it is a kid’s cartoon at heart.

Actually, I always felt Avatar was a much more mature work than that. It was kid-friendly, certainly, but come on… that finale had so much story that was far beyond what any kid would understand or appreciate, and there were plenty of pieces in between that were similar.

The casting is out, at least for the Aang,Sokka, Katara and Zuko. I like the kid they chose for Aang, in costume I think its a good choice. Very believable.

Zuko, I think, should be less brown. The kid playing him is Indian, and I just don’t think it fits.

Opposite for Sokka and Katara. They’re Eskimo-esque, they should be more brown not white. I don’t think the casting is horrible overall. I’m still not seeing a good movie in the end. I don’t think the director will make a movie that will fit the audience the show is for.

I think everyone should kind of not care what skin color these people are and see if they’re believable in the role.

While a 100% conversion would be nice, I agree with Cid that having it done well takes priority. I fear that the acting won’t be as good as they show’s…

Aasif Mandvi is Commander Zhao? Though he has done a serious role as the doctor in Jericho, I can’t stop thinking of him as the Middle East Correspondant on The Daily Show.