Superbowl trailer for "Last Airbender"

[Chris3123]

Well, to me, the show's Aang looks just as "white" as the movie version.

As CaptainCanada said, that's because that's what your cultural expectations condition you to see.

While that may very well be the reason, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't presume to know what influences my personal opinions. The sentence as typed comes off as arrogant.

Air Nomads as a whole are clearly based on Tibetan Buddhists; the adult Nomads we saw in flashbacks were distinctly Asian in appearance.

I fully agree on both counts. I'm not saying that the character was not intended to appear Asian, just that it is not too obvious to me.

Aang has rounder eyes, but that's a representation of youth in the visual language of animation, not of "whiteness." (The young Zuko and Azula in flashbacks had bigger eyes than they do in their adolescent forms.)

I wasn't necessarily saying Aang appeared fully white to me in the show, but rather that the movie Aang doesn't look much more "white" than the original. I other words, to me, Aang as seen in the movie looks just fine when compared to the original.

I agree though that the actors cast as Sokka and Katara are too "white", at least in regards to going for "authentic" appearances.

 

[Christopher]

I wasn't necessarily saying Aang appeared fully white to me in the show, but rather that the movie Aang doesn't look much more "white" than the original. I other words, to me, Aang as seen in the movie looks just fine when compared to the original.

Oh. If that's what you meant to say, then I apologize for misconstruing you. I actually tend to agree. At least with his head shaved and in his Airbender robes, Noah Ringer does have kind of an Asian look to him, or at least an ethnically ambiguous look.

 

[darthraidr]

my only "concern" with the race bending... Now m. night has a way to work a cameo into this film, and that sucks.

 

[Graywand2]

One, can we please stay on topic? This is about the trailer not the race issue.

Two, M. Night's cameo's aren't stupid in and of themselves, he actually served a purpose in Signs.

 

[tippy]

http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-primer/#casting

 

[Peak]

http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-primer/#casting

They found their way here too...

I may not agree with the sentiment, but the dedication to the cause have to be admired.

 

[Christopher]

I kinda do agree with the sentiment, but I don't think I agree with their approach. Boycotts don't really accomplish much. Positive reinforcement is generally more effective. In the long run, people could do more good by spending their money on movies that do employ inclusive casting than by boycotting movies that don't.

 

[Peak]

I maybe should add:

I don't think there's anything wrong to push for more asians/inuits/whatever race in Hollywood-movies, but I do think that they should:

1) concentrate on movies that have this problem. The Last Airbender doesn't.

2) Stop being so annoying about it. There's too much "Joss Whedon hates women and rapes his wife every night"-vibe about this (if I should compare it to something)... (No, ok, the Joss Whedon-thing is even crazier, but it's really difficult to get to that point, so I give the racebenders props for trying).

I don't really think that there's much of "Hollywood racism" left anymore, anyway. If you go back 20-30 years, yes. Not nowadays. "Avatar - The Last Airbender" was a western produced cartoon based on some asian ideas and philosophies. The Live Action movie have a diverse cast of characters. As it should be. As some have said: it would be really hard to get Inuit actors anyway..

 

[Christopher]

I don't know how you can say TLA doesn't have this problem. The original show is assertively, unambiguously a celebration of Asian culture. The creators of the show have made it clear many times that that was their specific intent. And Paramount's casting calls for this movie, by contrast, explicitly specified that their preference for the lead roles was Caucasian actors. It's not random that this production has become a cause celebre for those protesting the systematic exclusion of Asian-American actors from lead roles in Hollywood motion pictures. It's naive to say it's not an exemplar of the problem.

And I don't think Racebending.com is anywhere near as fanatical as you claim. Here's a rather interesting article in which they acknowledge that Paramount in the past has made some progressive moves toward inclusion of Asian-American actors, but that it's actually gone backward since:

http://www.racebending.com/v3/background/paramount-pictures-and-asian-americans-a-tarnished-legacy/

If they were the fanatics you claim, they'd only stress the negative, but they're acknowledging the positive where it exists. The problem is, there isn't much positive to point to.

 

[Graywand2]

Again, what is this thing people have of equating culture with race? They're not the same thing! That is the same ridiculous argument I here on the dedicated Avatar boards. I read posts at least ten times a day over there that boil down to "only Asian people should be allowed to express Asian culture". Well if that were true, blacks should be pissed off that rap and hip-hop have been embraced by everyone else. No one has a monopoly on culture, that belongs to everyone.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Most defensiveness about critiques of the way whites appropriate culture is of the addict-must-protect-the-drug-supply variety.

 

[Graywand2]

Excuse me? One I'm not white, and two, that's just insulting.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Again, what is this thing people have of equating culture with race? They're not the same thing!

So? Aang and co. are clearly supposed to be Asian/Inuit-based characters. There's no good reason that they shouldn't be cast as such. It's the same way that that awful Earthsea miniseries from a few years ago turned the main cast white (which left the author apoplectic).

 

[exodus]

Again, what is this thing people have of equating culture with race? They're not the same thing!

I agree. It also comes off as very un-worldly because their are lots of Whites born and raised in Asia, are citizens and part of the culture. Just like Dave Matthews & Charlize Theron are African. It's stereotyping in this day and age that only those that look like Jackie Chan or Tomlin Tomita can only be Asian. Ironically nobody has addressed that M. Night who is of Asian culture himself is the director.