Paramount pictures stated they would have a highly diverse casting. After a great outcry that they had an all caucasian cast they recast, the BAD GUY only. So now its all Caucasian world fighting one non white person. This is purely destructive to the series and I for one am disappointed in this. It looks like it may end up being the next Dragon Ball movie.

There is hope however! A petition! Every vote counts!

The fix

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Nothx.

I don't really see an issue with the casting choices. There are two criticisms:

1. Racism. Yea, alright. Clearly M. Night Shyamalan hates all Asian people due to not casting the prominent Asian actors for a movie he's directing primarily for North American audiences.

2. Will ruin the movie (compared to source material). Dragon Ball was -not- ruined because of the Caucasian cast, it was just never meant to be directly related to the source material. The Last Airbender is not quite in the same boat.

You must not have read that petition.

Er yeah, this one is about the soundtrack for the show.

The series was supposed to involve alot of races, you could I dont know, make them look like the characters. an Inuit Kitara for instance? Indian American would work.

And thanks the link was updated to

http://www.petitiononline.com/racebend/petition.html

or they could cast an actual Inuit.

Don't see the big deal really, movies are supposed to be about the characters, not the actors. And if you define the characters by how they look or their race, that in itself seems racist.

I wonder if this is gonna be like the play in-show.

Well, the big irony here is that anime-style characters usually always look western, because they use the "big eyes". So, technically, this could be considered respectful.

This is a fantasy world. It's not set in Medieval China or Japan, so I don't see the big deal.

Oh man, that new petition is hilarious. Ethical casting practices? The dedication to cultural accuracy in the animated series? Whee.

Nick Fury petition.

(If you can't smell the sarcasm, I'll point it out here, in little curvy lines)

Personally, I don't know what bothers me more. That they re-cast one role for someone of a non-caucasian ethnicity.

Or that people are still complaining.

Honestly. I'd rather they cast fairly decent actors, irrelevant of their race, and do a great movie, than cast a bunch of people from varying cultures and countries who, like Goldfinger in James Bond: Goldfinger, can't speak a lick of english.

Really, I don't think african-american people freaked out when they made The Wiz or whatever that black variation of the Wizard of Oz was called.

Honestly, the way I look at it, is this - some kid got the once in a life time opportunity to play a leading role in a movie, a movie based off a TV series he's probably very fond of. And if indeed complaining lead to his part being re-cast, the endless whining and complaining of hundreds of fans has succeeded in A) ruining some young adult's dream and quite probably sacrificing the quality of the movie.

I don't think I've ever seen M. Night cast a bad group of actors - not a really bad group, anyways - why can't people simply trust in his judgment and let him make the damn movie(s? Doubtful after this fiasco he's probably gone through!) and then, if you are so upset about the lack of an asian cast, stay at home while I go and enjoy watching it in the theatres.

/Grumble

The man's paid to do his job, and I'm certain he will do it quite well.

Really? The trees are out to kill you and water hating aliens landed on a planet made mostly of what kills them.

What a tweest!

He said only no bad -actors-, he said nothing about bad -stories- .

Guess I just thought Mel was flat, Juakeen (sp) sucked and Marky Mark was... well Marky Mark.

Good thing I know this movie will be horrible already.

It can't be denied that it's sort of wierd that in the cartoon the different countries are, especially Water are based on different cultures. I'm sure there are innuit actors that are just as able as the two caucassian actors, but ah well.

I'm not a big Avatar fan but it does seem like it had a strong multi-cultural theme so why not reflect that in the movie. Anyway, as an Asian, I too would like to see more Asian actors get parts! Who do we have? Lucy Liu? Keanu Reeves I guess (though he seems to like to hide his Asian heritage). Ah, well.

My favorite author who was... unimpressed... by a film adaption was Ursula K. LeGuin who wrote an article about it modestly titled, How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books.

I was entirely unaware of Keanu Reeves' heritage. You do have Jackie Chan. I mean, come on. Bruce Lee! Heheh. The theme was definitely multi-cultural, but I think the 'racial' differences were there more to underline and support that (children's show, they need brick-over-the-head imagery). The real cultural differences came in the way their people viewed the other tribes, their own tribe, their social, economical and political structures. I mean, they even varied within their own tribe (Earth Kingdom, Kioshi warriors - Northern/Southern Water Tribe on male/female bending, north/south water tribes and swamp-style water bending). I, personally, like to think that race isn't the sole, a major, or even a moderate qualifier for multi-cultural. I definitely think they can easily convey the multi-cultural theme and undertones with a cast of any singular race.

I'm mildly curious myself that, if they'd cast japanese actors in every role, if people would go so far as to complain that they should have cast an inuit or native american (or even south-native) girl for Kitara, and a more nepal-chinese mix boy for Aang. Or, from the trailer I saw, his tattoos looked fairly weak to me - they should have given him real tattoos. No, Aang was much paler in the cartoon, this boy's too tan.

I couldn't hazard a guess - I really couldn't. Personally, and perhaps this is simply my racially colourblind nature speaking, I couldn't care less if they were all asian, all african-american, all african, all hispanic-american, cattilian, basque, arabian, russian. This does probably stem from the fact that I am caucasian and don't really grasp this concept of racial intolerance (and then, of course, a sense of racial identity that comes to people who may feel, rightly or otherwise, prejudiced against).

I do think, though, they could manage the story just fine with a group of amazing actors irrelevant of their racial backgrounds. Dropping your first choice actor for a position because he's white to take a second-choice actor simply because he's asian sounds to me like you're sacrificing quality for a thin veneer of being viewed as racially equal. Of course, it only makes them look worse honestly, because now there's what, a whole one asian in the movie. Poor kid will look like the odd-sheep out.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to the movie. :thumbsup: I'm sure Night will do a bang-up job.

Aside: I still am furious they cast an AUSTRALIAN to play Wolverine in the X-Men movies. DON'T THEY REALIZE WOLVERINE WAS CANADIAN?

Well, I don't really pay attention to Mel Gibson, and purposefully avoided Signs because of him (I can honestly say I've never seen any piece of it). Marky Mark is Marky Mark. It's not bad acting, he's just there what he was always there for. To remind us the guy who use to drop his pants on stage during his concerts is still alive. Ahem. And I didn't avoid it because I heard it was bad (I've heard very little on it - my best friend actually loves it) - I just have some issues with Mel Gibson is all, so I avoid any and all movies he's in (a tragic loss, I can't manage to bring myself to watch Braveheart 30 times a week anymore. I now act it out in my underwear with a plastic sword with Fain and Maylea on the weekends. Don't tell Estarra.)

Personally, though, I loved Sixth Sense and the acting in it, The Village, Lady in the Water. I wasn't a big fan of the Happening, but I didn't think it was terrible. I did enjoy Wide Awake, though.

I like how your just sort of assuming that all the caucasian actors are spectacular and that they're giving up "quality" by choosing someone who isn't white. Do you really think it's ok, to have such a diverse cast of characters in a show, each with set in a culture influenced heavily by certain real world people's cultures (Water Tribe/Innuit, Air Temples/Buddhist monks) and just dropping that "veneer of racial equality" to pick up a cast of all white actors?

There's nothing wrong with having a cast like that, especially if their all really good but I highly doubt that the actor who was the leading role in the movie that pretty much blew the Oscars away won't be able to stand up to that quality, or infact exceed it.



Yes, yes they most certainly would have. I personally would have, at least. I liked the different peoples in Avatar, and while I -know- that your culture is definitely not solely the colour of your skin I would like that diversity represented. Also, even though it's very eloquently worded, this is sort of playing a white victim sentiment ("I'm sure people wouldn't mind if the cast was all black/asian/etc! Just because it 'happens' to be all white it's a problem!")


Good thing they had a bunch of indiginous people in that movie!