The Last Airbender movie from M Night Shyamalan is coming soon, and slashFilm picked up some of the images from today’s USA Today.
Noah Ringer plays Aang, the last Air Bender. The 12-year old from Texas who was cast during an open call. I’ve only recently caught the series on Nick between episodes of Make Way for Noddy and Thomas the Tank Engine, but I’m certainly looking forward to the trailer that will debut before the Transformers movie on July 2nd.
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
14 Comments
Why is the arrow on his head a … tribal tattoo? Otherwise looks good.
Joonas: I dont think the cartoon ever explained it but I believe it’s what tells other people he is an airbender. In the cartoon its a sky blue arrow.
“Air Nomads who completed their training and became Masters of Airbending were given blue arrow tattoos on their head, back, arms and legs, similar to the ones on flying bison.”
Wikipedia, how I love thee.
Pft…no interest. I can balance a copper pipe too. :)
…..I really want to look forward to this movie… but I’m really afraid it’s just going to burn the fans…
…..I really want to look forward to this movie… but I’m really afraid it’s just going to burn the fans…
I get that feeling, too, if only because the casting so far has been… contrary to logic (“Don’t worry, Sokka fans, I’ll get a tan” sound familiar?). And this from someone who just got into the series via DVD. Still, I like the ‘henna’ look of movie-Aang’s tattoos.
here’s hoping it’ll be good
i cant wait to see who is prince zuko plz dot let chow yag fat be in it or jet li
Part of my total enjoyment of this series is that it broke the default of a dominantly white/Caucasian cast, and had some really interesting and complex ethnicity driving the story. The writing of the cartoon is some of the best I’ve seen this side of a Miyazaki film.
This kid may be a fine actor, but he just looks like a white kid from Texas.
Too bad, it just seems like a missed opportunity to put some ethnically different actors up on the screen.
You know how the heroes then are ethnic, eskimos I believe, and the villain, Zuko?, is pale/white hmm? well in the movie apaprently the heores are all white and the villain is Indian (S.E.A). Just mentioning it in case you didn’t know.
Avatar is one of those anime series thats doesn’t translate well into live action, we’re just too used to the cartoony expressions, the music that always go with a joke/action scene and we know how these characters look and they don’t look like real people, so no matter who is casted it’ll never be good.
About the ethnicity: airbenders are Tibetans, waterbenders Inuits, firebenders Japenesse and earthbender Chinesse. I base this on the size of their lands, the clothes, ideology and combat style. It’s basicaly a world where only asian people exist.
I really want to be excited for this movie because I love the series, but with the cast things aren’t looking too good right now. I mean it’s not that I have anything against the cast personally, but as many people have said it just doesn’t fit. I can understand if Aang is white because he kind of is in the series, but Katara and Sokka should be more native american or something, and Zuko I think would be more in the Oriental catagory don’t you think??? Like maybe chinese or Japanese, something like that. But instead the cast is all messed up. I just can’t see Shyamalan getting too many Avatar fans into this movie unless the acting is absolutely amazing because otherwise it’s not going to pick up much momentum.
when you set a movie in an asian environment, with asian writing, asian clothes, asian fighting, and asian ideals…it’ll be hard for the cast twilight to make it look believable. That they live in this world, dress like this. I’m hoping it’ll come out great, but disappointment that an opportunity to use a more diverse cast has passed. Props to Shyamalan for casting Indians but shame on him for casting katara and soka. NOTE:If they have to be white, dont use the cast from twilight.
Hey I’m Asian and I really don’t understand the misconceptions people have with the show. The show was an Asian themed fantasy based in an imaginary world. It was not supposed to be an exact reflection of our world. I never once thought that the blue eyed characters of Sokka and Katara were supposed to be Inuit. The characters to me seemed to have a mixed appearance, taking bits of different ethnicities and mixing them together; I always thought they resembled my mixed children. So unlike so many others, I don’t find any offense at the fact that White actors were chosen to play the three protagonists. They actually do look like the drawings. I think some people liked to imagine in their minds that all the characters were actually Asian in appearance despite the ambiguity of the characters’ racial features. Much of the outrage over the casting is very misplaced.