Are there any particular Asian mythologies that you sourced for the backbone of the program? Or is it entirely original?

-Mike: Yeah, and the idea of the “avatar,” is kind of based in Hinduism, so, the television series certainly has a basis in all of that [theology]. But you’re right, we didn’t even at the time know all of that [theological] stuff… we knew what “avatar” meant, and we knew different kinds of it, but only after we created the show did we really see how important it was to these other cultures.

So the producers and director has no reason to say that it doesn’t have any basis on Asian/Eastern influences because it actually came from the creators themselves that they based the entire series on Eastern influences. Just contributing.

My concern is that, should this movie fail, Hollywood is going to react quite the opposite – That they’ve given Asian movies a chance (albiet, not really at all), and (if it does, that is) the movie crashed and burned, which means that they won’t be taking further risks in the future.

I grew up with an international school in the same building as my primary school, and learned English as a Second Language from a British lady of African descent, in a small class with mainly Asian kids. I sometimes jokingly say I grew up next to kids eating rice with Hello Kitty chopsticks. Brining tea and warm food with you to school is the most non-Dutch thing you can possibly do, but I grew used to it and have such fond memories of those classes.

After turning eleven, I went on to a very white secondary school and quickly lost touch with all my friends from primary school. I only realised how white my school was after visiting the campus where I’ll be moving to in a few months, in the West of the Netherlands. (I live in the South, bordering Germany and Belgium, which is one of the most racially undiverse places you can possibly live.)

My point is, it is so easy for white kids to get used to seeing only white people that I think an all-white cast for Avatar might make everyone forget how the original, cartoon charaters looked. And that’s a shame, because for me that was part of the appeal of the series. It was Nickelodeon, yet there was no ‘all-American’ Timmy (Fairly Odd Parents) or Jimmy (Neutron) in sight.

And any movie where there is no representation of diversity whatsoever, except for the bad guys, is a movie that could’ve been much better anyway.

At any rate, thank you for making this post; it’s enormously helpful for well-known people like you to speak out against the whitewashing of our cultural media. It makes it harder for naysayers to claim that it’s just “a bunch of entitled fans” who are upset by the casting.

Also, a small note re: Stephanie’s post — it reads a bit like Oppression Olympics. The point is not that Asians have suffered “as much as” Africans and nobly gone unnoticed; the point is that people of colour on the whole are underrepresented, even when it comes to *our own stories*.

Thank you!

Yeah, right.

And then you have the one non-white member of the main cast playing a villain who looks like an extra from the Temple of Doom. . . .

Ugh.

Yeah, I’m kind of hoping for a reboot already, too. It will probably only happen if The Last Airbender becomes hugely successful as-is, though. Nobody reboots series that people don’t love. Even Battlestar Galactica had a pretty big following before it was rebooted. If The Last Airbender wallows in obscurity, chances are grim that it’ll ever see the light of day again.

In the book, movie etc industry we barely see People of Colour in narratives – especially not in MAIN roles. They missed a big chance with Avatar. I just hope that the movie fails. If it does it’ll send a message to Hollywood -we’re not taking this anymore. Hopefully one day they’ll be able to reboot the series and make it the way it’s supposed to be.

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/avatar-the-last-airbender/avatar-the-last-airbender-movi-30051.aspx

SO MUCH FAIL!

I’m not sure it’s that so much as the assumption that white is neutral. If you make a movie with non-whites, you’re making a “race” movie. Just as if you make a movie with a lot of women in it, you’re making a “chick flick.” This obsession with male/white neutrality does not, in my opinion, reflect the movie-going audience so much as the movie-makers themselves. It is a boys’ club and its colors are white on white.

I understand the studio’s reasoning (about movie-going demos) a little: I’m sure it seems compelling to them (those idiots). But if your movie is less diverse than the cast of “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” I think you have a problem.

The race issue is the icing on the cake for me. An all-white cast (except for the villain!) in Avatar to me would be like going to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon acted out by the cast of the Harry Potter movies. It just seems inconsistent with the setting of the movie, like how Alexander was about Greek people with Irish accents.

seriously though…
what are they thinking???

Didn’t they do a similar thing to that dragon ball movie?
i don’t think it did very well either.
*sigh

But I just find the casting of this film offensive and there’s no way I will support it. Whitewashing is not just Hollywood. It’s everywhere and we need to fight it.

An actor friend of mine is Australian with a European background. She’s tall & skinny with olive skin and she’s gorgeous. But she doesn’t get roles unless they specifically ask for an ethnicity.

In a lot of cases, if the part doesn’t state an ethnicity – then it means they want someone white. Yep, that even includes the local Uni student films.

That explanation makes me wonder: if people haven’t a clue about new cultures and such, why not introduce it to them? Why keep them in the dark? Asian culture is not a fantasy! It IS out there.
I’m not going to use 10 bucks to see a film that completely ignores the original sparkle of the cartoon.