Following Disney’s new live-action adaption “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” which was an utter hit, Netflix has now jumped on to the Gen-Z nostalgia train and released a new live-action “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
Highly anticipated by audiences of all ages and critics alike, most were excited to see the familiar cast of loveable characters again on their screens. After the disappointing box-office flop that was the 2010 film, fans were worried the new series would follow in the same steps and butcher the beloved storyline.
However, some say the show went above and beyond everyone’s expectations.
The first episode opens with a visually captivating fight scene, immediately showing off the series’ 120 million dollar budget with impressive CGI. The audience is then introduced to the general story, with the iconic and familiar opening sequence and monologue “Long ago the four nations lived in harmony…” and well, everyone knows the rest from there.
Viewers then meet our protagonist Aang, a young Airbender portrayed by Gordon Cormier, who we later find out is the last of his kind after the Fire Nation attacked the Air Nomads.
Despite this being Cormier’s breakout role, viewers can agree that his one-liners and energetic, silly demeanor perfectly brought Aang’s character to life. His acting skills stood out, especially considering the amount of CGI and animation involved in the making of the show, he was able to create relationships with fully animated mythical creatures like his sky bison Appa and his winged-lemur Momo. This made the audience question where they could get one for themselves by the end of the show.
But what’s the “Gaang” without Katara and Sokka? Actors Ian Ousley and Kiawentiio Tarbel portrayed the sibling duo and their chemistry on and off screen is undeniable.
Ousley absolutely nailed Sokka’s cadence and mannerisms, not to mention his comedic timing was impeccable. Meanwhile, Tarbell’s Katara brought that oh-so-familiar caring and kindhearted nature to the character. Together the duo managed to portray the perfect sibling energy that the majority of the audience loved in the animated series.
The antagonist of the series, Zuko, played by Dallas James Liu was definitely a fan favorite. Liu arguably had the best acting skills amongst the group of younger cast members. He was fully able to get the audience to understand his character’s wide range of complex emotions and explain exactly why he is “the bad guy,” leaving us excited for his redemption ark.
We find out that Aang is this generation’s Avatar, master of bending all four elements (water, earth, air, fire) and the audience follows him and his crew on his adventure to learn all of them.
With challenges posed by Zuko, we meet side characters like Uncle Iroh, played by Pual Sun-Hyung Lee and Zuko’s sister, Princess Azula played by Elizabeth Yu, amongst many others. Aang manages to navigate through while still dealing with the internal battle of what it truly means to be the Avatar and having the responsibility of saving everyone from the everlasting empire of the Fire Nation.
In contrast to the 2010 film, it’s clear that the showrunner of the Netflix series, Albert Kim emphasized the importance of representation and diversity in the casting.
Both the actors for Katara and Sokka have Indigenous North American Native ancestry, which is so important to their characters, especially because the Southern Water Tribe is heavily inspired by Inuit people. The rest of the cast follows suit with an array of Asian representation, including but not limited to South Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese and Japanese actors, all portraying characters whose fictional nations are heavily inspired by these cultures and traditions.
Despite the original creators of the animated series not being involved in this live-action remake, due to “creative differences” and a few other creative liberties here and there when it came to pacing and scene changes, Kim was successfully able to capture the essence of “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
Although it didn’t necessarily amount to the timeless classic that is the original series, Netflix ultimately produced an amazing and well-thought-out adaptation of the series that many hold near to our hearts.
Its impeccably balanced heart, action and comedy combined with its visually impressive world-building and costuming as well as the accurate portrayal of characters with this new cast made it enjoyable for both new and old audiences alike. We’re all excited to see where season two takes us, hopefully, we meet Toph, and we get to hear Zuko’s iconic line, “That’s rough, buddy.”
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