Well, the Mother Giveth... + Edit
Car Woes:
...and the Mother taketh away. She had a new car for about three days, and I got the older one, which I like and know how to drive and was happy about. Couldn't take advantage of it, because in all of those days, it rained non-stop. Then the Nissan dealership flaked out on the car they promised mom, lied through their teeth repeatedly, and long story short, mom cancelled the deal and we're back to one car.
Dammit.
Avatar Movie Woes:
And in other news, pictures have been posted of Zuko and Aang from the upcoming live action Airbender films. To me, the outfits look boring, Aang's tattoos are almost invisible, and I'm not thrilled about the casting as a whole. Aang's fine. A twelve-year-old caucasian martial artist. Bingo! That's a match, folks! But as the news goes, the main team is cast caucasian (yeah, those waterbenders looked white, right?) and all the firebenders (the whitest people in the Avatar universe) have all been cast as darkly ethnic, mostly Indian.
I'm not outraged, like many. I really don't froth over any fandom. I'm not wired that way. To me, if you're a slave to a fandom, you've made yourself a lesser person. But I do love Avatar more than any show or series ever, and it had such fantastic visuals, such a richly developed world. It pains me to see them simply rewrite the world of Avatar to suit their marketing whims or due to some warped unconscious sense of racial stereotyping.
Now, I'm still in the camp of "let's wait and see how well they act", because that's the most important to me, really. And I don't search online for other people's opinions on all of it. (Again, not a rabid fan.) But I still think it just won't be the same. I can't picture a dark-skinned Azula, an Indian Iroh, a white Sokka or Yue. To me, they just seem like damn arbitrary changes. (Like the HP movies, with Harry's blue eyes, asymmetrical scar, wardrobe horrors. Where the hell were Rita Skeeter's banana yellow robes, huh? Why was Sirius a short, bearded brunette? That's what I want to know.)
Now, if the movie guys had simply said, "We made our casting choices simply based on acting ability and knowledge of martial arts. We did not cast with a predominant focus on race or ethnicity." Then I would be totally cool with every damn bit of it. I just can't help but think they're going to change appearances for the same non-existant Harry Potter reasons. Because they can? Because they want to be inconsistently different? Because they thought Inuit waterbenders and banana yellow robes were just too damn hard?
Come on.
Edit: Oh COME ON, movie-makers. Now that Rufftoon put up the second pic of Zuko... THAT IS NOT ZUKO. WHAT THE HELL? They've given him the second season's hair for the first movie, put ponytails on the OTHER officers' helmets, and you have to squint to even see that he has a scar! The HELL! (Also, he looks... kinda uglier than that first pic. Never saw Slumdog.)
Sigh.
I still want to see the films. I'm still okay with them making live-action versions of it. So far. Avatar was a very adaptable cartoon, after all. It had a realistic style of character and setting. (You couldn't make a live action Fairly Oddparents, now could you?) And I think if they did it right, it would be awesome to see those settings and creatures and bending powers executed on a large screen with modern special FX. I do. But they'd sure better wow me with that acting.
And don't you dare cut out Jet, you bastards.
...and the Mother taketh away. She had a new car for about three days, and I got the older one, which I like and know how to drive and was happy about. Couldn't take advantage of it, because in all of those days, it rained non-stop. Then the Nissan dealership flaked out on the car they promised mom, lied through their teeth repeatedly, and long story short, mom cancelled the deal and we're back to one car.
Dammit.
Avatar Movie Woes:
And in other news, pictures have been posted of Zuko and Aang from the upcoming live action Airbender films. To me, the outfits look boring, Aang's tattoos are almost invisible, and I'm not thrilled about the casting as a whole. Aang's fine. A twelve-year-old caucasian martial artist. Bingo! That's a match, folks! But as the news goes, the main team is cast caucasian (yeah, those waterbenders looked white, right?) and all the firebenders (the whitest people in the Avatar universe) have all been cast as darkly ethnic, mostly Indian.
I'm not outraged, like many. I really don't froth over any fandom. I'm not wired that way. To me, if you're a slave to a fandom, you've made yourself a lesser person. But I do love Avatar more than any show or series ever, and it had such fantastic visuals, such a richly developed world. It pains me to see them simply rewrite the world of Avatar to suit their marketing whims or due to some warped unconscious sense of racial stereotyping.
Now, I'm still in the camp of "let's wait and see how well they act", because that's the most important to me, really. And I don't search online for other people's opinions on all of it. (Again, not a rabid fan.) But I still think it just won't be the same. I can't picture a dark-skinned Azula, an Indian Iroh, a white Sokka or Yue. To me, they just seem like damn arbitrary changes. (Like the HP movies, with Harry's blue eyes, asymmetrical scar, wardrobe horrors. Where the hell were Rita Skeeter's banana yellow robes, huh? Why was Sirius a short, bearded brunette? That's what I want to know.)
Now, if the movie guys had simply said, "We made our casting choices simply based on acting ability and knowledge of martial arts. We did not cast with a predominant focus on race or ethnicity." Then I would be totally cool with every damn bit of it. I just can't help but think they're going to change appearances for the same non-existant Harry Potter reasons. Because they can? Because they want to be inconsistently different? Because they thought Inuit waterbenders and banana yellow robes were just too damn hard?
Come on.
Edit: Oh COME ON, movie-makers. Now that Rufftoon put up the second pic of Zuko... THAT IS NOT ZUKO. WHAT THE HELL? They've given him the second season's hair for the first movie, put ponytails on the OTHER officers' helmets, and you have to squint to even see that he has a scar! The HELL! (Also, he looks... kinda uglier than that first pic. Never saw Slumdog.)
Sigh.
I still want to see the films. I'm still okay with them making live-action versions of it. So far. Avatar was a very adaptable cartoon, after all. It had a realistic style of character and setting. (You couldn't make a live action Fairly Oddparents, now could you?) And I think if they did it right, it would be awesome to see those settings and creatures and bending powers executed on a large screen with modern special FX. I do. But they'd sure better wow me with that acting.
And don't you dare cut out Jet, you bastards.