Why Avatar characters don't always look Asian
I actually wrote most of this post in a reply in this post but then I thought other people might find it interesting. So here you go! XD Not trying to start any crap, just... thought people might find this interesting since all this movie talk is going on.
Subject: Why characters in Avatar don't necessarily look "Asian", and many look "white."
The reason Aang and some of the characters look "white" is because Avatar is based on anime - Japanese animation. The creators are huge anime fans, and it is intentionally done in anime style.
If you watch anime, you'll notice that MANY series have all "white" looking casts. The reason for that is this:
Anime is based completely on manga, Japanese comics. Comics in Japan are VERY popular, basically EVERYONE reads them or has read them. It's a HUGE industry.
Japanese comics are black and white. They became super popular after WWII when Japan did NOT have much money. It was an easy, cheap form of entertainment. Their comics were printed on old used newspaper, or whatever recycled paper they could use. They were black and white primarily to keep the costs down.
In order to make the characters easy to tell apart in small panels that were all in black and white - often on paper that was not good quality or easy to read - characters were given particular traits. Big eyes (mostly in girls series) and EXTREME expressions (like the sweatdrops, and exaggerated emotions and poses) to show emotion quickly and easily - weird hairdos so you can tell them apart easily. Also - it is good to note that the person credited with anime's STYLE is Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy, Unico, Kimba, etc) who was a HUGE Disney fan. He loved the old Mickey Mouse comics and such, where they have HUGE EYES and things.
Anyway, this evolved over time. Anime characters don't all have smaller Japanese looking eyes because they're not as easy to show emotion with quickly and easily in a panel that you only glance at, and their hair isn't all black and normal because then in small black and white panels they'd all look the same!
When anime became popular and they were in COLOR this translated logically to making each character as unique as possible, by giving them unnatural hair color, or features. The exaggerated poses and expressions and big eyes just stuck. (Of course in many boys series or more mature adult series this isn't true, but IN GENERAL it is, and the anime that Avatar is based on is definitely like this.)
The reason the characters in anime therefore look WHITE is because of this. ALSO, in Japan, bigger eyes and paler skin IS (at least currently) viewed as beautiful. Big eyes are "cute". Also, they find "small faces" cute on girls... someone with bigger eyes who's nose and mouth are smaller and closer together - it's just sort of something they find aesthetically pleasing.
All of this means that anime has very un-Japanese looking characters in general. And Avatar is BASED on that.
Avatar was created BASED on the concept of each "race" in it being based on Asian culture. It's all a big mix of course, it's not like you can say "The Earth nation IS CHINESE" because it is fantasy and they picked and chose the traits they found interesting.
HOWEVER. The Air Nation is clearly based mostly on Tibetan Buddhist monks. Their clothes, their philosophy, their BUILDINGS, their lifestyle, ALL of it is based on that. The Fire Nation seems to be mostly a mix of Korean and Japanese (pre-WWII) culture. The Earth Nation seems to be mostly Chinese, but I am not super familiar with many of the "smaller" countries in Asia so they probably have some of that as well. The water tribe is obviously Inuit, which is of Asian descent.
Anyway... that's just sort of a quick history lesson. XD
I personally think that you have to take into account that all of Avatar is clearly made based on Asian cultures of all kinds, and was made out of a love of those cultures - even down to mimicking Japanese animation, Chinese gung fu (kung-fu), and everything down to the writing, outfits, and everything! It's sad to me to think that Asian or Asian-American actors have difficulty even getting roles in something that has been made out of a love of their own cultures. :\ But Hollywood is made for one reason - to make money. If they wanted to go the way of the artistic integrity, they'd be making indie movies. But then they'd have no budget. XP
Now here's hoping I didn't just cause wank. >_>;;
Subject: Why characters in Avatar don't necessarily look "Asian", and many look "white."
The reason Aang and some of the characters look "white" is because Avatar is based on anime - Japanese animation. The creators are huge anime fans, and it is intentionally done in anime style.
If you watch anime, you'll notice that MANY series have all "white" looking casts. The reason for that is this:
Anime is based completely on manga, Japanese comics. Comics in Japan are VERY popular, basically EVERYONE reads them or has read them. It's a HUGE industry.
Japanese comics are black and white. They became super popular after WWII when Japan did NOT have much money. It was an easy, cheap form of entertainment. Their comics were printed on old used newspaper, or whatever recycled paper they could use. They were black and white primarily to keep the costs down.
In order to make the characters easy to tell apart in small panels that were all in black and white - often on paper that was not good quality or easy to read - characters were given particular traits. Big eyes (mostly in girls series) and EXTREME expressions (like the sweatdrops, and exaggerated emotions and poses) to show emotion quickly and easily - weird hairdos so you can tell them apart easily. Also - it is good to note that the person credited with anime's STYLE is Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy, Unico, Kimba, etc) who was a HUGE Disney fan. He loved the old Mickey Mouse comics and such, where they have HUGE EYES and things.
Anyway, this evolved over time. Anime characters don't all have smaller Japanese looking eyes because they're not as easy to show emotion with quickly and easily in a panel that you only glance at, and their hair isn't all black and normal because then in small black and white panels they'd all look the same!
When anime became popular and they were in COLOR this translated logically to making each character as unique as possible, by giving them unnatural hair color, or features. The exaggerated poses and expressions and big eyes just stuck. (Of course in many boys series or more mature adult series this isn't true, but IN GENERAL it is, and the anime that Avatar is based on is definitely like this.)
The reason the characters in anime therefore look WHITE is because of this. ALSO, in Japan, bigger eyes and paler skin IS (at least currently) viewed as beautiful. Big eyes are "cute". Also, they find "small faces" cute on girls... someone with bigger eyes who's nose and mouth are smaller and closer together - it's just sort of something they find aesthetically pleasing.
All of this means that anime has very un-Japanese looking characters in general. And Avatar is BASED on that.
Avatar was created BASED on the concept of each "race" in it being based on Asian culture. It's all a big mix of course, it's not like you can say "The Earth nation IS CHINESE" because it is fantasy and they picked and chose the traits they found interesting.
HOWEVER. The Air Nation is clearly based mostly on Tibetan Buddhist monks. Their clothes, their philosophy, their BUILDINGS, their lifestyle, ALL of it is based on that. The Fire Nation seems to be mostly a mix of Korean and Japanese (pre-WWII) culture. The Earth Nation seems to be mostly Chinese, but I am not super familiar with many of the "smaller" countries in Asia so they probably have some of that as well. The water tribe is obviously Inuit, which is of Asian descent.
Anyway... that's just sort of a quick history lesson. XD
I personally think that you have to take into account that all of Avatar is clearly made based on Asian cultures of all kinds, and was made out of a love of those cultures - even down to mimicking Japanese animation, Chinese gung fu (kung-fu), and everything down to the writing, outfits, and everything! It's sad to me to think that Asian or Asian-American actors have difficulty even getting roles in something that has been made out of a love of their own cultures. :\ But Hollywood is made for one reason - to make money. If they wanted to go the way of the artistic integrity, they'd be making indie movies. But then they'd have no budget. XP
Now here's hoping I didn't just cause wank. >_>;;