Avatar, the Movie (that I probably won't be seeing)

[stormwyvern]

I love Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's a fantastic show, with just about everything I love in an animated TV show all wrapped up in one glorious beautifully executed package. In about a year or so, there's going to be a theatrically released movie based on the show (called simply "The Last Airbender" to avoid confusion with James Cameron's

Comments

[testaccount35]

Oh I agree. I'm still not happy with Star Trek using a Korean actor for Sulu, who was Japanese(-American). But at least both those sub-races are Asian. Using Caucasian for Asian characters is just so much more blatent. Erg. I wonder if give them dark hair and heavy makeup....

[stormwyvern]

I think this speaks to the general shortage of Asian-American actors (or at least relatively known go-to Asian-American actors) in Hollywood. In a more perfect world, maybe filmmakers would have a large pool of talented young Japanese-American actors to look at when casting the next Sulu. As is, John Cho is a talented actors and I'm sure he'll do a good job, but it does seem like he's one of about three choices Hollywood goes to when they need a young male Asian character

[testaccount35]

Yup, Uhura was African. Gene Roddenbury wanted to represent all the populated continents, and as many races as possible. Sulu was in fact meant to represent all Asian sub-races, not just Japanese, but as the show went on he was defined more with Takei's ethnic heritage.