Ninja Mai Disapproves

[meganbmoore]

Casting for M. Night Shyamalan's Avatar: The Last Airbender live action adaptation.

Even if you haven't seen the series, you can look at the animated character designs nicely lined up beside the actors and see the severe issues the fans are having with the casting.  This is either a bad prank, or proof that my near-universal disdain for M. Night Shyamalan's movies is warranted.  I'm sure the actors themselves are perfectly decent, but allow me to live in terror.  Especially for the casting of Suki and Mai.  (Even if they continue the "all white" theme, at least there's a decent chance of Iroh ending up being Jeremy Irons or something.  Yeah, I'm trying too hard.)

P.S.-I finally have season 3 and will totally be watching it when I have a new DVD player.

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

It's disappointing and appalling and yet I still laugh and laugh at the idea of Jesse McCarthy portraying Zuko.

(Just wait for the theme song!)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Me still trying to be positive: Zuko will have nice abs.

But that's extremely "huuuuuh?"

[xplodey-di.livejournal.com]

*flails with lol* SERIOUSLY. *giggles* Wasn't Shamama the one who was all, "I love the Asianness" or something?

Though I'm totally digging Jesse McCartney for Zuko. Only because it is possibly the funniest thing I've ever heard.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I want to view it as funny...

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Well, that's pretty typical Hollywood, taking something that is popular at least in part lbecause of its divergence from the "all white all the time" paradigm of mainstream American entertainment, and whitewashing it.

This is the same industry that decided to make the freaking Monkey King a white dude, after all.

[livvylove.livejournal.com]

this

[yukina-raven.livejournal.com]

I am so annoyed by this, but I'm not surprised. I had low expections for the movie since it was announced.

Hollywood, stop ruining my favorite shows/comics/books! :(

This is going to turn into Avatar: The Last High School Musical, isn't it?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

My expectations were rock bottom as soon as I heard Shyamalan's name attached to it.

[havocthecat]

I'm suddently just plain Not A Happy Person over this, seeing this casting. This is starting to give me The Dark Is Rising adaptation vibes. Whic isn't a place I want to be.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

When I saw the Dark Is Rising trailers, I couldn't even tell what it was based on.

[danyellalot.livejournal.com]

No...just...no.

I can sort of see Jessie McCartney as Zuko if I squint, but the rest of them don't look anything like the characters. Ugh.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Aside from the fact that Zuko is obviously asian...

[ephemeralize.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I've never watched Avatar before, but this lineup looks pretty hilarious to me. xD

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

I'm not really worried. I'm happy Aang is being played by an unknown who is also a martial artist, Katara's actress, with enough make-up and the right costume, could work quite well, and nothing else is confirmed here.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Although I would like to say that Shyamalan is honestly one of my favorite directors, if I can forgive him for The Happening. The Village is in my top ten movies, and while flawed, I really liked The Lady in the Water.

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

I am dying at the idea of Jesse McCartney in such a role.

Fortunately, I have just the icon for this post!

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

ALL WHITE AVATAR. That's sort of like ALL WHITE EARTHSEA. I'll go and cry now.

Re: Fortunately, I have just the icon for this post!

[chomiji]

Exactly.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

I AM SO SICK OF THIS SHIT.

That said....Toph had damn well better be in this movie.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Err...I'll be surprised if she isn't, unless they're doing 3 movies, one for each season.

[irishninja.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks M. Night Shyamalan is a hack who needs to vacate Hollywood. I had not heard of the Airbender LA movie until this post, and I refuse to click on your link because I like my blood pressure right where it is. ;)

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

All you need to know: ALL WHITE CAST.

Seriously though, Shyamalan had a hit first movie and has pretty much been riding on that since because once you figure out his gimmick, you know how every single one of his movies is going to go.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Granted, I haven't watched more than 2 minutes of Avatar in my life, but thr actors look OK enough to me. Real people never look like animated characters anyway...

[escalove.livejournal.com]

I don't think the problem is that they don't like the characters, it is that they are all white in a show with a distinctly Asian culture.

[snarp]

I'm pretending the movie doesn't exist. My blood pressure would skyrocket otherwise.

(I say this having already the unwise decision of reading some of the toxic comments under that post. This will be my last acknowledgment of the film's existence.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The LOTR comment was especially lovely. Did anyone ever point out that LOTR is specifically based on an Anglo-Eurpoean setting?

[paper-moonshine.livejournal.com]

Jesse McCarthy? You gotta be fucking kidding me -_- it must be a joke.

[may-flyer.livejournal.com]

ALL THE CAPSLOCK ON THE INTERNETS CANNOT FULLY ENCOMPASS MY FANGIRL RAGE.

This only way this could get shittier would be for them to make Toph a dude.

[radiotrash.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Bryke are crying now. >[ I think I would go and smack someone who took my wonderfully diverse cast and made it whitey central. Uuuugh.

The only thing I'm thinking is that Mai will probably be cast properly because omg asian chicks that kick ass are hot. e_e

I probably won't see it, I'm so sick of Shyamalan's movies. And there's just a line I draw to seeing adaptations if I think they'll make my head explode. Like the Ella Enchanted movie? I wanted to fly through the screen and punch everyone responsibile for that crap everytime I saw a trailer.

[livvylove.livejournal.com]

Avatar the Musical!

The only way I would approve is if this was made as a joke like the Playhouse episode.

[neuclear.livejournal.com]

...M. Night Shyamalan





...TWIST IS...Aang ISN'T ASIAN.

[paperclipchains.livejournal.com]

Shyamalan said, actually, he'd want to cast mostly unknown actors. I'm clinging to hope that this is a joke.

Alternatively, it was said that the amount of creative control he'd get would depend on the success of his last film - and his last film sort of tanked at the box office. Perhaps he isn't actually responsible for this one. Think what you will about Shyamalan, but I don't think that casting has ever been his problem.

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I barely watched Avatar and this look like an ugly parody. Sokka and Katara are just sad, but Zuko is hilarious.

[ivy-chan.livejournal.com]

I'm crying into my calming tea right now.

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

What the hell?!? That's all I can really say about this.

[re-weird.livejournal.com]

I'm planning to write, stating how much this offends me and that I won't see it because of this. Seriously, it's so offensive in so many ways that I don't want to support it with my money at all. Want do you want to bet that fandom will treat it as DisContinuity?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I predict it'll end up like FMA manga vs anime.

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

I just recently got into Avatar (as in, am watching on NickToons faithfully every week and have only 2 episodes to go, yay!) and this bothers me in the way only a brand-new fandom can. I wasn't sure it could get worse than the "M. Night Shyamalan directing", and then I clicked the link and saw the actors for Sokka and Katara. And then I scrolled down further and saw Zuko. WHAT.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

...

I love that icon.