At first, many fans were skeptical about hearing about a live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s hit anime-inspired/animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Despite many missteps in live-action adaptations, redemptions have been made in some series like the most recent One Piece Netflix series.
While this iteration of Avatar: The Last Airbender was said to be a reimagining of the original series, it certainly reawakened a lot of nostalgia—with a slight twist along the way. Like me, the cast have all seen the original animated series—some more times than me! They have even seen other great animated series like Star Wars: The Clone Wars. So, I had faith going into this series, knowing there would be a level of respect for the original material.
The story picked up in an unexpected way from the original show, beginning with a sort of prequel story—which was revealed later in the OG series. First, it begins with a never-before-seen moment showing a glimpse of how the Earth Kingdom was prepared for the Fire Nation’s attack 100 years before the main story picks up. Then, it transitioned to some heartwarming moments at the Southern Air Temple—where the protagonist, Aang, learns he is the Avatar from his Air Nomad friend Gyatsu.
“While this iteration of Avatar: The Last Airbender was said to be a reimagining of the original series, it certainly reawakened a lot of nostalgia—with a slight twist along the way.”
This second half of the intro also shows how Aang and his trusty, furball sky bison, Appa, got lost in a storm when Aang wanted to clear his head in a ride. The beginning of the story also displayed how Fire Lord Sozen and the Fire Nation began their invasion of the Southern Air Temple—beginning their war campaign by laying waste to the airbenders. As Aang and Appa got lost in the storm, Aang entered into his Avatar State—encasing both of them in a frozen ball. And what happens next pretty much begins where the animated series actually began.
From the way Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender began, I was curious to see how they were going to recreate the magic of storytelling in a live-action adaptation. This show has brought the ruckus and will definitely have die-hard fans conflicted. Just based on how the show began, it offered a scene not seen in the animated show—but delivered a great introduction to this bending world for those less acquainted with it. Additionally, it gave returning fans a new scene that was not shown but hinted at in the animated series.
The CGI/VFX held its fair share for the most part. There were some moments where Aang’s CGI double was a little too weightless and swung a little unnatural. Also, some of the backgrounds were obviously on an LED volume—mostly whenever Team Avatar was riding on Appa. The immersion was not enough to be jarring to the experience but enough to take away from the emotional beats.
“This was definitely the first live-action adaptation to pull the most essence from the original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series.”
At the core of this adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the strength was in the character-driven story approach. Where the animated series had to incorporate a lot of fast gags, flashy fights and snappy emotional scenes on top of the character development, this show slowed down and dove deeper into each character’s inner self. In a tight eight-episode arc, it had a lot of character development to flesh out versus the 20-episode run of the first season of the animated series.
This live-action series also shied away from the more romantic/flirty-forward stories for each member of Team Avatar from the first season of the original series. The romantic relationships took more of a back seat in this series. The power of friendship was more favoured and emphasized in this adaptation, as Aang was constantly told how the Avatar role is meant to be one person’s burden. It was sort of like how Frodo carried the burden of The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings.
For me, one of the best aspects of the show was the music and score. From the epic macro-scale fights to the one-on-one emotional scenes, every story beat or character had some form of theme. Then, nearing the end of the season, some of the themes clash and culminate into one masterpiece. And I can confirm that each episode’s outro is a remix of the original animated series one.
“The other standout aspect of this adaptation was the use of mixed martial arts in combination with the bending.”
The other standout aspect of this adaptation was the use of mixed martial arts in combination with the bending. The original Avatar: The Last Airbender series showed off the elements with martial arts moves incorporated with bending, but the live-action actually had moments where punches and kicks collided.
Unfortunately, I was most disappointed with the characterization of Uncle Iroh in this adaptation. This version of Uncle Iroh had the wisdom and caring nature, but he did not have the funny, charismatic vibes from the animated series. I loved Paul Sun-Hyung Lee so much in Kim’s Convenience and in The Mandalorian, but I felt like he was held back a little here. Not sure if it was the writer’s choice or not, but the original Uncle Iroh vibes seemed like the missing link for the whole show for me.
Lee played his part phenomenally as his other cast members, but not as close to the source material’s character as his other castmates. Although, audiences will get to see a more endearing, traumatized Uncle Iroh that fleshed out his special relationship with Zuko. Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley and Dallas Liu all did their best with being parallel to the soul of their respective main roles from the original show. I enjoyed that their character development was expanded upon further than what the animated series established in some ways.
Everyone will be discussing the many changes and additions to the series. This was definitely the first live-action adaptation to pull the most essence from the original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. The expanded scenes offered a nice introspection on each character. These scenes were great to drive home some of the points that were more inferred in the animated series. Despite the debate, this series will be remembered for trying its darndest to honour the source material—especially compared to the other unspoken iteration.
