This live-action adaptation of the animation is pretty good. Just don’t expect it to be EXACTLY like the animated series, and you’ll probably like it. — Photos: Netflix
Fire. Water. Earth. Air. Long ago, these four elements lived together in harmony, as part one of the most popular animated series of all time – Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Then everything changed when M. Night Shyamalan adapted it into a live-action film in 2010.
Poorly cast, shoddily written and containing none of the fun and energy of the original series, Shymalan’s The Last Airbender was widely panned and was a massive box-office failure.
For a long time, it seemed all hope was lost for fans of Avatar (no, not the one with the blue people). Not even a new series set in the same world, The Legend Of Korra, could garner the same widespread popularity Aang and his friends had.
Fast forward to 2024, and a new hope has emerged through Netflix, which has taken another stab at turning the Nickelodeon series into live-action.
And you know what? It’s actually not bad.
Team Avatar, assemble!
The original show, which debuted in 2005 and ran for four seasons, revolves around Aang, the titular Avatar, who is the only person in the world who can combine all four elements.
But when the world needed him the most, he vanished, and in the 100 years that followed, the Fire Nation has been waging war with the rest of the world.
Aang is later rescued from frozen ice by a pair of Water Tribe siblings Katara and Sokka, and together, they set off to help save the world from the Fire Nation.
We'd take a sky bison over a furry dragon anytime. Sorry, Falkor.
The new live-action series follows the same story, and though it initially starts off a little grim and slow, it grows on you with subsequent episodes.
Unlike the cartoon, it starts off by first showing us in detail the historical events that lead to the Fire Nation attacking, and the tragic attack on the Air Nomads that led to Aang (Gordon Cormier) becoming the last Airbender in the world.
It does start to pick up once we get to the present day though – once Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) discover Aang frozen in ice, and the Avatar-hunting Zuko (Dallas Liu) shows to claim his prey, we are pretty much in familiar territory.
Has anyone told you to 'put a sock in it', Sokka?
As far as the story is concerned, this version remains quite faithful to the original, though it compresses the 20 episodes of the animation’s first season into only eight episodes (though each lasts 45-minute ones).
As a result, the story mostly focuses on the more important, character-developing plots first and foremost, while weaving some of the less relevant ones into these plots perfectly.
For example, stories and characters from three episodes set in different parts of the Earth Kingdom are relocated to the city of Omashu, making for a much more tightly paced story.
I can see you're all fired up, Zuko.
The casting of the show is also a far cry from Shymalan’s white-washed disaster. Cormier is suitably goofy and innocent as Aang, and handles the more serious beats well at the same time.
Kiawentiio and Ousley also give solid performances as the Water Tribe siblings (Ousley, especially, channels the animation’s Sokka perfectly), but Liu is the standout as the angsty yet conflicted Zuko, and I for one can’t wait to see his character progress further (provided there are more seasons coming).
Of the grown ups, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s jolly yet wily Iroh is the standout, while Daniel Dae Kim is obviously enjoying himself as the big bad villain, Fire Lord Ozai.
For the lasttime, please stop asking me if I am Lost!
From the fun and excitingly irreverent One Piece, to the somewhat disappointing Cowboy Bebop, Netflix’s recent adaptations of well-loved animated shows have been pretty hit and miss, to be honest.
Fortunately, Avatar: The Last Airbender is more hit than miss, and on the basis of this season, it has the potential to get better in subsequent seasons now that the writers and cast have a proper hang of it.
Just don’t expect it to be EXACTLY like the animated series, and you’ll probably like it. Yip yip!
Summary:
Breathing new life into a beloved animation
