Comments on: Why you should not see “The Last Airbender” movie, but watch the cartoon instead.

By: Aydan

Aydan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:42:27 +0000

Um, and by “ethnically diverse” I meant that it is based on Asian cultures but portrays a variety of them– not just lumping all Asian cultures into one homogeneous mix.

By: Aydan

Aydan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:39:55 +0000

I came to this blog via the post on responsible parenting, and I know this is a bit late, but I’ve been rewatching the animated version lately and I just wanted to add my drive-by voice to the recommendation. It’s ethnically diverse, it’s got a lot of very strong women characters, one of the characters is blind. Also it’s well-written. It might be a good antidote to the bad taste in your mouth that reading about the film may leave.

By: Weekly Round Up – 07/10/10 :Maurice Broaddus

Weekly Round Up – 07/10/10 :Maurice Broaddus — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:09:09 +0000

[...] Why you should not see “The Last Airbender” movie, but watch the cartoon instead – there’s still time to talk about all the wrong in this movie. [...]

By: John

John — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:36:23 +0000

I must confess… I did see the film. It was horrible. And I cannot tell you how pissed I was to see:
A) Katara was useless and awkward, not an inspiring and talented martial artist
B) Zuko was a brutish thug, not a troubled young man who has redeemable and even honorable qualities (even before he became a good guy)

I guess the message sent here is that woman are useless and young minorities are thugs.
I will never wash away the taint that was this movie and I will never forgive myself for supporting it by spending time watching it. Never.

By: tweets for 2010-07-07 « The Mushkush Digest

tweets for 2010-07-07 « The Mushkush Digest — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:04:45 +0000

[...] – Last Airbender seems to = RACEFAIL: http://theangryblackwoman.com/2010/06/30/why-people-should-not-see-the-last-airbender-film/ [...]

By: nojojojo

nojojojo — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:04:21 +0000

Sure, that can be your reason. But my definition of “fun” and “appealing” includes the fact that the original series was different — it broke the “rules” of racism that have dominated American entertainment for decades. I can watch the original series without feeling any of the gut-churning revulsion that fills me when I see most stereotype-filled crap. That’s what makes it fun for me. YMMV.

By: nojojojo

nojojojo — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:53:19 +0000

Zelda, the characters have blue/green/etc. eyes because this isn’t Earth and their races don’t map completely to ours; there’s still a fantasy element involved. The show partly uses eye color as an indicator of nationality. Fire Nation people have light brown/yellow eyes (the color of fire), Water Tribe people have blue (the color of water), Earth Kingdom have green, Air Nomads have gray. And since there are Asians who have eyes in all those colors (except yellow, which again — not Earth), it’s not beyond the pale.

And the characters do look Asian, just not the kind of exaggerated, stereotypical Asian we’re used to seeing in American-made cartoons (excessively “slanty” eyes, exaggeratedly yellow skin, etc.). Here’s a good article on the subject.

Unfortunately, the film isn’t likely to disappear immediately, since enough people have bought tickets to it that it hasn’t been classified as an immediate flop. All those people in the theater who were laughing at the film still helped to support its racism.

By: unusualmusic

unusualmusic — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:13:46 +0000

No. Because racism is a great big honking problem that needs to be fixed. You might be priveleged enough for it to not hurt you, but it sure as hell hurts a lot of people, as the links document, and our pain and damage needs to be tended to.

By: Lala

Lala — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 01:05:43 +0000

I don’t know ultimately how well ‘Airbender’ will do but I do know I never listen to the critics because they never get it right imo. I

By: avatarfan

avatarfan — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 02:09:45 +0000

can’t we just not go see it because it’s a terrible movie that has none of the fun and appeal of the fantastic series?