The 2000s were truly a great time for television animation. Channels such as Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon were constantly playing some amazing shows, especially when it came to action cartoons.
“Danny Phantom,” “Ben 10,” “Samurai Jack” and “Jake Long: American Dragon” are just a handful of some of the great animated shows that were being released at the time. These shows were action-packed, heartfelt and plot-driven, a sharp change in direction from the comedies that were released the decade prior.
To me “Avatar: The Last Airbender” has always been the standout cartoon of this era. The show followed twelve-year-old Aang, the current Avatar and last survivor of the Air Nomad, and his friends as they strived to put an end to the Fire Nation’s Hundred Year War. During his journey, Aang must also master all four elements, water, earth, fire and air.
While it was similar to other shows that were airing at the time, there was something special about it. The characters were complex, the world was rich in lore and it covered some pretty dark themes.
The show was a massive hit among audiences of all ages. Viewers quickly fell in love with the unique setting and inspiring characters. Nickelodeon, the show’s network, took full advantage of its popularity.
Several sequel comics, prequel novels, video games, guide books and other spin-offs would be released to capitalize on the show’s success. The most famous of these spin offs would be its sequel series “The Legend of Korra.”
The network didn’t stop at just expanding the series canon material, they would go on and start to retell the story of the show in different media formats. This would lead to the most infamous piece of Avatar media, M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender.”
The 2010 movie was critically panned by both fans and critics alike. The movie did so much wrong. It whitewashed the main cast, had awful acting, barely followed the plot of the show and had terrible use of CGI. As you can imagine, the movie was a failure and all plans to continue adapting the series into live action came to an end.
That was the case at least. In 2018, Netflix would announce that a “reimagined” live-action TV series of Avatar would start production the following year. The series’ original creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were set to act as executive producers on the show.
Fans felt some hope for a proper live action adaptation upon release of the news. Not only was it a television series, a medium that fits the original show much better, but they brought the original creators back to work on the show, something that the movie didn’t bother to do.
The casting would be announced soon after the initial announcement. Once again, unlike the movie fans were pleased with the casting choice. The actors actually matched the appearance of their character. Dallas James Liu as Zuko and Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai were by far the fan favorite castings.
Things were looking good for the show. Mostly everyone was excited for it. It had a lot to live up to, and it actually looked like it was going to be able to be a worthy successor to the original cartoon.
This didn’t last long. As development of the show continued, we would be faced with some truly upsetting news.
First and foremost, DiMartino and Konietzko released a public statement in 2020 announcing that they would be leaving the show’s production. They stated in their announcement that it was over creative differences, stating “it ultimately wouldn’t be the show (they) set out to make.”
While it did seem like all parties involved were still on good terms, fans didn’t take the news well. Many questions were asked, such as what were the creative differences? What was changed and why?
We wouldn’t receive any answers to these questions until recently, a few weeks before the show’s premiere. The show’s creative team made a fair amount of changes to the source material, changes that honestly seem unnecessary.
By far the biggest change can be found in Aang’s personality. In an IGN interview with showrunner Albert Kim, it was revealed that the Netflix team made the decision to make Aang’s narrative more straightforward than it was in the animated series. She stated “He’s kind of going from place to place looking for adventures, we wanted to make sure he had that drive from the start.”
The solution they found was giving Aang a vision right from the beginning; they wanted to make the stakes very clear to him, so he would be imminently motivated to reach the Northern Water tribe. This was something he didn’t even think about doing until a few episodes into the original series.
Doing this fundamentally changes Aang’s entire character arc. Aang is a 12-year-old boy who received the most important job in the world overnight. For a good portion of the first season he didn’t even want to be the Avatar. The only thing we wanted to do was to mess around and play with his new friends.
Aang had to learn responsibility and what it truly meant to be the Avatar. He spent so much time running away from his responsibilities until he was left with no choice but to face them.
Giving Aang a clear goal at the start of the season throws around an entire part of his character. There was a message about facing responsibility in the original show, a message that is no longer there.
He wasn’t the only character that was changed. Main cast member Sokka also faced some pretty big changes as well.
In the original cartoon Sokka was pretty sexist towards many of the women they came across in their travels. This was mainly in the context of him trying to make himself sound cooler than he actually was.
The Netflix show is planning on removing that entire aspect of his personality entirely. This is something I would normally be okay with them doing. However, there was a point to him being that way in the first place.
Sokka learns over the course of the show that women are just as capable as men and that he didn’t have to try to elevate himself higher to them. In fact, he starts to date a skilled martial artist named Suki, a character he acknowledges is a better fighter than him.
While we don’t know the full extent of the changes the series has to offer yet, there’s word that Katara and Zuko also faced pretty big changes to their characters.
These character traits may seem childish on paper, but they were there for a reason. They were used to elevate the story of these characters.
When it comes to adapting an animated piece of media into live action, we are so often faced with showrunners missing the original point of the story. Netflix’s “Avatar” is shaping up to be another example of this.