Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s popular animated series ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ or ‘Avatar: The Legend of Aang’ has finally arrived. The animated television series of the same name was broadcast from 2005 to 2008. It was announced first in September, 2018. Albert Kim was declared the showrunner along with the other cast including Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Dallas Liu, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Ken Leung, and Daniel Dae Kim.
The series was released on February 22 this month on Netflix consisting of eight episodes. Many ardent fans of the original series were curious to know how the Netflix adaptation of the popular animated Nickelodeon show would fare. Did it live up to the expectation?
After news broke out that the creators of the cartoon, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, had walked away from the project due to creative differences, fans of the original series couldn’t help but see foreboding echoes of the 2010 Manoj Night Shyamalan live-action film adaptation that is widely considered to be a terrible movie. The new release from Netflix has been scrutinized intensely by the fans of original cartoon series. Going by their reactions it seemed that they loved certain standout elements, but the new adaptation definitely has few issues that can not be ignored in the long run.
The series is set in a war-ravaged world inspired by many Asian and indigenous cultures where certain people can ‘bend’ one of the four classical elements – water, air, fire or earth. Aang, the ‘Avatar’ and the last living Airbender, played by Gordon Cormier, acts as a bridge between the mortals and the world of spirits. He is the only one who can bend all four elements instead of just one. He has emerged after 100 years of being frozen in ice. With the help of his new friends Katara (Played by Kiawentiio) and her brother Sokka (Played by Ian Ousley), Aang sets out to master the remaining three bending skills and takes responsibility to save the world from the threat of the militaristic Fire Nation. The Fire Nation has a strong ambition to conquer the entire world. Hence, the Fire Nation sends Zuko (Played by Dallas Liu) and his Uncle Iroh (Played by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) to capture Aang. Zuko agrees to pursue Aang as he seeks to get back his honor by capturing him.
The live-action adaptation of Netflix takes plenty of freedom in the way it introduces past Avatars from whom Aang takes help and guidance. The role of Avatar Kyoshi, who became the most popular Avatar in its original version, has been extended when she possesses the body of Aang and helps him defeat the Fire Nation soldiers invading Kyoshi island. In its original version, Avatar Kyoshi didn’t occupy Aang’s body; instead it was the previous firebender Avatar ‘Roku’ who did it in a different scene. While the netflix-version Aang has a spiritual conversation with Avatar Roku (Played by C.S. Lee), he later also conversed with the spirit world with the past waterbender, Avatar ‘Kuruk’ (Played by Meegwun Fairbrother). We didn’t find this conversation in the original animation series.
The biggest modification Netflix has made is related to Omashu, the Earth Kingdom city in the original series. But in its live-action new series, it has become home to every single plot that Netflix was able to cram into.
The recent version combines the storylines of handsome anarchist Jet (Sebastian Amoruso), the traitorous Mechanist (Danny Pudi) who inspires Sokka’s inventor capabilities, and the secret tunnels under Omashu, mixing together characters, places and events that appeared at different points in its original version.
In the original version, Team Avatar came across Jet near a Fire Nation camp and they didn’t meet the Machinist until they arrived at Northern Air temple towards the end of the season.
In the Netflix version we find Sokka and Katara traveling through the tunnels via the sibling power while we didn’t find the tunnels until Season 2 in the original version where it was Aang and Katara, the lovers duo, who crossed the tunnels in a romantic situation.
Alteration is done in depicting the character of Bumi, the king of Omashu, too. Netflix, in its version, darkens the character of the king (Played by Utkarsh Ambudkar) a little bit, depicting him as a much more antagonistic figure who is deeply resentful of Aang’s absence during the war. It is unclear in the recent version if the relation between the king of Omashu and the Avatar becomes good at the end. On The contrary, Bumi, the King of Omashu, put Aang through a series of tests in the original version and Aang realized in the end that the king was his childhood friend. Hence they bid goodbye to each other on a happier note at the end.
Another remarkable difference between the two versions of Avatar is how they used Koh, the face-stealing dark spirit who resides in the world of spirit. In the original version, Aang briefly met Koh (Played by George Takei) in Season 1 when he requested Koh to help him save the Northern Water Tribe. In the Netflix story, Sokka and Katara get trapped in Koh’s realm, giving the Netflix version of story an opportunity to conveniently shoehorn in other major plot points while Sokka and Katara are busy slumping over on the ground.
Hence we can conclude that the recent version of Avatar has changed a lot from Nickelodeon’s show. The recent version, however, is of only eight episodes so far whereas the original animated series had twenty episodes in its first season.