Netflix Avatar assessment: one other live-action cartoon misfire

With its concentrate on considerate character growth and exploration of adverse material like genocide, Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Final Airbender collection set a brand new excessive bar for youngsters’s TV. However regardless of its tonal maturity, Avatar was nonetheless very a lot a cartoon making an attempt to please you by taking part in to the strengths of the medium, which was completely suited to realizing the magical world that co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko dreamed up. 

Watching Netflix’s new live-action Avatar collection from govt producers Albert Kim and Dan Lin, it’s clear everybody concerned with the present desires to be greater than its infamously whitewashed cinematic predecessor, and in some instances, it succeeds. However for all of that good intention, the brand new Avatar is one other instance of Netflix turning a beloved animated property into one thing that feels deeply at odds with what folks cherished concerning the authentic.

Set in a world that’s been torn aside by warfare, Avatar tells the story of how a trio of kids is pulled collectively by destiny to topple a fascist empire. After years of dwelling in terror of the pyrokinetic Hearth Nation, it’s laborious for members of the planet’s different elemental societies to see Hearth Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) as something however a monster. Worry of the Hearth Nation is what retains the 2 polar Water Tribes from straying past their borders, and it’s due to deadly raids led by Ozai’s brother Iroh (Paul Solar-Hyung Lee) that the Earth Kingdom is all the time on excessive alert. However the bigger purpose that nobody dares to problem Ozai’s supremacy or overtly rally a resistance is as a result of everybody remembers how the warfare started with the Hearth Nation virtually totally wiping the Air Nomads out of existence.

These particulars had been vital to understanding the unique Avatar’s story. However Netflix’s collection leads with them in a means that instantly telegraphs how way more of a gritty journey it’s by comparability. Together with some moderately nifty-looking chocobo-like creatures, explosive feats of bending are a number of the first belongings you see within the new Avatar because it opens on a high-octane motion sequence set up to now. It’s a fantastic showcase of the power the present’s VFX and choreography groups put into depicting every of Avatar’s numerous bending kinds as distinct balances between martial arts and elemental magic.

As cool as it’s to see Earthbenders taking pictures sprays of pebbles like bullets and Firebenders incinerating issues with their naked arms, Avatar places these visuals entrance and heart early on, primarily as a means of illustrating how the Air Nomads had little hope of surviving the Hearth Nation’s assault on their temples excessive up within the mountains. And whereas all of this helps you perceive the tragic circumstances that result in younger Airbender Aang (Gordon Cormier) — the latest Avatar able to bending all 4 parts — turning into the only real survivor of his folks, it additionally units a grave tone for the collection as an entire that Avatar struggles to shake as its bigger story unfolds.

The present turns into considerably extra lighthearted as soon as it jumps ahead 100 years, and you may really feel it paying homage to the cartoon as its focus shifts to the Southern Water Tribe to introduce brother / sister duo Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio). Like their animated counterparts, Sokka’s a well-meaning however pigheaded teen who clings to custom as a means of dealing with the lack of their mom, and Katara’s a promising Waterbender who feels stifled in a village with nobody to show her the best way to good her abilities. 

Although there was concern about Netflix firming down Avatar’s depiction of sexism, the brand new present does a stable job conveying how Sokka’s retrograde ideas about gender are each an ethical failing and the type of weak spot that may wind up getting you killed in fight. However whereas cartoon Sokka’s obsession with battle readiness was tempered by a smooth goofiness, Ousley portrays the character a bit straighter and stiffer — qualities that generally make him appear chilly. And whereas Katara remains to be an inquisitive and outspoken younger lady, right here, the character’s single-minded concentrate on turning into a stronger Waterbender makes her really feel markedly much less multifaceted than her authentic incarnation. 

Kiawentiio’s and Ousley’s performances are strongest when there are precise bodily objects for them to work together with, however a lot of Avatar’s main moments had been shot on digital units. Given the variety of completely different areas Avatar’s story takes its characters, it is smart that Netflix would attempt to hold prices down by digitally establishing extra fantastical locations. However there may be a lot unnatural lighting and so many scenes the place issues within the background transfer with an uncanny swiftness that the present instantly seems like one more Netflix-branded live-action cartoon that will have been higher served by extra practicality.

Avatar’s chemistry points solely intensify as soon as the Gaang is collectively filling each other in about what occurred up to now and what’s unfolding within the current. Because the long-lost Avatar — a uniquely highly effective bender whose soul is often reborn when the earlier Avatar dies — Aang’s the one one who may be able to placing an finish to the Hearth Nation’s plans for world domination. As a result of Aang was trapped in an iceberg earlier than reaching his full potential, although, he should discover grasp benders like Katara and Sokka who may also help train him. However as a result of the present by no means actually slows down as its central trio crisscrosses the globe, their interpersonal dynamics don’t have sufficient time to develop in a means that feels natural, which makes them learn like a gaggle of children awkwardly hanging out moderately than folks turning into buddies.

Even with every of its eight episodes clocking in at about an hour every, it will have been tough for Netflix’s Avatar to hit the entire identical beats because the lengthier cartoon. The live-action Avatar movie tried to cope with this problem by distilling its plot down, and in doing so, stripped away loads of the narrative that helped make the unique really feel so expertly developed.

Netflix’s Avatar makes an attempt to separate the distinction between the movie and the cartoon. However the execution falls flat as a result of from the second the Gaang is all collectively, Avatar by no means allows you to overlook that along with exploring the world / making ready to put it aside, they’re additionally racing to remain one step forward of Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu), the exiled inheritor obvious to the Hearth Nation throne. In comparison with the cartoon, right here, the trajectory of Aang’s quest to grasp his powers is way clearer from the soar, which has a means of constructing the present really feel as if it’s in a rush to get to its climactic moments.

Greater than the rest, the brand new Avatar’s pacing is what makes it really feel out of kinds — not merely due to how briskly the present strikes but additionally due to how that pace creates a way of urgency that doesn’t appear to emanate from lots of the characters themselves. With a bit extra room to breathe, the present’s subplots may have felt richer and its central heroes extra compelling — and helped Netflix have one other One Piece as a substitute of a Cowboy Bebop.

Avatar: The Final Airbender additionally stars Elizabeth Yu, Ken Leung, Maria Zhang, Lim Kay Siu, A Martinez, Amber Midthunder, Yvonne Chapman, C.S. Lee, Danny Pudi, and Utkarsh Ambudkar. All eight episodes of the primary season hit Netflix on February twenty second.