Review: Netflix Reboot of Avatar
On February 21, 2005, the very first episode of an American animation series Avatar: the Last Airbender aired on Nickelodeon. The series would continue to air for 3 more years and would soon turn into one of the most popular animated shows to ever exist. The show was highly influenced primarily by East and South Asian cultures, philosophies and martial arts. It takes place in a world where some people, called benders, can manipulate the four elements: earth, water, fire and air.
The show follows a boy named Aang who is the Avatar,a reincarnation of the soul that can manipulate all 4 of the elements instead of just one like everyone else. After getting trapped in an iceberg for 100 years, Aang wakes up to the world in a state of war. He realizes all airbenders have been wiped out of existence by the Fire Nation, with him being the only survivor. The story follows Aang and his friends as he tries to restore balance and unite the four nations.
The series is extremely refreshing with its unique plot, extensive comedy and cultural integration. Many felt the same way, as the show became a huge hit and currently stands as the second highest rated animated series on IMDb. It was later followed by a second series called The Legend of Korra following the next avatar. Avatar was also created into a live action movie in 2010 that did very poorly as it stands with a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes due to mainly its plot and cultural inaccuracies. It received major backlash for its inaccurate whitewashed cast.
Personally, Avatar is not just my favorite animated show, but also one of my favorite shows in general. After rewatching it recently, I still found it as entertaining as the first time. It had everything that a strong show needs, a elaborate concept, intriguing characters, and the ability to create a plethora of emotions, both comical and dramatic.
Furthermore, because the creators intended the show for many age demographics, it contains many powerful themes about friendship, hope, the effects of war and death. All these aspects were what caused Avatar to gain immense popularity.
On September 18, Netflix announced that they would be adapting the series into a live action show. The production will begin in 2019 in partnership with Nickelodeon.
Original creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko will take part as executive producers of this reboot and in a joint statement through Netflix mentioned they, “Can’t wait to realize Aang’s world as cinematically as [they] always imagined it to be, and with a culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build upon everyone’s great work on the original animated series and go even deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building.”
Although very few details were given about the project, Netflix says they want to honor the vision of the creators and take great care in making the cast and show culturally accurate, which was lacking in the live action movie. The major importance the team is giving to cultural accuracy makes me even more excited for the new show. Furthermore, the reboot is said to not be just a spinoff, but contain the same lovable characters from the original.
Reactions to the news have been overwhelmingly positive. A tweet announcing the show by Netflix’s secondary account @seewhatsnext got over 70K likes and 24K retweets as of October 24. Just like thousands of other people, I am extremely excited for the reboot and am curious about how Netflix and the creators will take on the task. The service currently has many popular shows with high production values and quality which I am looking forward to see in this one. I remember watching Avatar for the first time a few years ago and binge watching the entire thing in a month. I was very sad that it was over and remember wishing for more afterwards. This Netflix show may be just the “more” that thousands of fans like me had always wanted. But we will just have to wait for Netflix to release more information to know for sure.
by NAVYA SAMMETA