Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Strayed Too Far From the Animated Series

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. We finally hear these words once again after more than 15 years since the beloved animated series ended its three-year reign on Nickelodeon and we must say that Netflix did a brilliant job bringing the iconic bending abilities to live-action, which is just about the only good thing about this adaptation. 

If you’re a fan of the original animated series, there are things about this live-action ATLA that simply won’t sit right with you as it’s not exactly a step-by-step adaptation, so let’s start with the characters. 

The standout character is Dallas James Liu as Prince Zuko. Liu is just about the only character who strives to bring emotions, frustration and impatience as the Fire nation prince is easily brought to life. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee also did a fine job with the role of General Iroh alongside Ken Leung from X-Men who perfectly helmed the role of Commander Zhao. Sokka (Ian Ousley), one of the most beloved characters from the animated series didn’t exactly fall short here, but his character could’ve been presented better. 

Netflix’s live-action ATLA might not have had an A-list lead such as Pedro Pascal but one of the biggest problems with the show is that the emotions from Aang (Gordon Cormier) and Katara (Kiawentiio Tarbell) just weren’t convincing enough to make you see the characters range. We couldn’t relate to the character’s emotions because it just wasn’t there. Oftentimes it was hard to tell if Katara was sad or another emotion. 

As for Cormier, he’s not the best for the role of Aang as it just seemed like the young actor isn’t ready to live up to the expectations that come with bringing Aang to live-action. Disney’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians succeeded by taking a risk on its young heroes but unfortunately most of the young characters from  Netflix’s ATLA just couldn’t cut it. 

So where did this adaptation fail exactly? While HBO’s The Last of Us series is not a direct adaptation of the video game, the show stayed true to the spirit of the game and captured its emotional impact, which Netflix failed to do with ATLA. Aside from parting ways with the showrunners of the animated series due to “creative differences,” Netflix strayed too far from the original to deliver the story for a different medium and a wider audience. 

But there are MANY viewers who have not seen the original animated series. So while it didn’t need to be a step-by-step adaptation, Netflix didn’t need to make the live-action its own thing. There are small and interesting moments in the animated series that were left out of Netflix’s adaptation and that’s another issue. The lack of emotional impact aside, it’s also worth mentioning that the animated series had 20 episodes in its first season which Netflix bogged down to 8 episodes. The streaming giants altered the story in ways that it’s uncomfortably fast-paced, especially if you’re a fan of the animated series.

When watching HBO’s The Last of Us, there are scenes of “Oh, look at this moment from the game…” or “Oh, this is where Joel did this or that” etc., but many fans won’t get to do that in Netflix’s ATLA, which is rather disappointing considering each episode cost $15 million to make.  

Audiences who haven’t seen the original animated film would still need bits of clarification on what is going on in the series due to how far off Netflix strayed from the original. Many fun moments of Aang being a playful 12-year-old are missing and this time it just felt like everything happened too fast, including the relevant character growth and transformations. 

The best take away from this live-action adaptation of ATLA is the visuals. Appa, MoMo, and some of the other iconic animals and locations from the animated series were perfectly adapted to live-action, with the biggest challenge being the bending abilities. Fire bending looked really good alongside Earth bending. Water bending is the best-looking, but Air bending is where Netflix struggled yet still managed to deliver. 

There’s a very good chance the live-action will be renewed for a second season (Book 2), but if so, hopefully we’ll see much better emotional impact and character arcs as opposed to the first season, which, as it stands, falls flat in comparison with the beloved animated series. 

2/5

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