There was some stupid controversy about the cast selected by M. Night Shyamalan for the Last Airbender, the upcoming movie adaptation of the animated series Avatar aired by Nickelodeon. But this first look at Noah Ringer as Aang, aka the Avatar, will conquer the hearts of even the most die-hard fans:
Just compare with the original Aang from the anime:
It seems that Shyamalan’s Airbender is shaping as a quite faithful adaptation. Will have more confimation with the movie trailer of the Last Airbender which will be shown in front of Transformers 2.
:)
Wow, you’re right. That doesn’t look at all like a white guy in yellow face doing “oriental martial-arty” crap. I can’t wait for “Luke Cage: Power Man” starring Whitey McWhite Face.
greg
Don’t be a moron Greg: you have to admit that Noah Ringer looks great as Aang.
No, actually he dosen’t. He’s cute, but he’s not Aang. And to all of you insensitive M.F’s who constantly come out of your ignorant faces talking about how stupid this controversery is – you only prove to us (people of color) how swell it must be to live your perfect white world, where “color shouldn’t matter”, and doesn’t in your imaginary world, but does in the real world shared by everyone else. And their ethnicities do matter, it matters because the culture’s in the world of the show matter. The show is fantasy, but the cultures are real – and yes they are asian, but they are also diverse in and of themselves. It is selfish and ignorant to say that the faces attached to a culture don’t matter – THEY DO! There is nothing wrong in seeing a person’s color. To see it is to accept it and recognize it as both different and beautiful. And to love and accept everything about it – including it’s color.
I see that Indian Director Shyamalan’s Last Airbender movie is still fueling a stupid controversy: well if you aren’t happy with Noah Ringer as Aang (such a great choice I think), go make your own Last Airbender movie and cast whoever with the skin color you see fit . It’s that easy. ;-P
that kid is a lump of chub ^_0
Aang is obviously not of asian descent. I’ve never seen a white skinned Asian person with blue/gray eyes in my life.
I don’t think he looks caucasian. Anyway, it’s almost impossible to know the race of an anime character only with his or her features. I mean, there are characters in anime who are supposed to be asian but have blue or green eyes (like Sakura from Card Captor Sakura) and even red hair (like Himura Kenshin from RK)! It seems the only way you can the ethnicity of a character in that kind of show is with the context. And Aang comes from a tribe of Tibetans/Shaolin inspired monks. I’d say he is probably meant to look asian. Anyway, the picture’s still great, I love the costume design and the kid’s cute. But some comments made by some people associated with the movie (like the caster) were just really insensitive. I mean, Korean Kimonos…? And that Twilight guy getting a tan to play Sokka…?
I’m afraid that flip remark won’t make the PR Flak Hall of Fame. Nice try.
There’s nothing stupid about the controversy over Frank Marshall’s and “Muhnight” Shyamalan’s (in the words of Janitor from Scrubs) mistake in casting white actors for a show that is Asian-themed, populated by Asian characters, and premised on Asian cultural traditions.
The running controversy will hurt the movie commercially. But more importantly, his choices and the studio’s will affect children who will take away powerful impressions from seeing one set of actors instead of another on hundreds of screens worldwide.
PBS just ran a documentary, “Chinese Hollywood”, on the long history of yellowface in movies, from silent films to the 70s – oops, the 00s. A timely reminder of the irrefutable cultural history and racist baggage of today’s industry.
“Muhnight” is either chillingly indifferent or blatently ignorant of this baggage. Even if we’re charitable and assume he’s an ahistorical ignoramus, this is difficult to excuse, given his prominence as an Asian American director. He isn’t working on the Moon. He’s seen Citizen Kane and Lady from Shanghai – and he’s seen the Charlie Chan movies, too. He *should* know his history.
Even if he’s afraid to challenge his studio after a series of commercial flops, doesn’t he have some measure of responsibility to make a modest, personal Alamo of this issue?
To paraphrase Jeff Smith, “Stupid, stupid sell-out ar-teest.”
Noah Ringer rocks as the Avatar! Wait and you”ll be conquered by M. Night Shyamalan’s Last Airbender movie.
So I’m an electrician and I’m workin on the Philadelphia set while they are shooting. I can’t tell you guys anything specific but I WILL say that the Noah kid is absolutely amazing when he moves. You’ll think it was faked but the kid does amazing stuff over and over again every time. You will NOT be disappointed in the casting for the Avatar, you will not be disappointed in ANY of the casting. I’m too young to have kids but my nephews know the story inside/out and they have filled me in. Wait till you see the….. hmmmm… I forgot…. I’m not allowed to say (or they’ll fire me and I like working too much).
Complaining about the ethnicity of the characters comes from being ignorant. The ethnic background of these characters doesn’t affect the fact that the movie is centered around asian culture, and it seems like Shamalan is staying true to the culture itself. And in the Avatar world, these ethnicities don’t even EXIST. There is no white black asian or whatever. So why should the cast be constained by a matter of ethnic when the actual characters don’t even fit into a real one.
Besides, the majority of the characters where VOICED by caucasian actors, the show was CREATED by two caucasian males, and I’m sure that, to the age group that this movie intends to be as the audience, they don’t give a crap about what ethnic group the actors belong to. Besides, the only big characters that even look asian are the firebenders and maybe Toph. Katara and Sokka both look more like Pacific Islanders and the fact is that there is a lack of well trained actors of these ethnicities in Hollywood that fit the age and physical descriptions of these characters.
So before you go turning this into a rascist conflict, try to think about how ignorant you’re being (JAY). Stop victimizig yourself and making people of color (like myself) seem like everyone else is out to get us. If you want to live somewhere else besides a “perfect white world” then go somewhere where the majority of the population ISNT caucasian. Otherwise, stop b*tching and grow up.
Everyone’s opinion on whether Aang or any other character is Asian, White or whatever doesn’t matter. Why? Because YOU DID NOT create the series. The ACTUAL writers and creators, aka Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are both involved in this movie. Do you actually think they would let a white kid play Aang, if they created him as Asian??? Don’t you think they’d say, “hey M. Night, Aang isn’t white. Don’t cast a white kid.” Or whatever. I know M. Night is the director, but still. Do you really think he’d just totally disregard the opinions of the actual creators.
i just want to know what is wrong with the boy’s hand
Everyone who says “what’s with all the fuss over the kid’s ethnicity?”
How would you respond to the film Brave Heart if all the Scots were depicted as blue-black skinned Africans? If every movie dealing with European settings didn’t have a single person of European descent in them?
Answer that question honestly and then you’ll see why there’s so much anger and outrage. It’s a sad commentary on society when you can’t bring yourself to watch “non-Whites” in a film about “non-Whites”. It’s even sadder when you’re so incapable of empathy that you don’t see the obvious reason for outrage in this casting choice.
There are many Asian actors and yet you never see them in a staring roll unless it’s film done outside the US, just as you once never saw Black actors in a staring roll unless it was a Black produced film.
Brave Heart is a History movie (with some fiction of course). But The Last Airbender is just fantasy.
So you’re not comparing the same kind of movies.
Enough of this stupid controversy, go read realitycheck’s comment above.
:)
Realitycheck, that is completely false information. If you were as big a die-hard Avatar fan as some other people, you would have surely watched the interview with Mike and Bryan, in which they stated they supported the movie, but had ABSOLUTELY NO creative input into the movie.
Alan Moore, creator of the Watchmen, was quite disdainful of the Watchmen movie adaptation, and he clearly voiced his negative opinion. So when a creator is pissed off, he can talk.
But as far as I know the original creators of the Last Airbender haven’t complained at all about the cast of the movie, so they kind of implicitly agree with it.
;-P
First of all — I’m Asian American (filipino/chinese). Additionally, I’d call myself an Avatar fan since I watched it every friday after the 3rd episode of the first season. The show was awesome!
Personally, I HAVE NO PROBLEM AT ALL with the casting of the characters in regards to the actors’ races/nationalities. The entire Avatar series is owned by Nickelodeon/Paramount. Now think of all of this as a business. The decision of casting is not solely based on Night alone. Paramount, as well as Mike/Bryan and other staff will have some form of feedback whether explicit or implicit to protect their interests For paramount it is to make money, for Night/Bryan/Mike its more about ensuring the actors fit into their world. It is a team effort!
Additional points. If race is such an issue, I don’t remember hearing so much about Samuel Jackson being Nick Fury (who has been white for more than 30 years in the regular Marvel Universe), or Billy Dee Williams being Harvey Dent in the original 1989 Batman film. Hell… I’m sure people have heard the rumor of Will Smith being considered for the lead role of Captain America. If race is so much of an issue, then don’t watch the movie. The actors are already casted, and they are just about done with filming. Vote with your money.
But.
Here’s the Catch-22. If you do not show paramount/nickelodeon that you’re willing to spend money then they will likely not make further movies… or make high quality serialized shows like Avatar: the last airbender (which as we all know the story has ended). If they cannot milk more revenue from the franchise like they do with Spongebob which is relatively cheaper to make and can continue producing indefinitely since there is no “story”, and is successful in DVDs and other forms of licensing (toys, apparel, etc)
There is only 1 problem i DO have with the casting, and that would be the lack of acting experience of Noah Ringer (from what we know of him) in the lead role. But we’ll see!
Noah was put in his role based on his martial arts tape… based on martial arts, not skin color… birth place… etc. I realize that most will think that i’m oblivious to the problem at hand but I do believe he looks like the character who has fantasy aspects which not one race could represent. Even after the complaints about Noah’s skin color, I don’t think they would cast differently because he is apparently a bad ass in the martial arts world. See it or not… your choice
ya know some of you are racist b******, who cares about what colour skin he has! honestly, and i can’t believe you nerds who are like “he shouldn’t be white” or “aisians aren’t white” i cant believe you guys make a big argument about this! if you don’t like what your’e getting don’t watch the film! and there is no need to argue about i. i love the series, but i’m not mad that he is a little off skin colour. you uber avatar fans are such nerds, take a hike!
Noah Ringer as Aang rules
this will be a great movie
i watch avatar, but not because aang looks the way he looks. i watch it because the fighting is AWESOME and this bending idea is real neat. Even if aang was portrayed by a black guy, i could care less. his appearence doesn’t have a part in the story.
I think if the arrow markings were slightly a more deeper blue he would be perfect. I like it and I’ll admit i don’t really like Indian people i’m not a racist but you know. Anyway my little brother watches Avatar i’m 14. so i try not to admit it but it’s impossible not to love what it’s all about: the T.V series is brilliant and very addictive and the Last Airbender film will defo not disappoint!
As a minority actor, I remember that there were alot of parts that I was not eligible for because I was a minority and the part called for someone who was white. It is really a disapointment that when they could have picked people who better represented the characters, they chose not to, since you rarely see movies where young people of color can play anything more than the friend. I think that it was clear that the characters should have been played by people of Asian decent because that it where alot of the inspiration for the show was drawn from. I think that this is especially true for the water tribe since throughout the series these people were consistently darker than memebers of the other nations and we obviously suppose to be Inuit.
If you want to even suspend the ethnic disbelief, I think that they actually did a good job casting Aang. He looks the part, if you assume that Aang is caucasian. I DO have a serious problem with their choice of Katara and Zuko. Neither actor is believable for his/her character, regardless of ethnicity.
I don’t think Noah Ringer should be Aang, he’s cute but he is just not Aang. i think he looks a little too young.
just my opinion…
Furthermore, I really doubt that Shamalyan has enough power to cast anyone he wants. When it comes to casting, the studio and producers get final say despite the director’s convictions.
I agree that kid playing aang looks a bit young, although i think its gonna be a great movie still, and what is up wit his hand?
Umm, I don’t really think the movie will be great at all, live action films based on cartoons just don’t seem great. (think about movies based on books) And Noah Ringer does sort of look like Aang . . . but they got the arrow wrong. It needs to be a darker blue.
But hey, that’s my opinion.
Man, I was all set to be pissed that they cast a white dude as Aang until I saw the comparison to the original Avatar. LOOK at Aang. The creators of the character gave him those typical occidental blue eyes, not the director. My kid is half asian and her eyes ain’t blue.
Face it, Noah Ringer is a dead ringer for that character. I hope more Asian actors were cast to round out the film, but I’m not quibbling with Aang. I can’t wait to see it.
I think that the kid cast as Aang looks just like the animated character who also DOES NOT LOOK ASIAN. Don’t be mad at Shamalyan, if you are going to be mad at anyone, be mad at Nickelodeon for not representing Aang with Asian characteristics in the first place. But then also, look at all the anime characters out there that are supposed to be Asian but all have large blue eyes and blond hair. Sit back and enjoy the movie I say.