Do We NEED A Live Action Avatar Tho? (And Why We Hate Animation)

Intro:

When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carpay Circle Theater in December of 1937, all the doubt in “Disney’s folly” seemed to melt away as the audience sobbed over Snow’s death. Any uncertainty over whether moviegoers would enjoy the story of a character made out of lines and animation cels was quickly put to rest.

Before Snow White, animation had been limited to silly little shorts, many of them experimental. They weren’t something to be taken seriously like the feature-length pictures. So when Walt Disney decided to make the first animated film, and use it to tell a compelling, emotionally rich story that could enchant viewers of any age, people thought he was a whackjob.

Production was arduous as Hollywood dismissed the film as a fool’s errand. Animators were paid bonuses for coming up with gags for the many animals in the movie, Walt would literally act out character movements and dialogue for the animators, and the crew had even created a multiplane camera, stacking physical cel sheets on top of each other in order to create the illusion of depth.

And when the movie finally released, it opened to astounding success. People across the world were taken with the amount of life and personality these characters radiated. They hummed along with the dwarfs, they feared (and probably stanned) the Evil Queen, and they sobbed over Snow White’s glass coffin funeral. No, really, audiences were literally bawling their eyes out over the apparent death of this cartoon girl.

In an article from The Times, Obera H. Rawles notes, “Without a single human actor, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs may seem to you to be more human than anything you have seen for a long, long time. Its romance, pathos, laughter, and beauty will make you laugh and cry, and will hold you with excitement. If you don’t think that a fairy story whose characters are just animated drawings can hold adult interest, take your eyes off the screen, if you can, and note the suspense of the audience.”

And I can guarantee you, nobody in that audience was thinking, “Hey! But what if this was live action! Like everything fucking else!”

Live-action remakes have been a thing for ages. Most often, the discourse centers whichever beloved Disney property is getting butchered this year, but it’s more than just Disney. Whenever an animated movie or series, or even a video game seems to gain popularity, the question, “Oh my gosh, what if this got a live-action remake?!” springs up like weeds. And 9 times outta 10, they range from “meh” to “oh my God this is abysmal.”

The most recent lightning rod for this discussion is Netflix’s live-action remake of the beloved and acclaimed Avatar: The Last Airbender. For a Nickelodeon cartoon, absolutely no one expected this thing to be the darling of not just general audiences, but critics. It was a massive hit, telling a story that was both accessible to anyone willing to give it a try, and deeply complex and nuanced beneath the surface.

The franchise has seen some moderate success with its sequel series The Legend of Korra, but equally, its suffered through shoddy video game tie-ins, and a God awful live action movie back in 2010. But it seems we’re in an Avatar renaissance. So much so that Viacom created a dedicated studio to pump out Avatar content, while Netflix has been working on a live-action series for quite a while now… that the original creators pulled out of, oop.

The more news that seems to come out about the remake, the more people go, “Wait, uh… is this gonna suck actually?” Fans have apparently been clamoring for a live-action remake for years… well, so Viacom and Nickleodeon keep fucking saying, and I’m sure there are pockets of the fanbase where that’s true. But do average viewers really crave an escape from an animation that badly?

Why do we keep doing this anyway? Why do we need live-action remakes of stories we already enjoyed? Do they actually benefit from this adaptation, and moreover, why do we never ask the reverse? Why don’t we ever wonder what a piece of live-action media would look like animated? And what does that say about how we view animation as a medium? Today, we’re gonna talk about all of these things, and why I personally am principally opposed to live-action remakes. Yes, even the Avatar one.

The Original Avatar’s Strength Through Animation:

It’s undeniable that one of Avatar’s greatest strengths was its animation. As a medium, animation is able to create fantastical worlds that live action just can’t recreate, from grand cities carved into Arctic ice, to ones standing tall atop a mountain, to the spooky, ethereal world of the spirits. It allows complete creative freedom in what the team is able to dream up, limited only by their imagination.

Not to mention, there’s a certain charm to the vibrant colors and simple character designs. It helps to make characters more easily readable and identifiable. And with animation, you can further exaggerate their expressions, whether for comedy or moments of heightened emotion.  You have complete control over how characters look, how they move, and how they interact with their fantastical world.

And gurl, do not get me started on the combat in this show. Avatar’s magic system of elemental bending is rooted in real-world martial arts, with each element taking inspiration from a different school. Because of the animation, characters are able to take these styles rooted in realism, and apply them in fantastical ways that wouldn’t look nearly as spectacular in live action.

I mean, just look at Katara and Aang’s fight against the sea serpent, or all the times characters ride along waves of earth, water, or fire. These would be nightmares in live action, but animation makes them relatively simple to pull off.

So much of what makes Avatar great specifically comes from the fact it’s an animated series. As is often said, the medium is the message. To remove that animated aspect would be to remove one of the pillars of what makes Avatar what it is. You’re just never going to get something as expressive, breathtaking, nor captivating in live action.

Legend of Korra continues this, especially in its fight choreography. Seeing the way bending has evolved since the original series, especially in fight scenes involving the Red Lotus or Kuvira, provide you with some of the best fight scenes in any piece of media.

From what we’ve seen of the live action series… well, I do like some of the environment design and costuming, but overall, it feels inferior to the original. Many of the environments aren’t nearly as readable as the originals, primarily because in animation - especially back when animation involved physical cel sheets - force you to be mindful of what you place in each individual frame, and what each element communicates.

The live action remake, meanwhile, feels much muddier and less readable because of the sheer amount of detail crammed in, along with that tendency to try and drain away all the color, and drown environments in disgusting amounts of illegible darkness. Not surprising, since this is an art form that the Disney live action remakes have down to a science. “How do we take the original form, and make it ugly?”

Not to say Avatar’s live action elements aren’t pleasing to the eye. For those looking for shiny spectacles, it works well enough, but the original Avatar was not satisfied with being merely functional. It strived for excellence. Rewatching the show to introduce one of my friends to it, I’ve been routinely taken aback with how even one-off locations are so well designed without being overly complicated. Specifically, I’m always left breathless by the expert use of color to communicate mood and story.

With the original series, the creators were deeply intentional with every choice, not just in their writing, but in their designs. From the cities of the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, to the swamps, mountains, and deserts across the world, to the designs of Fire Nation soldiers and our main characters, you can tell just how much thought and care went into crafting this fictional world.

The remake, meanwhile, is more concerned with recreating the original to try and resemble its splendor, without necessarily understanding how or why the original made the choices it did. And that’s quite common with many remakes and adaptations. Excuse me, I’m going to briefly glare at Sailor Moon Crystal for a minute.

And the combat… well, I’m not all that eager from what I’ve seen. Granted, I had low expectations to begin with, but realistically, how is any human - even a top-tier martial art expert - going to live up to an animated character who doesn’t have to obey the laws of physics, and the limitations of the human body?

Hell, Noah Monk - who played Aang (or Ung) - in the Shyamalan movie, was cast specifically for his martial arts skills. Which… that was a fucking mistake. But even with his skills, his airbending just felt so hollow and unimpressive. And honestly, I don’t think all of that is down to the movie’s terrible production. It’s likely an unfortunate reality imposed by live action as a medium.

So, if pretty much everything can only be watered down at best in the transition from animation to live action, why are we doing it in the first place? And the answer… is that we fucking hate animation.

We Hate Animation:

Much of Avatar’s inspiration comes from Japanese anime, and that can be said for many forms of western animation, not just in recent years, but even many of Disney’s films through their character designs and art styles. Huge, expressive eyes with tiny noses, kickass fight scenes, and a gaggle of loser nerds banding together to save the world. So many artists are inspired by Japanese animation, and there’s a good reason for that.

In Japan, animation is understood not as a genre, but a medium. Animation is used to tell all kinds of stories for many different audiences, not just either children or your stereotypical anime fan. Here in the west, meanwhile, animation’s perception has fluctuated wildly. When those animated shorts were being shared way back in the 1920s and ‘30s, they were actually seen as something darker and crueler for adults, that you wouldn’t wanna be showing to your kids.

And when Snow White came out, it wasn’t seen as something for kids, but for all audiences. Ya know, back when “General Audiences” meant ACTUALLY general audiences. Like, everyone. A story designed so that anyone, be it a child, an adult, or an elder, could sit down and enjoy it as it unfolded before them.

Avatar is much the same. Despite airing on a children’s network, Avatar has been enjoyed by practically all audiences since its premiere. Hell, I’ve gotten comments on videos about fans introducing their parents and grandparents to Avatar, and watching as the story hooks them effortlessly.

But in recent decades, animation has been branded a genre meant primarily for children, with adults considered strange if they haven’t moved onto live action. It’s a far cry from the way Snow White had adults transfixed nearly a century ago. Now, adult animation tends to be reserved for sitcoms, with the same boiler plate animation style that feels like a bunch of executives brainstormed what would look the most hideous.

There’s been a bit of a push with animated series for adults like Castlevania or Hazbin Hotel, or even more mature series like Legend of Korra. But in turn, there’s inexplicably been a strange backlash to try and keep animation for children and children only, be it Nickelodeon banishing Korra to terrible time slots and online-only releases pre-streaming, or Disney admitting that to them, they don’t think most adults are interested in the animation that they write off as just for their annoying kids.

But that backlash isn’t from audiences. Rather, it’s from the companies making these series, and I’d assume there’s good reason for it. Their goal isn’t to produce good content, but rather, to make content that turns a profit. If people love it, and they can minimize costs and maximize returns, it’s a success in their eyes, and one they’d love to repeat with minimal effort.

Animation is an incredibly expensive medium. Far more expensive than live-action productions. Hell, Disney actually went bankrupt producing Snow White, having to rely on Joe Rosenberg for additional funds by showing him an early cut of the movie.

I’d argue that’s why companies love live-action remakes. They’re able to turn their brains off, recreate a product that already exists that costs a fraction of what the original did, and lazily release it to audiences who presumably will eat it up because it’s a chance to project their nostalgia onto an inferior product.

And in turn, low-effort animation is much more appealing, given it won’t require as much time or money to produce as something of Avatar’s caliber. That’s why there was that whole boom of weird animated kids videos on YouTube back in the 2010s. Kids, especially younger ones, are largely passive viewers, and so long as you put bright colors and familiar characters in front of them, they’ll watch and rewatch unquestioningly, as you rake in that sweet, sweet ad revenue.

Because of these things, there’s a clash of goals and incentives between the people making content, and the viewers consuming it. And so, it makes sense for companies to manufacture consent to try and convince audiences that animation is for babies, so as to prime them for shoddy live-action remakes, while animation is reserved for younger audiences who they assume will be far less critical, and far easier to squeeze money out of.

That’s also why we never seem to ask, “Why don’t we adapt this into animation?” It’s becoming more common when it comes to video game adaptations, but on a broader scale, nobody seems to ask for animated adaptations the way they do for live action ones. And that’s because companies don’t wanna make them. They don’t wanna deal with how costly such an investment would be, and in turn, they’ve conditioned us to believe it wouldn’t be worth adapting something into an art form considered lesser.

And so, you get this atmosphere where audiences have been convinced that animation is an inferior art form meant primarily, if not exclusively, for children. Even among animation enthusiasts, they subconsciously believe animation to be more niche, less respectable, and less worthy of admiration. This is why you get so many people craving for live-action remakes of things they love, even if they’re considered to be masterpieces. Because live-action is considered the key to mass appeal.

Hell, when Shyamalan’s movie was in production, it was considered to be the only way to get broader audiences invested in the Avatar franchise. Literally, the people at Nickelodeon thought Avatar would only be viable as a respectable, profitable franchise if they could make it darker, broodier, and live action.

This is all made funnier by countless examples of adults, even those who wouldn’t normally enjoy animated media or high-fantasy stories, being introduced to Avatar and falling in love with it. Avatar itself is already as close to perfect as you can get. It was lightning in a bottle, and its animation is a huge part of why, meaning that it doesn’t need this adaptation. You wanna get someone into Avatar? Show them the original. That’s all you gotta do, and just watch them spiral into how good it is.

Is There Hope Tho?:

Now, I should specify that I don’t begrudge the actual cast and crew of the live action series. These people presumably are doing their best, and from what I can tell, many of them are fans of the original who wanna do it justice. Not to mention many of them are Asian, excited at the prospect of working on a franchise so deeply rooted in Asian folklore and culture, given how they’re often dismissed in mainstream media, or used as set dressing for stories about or made by white people. In that sense, I’m rooting for all of them.

But that said, I don’t have much hope for this series personally, nor interest. I don’t really need nor want a live-action remake. The original is still here, and its still stellar. Hell, it’s aged like wine, getting better and better as the years go by. And that’s honestly part of my hope. That new viewers will be introduced to the live-action series, and then out of curiosity, go back to experience the original.

And on the whole, it seems even general audiences are over live action remakes. The Disney remakes have been making less and less at the box office, which tells me that yes, the initial success of these remakes was most likely just a fad banking on nostalgia that doesn’t work anymore.

Though I also hate that I have to add the caveat that no, they didn’t flop because they were “woke,” whatever that means. Well, really it just means, “It had people of color and queer people in it.” The horror. Not gonna lie, Halle Bailey was the only reason I was even remotely interested in the live-action Little Mermaid. Have you HEARD her and Chloe’s album Ungodly Hour? Their vocals and harmonies? Simply DIVINE.

Avatar fans generally seem excited about the live action series, though there has been some trepidation the more news comes out about its production. From the original creators leaving, to recent announcements that the story would tone down Sokka unlearning sexism, and removing Katara fighting the patriarchy. Hell, even removing a lot of the pit stops the Gaang makes along the way to the North Pole? What the fuck are you people doing?!

It really does seem like in every regard, this adaptation is gonna be… fine. Like, it’ll be okay, but it’s going to feel like a very watered down version of the original. And we are Avatar fans, okay? We expect excellence. Fuck, Legend of Korra was leaps and bounds above many of its contemporaries, and I’d argue is still a great series, but our spoiled asses still routinely pick it apart because of how it fumbles compared to the original. Well… some of us do. Others usually hate it because, “Wah, Korra Mary Sue” or some stupid shit like that.

But we do not just want, “Eh, this is fine.” We expect excellence. We crave it. We yearn for it, as the children yearn for the mines. And when we do, we’re going to go back to the original series, and appreciate all of the beauty it has to offer. Animation as a medium deserves better. And I think on some level, people understand what it’s capable of. I just hope that eventually, we’ll be over live-action remakes, and we’ll instead just learn to appreciate the story as it was meant to be told.

Conclusion & Outro:

So, if you’re excited for the live action Avatar series, I hope you enjoy it. Genuinely, I mean that. But I’m not expecting much. I’ll check it out when it drops out of curiosity, but ultimately, the animated series will always be the definitive version, and in general, I will die on the hill that animation is that gurl.