They are screwing the casting for this movie up big time. As much as I liked Slumdog, Dev was probably the worst actor in the film.

Better than McCartney, still. He might have been the worst actor. I don't know, since I haven't seen it yet, but I know he'll be a hell of a lot better than McCartney!

Yes, make the evil one Indian, much better.

In all seriousness, this controversy is ridiculous. Nothing about the original material says that the cast should be Asian, it's not even set on Earth. Just because the world resembles Asian culture doesn't mean the cast should exclude non-Asians. THAT'S racist. Why does a particular appearance of a person give them exclusive rights to an imitation of a certain culture? Imagine the controversy if Asian actors played people in a fictional world that resembled Western culture? What? There wouldn't be? No, because the whole things is stupid!

The animated characters don't even look like they're drawn to look Asian.

I'm not saying the whitewashing of Hollywood isn't real, or that Asians aren't passed over for starring roles etc. Look at Prince of Persia, the only vaguely non-white person in the main cast is the villain, and the main character is actually supposed from Persia! There's also 21, where the actual Asian people where replaced with white people.

However, the controversy over the casting for Avatar isn't justified, and has become racist itself.

That's a pretty good point. It seems like a lot of the characters had rounder eyes... so the real racists are the people at Nickelodeon.

Bigger round eyes are usually used to show youthfulness and lighter personalities as opposed to being older or having a dark personality. Just look at screen caps of old and young characters on the show or Zuko when he was younger and more innocent. Just a simple animation technique to help sell personalities.

Correct. The big round eyes also make it easier when it comes to expressions since most of the time the face isn't detailed enough to convey them well if it was drawn to proportion.

Its an animation technique that origniated in Asia to showcase youth. The charachters aren't all Asian, some are based on inuit and aboriginal cultures. One of the main water tribe charahters name means "to behave" in inuit. The cheif airbending monk has the same name as the Dali Lama and the charachter is a clear spiritual analogue. The concept of the Avatar is lifted from passaged of the Bagvhad Ghita which focuses on an Avatar of the God Vishnu, Krishna.

I Noticed that too.....Oh Hollywood

The youthfulness thing is crap. JakePT is right that anime has a long and storied tradition of purposefully drawing characters to look western. (I mean look at the huge mouths which constantly yell for no good reason. And c'mon, you honestly think those racks belong to asian women?) Avatar is not anime though, so none of this matters.

Yeah, just like how all the characters on Boondocks look White since they're drawn in a style similar to anime...

Seriously, anime is a just style of animation like any other, in which characters look like "White." It doesn't mean that they're so.

I'm sorry, did I say all anime/anime inspired characters were intended to be white? It doesn't look like I did, but you're not very clever so I'll spell it out. Answer = NO. I'm not even saying that the characters in question are meant to BE western, I'm saying they are meant to look it (which should be obvious). So if you want to keep up the look/feel of the source material then it's not racist to cast caucasians in an anime movie.

Well, you sure sounded like it. "Look Western." What is that supposed to mean exactly? Seems like you meant White. Surely, you didn't mean Black, Asian American, Latino, etc. Like krackajap pointed out, they're drawn that way to show much more expression than you'd usually see in cartoons. Just look at the expressions in your average cartoon from the US compared to one from Japan. All characters pretty much look "White" when all of them aren't.

It is racist to only cast White people for the main cast for a group of people that are meant to show ethnic diversity within their world. Plus there's the whole message of saying that the studio loves everything Asian except its people. You'd have to be blind to ever think that the characters of Sokka and Katara were ever White.

I actually was talking about Black Americans as well. If you've ever watched anime (and I'm assuming you haven't) you know that many characters are obviously Black.

Was it racist for Sukiyaki Western Django to have an all asian cast? No, it was the look they were going for.

And Sokka and Katara may not be white, but they sure as hell aren't Inuit or Asian. But Avatar is not real anime anyway so it doesn't matter.

P.S. Would you also say that Pops Racer should've been played by Chow Yun Fat? Don't make me laugh. I'm done here.

Besides, the only characters in the sho who look decidedly white were the swamp benders. AND they were the worst white trash inbred hillbilly versions of white prople. so if you're gonna spout racism all over the place becaust someone thinks these "asian inspired" cultures look too western, just look how they show white people in the show.

"The animated characters don't even look like they're drawn to look Asian".

As a matter of fact I believe they are drawn to resemble each of their ethnicities. For example, the Water Tribe people looks very much like inuit, the Fire Nation and Earth Nation people look very much like eastern asians and the Air Tribe people look very similar to Indians.

So, I do think they do not look white, black or any other race that you may think they look like. They have very distinguishable features in their physique and facial structure. And they pretty much, as established before, do resemble certain races. They most certainly do not look random or any kind of new hybrid of races.

Also, in my opinion they cast an Indian actor, for what I think should have been a Eastern Asian actor.

But this kind of racist situation is very typical of United State's big budget cinema. I bet that if it was any other country, this problem would most certainly not exist, Because I'm quite certain they wouldn't have hesitate to make the proper casting choice without looking at the colour of your skin.

I agree completely.

JakePT.……
You are so insensitive to what this protest is actually about. How can you say that original material doesn't resemble Asian culture; have you watched the show? I mean so what if it is an imaginary world; everything about it screams Asian--- if we look at Asian “stereotypes”, this show is chalked full of them; but in a way that expresses it respectfully. Hollywood is telling the world that "hey Asian people, we love your culture and everything about it, but YOU as a race is just not good enough."--- AND THAT IS NOT RIGHT.

We are not saying that the WHOLE cast should be Asian or Inuit, but at least play the roles depicted in the series. If Hollywood made superman black, you know that there would be a HUGE uproar among comic book fans. So please stop pretending that we are being racist, all we are doing is trying to stop this type of prejudice. WE DO NOT want to exclude non-Asians--in fact that is what fans loved most about the series, the diversity. And by casting all white actors, it is stripping the show that we came to love of its appeal.
I honestly can’t believe that people still think this way. Are you sure Paramount didn’t put you up to this?

In all seriousness, this controversy is ridiculous. Nothing about the original material says that the cast should be Asian, it's not even set on Earth. Just because the world resembles Asian culture doesn't mean the cast should exclude non-Asians. THAT'S racist. Why does a particular appearance of a person give them exclusive rights to an imitation of a certain culture? Imagine the controversy if Asian actors played people in a fictional world that resembled Western culture? What? There wouldn't be? No, because the whole things is stupid!

The animated characters don't even look like they're drawn to look Asian.

I'm not saying the whitewashing of Hollywood isn't real, or that Asians aren't passed over for starring roles etc. Look at Prince of Persia, the only vaguely non-white person in the main cast is the villain, and the main character is actually supposed from Persia! There's also 21, where the actual Asian people where replaced with white people.


yeah except the fact that all the martial arts featured in bending is ASIAN, the eye shape, hair color, uniform is ASIAN. even when zuko writes the goodbye letter to mai, he uses an ASIAN ?? brush with ASIAN ink and ASIAN paperweight. the ASIAN oriented painting of him and mai were on an ASIAN style scroll. the names, katara, bei fong are ASIAN and the words used (in the OAV and when they are in the earth kingdom and the letters addressed to them) were all ASIAN chinese characters. the fact that the writers themselves said that this was an ASIAN influenced show seemed to secure the fact that this is supposed to be ASIAN.

i dont know this seems pretty ASIAN to me

Are you serious. For someone who has had little work in feature films he actually played the part pretty well. I give credit to him, he was perfect for that role in Slumdog.

i agree paisan, i didnt think he was bad at all.

I second that

Just what i was about to say. He did a great job in Slumdog, such a great film.

my previous comment get deleted or is there a problem with my intensedebate account???

Well Shymalan! Use excuses for the rest of the cast when you fire them! We will forgive you:P just right your wrongs

mos def, 'scheduling conflicts' is the way to go!

It's about time M. Night Shyamalan did something right with this project.

Sounds like he'll be the best actor in this film.

agreed

A step in the right direction, but not yet finished. Let's keep it going. Aang, Sokka, and Kitara are next.

Asians? Why? They are supposed to be Asians? Hmmm. They sure don't look very Asians to me - the animated cast, I mean.

Well then you haven't seen the show obviously.
http://img48.imageshack.us/my.php?image=avatarjx6...

what you mean they not supposed they look asian. having big eyes and light skin tone does not mean they white in anime design big eyes are for the expression of the character also they are different colour shades of asian people too. they can make a whole avatar roles to be only white cause they characters are not even white people.

hahaha funny joke.
of course their asians

So we can put on an Asian guy...but only as the villain?

Seriously, WTF! I know we're shifty and can't be trusted, but come on!!!

The is the only good casting I've heard so far about this project. He might not be good but at least he it isn't an all white cast.

well, at least theyre getting closer to asia...

he would've been better as sokka. especially since he was hilarious at his tv show skins. don't know if you've seen the series but he can be really funny. he plays a pakistany muslim guy (Anwar) who's always trying to get layed.

I don't give a fuck who's playing the characters, as long as they can resemble them physically and personality wise. You guys are really jumping on the racist wagon a bit too eagerly. Stop throwing around racism as a weapon because you don't like the cast. I'll be happy as long as it's not a failure like Dragonball was.

That guy doesn't look like ZUKO AT ALL!!!!!!!! Jesse McCartney looked a lot like him!! FUCK YOU M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN!!! You're screwing the whole series with this choice as actor!!! Just delay the movie a year so Jesse McCartney can play Zuko! God damnit who put that stupid dick in charge!!

Jesse McCartney does not look like ZUKO im glade his not doing this movie i dont want to see a white boy tan himself up to play someone of colour thats offensive

I agree with jostru in that Jesse did look more alike than Dev does. Also, Zuko is pretty white already, not ethnically, amusingly because of the 'accident.' Overall it's probably a better choice because of the talent.

Good to hear Dev Patel is rising up quickly! Less than a year-or-so ago he was starring in a slightly successful British comedy-drama series about the lives of teenagers, and now he's been cast in two feature films! Not bad for the lad.

sweeeeet. I just hope his career doesn't slow down just because he's Desi working in a white dominated field.

Thank the movie gods that McCartney is out!!! I don't think Dev is a very strong actor, but he could very well surprise us, I hope he does. This is a relief of casting change...maybe there is hope....

I do agree with several people above that Dev would make a better Sokka than Zukko.

Dev Patel is a terrible actor! The fact that he was nominated for a SAG award against Philip Seymour Hoffman, Josh Brolin, Robert Downey Jr., and Heath Ledger absolutely sickens me. My friends and I were genuinely embarrassed for him every time he'd speak on screen.

my previous comment get deleted or is there a problem with my intensedebate account???

was just saying, glad to hear they've cast dev, but i'd much prefer to see him play sokka.

HE WOULD MAKE A PERFECT SOKKA

OMG YES I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks Patel should have been cast as a goofy Sokka. T_T

i think this cast has not change anything about the movie the whole roles are still whitewashed im glad for Dev Patel. but it still does not make any differences the cast should of been more diverse. by just having a all white cast it lose that element of how unique the show was. another reason why Dev Patel was chosen because his success of Slumdog Millionaire plus i guess some of you dont know that he is a black belt Taekwon-do. He competed regularly in both national and international championships, including the 2004 World Championship in Dublin, where he won a bronze medal. at least he got material arts background instead of Jesse McCartney who clearly dont have none.

also i believe M. Night Shyamalan chosen him cause M. Night Shyamalan is indian and Dev Patel is inidan so he want the same support from his asian brothers and sisters that they gave for Dev Patel for his movie. cause right now his own people are already calling him a sellout for the whitewashing of The Last Airbender.

some of you might say these characters got big eyes so they aint asian the big eye thing is so played out. if anyone of you follow japanese anime the big eye thing represent expression to the character. if the character is shocked their eyes are wider when they angry the eyes are semi closed. also you might say, "but the skin tone are white" if you are a smart person you would not even say that. not all asians have a so called yellow skin tone. some asian people skin tone are light skin like a white person or you some who are darker skin like a latino person.