Problem with Avatar adaptations is that even a really good one will be bad in context of a series that has 100% rating (99% audience score!) on Rotten Tomatoes.
You simply cannot improve on perfection.
I think the main problem is that they keep inviting the original creators, they sign on, the studio heads explain to the creators how the studio has figured out how to tweak things, creators say “your ideas are horrible and if you execute on them as you’ve described, everyone is going to hate it”. The studio’s refuse to budge, creators depart citing creative differences, studio gets their way. Is a steaming pile of shit. Rinse and repeat.
I heard the reason they left this time was because the showrunners wanted to basically recreate the series, and the original creators were like, “but… we already made that series. Let’s make something new”.
Could be false though, because I don’t understand how they’d get so attached to the project knowing that it was supposed to be a live action remake from the start…
So basically, show runners wanted to make Scott pilgrim vs the world while the OGs wanted to make Scott pilgrim takes off
“but… we already made that series. Let’s make something new”.
And I think that was actually the best call possible when adapting an animated show to live action. You know, do something crazy, kill Aang in the first episode. Write an alternate universe where Sokka becomes a cartoon level dictator. Show the story entirely from the point of view of Suki and the Kyoshi warriors joining the war against the Fire Nation, or a prequel from the point of view of the Order of the White Lotus searching for, setting up plots or trying to find the Avatar during the interim 100 years of Aang’s absence. Almost anything else would’ve made for an extraordinary new creative addition to the universe, and would’ve been a more palatable translation from animated to live action. But all Netflix executives are creatively bankrupt.
That and most come at it with the standpoint of animation is for kids rather than recognizing animation as simply a medium.
If they just took the original series and drew an extra frame between each frame I wouldn’t be surprised if it made more than any of the live action works.
I think another issue is that when telling the Avatar story, all the main characters are necessarily children, and the themes of the show require some really hefty acting chops to deliver lines convincingly.
I can’t fathom why they didn’t tell a new story in the Avatar universe, or at least remake TLoK where the main cast are a bit older.
Precisely. OG show holds up so well, remaking it is waste of time and money.
You simply cannot improve on perfection.
You can weave in more relevant lessons about stuff, also about more current topics. Nothing about the old one is really out of date though so it’d just be additions here and there. You can even roll in plenty of Korra stuff, it’s not that the series doesn’t have anything to say it’s just all over the place.
What any adaption certainly needs to do is start out with a list of lessons, not plot points. Change the plot all you want as is necessary for whatever medium, as long as the lesson aspect is intact people wouldn’t mind, also keep the “reveal the world to the protagonists” vibe. E.g. Sokka doesn’t need to learn his sexism lesson from Suki, it doesn’t even need to be Sokka who learns that lesson, but that lesson needs to be taught. It doesn’t even need to be about Avatar Aang, there’s plenty of others. Earth is next, isn’t it.
I didn’t watch the show when it came out and when I tried last year I didn’t like it. That made me wonder if it’s just not my cup of tea or if there’s a lot of nostalgia behind the good reviews. While I absolutely agree that animation is just a medium and there’s great animation for adults, I didn’t like ATLA’s style. I haven’t watched the movie but I’ll give the new show a try.