Top 10 Avatar: The Last Airbender Animals

Hello, Stellar here. Avatar: The Last Airbender is the best TV show in history. Change my mind.

I watched Avatar reruns a lot as a kid, and I thought it was great, but it wasn't until I watched the full series as an adult that I realized just how absolutely perfect it is. I'm honestly just flabbergasted at how this show even exists. It is an epic, anime-inspired fantasy series with a linear story, impeccably developed characters, and themes of war, genocide, parental abuse, imperialism, oppression, and fate. And it was aired on Nickelodeon. It was targeted towards children. And those children loved it. An average of 3.1 million viewers watched every new episode, and the series took home the Favorite Cartoon award at Nickelodeon's own Kids' Choice Awards in 2008. Of course, it also won five Annie Awards, an Emmy Award, and a Peabody Award and it has been named one of the best animated series in history by TVGuide, Vanity Fair, and IndieWire. Considering that most popular kids' shows are lowest-common-denominator and filled with nothing but slapstick comedy and fart jokes, Avatar's success is shocking, but utterly satisfying. Kids are worthy of mature, sophisticated entertainment, and they're willing to watch shows with serious, important themes. I've seen so many people state that watching Avatar at a young age has taught them important life lessons and changed how they see the world. Avatar is more than just a kiddie cartoon. It is a show that changes people's lives. It's on Netflix now. If you've never seen it, you have no excuse. I guarantee you will find something about it to love. 

Due to how much I fully adore everything about this show, and how I've literally thought about nothing else since I finished it this Tuesday, I knew I had to write this week's blog post about it. But what part of it should I talk about? I toyed around with many ideas, ranging from a discussion of how great the character development is, a follow-up to my Last Airbender Movie Talk where I go even more in-depth on how epically the live-action adaptation failed, or a 60-page thesis on why Prince Zuko is beautiful and I love him. But everyone else talks about those things, so I want to discuss one of the more underrated aspects of the series. (Don't worry. I'll eventually write that Zuko thesis. Someday...)

Avatar is known for its incredible worldbuilding. The series is set in a world divided into four nations: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. (Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony...) Certain inhabitants of each nation possess the ability to "bend," or manipulate their element through martial arts-like techniques. The Avatar is the only one who can master all four elements and is responsible for bringing peace and balance to the world. In the series, the Avatar is a twelve-year-old boy named Aang, who must travel across the world, learning to bend each element. Throughout Aang’s journey, we get to see all four nations, with each one having its own distinct culture and traditions. The creators and producers really went out of their way to develop these nations, and they're so fleshed out that they feel real. And a part of that worldbuilding includes developing unique fauna for the Avatar World. Most of the creatures in the series are hybrids of two or more different animals, resulting in cool, clever, cute, and creative animals. Today, I'm counting down my ten favorites! 

Side note: All of these are from Avatar: The Last Airbender, none from The Legend of Korra. The reason why is simply because I haven't seen Korra. It's on my bucket list, though! Also, there will be minor spoilers, so if you haven't watched the series, but would like to go into it without being spoiled, proceed with caution. 

10. Purple pentapus

The purple pentapus only appears in one episode, Season 2's "Return to Omashu." I still had to put it on the list because I find it adorable. In real life, octopuses, squids, and other tentacled animals like them are pretty scary. However, the purple pentapus, which only has five tentacles, has a very minimalist design that's cute in its simplicity. There's almost an innocence to this creature that I really love. In the episode, the pentapuses leave suction cup markings on the skin. Katara and Sokka invent a disease called "pentapox," with the symptoms being the spots from the pentapuses and a purposely zombie-like behavior. They tell the city of Omashu's guards that there is a pentapox outbreak, so the prisoners of the city must be let out. It's one of the more clever escape plans our heroes come up with. 

9. Otter penguin

Otter penguins are native to the frigid Southern Water Tribe, which makes sense, since they are based off of penguins. Early in the series, we see Aang sledding on the backs of these creatures. In fact, when Katara and Sokka break him out of the iceberg where he has been trapped for a hundred years, the first thing Aang does is ask Katara to go penguin sledding with him. Penguin sledding looks pretty fun. If I was in the Avatar World, it would probably be the first thing I'd want to do. Separately, I think otters and penguins are both some of the cutest animals on Earth. Combine them together and you get a really cute creature. 

8. Badgermoles

Toph Beifong is certainly the most badass character on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and quite possibly the most badass character in all of fiction. I mean, when we first meet her, she is destroying fully grown men in earthbending tournaments. She holds up a sinking library with her two bare hands. She invented metalbending, for Christ's sake. All of these accomplishments would be plenty impressive for anyone, but Toph is a twelve-year old girl who also happens to be blind. Of course, she couldn't have just learned how to earthbend by herself. The badgermoles were the original earthbenders, and they were the ones who taught Toph everything she knows. Because the badgermoles were blind like her, she was able to understand how they used earthbending as a means of interacting with their environment and she copied their movements. Honestly, the fact that they helped Toph become the absolute badass she is is enough to put them on this list. They're also kind of cute in a way!

7. Toucan Puffins

I have something of a passing interest in birds. Not really songbirds, but all the other kinds are interesting to me. I like toucans because of how colorful their beaks are, and I like puffins because of how quirky-cute they are. The toucan puffin is such a seamless hybrid of the two, it looks like it could fit into our world. I find these birds to be pretty cute, and the scene in which they appear is pretty funny. Team Avatar is on an island in the Fire Nation, and Sokka remarks that they need to be quiet because "We're in enemy territory! Those are enemy birds!" One of the birds then adorably perches itself on his head. 

6. Dragons

Much like the badgermoles were the original earthbenders, dragons were the first firebenders. In general, dragons are my favorite fantasy creatures because of how powerful yet ornately beautiful they are. The dragons in Avatar are a perfect blend of the typical Asian dragon design combined with the wings that are more characteristic of European dragons. The dragons in this picture are named Ran and Shaw, although they don't specify which is which, and they are the original firebenders. I think their designs are super cool. They kind of remind me of the Pokémon Gyarados. I mean, these dragons are blue and red, and Gyarados is normally blue, but red in its rare shiny form.

5. Lion Turtle

Speaking of Avatar creatures that remind me of Pokémon, this is the Lion Turtle. It is the largest animal in the Avatar World and it served as a protector of mankind. It's so large that at first, you think you're on an island, but really, you're on the back of a lion turtle. It was clearly inspired by the World Turtle of various cultural mythologies, a giant turtle capable of supporting the world on the back of its shell. It instantly reminded me of the Pokémon Torterra, which was also inspired by the World Turtle. Torterra is one of my favorite Pokémon, so it makes sense that I love the Lion Turtle, since they share origins. 

4. Momo

Momo is a winged lemur and one of the two creatures that regularly accompany Aang on his journey. We spend a lot of time with him as a result, and we really get to know him. Despite the fact that Momo isn't human, he still has a lot of character and personality. He's curious and playful, and he is usually found eating anything in sight. I'd say the number one thing that makes Avatar such a great series is its fantastic character development. The fact that the non-speaking, non-human Momo has more character development than some protagonists is a testament to that. Momo's design is also pretty cute. The giant ears are adorable. 

3. Foo Foo Cuddlypoops

Sokka is one of my favorite characters from this show, and Season 2's "Bitter Work" is one of his funniest episodes. In this episode, Sokka goes hunting for food and gets himself trapped in a fissure. He meets a young sabertoothed moose-lion, which he calls Foo Foo Cuddlypoops. He initially planned to hunt and kill the cub, but grew to befriend it while he was in the fissure. His banter with the cub is hilarious, especially when he says "You're awfully cute, but unfortunately for you, you're made of meat." The cub is mostly on the list because I agree with Sokka that it's incredibly adorable. I also think the name of Foo Foo Cuddlypoops is hilarious and so unabashedly Sokka. Sokka is the comic relief of Team Avatar, and part of his humor is saying whatever comes to his mind, no matter how random it is. He did want to call the assassin the group meets in Season 3 "Sparky Sparky Boom Man," after all. 

2. Turtle Ducks

Turtle ducks are so cute, man. Turtles are my favorite animals because of how cute and quirky they are. I like how they can just hide in their shells when they're not having a good time. Ducks are also pretty cute, especially baby ducks. Combine them together and you get one of the cutest creatures in the Avatar World. We see them a lot in the Fire Nation, since there is a turtle-duck pond on the Fire Nation Royal Palace's grounds. We specifically see Zuko feeding them a lot, which is cute. Zuko's defining character trait is that he feels a lot of complex, passionate emotions, so it's nice to see a gentle, chill side of him.

1. Appa

If you're familiar with the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, then you could have seen my number one coming from a mile away. But it is number one for a reason. Appa is a flying bison who serves as the main transportation for Team Avatar. Much like the badgermoles were the first earthbenders and the dragons were the first firebenders, flying bison were the first airbenders. This might explain why Appa's able to fly so well, even though he weighs ten tons. My absolute favorite character trope is the Gentle Giant, a massive, intimidating-looking brute who, under that fearsome facade, is actually the nicest character you will ever meet. That's Appa's entire appeal. He's absolutely massive, but he's unbelievably loyal and he has a close relationship with Aang. Midway through Season 2, Appa gets separated from Aang, and you can tell how much it kills both of them to be apart. Appa's design is also intensely lovable, taking inspiration from both bison and manatees, as well as being incredibly soft. Although he's absolutely massive, Appa is certainly the Avatar animal I'd most want to have a pet. Appa, yip yip!

Now, time for a few honorable mentions:

-Buzzard wasps

One thing you should know about me is that I'm a sucker for a good pun. The buzzard wasps are terrifying, but I'm just giving them a mention because I love puns too much. I mean, it's a cross between a wasp and a vulture, otherwise known as a buzzard. It's a literal buzzard. Amazing. 

-Cat owl

At least in A:TLA, the cat owl doesn't really have any role in the story, but I just had to mention it. I love owls, and although I'm more of a dog person, I like cats, too. This would be a great Halloween pet. 
-Bosco the bear

Bosco is the pet bear of the Earth King. He's pretty cute in his own right, but he's mostly just getting a mention for how utterly shocked everyone is to see a normal bear. Not a platypus-bear, not a skunk-bear, just a normal, 100% bear. 
-Tui and La

These two are the Moon Spirit and the Ocean Spirit, respectively. They're koi fish, which I've always loved. I always say that if I ever get rich, the first thing I'm buying is a koi pond. I also love how well the yin and yang sign is interpreted in their designs. They also play a big role in Avatar's Season 1 finale, which is one of my favorite/most heartbreaking episodes. 
-Serpent

Avatar has two sea serpent-like creatures. There's the unagi from "The Warriors of Kyoshi," and there's the serpent from "The Serpent's Pass" and "The Awakening." I think sea serpents are pretty cool, so I wasn't sure which one to pick, but in the end, I chose the serpent since it is more colorful. It's also responsible for one of Sokka's funniest quotes. When Team Avatar is in the Serpent's Pass, they're being chased by Fire Nation ships, and Sokka says "Things couldn't get much worse." Immediately after he says that, the serpent starts chasing them again, and he says "The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?" However, in a twist of events, the serpent starts chasing the Fire Nation ship and Sokka says, "Thank you, the universe!" 
-Badgerfrog

This one gets a mention mostly for the scene in which it appears. In "The Western Air Temple," Zuko is practicing how he will re-introduce himself to Team Avatar. He's being painfully awkward and failing at his introduction. He's practicing in front of the frog, who is unimpressed. This entire scene is an example of one of my favorite tropes, where we see a character practice a speech alone and just absolutely fail. I think it's the Trick Dialogue trope. Geez, one of these days, I'm gonna have to make a list of my favorite tropes.

Next week, I have a few ideas for what I want to post, but I'm not going to say anything definitively because I'm sure I'll change my mind a few times. I'll see you then.

Stellar

MOVIE TALK: Is The Last Airbender Actually That Bad?

I've mentioned before (namely in my Top 10 Victorious Episodes list, if you were at all curious) that 2010 was a formative year for me and my media consumption. At eight years old, I watched Nick Jr. for far longer than I really should have, but when a friend of mine told me he loved iCarly, I decided to watch it and I loved it too. From there, I watched Nickelodeon all day. I didn't discriminate- I had my favorites (namely iCarly, Victorious, Spongebob, Big Time Rush, and Drake & Josh), but I would watch anything on there. My brother, who is three years younger than me, also liked those shows I liked, but he was also into anything with action/superheroes/cool fight scenes. He would occasionally watch Nickelodeon's sister network, Nicktoons, which seemed to be aimed more at boys his age. I think there was an Iron Man show and a Bionicle one and I think Dragon Ball even was on there at one point. But one day, the show he was watching was over and the next show was on. It had these kids who were doing cool tricks with the elements and saying funny things. We didn't really know what was going on, but we started paying attention and liked what we saw. And that, my friends, is how I was introduced to Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Avatar: The Last Airbender first premiered in 2005 and ended in 2008. However, I saw the show through reruns and it blew my mind. It was unlike any show I had seen on Nick prior or since. While most Nicktoons aim for lower-brow audiences with cheap jokes, Avatar was different. It was far more serious than the rest of the shows, touching on themes like genocide and totalitarianism, but it still had its moments of lightening the mood, especially with the character of Sokka providing excellent comic relief. It had fantastic worldbuilding and character development, some of the best I've seen in any series. I haven't watched the series in a hot minute, but characters like Aang, Katara, Toph, and Zuko are still fresh in my mind. It was also heavily inspired by anime and wore those influences on its sleeve, but not to the point where it feels appropriative. It's a truly remarkable show, one that dares to go outside the box of what is expected from children's television and provides kids with mature, grounded storytelling. The show was also successful in many ways, being a ratings and critical smash. It even got its own spinoff series, The Legend of Korra, which I actually haven't watched, but I've heard many good things about. It was so successful it even got a theatrical movie based on the show, for better or for worse. Definitely for worse. 

I had just started to get into the series when I first started to see commercials for The Last Airbender, and I was already anticipating it. It was this show that I loved and it was going to be a movie! I had every reason to be excited! It looked awesome from what I saw. Plus, not that it mattered to me at that time, but the movie was to be directed, produced, and written by M. Night Shyamalan, who also directed The Sixth Sense. Then I actually saw the movie.

Let's not beat around the bush, The Last Airbender has a reputation as one of the worst movies of the last decade, possibly ever. WatchMojo named the movie the single worst of the 2010s, even worse than critical flops like The Emoji Movie, the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, Cats, and even Jack & Jill, the movie where Adam Sandler does drag. It also swept the 2011 Razzies, a parody award show dedicated to recognizing the worst movies of the year. The movie was modestly successful at the box office, raking in over $300 million worldwide, but the critical panning it got was brutal. Critics dismissed the acting, the directing, the plotting, the screenplay, the effects, everything, really. But that's not the end of the world. Sometimes, a movie gets poor reviews from critics but still ends up being successful with fans. The best example of this is The Greatest Showman, a movie that managed to capture the hearts of millions of fans worldwide (including myself), despite the mediocre reviews from critics. Was The Last Airbender in a similar boat? How did the fans feel?

Betrayed, heartbroken, and generally sharing the vitriol of the critics, that's how they felt. According to CinemaScore, the film was rated a "C" on a scale from A+ to F by audiences. The film was controversial early on for whitewashing, casting white actors to play ethnically diverse characters. When fans saw the actual film, they were horrified for many of the same reasons the critics were. It's been ten years and The Last Airbender movie and its brutal massacre of an incredible series is still a running joke within the fandom...for those who even bother to acknowledge its existence. Many fans (and the creators of the original series, for that matter) like to pretend the film didn't happen.


I also was pretty mad.  Back then, I was just annoyed that they mispronounced all of the characters' names, but I did think it was pretty bad as a whole and angrily proclaimed it the worst movie I had ever seen. I've long said that it is the worst movie I've ever seen, but I haven't actually seen it in a while. I saw it got put on Netflix recently and decided to ask the question: Is The Last Airbender actually that bad? I'm going to rewatch this movie and see if it actually is as bad as I remember or if I just like to overreact.



Let's just answer that title question right away: Yes. Yes, it is actually that bad. This is, without a doubt, the worst movie I have seen. It lives up to its infamy for many reasons, which we will get into. But before that, let's look at the very few positives this movie has:
-I'm by no means an expert on film scores, but this film's score is pretty good. It does a nice job of setting an epic tone for the series. The score was done by James Newton Howard, who also worked on the score for The Dark Knight with Hans Zimmer, as well as the score for The Hunger Games movies. (He also did the orchestration for Toto's album Toto IV, aka the album with "Africa" on it. I'm just mentioning that because "Africa" by Toto is one of the greatest songs ever made.) The score actually received positive reviews, making it the only part of this movie to do so.
-The temple in the Northern Water tribe looks nice. There are cherry blossoms there, which are my favorite flower. I went to Washington, DC this time last year and the cherry blossoms were stunning. I miss DC.
-The plot is poorly done, but it has potential. Maybe stretch it out into a TV show, develop the characters more, maybe animate it...OH WAIT.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Now, let's talk about why this movie's reputation as one of the worst of all time is deserved. I'm a big fan of writing lists and countdowns, so that's how we will do this. I'm going to discuss this movie's top 5 biggest problems overall. I could nitpick every scene (and I did when watching), but let's just look at its most major flaws, ranked from pretty infuriating to actually making me want to give up on the concept of cinema as a whole.

5. The plot is foggy and confusing for those who aren't familiar with the show.
A giant problem with the movie is that it tries to cram a 20-episode season of a show into a 90-minute film. According to ScreenRant, the film was actually supposed to be seven hours long. Naturally, nobody wants to see a seven-hour movie so the studio, Paramount, trimmed a lot of it. Paramount also decided last-minute to convert the movie to 3D as a marketing ploy, but they needed to cut an additional half-hour in order to make the film ready for release by Independence Day. The movie doesn't allow us to become attached to the characters or really process what's going on. It beats you over the head with exposition so if you aren't already familiar with the original series, then you'll just end up confused. Which leads me to ask: Who is this movie for? If you don't know the series, then you'll be bewildered, but if you do know the series, you'll be angry at how the film handles its material. The rushed nature of the film is one of its biggest downfalls.
4. The visual effects, to quote CinemaSins, "would be outstanding if this was a student film."
This, of course, is a backhanded compliment, a nice way for him to say that the effects of this movie are terrible. The movie won a Razzie specifically created for it, "Most Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3D." The effects that most stand out to me as being bad are the waterbending effects. The water appears to have the consistency of Jell-O. The airbending effects also look silly, especially the effect whenever Aang snaps down his bo staff. On a semi-related note: the physical movements for "bending" mostly look like bad dancing. I think the cast actually had to do martial arts training to prepare for the movie, which leads me to believe that the bending movements are actually martial arts. However, the way they are filmed makes them look simply ridiculous. One last gripe with the visual effects is that the creature designs for Appa and Momo, two of Aang's animal/creature/non-human friends, are quite bad. I think Detective Pikachu has spoiled me as far as CGI creatures go. Say what you will about the movie as a whole, the CGI designs for the Pokémon are absolutely fantastic. (Those Bulbasaurs, though!) Appa and Momo, however, just look cheaply designed.
3. The script and dialogue are laughably bad.
There are just so many clunkily written lines in this movie. At the beginning, Prince Zuko shouts "BRING ME ALL YOUR ELDERLY!" That sounds like dialogue from a mean-spirited parody. Some other poorly written lines include "He was bending tiny stones at us! It really hurt!", "It is time we showed the Fire Nation we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in their beliefs," "Aang, would you like to spar? You haven't sparred in a few days," and this bizarre lecture on how water is "the element of change" and how it "teaches us acceptance." The screenplay also focuses too much on exposition, so we don't get attached to the characters. We don't know what the characters want in life or who they are. (We do get a few character traits, but they're all horrible...I'm getting ahead of myself here.)
2. There is not a single good performance in this movie, as the actors range from horribly flat to hammy overacting.
Even before its release, the film raised eyebrows for casting white actors as characters who are not white. The first terrible casting choice was Nicola Peltz as Katara, who, according to a former worker on the movie (see the ScreenRant link), was subpar in her audition and only cast because of nepotism. If she was to be cast as Katara, then the actor who played Katara's brother, Sokka, needed to look like her. Enter Jackson Rathbone, an actor from Twilight, as Sokka. Then, to try to improve the diversity of the series, they cast Dev Patel, a British actor of Indian descent, as Prince Zuko, who is from a Japan-like culture. Because the Prince of the Fire Nation was Indian, the producers decided that all of the Fire Nation, who are the villains of the movie, had to be as well. So yes, all of the heroes are generic white kids and all of the villains are evil brown people. It probably wasn't intended to be racist, but it was.

This wouldn't be as big of a problem if the performers were actually good, but nobody is. As I watched the movie, I found myself complaining about how bad Sokka's actor was every five minutes. He's dull and expressionless with every line, and he's very stiff, as if he is still learning his lines. I actually read that Zac Efron was considered for the role of Sokka, believe it or not. The part of me that has loved Zefron since High School Musical wants to believe that he'd be better, but the direction is so poor that nobody is good here. Rathbone tries to come off as dead-serious in every single line,  but he just ends up sounding bored when he isn't supposed to be. His on-screen sister, Nicola Peltz, is also bad here for similar reasons. She doesn't have any emotional range and sounds nervous and awkward with everything she says. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Noah Ringer plays the protagonist of the story, Aang, but he is overracting. He delivers his lines with zero nuance or restraint, and a bunch of his facial expressions are really bad. Dev Patel, who plays Zuko, is actually a pretty good actor (or so I think, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar if that means anything), but his delivery in this movie is so over-the-top. This could have been okay if the movie at least tried to have a lighter tone, but everything is so serious that Patel just appears to be out of his element. Our four main actors are all very bad here, but so is everyone else. The common complaint for all of the performances is that everyone sounds like they're taking the movie too seriously. Whether they're dryly underacting or ham-fistedly overacting, they're all too serious. Speaking of that...
1. The film is a disservice to the tone and characters of the original series. 
One of the things I most loved about the show was that even though it got pretty heavy, it always had light-hearted moments to balance things out. Sokka was my favorite character in the show precisely for this very reason, as he always had something funny to say. In the movie, there are no light-hearted moments. The film is going for a way more serious tone than the show, but due to the poor script and performances, it fails. The characters have completely different personalities and are shells of themselves:
-In the show, Aang is unbelievably powerful and important with a lot of stuff to deal with, but he still manages to be a good, playful kid. However, in this movie, he's a walking set piece. We don't really get a vibe for who he is, except for one hilarious scene. The heroes go to this Earthbending Prison, where the Earthbenders are under attack by the Fire Nation. They are living in fear from the Fire Nation. Aang, however, just starts yelling at them like "EARTHBENDERS, WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THIS? YOU ARE POWERFUL!" This just reminded me of that one time Jake Paul tried to cure anxiety by tweeting about how anxiety is all in your head and created by you so just ignore it! It's not that simple. I should not be comparing one of the best protagonists I have ever seen in a show to a goddamn Paul brother. I hate this.
-Katara in the show is young but wise-beyond-her-years and a good motherly figure for the characters who is also amazing at waterbending. In the movie, she is whiny and acts like a spoiled brat. She also is weak, even when she tries to be powerful. When she is battling Zuko and declares who she is, she just sounds like she's been crying for an hour. She also sucks at waterbending!
-I already touched on Sokka before, but he is the single worst character in this movie. In the very beginning of the movie, Katara is practicing her waterbending and accidentally splashes Sokka. Sokka immediately gets angry and starts trying to hurt her. This is so incongruous with his character in the show! In the show, Sokka is a great big brother to Katara who will protect her at any cost. He wouldn't hurt her because she merely splashed him! Sokka's "romance" with Princess Yue in the Northern Water Tribe is also poorly developed. They just look at each other, not even saying a single word, and Katara says in a voiceover that "My brother and the princess became very fast friends." Even your most cliche love-at-first-sight stories have more development than that!
-Zuko is an edgelord who yells everything. He really is one of the most human characters in the show, struggling between his father's ruthless demands and his desire to have a free will. He also struggles with feeling overshadowed by his younger sister, Azula. They only barely touch on his resentment issues and he's mostly just an edgy, angsty teen. (Also, Azula appears at the very end of the movie and she looks like she lives at Hot Topic. Just thought I'd mention that.)
-Zuko's Uncle Iroh is one of the most memorable characters of the show. He's a wise, lovable old teddy bear who accompanies Zuko on his journey. In the movie, he is absolutely not that. Movie Iroh is about three times younger than the Iroh in the show, to the point where I didn't even recognize that it was him until they said his name (incorrectly, I might add.) Other than at the end where he helps the heroes for some reason, none of the heart that made Uncle Iroh such a great character is there.
-Okay, so those are my main gripes, and this is obviously not the biggest complaint with the movie, but it really is dumb that they mispronounce half the characters' names wrong. In the movie, "Aang" is pronounced to rhyme with "song," when in the show, it is clearly pronounced to rhyme with "gang." Sokka is pronounced "sew-ka" in the movie when it's pronounced "sock-a" in the show, and Iroh is pronounced "ear-oh" in the movie but "i-roe" in the show. It's just baffling because it's not like it's a book where the pronunciations are up for debate. There is literally a show right there with the correct pronunciations for them to use! What makes Shyamalan think he can just change the pronunciations?

To wrap this up, I'm just going to share a lovely tidbit of trivia I found when doing research for this: In a Reddit AMA, Dante Basco, the voice actor for Prince Zuko in the series, was asked what he thought of The Last Airbender. He responded by saying that he has never seen it because the creators of the original series, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, told him not to. The Last Airbender is such a disgrace to the series it is based on that the people who made the original series have actively encouraged people to not see it. That is the most damning thing I can say about this movie. I typically give movies a score from 1 to 10, with 1 being the absolute worst. However, I'm going to make an exception for this one. The Last Airbender is a 0/10. It is a disgrace to one of the best cartoons of all time, but even if you don't know anything about the show it is based on, it is an unpleasant viewing experience. Avatar: The Last Airbender, the show, is longer, but it is far more rewarding than this. Watch that instead. God help us if I ever see a movie worse than this.

I'm not 100% sure on what next week's post will be, but I can guarantee it will be more positive than this one. It shouldn't be too hard for me to write something more positive than this. I'm Stellar in Neverland, I'll see you next week, and don't watch The Last Airbender.

Stellar