Avatar: The Last Airbender

2093 readers

12 users here now

A community for all things related to Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, cartoon or live action TV, movies, comics, novels, etc.

Rules:

Be kind, regardless of nation or tribe
Credit artist(s) when possible
Post relevant content
No spoilers in title, mark spoilers
No spamming or trolling
Only relevant posts
Let people like what they like
Follow all Lemmy.world rules

Please report any rule violations.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

ahimsabjorn@lemmy.world

bric@lemm.ee

brucethemoose@lemmy.world

The Big Netflix Avatar: The Last Airbender Producer Interview: 'This Is a Remix, Not a Cover' - IGN (www.ign.com)

submitted 2 years ago by Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de to c/avatar@lemmy.world

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I think one of the big questions is, despite all the remixing, is the point A and the point B still the same as the original?

AK: Pretty much. Yeah, I mean, I think the state of the world and the stakes of the world are still the same. So we decided to make Aang's narrative drive a little clearer. In the first season of the animated series, he's kind of going from place to place looking for adventures. He even says, "First, we've got to go and ride the elephant koi." It's a little looser as befits a cartoon. We needed to make sure that he had that drive from the start. And so, that's a change that we made. We essentially give him this vision of what's going to happen and he says, "I have to get to the Northern Water Tribe to stop this from happening." That gives him much more narrative compulsion going forward, as opposed to, "Let's make a detour and go ride the elephant koi," that type of thing. So that's something, again, that's part of the process of going from a Nickelodeon cartoon to a Netflix serialized drama.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] emptybamboo@midwest.social 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

We have to remember that the original creators of ATLA wanted originally to do 10-12 episodes per season but at the time, the standard length of an American television show was twenty episodes per season. I love ATLA but there is filler - especially in Season 1. It does usually contribute to the story but it is filler. Because of the season length, narrative beats that could happen with tighter writing are spread out over multiple episodes.

With nostalgia glasses, I think many don't see just how wonky Season 1 is. I don't think it really hits its stride until the Blue Spirit episode. And even then, it is still getting its narrative legs for most of Season 1. Seasons 2 and 3 handle their length much better IMO.

There is a way to do the narrative arcs of Season 1 in ten episodes. Narratives can be combine into the same episodes that were originally over multiple ones.

I don't expect a one-to-one adaptation. That would be boring. As long as the core remains, I'm happy to let them remix. You don't go to the theater expecting to see the same Hamlet year after year, do you?

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 years ago

Very good reminder

load more comments (3 replies)