Robert Falconer / Netflix
The first trailer for the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series has been released by Netflix with just a month left until all 10 episodes are available to stream.
After the first teaser trailer arrived on November 10th we had a lot of burning questions about how the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender would go. Now that we’ve seen the first full trailer, we still have some lingering questions but we’re able to get a better sense of the tone Netflix will set with the series.
What We Know And Like About Netflix’s Live-Action Adaptation Of Avatar: The Last Airbender (So Far)
Adapting one of the highest-rated TV shows of all time (all show, not just cartoons) is a GAMBLE to say the least. M. Night Shyamalan nearly got run out of Hollywood for his horrible adaption of the series into a live-action film back in 2010 but Netflix appears to be taking a better approach and sticking the source material.
Illustrating the perils of war is integral to Avatar: The Last Airbender, it’s also timely. The original series won a Peabody Award for its honest and delicate portrayal of the ‘consequences of warfare,’ something that most TV shows spend zero time on.
Robert Falconer / Netflix
But only focusing on the dark side of war is where M. Night Shyamalan went wrong because what makes the original series so perfect is the balance between serious and silly, surreal and sullen.
The show premieres on Netflix on February 22nd with 10 episodes all available for streaming. We don’t know the run times of each episode.
The original series were 20-25 minute episodes and presumably Netflix will stick to that format as the plot appears to be focused in on: Katara and Sokka discovering Aang (the Avatar) locked in ice after having gone missing for 100 years. From there, the trio travels to Kyoshi Island which is a pivotal moment in Sokka’s character growth as he comes to respect and learn from the Kyoshi warriors and his tiny bubble of living with the male-dominated Southern Water Tribe gets popped and he wisens up to the bigger world.
Quick hits:
— The Fire Lord looks terrifying
— VFX are stunning
— We are HYPE for this release
The Avatar State
Netflix
It is also the time when Aang discovers just how hellbent the Fire Nation is on capturing him. We get some absolutely stunning shots of Kyoshi Island in the first full trailer from Netflix.
In the trailer, we also see Aang entering the ‘Avatar State’ but it’s unclear if this is his body’s autonomic response to a threat (the Fire Nation) or if he’s entered the Avatar State to commune with the spirit world. Netflix cannot ignore Aang’s role as the mediator between the physical world and the spirit world.
Most likely, Aang is communicating with Avatar Kyoshi while on Kyoshi Island. He has the ability to communicate with his Avatar predecessors and it makes perfect sense that he’d contact Kyoshi for guidance while on the island named in her honor.
Appa Looks Great
Appa and Momo are Aang’s two animal companions with Appa joining Aang when he was very little. The manatee-bison hybrid is often referred to as a ‘flying bison’ without any mention of being part-manatee but it’s all sussed out in his wiki.
If Netflix botched the design and execution of Aang’s two animal companions it would have been enough for many to write off the series from the beginning. Appa is as fiercely loyal to Aang as Aang is to Appa. Their relationship mirrors that of many dog owners who would do anything for their dogs and vice versa.
From what we can tell, Netflix appears to have nailed Appa both in design and attitude, so that’s a major green flag for the series.
Momo plays a lesser role in the series but the winged lemur is still a crucial part of the story as an orphan from the Southern Air Temple and the only known species to survive the Fire Nation attacks on the Southern Air Temple that left Aang as the only Airbender left on the planet. They are both the last of their kind and possess powers to harness the wind. Momo is also seen in the trailer and appears to have been designed well by Netflix.
Avatar: The Last Airbender…It’s not meant to be all serious
My biggest gripe with the Avatar: The Last Airbender teaser trailer was the lack of kids being kids. Aang is just 12-years-old and very much a pre-teen in nature despite having the weight of the entire world resting on his shoulders.
He originally went to the Southern Water Tribe lands to go penguin sledding on otter penguins. He goes to Kyoshi Island to ride the majestic Elephant Koi fish.
More often than not, Aang is smiling in the series. Even when things are at their worst and their lives are at stake he has this childlike ability to stay positive because everything always works out in the end, and for him it typically does. So in the teaser trailer when there was literally only one short scene of him smiling it was suspect.
Carton Aang:
Netflix
Netflix Aang:
Nickelodeon
There’s only so much we can learn from a trailer but striking a balance between being a war and blundering through life with the hubris of a 12yo who faces any obstacle head on, that’s what Netflix needs to do in order to get the show right.