It’s no secret that adapting the animated Nickelodeon show Avatar: The Last Airbender is a challenge. In 2010, M. Night Shyamalan made his attempt with a feature-length movie that ended disastrously. The almost universally panned film had few redeeming qualities, but the consensus was that something like The Last Airbender would simply be impossible to adapt in live-action. Fast-forwarding a couple of years, The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko later released a sequel series on Nickelodeon titled The Legend of Korra, set 57 years after the events of the original show. The success of Korra further reaffirmed that animation is where this world belongs.

But, where there is a successful IP, there will be someone trying to make another adaptation of it. In comes Netflix and showrunner Albert Kim to deliver an eight-episode TV series based on the first season of the animated show. Production wasn’t without its bumps in the road, as original creators DiMaritno and Konietzko stepped down early on due to ominous creative differences (DiMartino would claim that Netflix was « negative and supporting »), but after many years, we are finally going to get to see Aang and his friends in live-action as they venture to restore balance to the world. Surely, Netflix has learned lessons from the previous failed adaptation and its mistakes, right?

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Struggles to Condense Its Story Into Fewer Episodes

Unfortunately, the main drawback of the live-action series is what you might expect: timing. The first season is based on the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, subtitled « Book One: Water. » Although each episode only comes in under half an hour, there’s a lot of storytelling taking place. The show is set in a world where some people, called benders, are born with the ability to manipulate natural elements like water, air, earth, and fire. We’re introduced to Aang (Gordon Cormier), a boy who has been frozen in ice for a hundred years, as he wakes up to a world where all of his kind have been wiped out after a genocidal war. We also learn that he is the Avatar, a person who can control all four elements rather than just one, and his destiny is to save the world and restore balance.

With a long season, the so-called « filler » episodes of the original animated series offer deep insight into the complicated world that Aang and his friends are a part of. Learning the difference between the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Water Tribes is vital to understanding the politics of the world. Throughout their ensuing mission, the group meets different people from different corners of the world, all with their own opinions and experiences involving the war, and these meetings help shape Aang and his friends’ perspectives. Although the original series was written and made for kids, there are some very mature themes, and the show never shied away from illustrating them. The problem with the Netflix series is that there simply isn’t enough time to build that same rapport with the audience. Its eight episodes hit the big highlights of the original show, but miss all the small detail that makes those scenes soar. While the new series starts strong, the cracks begin to show once it starts trying to braid together different storylines.

Of course, it’s not all bad. Some of the mixing together of plot points is quite clever, and employing a « kill two birds with one stone » mentality is a good way of depicting scenes that might seem unnecessary now but will play a larger part in the later story. Combining elements of the Spirit World together might irk animated show loyalists, but it’s a necessity for exploring Aang’s backstory as well as understanding the importance of the realm. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder why the show couldn’t have been just a couple of episodes longer, or if Book One couldn’t have been split over two seasons to allow more room for it to breathe. That might have allowed the Netflix adaptation to add new elements to the story, rather than simply remixing the old ones.

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Succeeds With a Talented Cast

Despite narrative struggles, the place where the Netflix show doesn’t falter is casting. This isn’t the first time the streamer has nailed casting when it comes to adaptations, but with Avatar, the challenge is particularly mammoth. The heart of the show lies in the hands of its youngest character, played in the series by a cheerful Cormier who nails the leading role. Aang has always been defined by two things: his free-spirited and youthful nature, and the crushing weight of responsibility and guilt that he carries as the Avatar. Cormier takes on this task with ease. Although Aang is still quite innocent at the time of Book One, Cormier displays those early flashes of conflict and inner turmoil that will be vital to the character’s growth in later seasons.

Dallas Liu plays Prince Zuko, the brooding and tortured prince of the Fire Nation who will stop at nothing to capture Aang in an attempt to earn back his honor and return home from his banishment. While Zuko appears to be the main antagonist of the season, he is much better known as the show’s favorite anti-hero. Zuko is the character who experiences the most amount of growth besides Aang, and the potential for that growth is there in Liu’s performance.

Opposite Paul Sun-Hyung Lee‘s wise and peaceful Uncle Iroh, Liu has a lot to dig into when it comes to Zuko and his relationships with his family. While Aang struggles with the weight of his responsibilities, Zuko must learn to embrace his instinctive compassion that is scorned by his father as a weakness. Of all the benders, Liu’s firebending is also the most impressive visually, at some points looking like it’s directly pulled from the animated series.

Traveling with Aang are siblings Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) from the Water Tribe. While the show might center around Aang, Katara and Sokka are its grounding characters. They’re the ones who live in this world and serve as a guide for the audience to latch onto. For Kiawentiio, the best scenes lie near the back half of the season as Katara journeys out into the world and not only encounters morally flawed freedom fighters but also the oppressive restraints of the patriarchy. As a waterbender herself, Kiawentiio embraces the natural maturity Katara has along with her innate curiosity and dedication to her bending.

The major challenge for Ousley as Sokka is translating animation humor into live-action. Exaggerated jokes from the original show can’t be transferred over without adjustments (and sometimes, the Netflix adaptation gets it very wrong), but Ousley plays Sokka’s comedic scenes with a bit of dry humor and sarcasm that take the edge off. Whatever changes were made to the character feel insignificant in the grand scheme of the story. While the original series took a while to dig into Sokka’s more serious backstory, the Netflix show explores it early and to the character’s benefit, giving him a role beyond simply being comic relief.

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Stumbles With Inconsistency in Special Effects

A crucial part of the Netflix show was always going to be its special effects. Animation allows artists to defy the laws of physics to create stunning scenes where characters bend blue fire or shoot ice spikes at each other. It’s an aspect of the original series that makes it so unique and captivating. Avatar: The Last Airbender succeeds at this… sometimes. It doesn’t always work out, and some bending is easier to capture than others. In particular, firebending and earthbending are the most visually compelling. As stated before, especially when it comes to Zuko’s firebending, the martial arts skill that Dallas Liu has helps reinforce the realism of the bending. Similarly, the opening sequence showcases an amazing look at earthbenders using their powers in combat.

What the animated show always did well was offering a creative look at bending. Yes, there are only four elements, but how each bender utilizes the elements is different. Some firebenders can bend lightning, some can bend blood, and some can even bend blind, using only the vibrations of the earth beneath their feet. Bending is unique for every character, and we get a glimpse of that here in the Netflix show. We see it with Katara as she learns more waterbending and takes inspiration from earthbenders, and we see it with Zuko as he utilizes every body part to bend fire to his will.

However, these effects don’t always work. Specifically, water and airbending don’t feel as natural on-screen. In fights between waterbenders, the scenes don’t mesh well together, with the water effects looking unrealistic. By trying to mimic the style seen in the animated show, the seams are showing between the actors and the special effects. Airbending, done primarily by Aang, lacks the magnitude it should have. Some of this could be attributed to the fact that Aang has not had to use a massive amount of airbending, but similar to water, it is difficult to make these types of bending look realistic.

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Has Potential, But Needs More Time to Grow

This first season of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender was always going to struggle to be perfect, and the reality is that there is just too much to take on. The characters, the world-building, the bending, the shortened season — there are a lot of things to juggle, and the result is a show that has some serious flaws. However, that doesn’t mean that these blemishes are permanently detrimental to the franchise, as the backbone of the series is still strong.

There’s clearly a firm understanding of the world through the narrative (though some supporting character interpretations are seriously eyebrow-raising) and, most importantly, the overall cast is solid. Alongside the leading characters, supporting actors like Daniel Dae Kim’s Fire Lord Ozai or Elizabeth Yu’s Princess Azula show great promise for potential future seasons. Yu particularly offers a less sharpened edge to Azula, considered one of the most menacing characters of the franchise, and has the room to lean into a more three-dimensional portrayal.

What weakens the show can be improved on. Longer seasons could help in the future, but what might help Avatar: The Last Airbender more is if the producers are not so precious with the source material. The desire to call back to scenes like the secret tunnel or the cabbage merchant may garner chuckles from animated show devotees but aren’t integral to the story. Embracing the adaptation as just that — an adaptation — will go far in improving the series as a whole. Being unafraid to cut extraneous plotlines or even expand on familiar characters in new ways can help the series stand on its own. Overall, Season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender is a firm step in the right direction, with a solid foundation and also room to grow.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Live-Action)

The live-action adaptation struggles to truncate the original storylines into a short Netflix season.

Pros

• Acting performances, particularly from Gordon Cormier and Dallas Liu, elevate the show and give characters more depth.
• The live-action series embraces the source material and is able to adapt to the new formatting.

Cons

• With so many episodes in the animated show’s first season, eight episodes is not enough for the series.
• While some of the bending special effects are fantastic, not all of it is seamless and can look clunky.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is now available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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