Avatard Kit

This past weekend, M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender opened in theaters. For those of you who don't know, it's based on the completely and totally awesome Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The series took place over the course of three seasons, each with their own title (The Book of Water, The Book of Earth, and The Book of Fire) and, unlike most American cartoons, had an overlying story arc with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Add to that characters that actually developed and grew over the course of the series, romance, moral dilemmas, action, adventure, and a serious threat to the world, and you've got yourself a winner.

Oh, and can't forget the humor. Lots of humor... so I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw the previews of a dark, joyless world in the grips of angsty melodrama.

I haven't seen the movie, nor do I intend to in theaters. I know, I know, there are some people who like it, but I'm having a real hard time reconciling some of the changes Mr. Shyamalan decided to make to the actual mythos of Avatar. Cutting things out of Season I to fit it all in a less than two hour movie, I can understand. Drastically changing the plot and the characters' personalities to suit his own personal vision? Unforgivable. And don't even get me started on the names. -_-;;

In any case, I did find something to help ease the anger over some self-absorbed director mauling one of the best things in the past ten years in some quest to make it his own: the Avatar: The Last Airbender Artbook. I spotted this in the bookstore Monday and just couldn't resist. Mike and Bryan (the creators) talk about the development of Avatar and how they got it all together, which is fascinating for anyone who is creating their own world, plus discuss the characters and the process and provide plenty of development sketches and conceptual artwork to drool over.

Yeah. This has made my week. :D

As for the movie? Well... we'll see what happens when it hits DVD.