‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Nails Its Difficult Tone Perfectly
by Frank Martin
The differences between animated series and live action, in terms of storytelling, are vast and almost too infinite to count. This goes doubly true for programs originating on Nickelodeon. There are obviously styles of animation that are extremely dark and gritty, intended purely for mature audiences. But that’s not what Avatar: The Last Airbender is. It’s a Nickelodeon show with a goofy main character, plenty of fun hijinks, and a fanciful world of magic and spirituality. One adaptation (M. Knight Shyamalan‘s infamous The Last Airbender) already failed at achieving the right tone. If the themes of the story swing too far in one direction or the other — either too light or too dark — the story just won’t work. Luckily, the Netflix adaptation manages to get it just right.
The show decided to move in a darker direction than the film adaptation. But it’s still a light, fantasy adventure that doesn’t move its subject matter into completely violent and adult territory. The live action version still focuses on a young cast as they try to navigate coming of age themes like responsibility and even love. Right in the second episode, Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Suki (Maria Zhang) have a budding romance that keeps the show innocent.
Still, skewing more to the adult side, the show doubles down on its themes of war and suffering. Aang’s (Gordon Cormier) pain of having his entire culture wiped out is real and palpable. Plus, there are plenty of instances of the Fire Nation committing travesties in their campaign for world domination. In order to combat them, the Earth Kingdom becomes equally cruel. War changes people, and hardly for the better. The show sinks its teeth into this theme and uses it to carry forward some of the more fantastic elements, such as bending and spirituality. All in all, fans of the original series will be pleased to see that the show manages to weave a tone that balances both the fun with the dark.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is now streaming on Netflix.