Saturday, June 19, 2010

The Last Airbender Movie

Release Date: July 1, 2010 (3D/2D theaters)

Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenwriter: M. Night Shyamalan

Starring: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel, Jessica Jade Andres, Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub, Cliff Curtis, Keong Sim

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Official Website: TheLastAirbendermovie.com

Plot Summary: Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of this destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang (Noah Ringer) discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara (Nicola Peltz), a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), to restore balance to their war-torn world.

Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film "The Last Airbender" is the opening chapter in Aang's struggle to survive.

Watch The Last Airbender Movie Online


Director:
M. Night Shyamalan

Cast:
Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub, Aasif Mandvi, Cliff Curtis


Synopsis

Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of this destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang (Noah Ringer) discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara (Nicola Peltz), a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), to restore balance to their war—torn world.

Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live—action feature film “The Last Airbender” is the opening chapter in Aang’s struggle to survive.Watch The Last Airbender Online.

The Last Airbender



The Last Airbender
is an upcoming American action-adventure fantasy film scheduled to be released on July 1, 2010. It is a live-action film adaptation based on the first season of the animated television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The first of a planned trilogy, it will be produced by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. The series, influenced by Asian art, mythology and various martial arts fighting styles, was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and was adapted by M. Night Shyamalan, who will also direct and produce the film. Other producers include Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Sam Mercer and Scott Aversano. Filming began in mid-March 2009; the movie will be released in both traditional two-dimensional projectors, as well as in 3D.


The film stars Noah Ringer as Aang, a reluctant hero who prefers adventure over his job as the Avatar. Aang and his friends, Katara and Sokka, journey to the North Pole to find a Waterbending master to teach Aang and Katara the secrets of the craft. At the same time, Fire Lord Ozai, the current Fire Lord of the Fire Nation, is waging a seemingly endless war against the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, and the already vanquished Air Nomads. The film also stars Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, and Dev Patel.


List of Avatar: The Last Airbender characters

The Avatar: The Last Airbender animated television series and live-action film adaptation, The Last Airbender, features an extensive cast of characters created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino. The series deals with a war that was started by the Fire Nation as an attempt to conquer the world, taking advantage of the absence of the Avatar, who alone holds the power to counter Fire Nation aggression. During the Avatar's absence, the balance between the Fire Nation and the three other countries, the Air Nomads, Earth Kingdom, and the Water Tribes, began to deteriorate and plunged the world into a century of war. The first phase of war ended with the elimination of the Air Nomads, near extinction of the Water Tribes, and near-total colonization of the Earth Kingdom, thus setting up the world that the characters of Avatar lived in.

The main protagonist of the series is Aang, the most recent incarnation of the Avatar, who is released from an iceberg after being frozen for a hundred years. With his new friends Katara and Sokka, and later Toph, Aang sets out to master the three unlearned elements and end the war that has ravaged the world during his absence. While primarily focused on Aang, the series also focuses on Zuko, the crown prince of the nation that started a world-domination campaign during the Avatar's absence. Zuko is initially portrayed as an antagonist who tries to capture Aang, but with the help of his uncle, he eventually develops conflicting feelings about the war and later becomes one of the primary protagonists. This change of heart causes the role of the primary antagonist to shift to his sister, Princess Azula, and his father, Fire Lord Ozai.

Character designs were developed through a series of drawings by one of the series' creators, Bryan Konietzko. The main sketch depicted a middle-aged monk with an arrow on his head and later included a flying bison. Konietzko's partner, Michael Dante DiMartino, was at the time interested in documentaries related to the South Pole. They combined these ideas and created the concept of an "air guy" and "water guys" trapped in a snowy wasteland, with "fire guys" invading them. Additionally, the writers based the characters' different bending abilities on distinct styles of martial arts.

Main Characters

  • Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen) is the fun-loving, protagonist of the series, who had been frozen in ice with his flying bison, Appa, for many years. He is freed by a young Waterbender named Katara. Who, later becomes his love intrest. He is the current incarnation of the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. Aang is a reluctant hero, trying to return balance to the world.
  • Katara (Mae Whitman) is a powerful, 14-year-old Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. Katara and her brother, Sokka, discover and free Aang from a block of ice in which he had been for many years. With her brother Sokka, she accompanies Aang on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord, and eventually becomes his Waterbending teacher. Katara is also one of the only Waterbenders that have the ability to Bloodbend which allows her to control any person by bending the water inside the blood, although she is reluctant to use the ability. In the original unaired pilot episode, Katara's name was Kya; this later is stated to be her mother's name.
  • Sokka (Jack DeSena) is a 15-year-old warrior of the Southern Water Tribe. With his sister, Katara, he accompanies Aang on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord. The joker of the group, Sokka describes himself as "meat-loving" and "sarcastic". Unlike his companions, Sokka does not have any bending ability, but the series, though it often makes him the victim of comedy at his expense, frequently grants him opportunities to use his ingenuity and weapons, including his trusty boomerang and a sword he forged from a meteorite. From creator Michael Dante DiMartino it was revealed that Sokka too had some waterbending potential, but never realized he had any.
  • Toph Bei Fong (Jessie Flower) is a 12-year-old blind, tough Earthbender that appears in the second season of the show. Not long after meeting Aang and his friends, she leaves her wealthy family and comfortable home to join Aang on his quest, with a plan to teach him Earthbending. Though blind, Toph "sees" by feeling the vibrations in the ground through her feet. She is the only Earthbender to learn to bend metal and is considered one of the most powerful Earthbenders.
  • Zuko (Dante Basco) is the 16-year-old exiled prince of the Fire Nation and original antagonist of the series. Due to events in Zuko's past, his father, Fire Lord Ozai, deems him a complete failure, and Zuko feels he must capture the Avatar to regain his honor. Over time, Zuko struggles to deal with his anger, self-pity, and familial relationships; meanwhile, he grows sympathetic to the people his nation has terrorized. he takes on the identity of "the blue spirit" at the end of season 1 and the beginning of season two. origionally "the blue spirit" was going to be "the red spirit". In season three, he defects from the Fire Nation, and joins Aang and the team in order to teach Aang Firebending. At the end of the series, he is crowned ruler of the Fire Nation. He was said to be the original love intrest of Katara.
  • Azula (Grey DeLisle) is the manipulative 14-year-old (at the beginning of season two) princess of the Fire Nation. She is Zuko's younger sister and one of the major antagonists of the series. Azula is a Firebending prodigy and is one of the few living Firebenders capable of casting lightning. She has no qualms about bullying and threatening her relatives or friends, reserving any familial loyalty for her father.
  • Iroh (Mako in season one and two. Greg Baldwin in season three) is a retired Fire Nation general, known as the Dragon of the West, and Prince Zuko's uncle and mentor. Iroh was the original heir to the Fire Nation throne until his brother usurped the throne after Fire Lord Azulon's death. On the surface, Iroh is a cheerful, kind, and optimistically eccentric, tea loving old man, but he still remains a powerful warrior and a devoted surrogate parent to Zuko. Iroh is a Grand Master of the Order of the White Lotus, a secret society of men from all nations and helps retake Ba Sing Se during the series finale. Unlike most Firebenders, Iroh does not use fury as the source of his strength; instead he uses the original Firebending skills learned from the Dragons. It is said from Michael Dante DiMartino that Iroh taught Zuko how to use Azula's ligthing attack, but never used it at full power, alas the episode with Zuko's learning of this attack was un-aired for unknown reasons. The episode was supposedly named, "Book 3, Chapter 17 'Zuko advances'"(since this episode was reflected on only Zuko's training), but for unknown reasons, this episode was replaced by "The Ember Island Players."

Fighting Styles

The fighting choreography of the show draws from martial arts; the fighting styles and weaponry are based on Chinese martial arts, with each bending art corresponding to a certain real-world style. The creators referred to Ba Gua for Airbending, Hung Gar for Earthbending, Northern Shaolin for Firebending, and Tai Chi for Waterbending. The series employed Sifu Kisu of the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association as a martial arts consultant.

Each fighting style was chosen to represent the element it projected:

  • Tai Chi focuses on alignment, body structure, breath, and visualization. This technique is the foundation of "Waterbending" in the series.
  • Hung Gar was chosen for its firmly rooted stances and powerful strikes to present the solid nature of earth. This martial art is the basis of "Earthbending" in the series.
  • Northern Shaolin Kung Fu uses strong arm and leg movements. This technique is the foundation of "Firebending" in the series.
  • Ba Gua uses dynamic circular movements and quick directional changes.This technique uses centripetal force to generate power, and uses nearly constant circular movement to create angles between the combatants. This martial art is the basis of "Airbending" in the series.

The only exception to this is Toph, who can be seen practicing a Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis style. Its distinguishing movements and unique footwork give her the ability to overcome her blindness and defeat more muscular Masters of Earthbending. It also makes sense when one considers she is mostly self-taught.

Elements

Avatar draws on the four classical elements common to most ancient philosophies (rather than the five classical Chinese elements) for its bending arts: Water, Earth, Fire and Air. Although each has its own variation, most ancient philosophies incorporate these four elements in some way: examples include the classical Hindu, Buddhist, and Greek elemental traditions.

In the show’s opening, each element is accompanied by two Chinese characters: an ancient Chinese seal script character on the left, and a modern Chinese character on the right:
  • Water (Chinese: 水; pinyin: shui) is associated with benevolence and adaptivity (Chinese: 善; pinyin: shan).
  • Earth (Chinese: 土; pinyin: tu) is associated with strength and stability (Chinese: 強; pinyin: qiang).
  • Fire (Chinese: 火; pinyin: huo) is associated with intensity and passion (Chinese: 烈; pinyin: lie)
  • Air (Chinese: 气; pinyin: qi) is associated with peace and harmony (Chinese: 和; pinyin: he).[33]