more on the Avatar movie

[jade_sabre]

mainly because now I have a reason to be worried beyond general racebending fail, thank to an interview with M. Night Shamalamadingdong, courtesy of ohnotheydidnt in which Mr. Shamallama says:

"[Dev Patel] is like a man-child and this is perfect."


oh wait, that's not it. That's just...fascinating. The line we're looking at is:

"SHYAMALAN: Well, there is a lot in the mythology. What I did was remove anything that was too slap-sticky and cheesy -- the stuff that was there for the very little kids, but wouldn’t work in a live action feature like the fart jokes. I grounded the thing a little more. I grounded Katara’s brother for example [played by Nicola Peltz] and it brought a great new overall tone to the whole movie."

okay I will be the first to admit that I'm not much for bodily humor jokes (though really Avatar didn't have too many, it was more just the occasional juvenile obvious joke that was like, obvious joke is obvious and not funny, although even then most of the obvious jokes were still hilarious), but

WHAT THE HELL DON'T YOU TOUCH MY MAN SOKKA.

maybe, maybe it just means they grounded him down from...um...the cactus juice.  Wait, he didn't drink that in book one.  Um, maybe he's grounded from flying on Appa?  Wait, then he wouldn't be in the movie.

Quick, fellow Avatar fans, come up with things from which Sokka might be grounded so as to make this okay.

Comments

<i>Cactus Juice. It'll quench ya! Nothing quenchier. Its the quenchiest!</i>

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

Um, Sokka grounded.... sounds like they made him.... boring? I'm kind of nervous...

Re: <i>Cactus Juice. It'll quench ya! Nothing quenchier. Its the quenchiest!</i>

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

no! not boring! angsty about his dead mother and his scar-giving missing father and having to take care of his WHOLE SHIP WHOLE VILLAGE including his STUPID LITTLE SISTER who is SO MUCH MORE TALENTED THAN HE IS and keeps TRYING TO KILL HIM RUNNING OFF INTO DANGEROUS SITUATIONS and how he has to capture keep the Avatar safe and has no time for giggles because it is all about HONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR.

Re: <i>Cactus Juice. It'll quench ya! Nothing quenchier. Its the quenchiest!</i>

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

Here's a quote from the interview that may give us a little more insight into what he means about Sokka. He says he wants "to approach [the story] through the characters and keep it grounded." So, maybe it is like you said. Sokka will just get all crazy obsessed with his duties and taking care of his sister and the overwhelming pressure of being THE ONLY MAN left in his village.

Seriously, though, I'm loling at the comparison to Zuko. Man, I hope they don't take all of Sokka's dry humour away. Rewatching season 1, I've noticed Sokka does have a lot of serious moments, where he actually tries to do his part in comforting Aang and wanting to protect Katara, but at the end of the day, he's the Meat and Sarcasm Guy. He's just a goofy guy, who didn't ask for all this flying and magic!

(Oh my dear, dear Sokka. Never change. *singing*I looove you just the waaaay you aaare)

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

You know, the more I think about it, the more I resent that statement about Sokka. He's quirky and goofy and a huuuuuge dork, but he seems to be pretty grounded already. See my above comment about S1 Sokka. He takes his responsibilities seriously, he's smart, he comes up with (admittedly) crazy-ass schemes and inventions, but...but...If there's anyone who can be over-the-top with zaniness (aside from that one incident with the cactus juice), it's not Sokka, it's Aang! I mean, poor thing is just a kid. So no, don't. Because you gotta love that lighthearted playfulness about him, but..

M. Night Shyamalan, don't screw with these beloved characters or I will send Zuko and Katara on a ninja mission after yo ass!!

*spamming you with comments*

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

And so this culture decides that we can make our own machine and be our own God -- it was there in the cartoon, but more affirmed in our movie
I find this to be a very interesting statement. I wonder how much more "affirmed" this will be. This is going to be a verrry interesting movie, for sure. I'm really starting to think this IS going to be "The Last Airbender" not live-action Avatar, if that makes sense.

Also, that man-child thing is hilarious. What the crap does he even mean?!

after we sent him to be trained a little bit as an actor we knew we had found the perfect Aang
Egads! I hope this kid can act.

*sigh*

Styromgalleries feels very conflicted about the direction this movie is headed.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I'm not particularly bothered by the statement. I think they played Sokka for jokes a lot in season 1 and 2, but the jokes worked better for me in season 2 because I liked him a lot more in season 2. I was somewhat put off by him the first couple episodes of season 1, and then it just took another 10 for me to go from indifferent to actively liking the character. Somewhere in the mid-teens on the episode list, but it was a gradual process.

So if by "grounded" they mean taking away the things that bugged me about Sokka at first...I'm okay with that. Frankly, the writing for all three main characters was stronger as the show went on and their personalities became more settled. I don't think they're going to change too much. They might just make Sokka more sarcastic than silly...which would be a loss, because his silliness got quite charming after a while. But he's capable of being dry and being ridiculous, so I think it will work out fine. It really will come down to the actor. The acting scares me more than the script.

[ascii-encore.livejournal.com]

don't you mean emnight shamwow?

[loquaciousquark.livejournal.com]

you aren't even going to see it anyway

HOWEVER i am up for the proposal tomorrow if your family doesn't mind me crashing in?

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

HEY HEY HEY I will ask my sister if it's okay if I go see it without her ANYWAY I WILL CALL YOU ONCE I GET OFF WORK YOU'D BETTER BE AWAKE BY THEN XD