A Little Air Bending about Avatar before the movie comes out

So, the (Avatar) The Last Airbender movie is coming out in a week, and we're a tad excited.  More than a tad.  We are ecstatic but trying to keep our deisre for an awesome movie from creating impossible expectations.  We talked a little bit about it and thought we'd share our geeking out here with you.  We love you that much.

TMIA: I'm going to take this opportunity to grouse that this movie should have been the one that got to be called Avatar, and the other one should have had to change its name.

ST: Indeed. I'm not one to impugn James Cameron's character, but what a jerk. His movie could have been called any of a dozen names, but no, he had to insist on Avatar. But Avatar was already a TV show called "Avatar" when he started making his movie. But he has the "Intellectual Property Rights" to the name because he registered for it as a movie name first. What a jerk. I just hope the Avatar movie blows the Avatar movie out of the water...

TMIA: I hope so too, though I think it unlikely. (I think I'm glad book titles can't be copyrighted.) Then again, family-friendly can surprise the box office out of left field sometimes. (Crossing fingers.) Have you seen much of the promo stuff? What is your gut reaction to what you know or have seen or read about the movie so far?

ST: Well, I'm sure the action will be very cool, but some things I've read about the movie have disturbed me. For one, they're changing the way they pronounce Aang's name to make it more "accurate." I don't think it can be inaccurate if that's the way the series creators wanted it pronounced. Also, Shamalan (totally spelled that COMPLETELY wrong) said he took a lot of the humor out because there wasn't time for it. Sorry, but the point of the series is that it's HILARIOUS first, an action show second. And what purpose will Sokka serve if they take a lot of the humor out? He's the guy with the boomerang and the sense of humor. If you take the humor away, he's just the guy with the boomerang.

TMIA: Yeah, I'm a tad worried about Sokka, too. The director said he's a more grounded character from the beginning. I have no idea what that means, but apparently it means he's very useful. Useful is nice, but we need Sokka's goofiness to balance out the seriousness. (It was one of the genius things the orignal creators built in, all of these characters and set-ups that balanced each other out.) And we need that progression from comic relief character to maturing and responsible tactical genius because without it, how will his character change and grow? Apparently, the director also wanted to axe Oppa and Momo, but his kids basically told him NO. Way to go, kids.

ST: I was SO WORRIED about that. I kept searching the previews in vain for Appa and Momo (they are really important characters, as they are Aang's only living link to the Airbenders), but when I went to Iron Man, I FINALLY saw Appa briefly in one of the previews. Yay for the director's kids!

TMIA: What do you think about the "controversy" around the director changing the ethnicities of the characters?

ST: I'm not really bothered by the ethnicity changes. Aang always looked white anyways; Sokka and Katara's actors could stand to get a tan, but I never understood why they were so dark in the cartoon if they lived on the South Pole, which is not noted for its sunny weather. I miss the fact that it appears that Iroh is not a jolly fat man. He looks much more serious and worse, skinny, in the previews. How can we relate to a skinny Iroh? I'm not sure we can, especially if he's not a FUNNY skinny Iroh. But I still have high hopes for the movie.

TMIA: I guess I thought Aang was middle Asian. I thought the darker skin tones of Sokka and Katara's tribe was supposed to indicate that they were similar to the Inuit tribes. Also, Iroh's skinny? What in the world? They couldn't just pad him out at the beginning and then, I dunno, follow the story and then let him be skinny at the end?! I'm trying to keep my expectations low, but I really do wish this movie turns out to be great. And that Aang's actor's voice doesn't start to change before the filming is done . . .

Are you a fan of Aang and friends?  Are you going to see the movie in the theaters?  You should.  Hope to see you there.

Generations of thieves

I was at a bookstore the other day, and a mother and daughter were in the manga section.  An employee gave them several recommendations, and the girl (I'm going to say she may have been 15 max) kept saying, "Oh, I love that one!  I read it online!"  She was saying this about long-since licensed manga titles that are not provided by the publisher online. 

It came down to final choice time, and they could only pick two.  "You read this one online, right?" the mother asked.  "So you don't need to buy it, right?"

I was weeping inside.  Seriously.  Does this adult not know it's illegal to read pirated works online?  Does she not know economics (if you don't financially support the creators in some way, eventually there will be no more product since the artists can't afford to make the art)?! 

I mean, it's great that this mother was interested and involved in her daughter's life, but shouldn't she be the voice of, I dunno, legal uprightness in their relationship?  I just really don't know what to even think about this situation except to be sad.

Any thoughts?

Dragon Ball, public morality, and a graphic novel about Bertrand Russell

This article is just pretty darned funny. Read it out loud for increased humor value.  It also raises some serious issues about graphic novels, schools, the importance of informed librarians, parental involvement, censorship, and all sorts of other issues it's always important to discuss.

It's #1 of the Paperback Graphic Novels.  "LOGICOMIX - AN EPIC SEARCH FOR TRUTH, by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna. (Bloomsbury USA, $22.95.) The life of the philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell, and his passion for mathematics, is recounted in this graphic novel."