World Book character sheets ARE ALL ONLINE. (plus other goodies.)

It’s only taken me…what, 10 years now? But–it’s true–after major fan demand, ALL THE WORLD BOOK CHARACTER SHEETS HAVE BEEN SCANNED AND ARE ONLINE.

They’re up as individual images for the moment. I need to transcribe the last ~45 and will start to…okay, eventually…put the images and text into a document/PDF. (I was going to say that I had done this with the World Book, but the PDF version actually does not have any images in it. Something else to add to the to-do list!)

For those who have been asking me (for YEARS now), I am truly sorry for the delay. Just…you know…life and stuff. I hope that these have been worth the wait!

Well, in other news…hello! Stuff is definitely in the works. It’ll be quite a while yet but a redesign/update of the site is in progress, to finally dust it off, clean it up, and bring it into this decade of web design.

A few things of note, sent in by some awesome people over the months:

Alexandre has captured the Sega Genesis PoDW soundtrack and converted it to mp3s for our listening pleasure. ** will host these files on this site once I update **

Neike has edited and uploaded an incredible collection of screenshots of locations and creatures, the Treasures of Rule, and more.
** will host these files on this site once I update **

Brittany contacted me about a doll she spotted on eBay a while ago. It’s a doll of Ren that I’ve never seen before, and even the original listing has no real information on it beyond “Made in Korea.” Do any of you know know anything about this? See below…

ren-doll-ebay-unknown

Jakub, and possibly some others, have been working on building out a wikia.com wiki for PoDW.

Sony/”Konway” has uploaded a few choice videos: the end credits of Dark Water, the Dishonor cut scene* with Roddy McDowall vs. Frank Welker

Want a hi-res scan of the background image behind episodes 1-13? Doug pointed out that the original painting was up for auction at Heritage Auctions a while back but the image is still there.

And deviantART user DanFelix has been maintaining Dark-Water-Pirates, a collection of fanart from across the website. People have created some really interesting, clever, and fun pieces lately.

*I refer to this as “cut,” though some people were fortunate enough to see the show on TV with this clip included. Different stations made subtly different cuts to the show.

That’s it for all, but hopefully not for long. Cheers! Thank you so much for your support and kind words–I never say it enough, but I deeply appreciate your encouragement and enthusiasm over all these years.

A smattering of this and that

Quick lunch-break post…

Happy 100th(!) birthday to esteemed animator Don Lusk! He worked on PoDW during his tenure at Hanna-Barbera (as well as Captain Planet and others in the late 80s/early 90s), and has an amazing history, having also worked for Disney for nearly 30 years and animated some very memorable scenes for them. (More info at Cartoon Brew, which called PoDW out by name (woo!).)

Also, the PoDW opening made an appearance at the Alamo Drafthouse as part of a pirate-animation-themed montage that aired before viewings of Captain Phillips. (The opening of Peter Pan and the Pirates also aired.) Cheers, William/@whatevercove!

And to answer the questions that some people have left in the comments, I SWEAR that I want to get back to scanning the RPG module’s character pages, as well as my copies of storyboards from The Quest. Maybe I’ll commit to doing 10 pages a day or something…I give you all permission to nag me about this! (I’m also pretty behind on e-mails due to the move–will catch up soon.)

As usual, there’s probably a ton more that I’m forgetting. More soon, I hope! (Life is great. Leaving Boston and moving back to Pittsburgh was absolutely the right choice for me–I am so much happier here already. Currently starting week 4 of my new job–so far so good! Any local/regional PoDW fans, do drop me a line and let me know if you ever want to meet up if you’re in the area!)

Hope you all are doing wonderfully, and I do mean that truly. 🙂

Airbender: one last follow-up post

It seems that my last post has ruffled some feathers and ticked some people off. Please know that I don’t “pick these fights” (not what I set out to do) or “play the race card” (not what I am doing, but some would beg to differ) needlessly. In all my years of running the site, I have never brought these issues up (except to occasionally marvel about how cool it was that PoDW featured such a diverse cast–none of the main characters are light-skinned, something that was very rare in American animation).

Avatar: The Last Airbender is rooted in Asian cultures, with fantasy elements interlaced. This was the creators’ intent, to tell a story that is set in a pan-Asian world. The various cultures are not purely cosmetic; they have a very real impact both on the behavior and thoughts/motivations of the individual characters, as well as the nations they hail from. The industrial practices, value systems, and politics in play are actually references to real aspects of Asian history, and a number of the side characters are based on historic Asian figures as well.

Really, there is nothing about the show that ISN’T Asian. I wrote about it at length in a comment on the previous post–if you’re so inclined, please do check that out.

Please understand: I didn’t post any of this to pick a fight, and I’m not just “being PC”: Avatar: The Last Airbender set out to be a celebration of Asian cultures, something that isn’t seen often in the west, and it has resonated with people of all backgrounds all over the world as a result of that. What resulted with the casting of the Last Airbender film is a real, systematic issue in terms of Hollywood’s casting decisions and general attitudes towards Asians (whether east or south). It isn’t racist to be aware of people marginalizing other races; we unfortunately do not live in a post-racial society (as a brown-skinned south Asian, I definitely have had occasional encounters and experiences that will affirm that sad reality), and we can’t afford to be “color-blind” when this marginalization is still going on. I just want to explain why we feel this way, to help people understand that we are indeed sincere and justified in our conviction that this is wrong.

If you have any other questions or comments, please e-mail me so we can continue to discuss this. I mean this very earnestly and I only have the most positive of intentions: this is a point of discussion and dialogue that’s important to have, and I’d be very happy to talk about this with you.

Thanks. 🙂

The Last Airbender: don’t do it

Some of you may remember a rant or two I’ve posted in the past about the whitewashing of the forthcoming film adaptation of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

Well, it’s finally almost here.

So here is my plea to you, as an Indian-American and a huge fan of the original show: if you want to watch it, don’t watch it in theaters. (Take that to mean what you will.) Please don’t support this film financially, because that will signal to Hollywood that it’s okay to engage in racist and discriminatory casting.

If you missed my rant and all the talk of racebending, here it is in a nutshell:

Avatar: The Last Airbender was a wildly popular and critically acclaimed animated series. Its creators wanted to explore Asian tales and myths instead of the typical western ones. Everything about the show–the characters (clearly Inuit and Tibetan and east Asian), their names, their clothing, the architecture, the writing, the bending styles (based on distinct forms of martial arts), the governmental and political systems, the other major and minor artifacts throughout–is based off Asian culture and religion and mythology. Not only that, but they took great pains to make sure they were faithful depictions, and not in the last bit stereotypical, employing cultural and martial arts consultants and a traditional Chinese calligrapher.

M. Night Shyamalan’s film adaptation, though, involves a cast of white protagonists and dark-skinned minority antagonists (Indian, Iranian, Maori). The casting call asked for actors who were “Caucasian or any ethnicity,” so this really wasn’t them casting whoever they thought was right for the parts–they went straight for white actors.

This is wrong for several reasons:
– Part of the show’s success was rooted in its diversity and ethnic richness, something that’s quite rare in western media and something that resonated with millions of viewers of all backgrounds and ages. These casting decisions demonstrate a total lack of awareness of what was so significant about the show.
– It is well documented that Asians very rarely are the primary characters in American movies and TV shows. This would have been a prime chance to highlight talented Asian actors.
– Hollywood is perpetuating the ridiculous notion that Asians can’t carry major films and can’t draw in the same money that white actors can.
– There is no ambiguity in the characters’ ethnicities, as many try to argue: every single other facet of the Avatar universe is Asian, so it follows that the characters are meant to be Asian as well.
– It’s not reverse racism to want Asians to play these roles: it’s a cry against institutionalized racial discrimination and whitewashing in Hollywood, which has occurred in a number of other movies historically and recently (Prince of Persia, Dragonball, 21). Racist depictions are nothing new, either (Sex and the City 2 and its really horrible depiction of the Middle East). Jacksone Rathbone, the actor playing Sokka, was quoted as saying that he needs to “shave his head and get a tan” in order to play the part. (“Get a tan?” Are you kidding me?)
– How on earth can an Indian-American director allow for such racist casting, and then claim that he isn’t being racist? What a slap in the face that is.

Think about this, too: one of the things that made Pirates of Dark Water so unique was the diversity of its cast. Ren, Tula, and Ioz–none of them are white! Tons of fans have noticed that, too, and commented on it in a very approving way over the years. Conceptual artist Floro Dery did state that he based Tula’s character design heavily off Middle Eastern influences, and you can see similar influence in Ren and Ioz’s character designs.

So, yeah…that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ve ranted about this so many times to so many people that I occasionally forget some of my speaking points because I thought I hit them already, haha. Please do steer clear of seeing this film, or at least don’t go see it in theaters. The show deserves a much better adaptation than this, and Asians have been jerked around by Hollywood more than enough already.

Notice something different?

Same site…different name. Farewell, Andorus’s Pirates of Dark Water Page. Hello, Always The Quest.

(At last!)

I’d put out a call for a new name a little while ago. This was one I’d thought about, then revisited after a couple of you guys also suggested it (thank you very much!), and realized that it just…works.

Not to mention, “Andorus’s Pirates of Dark Water Page”? Seriously? That name has not changed since the inception of this site in the summer of 1996–ancient history in web years! And this is no longer simply a “page,” nor has it been in nearly 14 years. (For those who are unclear about the distinction, a page is one individual part of a site. What you are reading now is on its own page. The larger whole of which it is a part is a website.)

Anyway, moving on!

Thank you very much for your suggestions for my paper! I submitted it yesterday–my professor had suggested I rework it into a letter, which ended up feeling far more natural–and will be posting that here once I get it back and make any edits he suggests. 🙂 This could very well be the seed needed to start a full-fledged letter-writing campaign…especially since I was able to track down an address for Warner Home Video…

We’re in the middle of “finals week”–I have no final exams, per se, but plenty of final projects and papers. There’s still a lot more coming up, but I’m giving myself a break tonight and hope to update a few other things on the site, to attempt to chip away at this massive backlog of updates. I have started experimenting with different online plugins and tools for a more streamlined site redesign and to give myself a chance to mess around with modern web technologies as well–maybe that’ll finally come to fruition this summer.

On a general animation note, I was lucky enough to purchase a copy of The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston at a used bookstore today for only $20! It is said to be one of THE best books on character animation, as well as animation generally, and it was written by two of Disney’s Nine Old Men, or a team of their original animators who created so many of their original characters. I am so thrilled about this, and can’t wait to have a chance to really read/look through it!

So, anyway. Yay, new name! This has been a long time coming and I’m glad for it. Hope you all like it!

Liveblogging the Warner Home Video chat

Okay, I was able to ask my question: “Hi! I wanted to ask about The Pirates of Dark Water. Does Warner Bros. have any plans to release it to DVD, or otherwise revisit it, in the foreseeable future? Thousands of fans have been hoping for a DVD release for years, and it seems like it would receive a great reception when the new Pirates of Caribbean movie comes out next year. Thanks!”

…and got an almost immediate response: Warner Home Video has no plans to release Pirates of Dark Water on DVD at this time.

Sigh. The whole format of this chat session has been very fast, and their answers have (for the most part) been very vague, unless they actually had forthcoming plans for releases or something else. I was a little surprised at how quickly they shot it down–does that mean they were anticipating it?

But at least I asked it, and several highly-ranking VPs saw the name of the show pop up before their eyes. That has to count for something. (Many thanks to Nathan for the addition of the Pirates of the Caribbean reference. I ran out of space before I could use the phrase “capitalize on its release,” though, but the idea is there.)

(Oh, and they butchered my name and referred to me as SmithAP, even though I had myself there as “SmithaP,” since, you know, that’s my name and all. That was a little irksome, haha.)

Read on for a list of all the titles that have been addressed, though!

* * * * *

A couple of us are in the chat right now. (E-mail me and let me know if you’re there! My chat handle is SmithaP.)

To refresh your memories, this chat involves several executives with the Marketing Department at Warner Home Video: Amit Desai (VP – Family, Animation, and Partner Brands Marketing), Rosemary Markson (VP – TV and Special Interest Marketing), and Melissa Hufjay McAlevey (VP – Marketing), and potentially some members of their teams. The chat tonight is solely about TV and animation. I’m bolding answers related to animation.

The inquiries so far have been about:

  • Knots Landing
  • The New Adventures of Old Christine
  • SwatKATS: The Radical Squadron – WB’s response: “Re: SWAT Kats – we continue to evaluate the Hanna Barbera classic animation library and will certainly keep your enthusiasm in mind.”
  • 80s cartoons, such as PacMan, Shirt Tales, and FangFace – WB’s response: “Saturday Morning Cartoons 1980’s 2 disc collection will street on May 4, 2010. Featured Series Include Monchhichis, Kwicky Koala Show, Thundarr the Barbarian, Mister T and Many Others!”
  • DVDs of 1990s WB cartoons like “Histeria!”, “Detention”, “Road Rovers”, and “Taz-Mania”, as well as future releases of “Tiny Toons” and “Animaniacs” – WB’s response: “No plans at this time.”
  • CHiPS
  • Justice League and Batman Animated Blu-ray releases – WB’s response: “We are evaluating the entire dc comics animated library for blu-ray. We’re glad you love Justice League and Batman Animated! We’re also looking at further Tom & Jerry collections. Look for Tom & Jerry Deluxe Anniversary Collection on June 22nd. We think you’re going to love it!”
  • Watership Down on Blu-ray and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home on DVD – WB didn’t respond to the WD request.
  • B&W TV shows of the 1950s and 1960s
  • DVD release of Cartoon Network’s “The Big Game” (Looney Tunes Superbowl parody) – WB’s response: “no plans on The Big Game at this time.”
  • Silverhawks volume 2 – WB’s response: “No plans at this time.”
  • Wondering if there are technical reasons that no pre-00s TV series have been released on Blu-ray
  • 2000s animated titles (i.e. The Batman, Krypto the Superdog, Loonatics Unleashed, Legion of Super Heroes, Scooby Doo DTVs, Teen Titans, Tom and Jerry DTVs, Tom and Jerrry Tales) in widescreen on DVD in the future – they were produced for widescreen and shown as such in Australia, but only in pan-and-scan in the US – WB’s response: “We will consider this if and when we release them on Blu Ray.”
  • the full Tom and Jerry Grape Ape show on DVD – WB’s response: “No plans at this time.”
  • the complete Roots
  • 2 Stupid Dogs – WB’s response: “no plans at this time.”
  • Johnny Bravo – complete series, as well as seasons 2, 3, 4, and 5 / DVD releases of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman and Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero special editions – WB’s response: “Johnny Bravo: Season 1 will be out on June 15th. Please buy it so we can continue to bring more Johnny Bravo seasons! We continue to evaluate our DC Comics Animated Direct to Videos for Special Edition treatment.”
  • Whose Line Is It Anyway?
  • **PIRATES OF DARK WATER** – see above.
  • V: The Final Battle
  • Mighty Orbots – WB’s response: “no plans at this time.”
  • The Adventures of Superboy – WB’s response: “Unfortunately, sales did not meet expectations so there are no future seasons planned. However, look for the animated Adventures of Superboy…coming in the future…done.”
  • Growing Pains, season 2, and Perfect Strangers, season 3
  • future plans for the Thundercats series – WB’s response: “The original series is out on DVD and we continue to explore new product configurations.”
  • Night Court, and why are all Warner Premiere animated DC movies only 75 minutes long? – WB’s response: “Re: DCU movies…our research has shown that this is a good length but we’ve added our DC Showcase animated shorts (like The Spectre on Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) that will provide you with more awesome DC action!”
  • Popeye, CN shows (Two Stupid Dogs, Dexter’s Lab, Johnny Bravo) released in the CN hall of fame DVD series, pre-1953 Looney Tunes in the new Super Stars DVDs – WB’s response: “Regarding Popeye, you never know…we hear that there is a movie in development at Sony. Regarding Cartoon Network, we’ll be releasing Courage the Cowardly Dog on July 20th! Please go out and buy so we can continue to bring you more Cartoon Network Hall of Fame classics! Regarding Looney Tunes, the 8/10 releases of Looney Tunes Superstars Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck will have some remastered pre-1953 shorts.”
  • the rest of Shaggy and Scooby Doo: Get A Clue on DVD, Scooby Doo on Blu-ray – WB’s response: “Shaggy and Scooby: Get A Clue Volume One is on dvd. There are no plans to release future volumes. We are evaluating bringing Scooby-Doo to Blu Ray.”
  • request for elaboration about ThunderCats’ ‘product configurations’ and possible licensing deals (from the ThunderCatsLair.org team) – WB’s response: “We’ve told you as much as we are able at this point but we appreciate your interest.”
  • Jack and Bobby, Dr. Who
  • another shout-out for Superboy and Silverhawks, and TimeTrax
  • Babylon 5 TV movies
  • Mama’s Family, Drew Carey, Murphy Brown
  • Moral Orel, working with Viz to bring anime to more locations – WB’s response: “No plans to release Moral Orel at this time. Our deal with Viz will absolutely bring anime to more retail locations.”
  • Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound – WB’s response: “Yes, we are exploring new Yogi Bear DVDs timed to the upcoming theatrical release. Stay tuned for more details!”
  • Duck Dodgers TV series on DVD/Blu-ray, DCAU TV series (Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Teen Titans, etc.) on Blu-ray – “No plans at this time to release Duck Dodgers on DVD. We are evaluating all DCAU series for Blu Ray.”
  • Treasure Island 1990 TV version
  • One Tree Hill, Time Trax
  • Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) in Blu-ray
  • why is WHV releasing less popular titles than Dexter on DVD first? – WB’s response: “We believe that Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Dexter’s Lab are equally popular. Again, our hope is Cartoon Network’s Hall of Fame will be a long continuing series.”
  • a slew of requests for Yogi Bear movie titles and Huckleberry Hound – WB’s response: “We do plan to release Yogi Bear content but can’t comment on specifics at this time.”
  • shorter-lived series from years past, as well as Tiny Toon Adventures vol. 3 – WB didn’t respond to the Tiny Toons request
  • Third Watch, Brimstone
  • Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown and issues with the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Blu-ray discs – WB’s response: “We’re evaluating the Peanuts library for blu ray.”
  • Pac-Man on DVD – WB’s response: “no plans at this time.”
  • Dallas TV movies, Knots Landing
  • Flintstones: I Yabba Dabba Do and Hollyrock a Bye Baby on DVD – WB’s response: “no plans at this time.”
  • Flapjack/Chowder season sets or new volumes – WB’s response: “no plans at this time.”
  • 1968 Filmation Superman and Batman series – WB’s response: “a new Superfriends release will be coming out this year. If there’s more classic DC Animated content…we’ll put it out!”
  • Freddy’s Nightmares, Eight Is Enough, China Beach, Sisters, Alice, Spenser: For Hire, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Shazam!, Logan’s Run, Captain Caveman, Men In Trees (from a TVShowsOnDVD.com editor)
  • Ed, Edd, and Eddy / Johnny Bravo / Samurai Jack movie and seasons – WB’s response: “We already answered your Johnny Bravo question tonight. We also received your email 20 minutes ago regarding Ed, Edd n Eddy. There aren’t plans for E, E & E at this time. Samurai Jack Seasons 1-4 did well on DVD and we’ll look into the feature length movie.”
  • ALICE, FLO, Friends on Blu-ray

Other bits of news about animation releases:

  • Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings remastered animated deluxe edition comes out on Blu-ray and DVD tomorrow (April 6)
  • Peanuts 1970s Vol. II Collection – will be released on June 10
  • Looney Tunes Superstars: Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck 2-disc collections (with newly remastered, new-to-DVD shorts) – will be released on August 10
  • 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo – will be released June 29

(it’s 10:10pm…I’m starting to feel like this is getting repetitive and really need to get back to work. Sorry, guys. Hopefully this was valuable to some of you, and hopefully TVShowsOnDVD.com will post their own transcript for your own perusal.)

The quarterly (not-an-)update

Hey, everyone–how are you doing?

So as I mentioned in the last post, I will be starting grad school this fall. I’m attempting to set a goal for myself, which is to make a substantial update to the site (and not just the blog) before school starts at the end of August. We’ll see if I can do it–I really hope I can because there’s a lot I would like to clean up and consolidate. Not to mention, I really don’t know if I will have time to make any big updates to this site during my two years in school (something tells me Carnegie Mellon isn’t the easiest of schools…), and I don’t want to let this site become more stagnant than it already has (the date in the header and footer still says 2007!). The biggest constraints that come to mind are time and my aching right wrist…we’ll see how it goes, though.

To those of you who have continued to stop by and who’ve taken a moment to send me a note recently–thank you so much. Life has been really busy (between preparing to start school, move, and leave my current job and my life here in Atlanta) and your kind words have really lifted my spirits. 🙂

Some PoDW-related stuff
– There are several very cool items on eBay right now: several gorgeous cels from The Quest (ep. 1) and a storyboard sketch sheet (!!!) from Dishonor. (ep. 2) The cels are $70 each and the storyboard sketch sheet is $80. These are the best cels I’ve seen available for purchase in years, so if you can afford them, go for it.
– It’s been pointed out to me (hi, Mugetsu!) that the five seals you see tiling down the page, the ones from the end credits of episodes 1-13, are not available for download anywhere on the site. CRAP. Sorry about that! Here they are: the seals from The Quest, Dishonor, Break-Up, Betrayal, and Victory.

Some animation-related news…80s Fever is in the air again. I heard a rumor (hi, Ryan!) that the same people who released Mysterious Cities of Gold on DVD are thinking about releasing Spartacus and the Sun Beneath the Sea. (I have not seen either of these, but from all the e-mails that have come in, a bunch of you have and were very fond of both these shows, so…heads-up!)

On top of that, according to Johane Matte (a.k.a. Rufftoon), an animation artist who did storyboard work on Avatar, there are plans for a sequel to Mysterious Cities of Gold–apparently there have been rumors about this for a while now, and other failed attempts, but she seems to believe this stands a chance of happening.

I couldn’t help but read that and feel a little discouraged. It’s great that so many other beloved shows are being rediscovered, but why not this one? There are so many thousands of fans out there who have such fond and strong memories of this show. I know I haven’t really done anything to organize or mobilize the fans, besides attempts at messageboards and the like (though I’ve thought about it more recently)–my emphasis has been more on digging up information about the show around the time of its production and posting as much as I can find. There’s a petition on petitiononline.com with thousands of signatures, but who’s doing anything with it?

When looking through old e-mails, I came across a mention of a posting on a messageboard a couple of years back where somebody claimed that the PoDW master reels in the Warner Bros. vault had been badly damaged, and that’s why they haven’t been released on DVD or otherwise revisited yet. As far as I know, that’s only a rumor…but it’s kind of sad that wholly unsubstantiated rumors are all we have to depend on. If that news were true, that would be terrible, but at least it would be a concrete reason. It’s hard for me to fathom that people could just blithely overlook this show, considering the loyal fan base and how many people do remember it.

DVD announcement: Mysterious Cities of Gold (US)

Because I run a website devoted to a classic 80s/90s animated series (actually, 1991-1993, but it’s often lumped in with the 80s due to the nostalgia factor), over the years I’ve gotten a number of inquiries about other animated shows from that same period. Usually I have to regretfully inform the enquirers that I can’t help them out.

One of the shows that a lot of people have asked me about over the years is The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It’s actually an anime series that was dubbed into English, and I think at least part of it has been on YouTube for a while–I never watched it when it was on TV, but I did watch the first episode on YouTube and thought it looked pretty cool.

Well, Mysterious Cities of Gold fans can now rejoice, because the show is being released in the US on DVD on April 7th. There are even two editions, regular and deluxe. Check out the press release, courtesy of tvshowsondvd.com.

(Oops…I guess I’m behind the times, because it came out in the UK last year on DVD, and there’s been a French release, too. Still, hopefully this helps someone out!)

Still not an update…yet

I have finally finished my graduate school applications (YAY!) and have free time to pursue personal projects again–including this site!

This is where I turn to you. I have two broad questions, and I really would appreciate if all of you could take a few minutes to answer these, either in the comments or by e-mailing me.

What do you want to see on this site? It could be something I’ve been promising to add for a long time (there are many such things) or something totally new.

Are there any questions you have about any aspect of the show that the site doesn’t already cover? (Besides “how was the show supposed to end?” because that question doesn’t have an answer. :P) Questions on characters, merchandise, plot, production…anything at all.

And general feedback is always welcome–what you like, what you don’t like, what’s broken, what rocks your world, and so on. (I just realized today that there are a ton of broken links in the image navigation section…ooops.)

As always, thank you for your feedback and your constant patience and support! I truly appreciate it!

Oh! As a quick addendum to the previous post, about racism in Avatar…it looks like Jesse McCartney is out as Prince Zuko in Shyamalan’s* Avatar film (THANK GOODNESS), and Slumdog Millionaire‘s Dev Patel is in. Though I really liked Patel in Slumdog, this still isn’t good enough, because it’s like they’re trying to appease the protestors by throwing in one token dark-skinned dude somewhere, and the good guys are still white and the (ambiguously) bad guy’s still a minority…and not even the right minority, since the Fire Nation is very obviously East Asian! Not to mention, pretty much the only other way you’ll see minorities in these films are in the form of extras with no lines. (Check out this appallingly ignorant statement from the casting director of the film. Since when do Koreans wear kimono? Oh, wait, but they all look alike, so nobody cares, right?)

* if you reference M. Night Shyamalan in your comments on this site, please do me a favor and don’t mock his name just because it’s “strange.” As unhappy as I am with his decisions as of late, both our last names are of Tamil origin and we both hail from the same region of southern India, so his name is no stranger than mine is. I cringe any time I see “Shamalamadingdong” or any variant thereof because it reminds me of all the times people either accidentally or intentionally butcher my name or just don’t feel like trying to get it right.

On race and animation

Happy New Year!

I’m taking a break from working on grad school applications (the first two are due Monday, the rest in February) to post; with any luck I can manage a website update sometime in late February or early in the spring (yikes…). I guess I didn’t have a chance to post again before 2008 ended, but that’s all right. I hope this year brings good things for all of you, and I just want to state again how grateful I am for your continued support and encouragement of this site and of me.

Anyway, moving on–there was some news (not PoDW-related, but animation-related) within the last couple of months that I wanted to bring up here. It’s a bit old now, and I didn’t really think a whole lot about it at the time, but I’ve been reading a bit about it today, and the more I think about it, the more upset it makes me.

M. Night Shyamalan is creating a trilogy of films based on Avatar: The Last Airbender. (This isn’t the problem, FYI.) I don’t know about you all, but I think this is one of the most finely crafted animated series to make it big in many years. A big part of its appeal to me was the attention to detail the creators have paid to ensuring that the Avatar universe is heavily Asian-inspired and completely faithful to the cultures it draws from. The characters’ ethnicities and clothing, the architecture, the food and drink, and the overall philosophy is rooted very heavily in Asian, Inuit, and South American traditions and styles with a twist of steampunk thrown in (the Fire Nation’s naval technology). Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino were very heavily inspired by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, and they spent years on world-building, working with people from the cultures they were trying to convey to ensure authenticity, and employed a multi-ethnic cast and crew to make this refreshingly diverse universe as solid and true as possible.

And it was fantastic: the characters are obviously internationally inspired, and they don’t play into stereotypes, the way Asian or minority characters tend to in so many TV shows and films. The characters in Avatar are normal human beings, and have attracted the attention of fans all over the world because of what a breath of fresh air it is to see the diversity that exists in our world portrayed so warmly and respectfully. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the show and trying to identify all the different world cultures they incorporated into each new episode, and they treated every single one with the utmost respect. As a 1.5-generation Indian myself (I was born in India and grew up in the US), I became really nervous when they introduced Guru Pathik, but I really had nothing to worry about–his character was solid and wonderful, and not at all an Apu-like caricature, which is how Indians have almost always been portrayed for many years in the media.

This does have a PoDW tie, actually, because the cast of PoDW is completely multi-ethnic, not just in skin color but in facial structure, accents, clothing, and more. And while the world is quite fantasy-heavy and plays with pirate legends and references, there are some undeniable ties to various countries and cultures in the designs of the characters and locales. Many of the people I’ve talked to through this site, and many of the comments I’ve seen on other sites, have pointed this out as something very positive and refreshing.

Anyway, about a month ago, the casting for Shyamalan’s Avatar films was announced–and the main characters are all white.

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