Yes, I've seen the trailer, but I'm so disappointed/offended by the casting of the characters that it'll be hard to enjoy the movie.
It would have been one thing if they had said, "Look, we're going to do color-blind casting," but I have a friend who actually went to audition for the role as the Fire Lord. He said the waiting room was filled with large black men (who all had to do a stereotypically deep-throated evil laugh as part of their audition) and they specifically told him to his face that the Fire Nation people all had dark skin.
I don't know what show they were watching, but the people with the darkest skin were the Water Tribe people (since they were modeled off the Inuits) and the water-benders from the Swamp. Hell, I think even the earth-benders were darker than the fire-benders.
*takes a deep breath*
I'm going to stop now, before I launch into a full-blown rant. I'm just really sad that Hollywood squandered a chance to highlight Asian actors, for once, when the cartoon did such a good job of researching Asian culture and incorporating it into the show in a non-offensive manner.
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It would have been one thing if they had said, "Look, we're going to do color-blind casting," but I have a friend who actually went to audition for the role as the Fire Lord. He said the waiting room was filled with large black men (who all had to do a stereotypically deep-throated evil laugh as part of their audition) and they specifically told him to his face that the Fire Nation people all had dark skin.
I don't know what show they were watching, but the people with the darkest skin were the Water Tribe people (since they were modeled off the Inuits) and the water-benders from the Swamp. Hell, I think even the earth-benders were darker than the fire-benders.
*takes a deep breath*
I'm going to stop now, before I launch into a full-blown rant. I'm just really sad that Hollywood squandered a chance to highlight Asian actors, for once, when the cartoon did such a good job of researching Asian culture and incorporating it into the show in a non-offensive manner.