🪐 Got A New Look! 🌌

If I had to give a general opinion of the movie: it was okay. Not great, not bad, just okay. If I had to describe this movie, I'd say it felt like a fairly decent anime filler movie. It was certainly a very visually pretty filler movie. But whether you want to consider it canon to the TV shows is up to you type of film.

Firstly, I wanna say that that animation is STUNNING. I'm not the biggest fan of the art style change between the og show and the new movie but I can't deny how drop dead gorgeous this movie is! I was absolutely amazed by every scene I was watching, how smooth and full of life and weight the animation is! All of the awards to Flying Bark Studio for their beautiful contribution to this film! Y'all deserve your flowers!

Now for the story,,, where to begin. The story was paced,, ok. I never felt bored or like a scene went on for too long which was nice. The main issue I have with the plot is 2 things: it feels horribly constrained by the existence of LoK and the fact there were a LOT of underbaked ideas. The non-bending villains just felt like the reheated nachos from LoK and were the grunts who needed to fight the protagonists at the end of the movie. They served their purpose and had little to do outside of that. They were barely in the movie too so they were dealt the especially underbaked card. The girl from the non-bending group who became an Air Acolyte at the end was okay. Again, underbaked and didn't have enough development to make me care. It was cute ig. Tagah's whole plot was executed well. It was easy to see his betrayal from a mile away but he never felt ooc or annoying to watch. Plus his motivation made sense. The McGuffin avatar staff felt a little lame I won't lie but I'm gonna attribute that to LoK muddling with the Avatar universe (sorry LoK fans I'm slandering your goat a little bit 🙏). I also think the spirit realm opening ending—while again very pretty—felt VERY LoK and not ATLA.

Tbh the Gaang felt just kinda one note which is a shame. I know this is supposed to be Aang's movie, but I wish they'd had more to do as a team. I kinda don't like how they dumbed down Sokka in this movie. Sokka is goofy, yes, but he's a very smart and observant character when he needs to be. So for him to say that he doesn't know how to operate a Fire Nation sky ship was weird. My brother in Christ you helped take these ships down before??? You helped design the prototype for the ships??? Sure ok ig at least I got my Zuko asking Katara for help line.

Aang's relationship with Tagah was very cool to see admittedly. I love that Aang finally had another Airbender to bend and connect with. And seeing Tagah sharing air nomad culture with Aang was very cool. I also liked Tagah's tattoos those were neat. Dave Bautista did such an excellent job with his role. I never felt like I was listening to "Dave Bautista but animated" like I do with Moana's Maui. He truly melted away into his character like he does with his other roles. I also believe this was his first voice acting gig so good for him! This was a great first role in voice acting (at least that I know of). I also liked seeing Aang trying to rebuild the air temples and their relics in the beginning of the movie. I kinda wish the plot had centered around that idea more but that's wishful thinking on my part.

I like the design for the new air nomad avatar she was cool. Her staff was weird but she was very cool. Not the biggest fan of the look for the old air nomad culture temples but maybe that's just me. Her flowing sashes were v cool..

Alright where's Suki? Not to already show my hand a bit early here but genuinely where is my girl Suki? She wasn't even depicted helping the Gaang in the final battle early on in the movie. She's also a PART of the Gaang!! She literally SAVED Sokka and Toph's lives! You could've honestly just added her into the movie and given us cute Sokka/Suki interactions. I mean everyone else was boiled down to their basic traits, I don't see why adding Suki to the plot wouldn't have changed anything. Actually it might've because—call me crazy—but I think including your most important and powerful non-bending characters in a movie with non-bending antagonists might've been a little important to break the argument of the "Rejected" or whatever they're called. I'm sorry I genuinely don't remember their group name they're that underbaked/unimportant. They felt like a lip service thing more than anything which makes little to no sense to me because the original show already tackles the idea of what non-benders do in a world full of benders!!

Speaking of lip service: now for the Zutara/K@t@@ng section so if y'all don't want my petty shipping opinions feel free to read the next paragraph :) Maybe I'm crazy but Kataang felt kinda forced in this movie. Their moments felt overly cheesy and epicly romantic in a way they never did before. Like Katara jumping down and Aang catching her in the air past the sunset felt so over the top 😭. And Katara felt so,, off. She really is just "The Avatar's Girlfriend!" in this movie. Literally EVERYTHING she does or talks about is about Aang. She's always trying to make Aang see reason or help Aang or heal Aang. Aang Aang Aang Aang. And I LOVE Aang and I loved him in this movie but I cannot stand the way post-canon treats my girl Katara. Also I saw that "here damn!" "make Katara a politician" thing from the beginning. That idea is never explored again btw it's just more lip service to placate people who've rightfully criticized how Katara is treated by the canon after the OG show. Southern Water Tribe Ambassador Katara ftw ✌️ Not to put my tinfoil hat on as well but I'm sorry I think it's HILARIOUS that someone (probably Bryke) felt the need to acknowledge Zutara in this movie. Y'all literally could've just had the shmultzy Kataang moments and never even acknowledged Zutara. Literally just ignored it but no somebody felt the need to poke the bear and go all "har har Zutara isn't canon lololol!" Like that joke was only funny because I wasn't actually expecting them to acknowledge Zutara in any way. Nice to know this non canon ship still bothers them even 20 years later lmfao. I also did enjoy the like 3 Zutara crumbs we got from the movie too ty 💜

I'd like to talk about how Katara was treated by this movie's narrative but tbh I think I'll save that for another post going into how Katara is treated by post-atla canon as a whole.

Touching on the voice acting here, it was serviceable. All of the VA's did a good job, but I don't know why they didn't bring back the og actors? They're all adults now and could voice the characters just fine I think. But the new actors were very good. Except Aang. I don't know what it was but there was something about him that every time he talked I kept hearing Sokka's voice. It might've been how he inflected his tone but it sounded SO much like Sokka from the og show and it kept pulling me out of the movie every time he talked.

The ending was ok. Again it just felt like a big final battle to save the world and stop the bad guy. The lion turtle thing to get them off the island was kinda dumb but not the worst thing ever. Plus it gave us a funny Zuko line about honor. The final battle was alright overall. Tagah and the evil non-benders team up to fight the Gaang, the Gaang fight them, Aang defeats Tagah and saves America I mean Republic City! So yaay happy ending. Also yaay Suki cameo at the end. She should've been in the movie but hey, I have a reference for fanart at the very least. Finding the sky bison at the end felt a little bit much but it was pretty so ig I'll let it slide.