Netflix Avatar review: another live-action cartoon misfire
Avatar: The Last Airbender is everything that’s disappointing about Netflix’s live-action cartoon shows
Netflix’s live-action Avatar has its heart in the right place, but its pacing and uneven performances leave a lot to be desired.
Please let's all remember that these are child actors, and they are no responsible for the poor writing or direction in the show. We can be sure they have worked extremely hard and poured their lives into this show, and the ones we should be disappointed with are the showrunners.
If the acting is bad, we can be mad at the casting director as well. It doesn't really matter if they're child actors, that doesn't make them immune from being called bad actors. They don't deserve to get dunked on or solely blamed for the show, but let's not pretend they don't play a part in its quality. If they were amazing actors, I'd assume you'd have no issue giving them praise? Why is the opposite not true?
The problem is people tend to go way the hell overboard when it comes to criticism and some child actors can't handle it. Look at what happened with Jake Lloyd as an example. Best to just leave the children out of the criticism and make it about the adults who made the decisions.
People tent to go way the hell overboard on a lot of things. Best to focus on constructive criticism, while keeping in mind the actors are children, rather than to blindly self-censor based on the subject.
If they were amazing actors, I'd assume you'd have no issue giving them praise? Why is the opposite not true?
Because they're children dude. Praise does not have harmful psychological consequences. There is no downside to giving a child credit for doing something well. There is tremendous harm in attacking a child over something they did objectively correctly, but inevitably not to the impossible standards of armchair critics whose entire presence on the Internet is built on giving exaggerated and heartless criticism.
like the kid that played Anakin in Star Wars. he caught so much shit over it, that he gave up acting all together.
In 2012, Lloyd explained that his decision to retire from acting in 2001 was due to bullying at school and harassment by the press, both in response to his role in The Phantom Menace.
Damn that's sad. Haven't seen the phantom menace in a while but I thought he was pretty good.
He also has Paranoid Schizophrenia...
Giving praise when it's not warranted can be bad.
It should be shown that there is nothing wrong with doing something poorly, and it gives a chance for constructive criticism. I've always (kindly mind you) helped the creative kids throughout my life by showing them where they can improve and why. Feel like that gives them more agency and respect than a constant "Of course you did great! You always do great!".
Feels good to give praise, but kids pick up on the bs.
Of course don't be cruel, and attack and exaggerate (which I don't think the person you're replying to was suggesting), but be honest. Kids are people and grow in their abilities the same way. Only getting praise is not the way to grow.
That's like saying drinking water can be bad. It's technically true, but not really relevant to this context.
Let the kids family, friends, directors, whatever people are actually involved in those children's lives handle the constructive criticism. The scrutiny these children face is monumental already. There's no reason for some rando online to give unsolicited acting advice to child actors, and we both know that's not even remotely how the vast majority of armchair movie critics are going to express their opinions.
Complete false equivalency. Do you think positive and negative are the same thing?
Strawman argument.
If a kid plays the piano in a shitty way, it's okay to say "well, he sucks."
Edit: Fuck, man. I didn't say to say it to his face! Let's just say that it's okay to think "well, he sucks." You CANNOT tell me you don't think this way if the kid says "I've been practicing for months" and you see him just smashing the keyboard. Stop being emotional. If the kid asks for my opinion, I'd probably say "good job! Good effort, keep practicing!" But for sure, I'll be thinking "welp, he sucks."
actually no. That's called being an asshole. You can say that he has room to improve, or that he's still learning, or literally anything but "wow they just suck" like some asshole.
No strawman. One is positive and one is negative. That's why they are different lol
And no it's not really okay. You should encourage children.
Maybe I misread the original comment. Where is the false equivalency? I don't see OP saying "good and bad are the same."
I of course encourage children. I'm not a psycho. I'm referring to the fact that you can tell when a kid is brilliant, and when a kid simply sucks. But yeah, if you tell the kid "kid, stop, you suck," then that's a WTF moment.
Being uncomfortable with criticism does not mean immunity from criticism. This isn't a middle school play FFS, it's a licensed series for something that already has a large, established fan base. Millions of dollars went into this. People's careers depended on this. Using "they're just kids!" to deflect legitimate criticism toward their acting abilities is not only nonsensical, it's cowardly.
I've only watched the first 2 episodes, and yeah some of the performances come off quite bad, but I think the editing is at least partially to blame. They hold on characters too long and at odd moments completely destroying any sense of natural tempo in conversations.
yeah there was at least one scene where I was like "what the hell, the actors are awkwardly looking at something that isn't there, you clearly could have cut away from that take!"
Btw we have some discussions for the first few episodes on !avatar@lemmy.world if you want to weigh in there
I think it was fine overall. But this is one of the few shows where I actually prefer the dub of my native language because the voice acting was rather underwhelming. To be fair the German voice cast is the same as the original show so they have more than 20 years of experience and nostalgia might play a role too 😁