Interview with Shaun Toub (Uncle Iroh)
Admin / Jordash
posted Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
8 Comments
Listed as: Avatar Characters, Avatar Live Action Movie
Be sure to check out the interview with Shaun Toub (who plays Uncle Iroh in The Last Airbender) to get his take on the upcoming movie. From early screenings that people have seen of the movie, Uncle Iroh has been the most universally loved character (much like the cartoon).
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This is uncle Iroh? Ah… I will NOT be seeing this movie. Way to ruin one of the best cartoons with crappy casting.
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Admin / Jordash Reply:June 21st, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Give it a chance, from the early screenings I heard that Iroh was peoples favorite character.
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I enjoyed this actor in Iron Man but I can’t see him playing Iroh. and my expectations are set too high by the cartoon. The more trailers I see the more I realize thatit’s a movie that will never live up to it’s animated origins.
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Admin / Jordash Reply:June 22nd, 2010 at 11:48 am
Yeah I don’t think it will ever be near as good as the cartoon like you say, you have to give Night credit, he’s a huge fan of the show trying to do his best. At the very least it will pique curiosity for the cartoon, at best it will be a really good tribute to the cartoon.
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I watched the special 15 minute segments last night with Night and his “walkthrough†of his super secret headquarters, and realized that this movie is going to be TERRIBLE! He stated that he wants to GROUND the movie by changing some things around from the cartoon. He is going to take away the fire nations ability to PRODUCE fire, and he is changing the pronounciation of Aang.
Taking away the Fire Nations ability to produce fire is taking away their evil character. Fire is the representation of rage and fury (we learn this to be different later from Ren and Shaa and the Sun People), and creates a sense of evil when there are guys going around being able to burn anything whenever they want. It is the UNRESTRICTED ability to produce deadly fire and brimstone that makes the Fire Nation the antagonistic monsters that they are. Night makes the claim that benders are limited because they dont have the materials around them necessary to bend when they want, and firebenders can bend fire whenever they want. There are rocks, dirt, and other materials for earthbending EVERYWHERE. There is Air, EVERYWHERE. There is Water, on a VAST MAJORITY of our planet as well as this fantasy world. Where is the fire? Do we live in a world that is consumed in flames? NO. The fire nation is at a disadvantage because they dont have the materials necessary to fulfill their bending requirements like the other nations do. Which is completely contrary to what Night said last night on his interview. In summation, changing the fire nations ability to PRODUCE flames was a terrible and not very well thought out choice.
Second, and this probably the worst part, he changed the pronounciation of the main character Aang. Night stated that he wanted to further “ground†the movie and use a traditional asian name (excuse me if I used a not politically correct use of “asianâ€Â). I will give you this Night: the cartoon series has very strong oriental themes that can be seen everything, this is true. But don’t change the name of the main character, IT IS GOING THE THROW EVERYBODY OFF. I don’t care if you yourself are of oriental decent and feel that because of that you need to change the pronounciation to make yourself feel better. It is not about you IT IS ABOUT THE AUDIENCE. WE, as the amazing fan base of this wonderful cartoon, want to see as little deviation from the cartoon as is humanly and fiscally possible. Changing the pronounciation of the main characters name is probably one of the WORST choices that you could have possibly made in making this movie.
Those are the two main things that irked me last night after watching the special interview with Night. I for one will NOT be spending my hard earned money on a movie that is going to ruin the Avatar cartoon series. Why are the creators of the cartoon not outraged by some of the things that Night is doing here? I know I would be, and I am! Regardless, Night should have realized that no matter what he did, he would not be able to create a live action movie out of a cartoon that has such amazing visual effects and battle sequences, and other awe inspiring bending feats. He would not be able to produce the same emotions that the fan base has been able to enjoy for the past several years when watching this cartoon. I hope that this movie flops.
Posted this elswhere in the forums, but this is my first time posting so I figured I would post is somewhere that people could Reply and comment and not have to dig through outdated forums to find it. Also, just needed to vent frustration. Thanks.
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Unbelievable!!!
This makes so much sense. Of course Toub didn’t watch the show! That’s why the movie sucked. Because the major players ignored the source material. WHO CARES that you tried to respect what Shyamalan was trying to do?! Clearly it was crap. You really missed out on a heavily researched, carefully though-out, fully realized world when you decided not to watch the show. It’s a shame.
Guess I can’t blame the actors too much here. Seems like Shyamalan’s ego is the cause of all this strife.
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He is way to stoic and serious to be uncle Iroh. They’re really going to lose out on the laughter and humor of uncle Iroh in the book of earth and fire. Not to mention I can’t picture him being able to preform Leaves on the Vine aswell as uncle Iroh did.
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I actually saw the movie and let me make a few comments.
First, M. Night: You owe me three dollars, two hours of my life
back and an apology for producing that piece of crap that you had
the chutzpah to call The Last Airbender. Did you even WATCH the
cartoon? There was no humor, no wisdom, no Roku, no Iroh (only
someone whose parents thought it would be a gas if they named him
after a Greek sandwich), no Kyoshi Warriors, no Rough Rhinos, no
King Bumi, no mention of Ursa, no pai sho, no White Lotus, no
mention of Lu Ten, no nothing really. I would say that this movie
sucked a big one, but folks, it honestly wasn’t even that damn
good. Ozai was far less scary in this movie and Zhao actually came
off as an intelligent person. EEYORE, or whatever his name was, who
I am assuming was supposed to be Iroh, but really didn’t come
across like the Iroh I remember, was portrayed as a total imbecile
and we were only to know how he was once a proud general who lost
his son at the battle of Ba Sing Se because Zhao told us. In fact,
that is how we know many things (e.g. the location of the spirits,
the library of Won Shi Tong holding info about Sozin’s comment,
etc.): Zhao tells us. Damn if I would want him for my head honcho
in the Fire Nation Army. That !@#$ runs his mouth too much.
Seriously, this clown (M. Night) is talking about a sequel not
being in the works anytime soon. I have a wonderful idea: Why not,
instead of a sequel, a remake in which the movie is actually done
correctly? And for those who are defeding M. Night by defying ME to
actually make a movie about Avatar-The Last Airbender that doesn’t
suck, I only have one comment: Let M. Night do it first.
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