Maturity in children’s animation
January 12, 2009
Towards better understanding
As promsied, here’s a spoiler-free look at why you should, if you haven’t yet, watch Avatar: The Last Airbender! But before I go on, I want to briefly identify the type of maturity found in children’s animations like Avatar, Dennou Coil and Tweeny Witches that make these stories so endearing for all ages. Arguably, children’s story is at its most mature when its honest expression of moral standpoint succeeds in moving even the most pessimistic viewers (and I wholeheartly agree). What I want to look at is the different tye of “maturity” found in children’s animation, which may differ from how others may define maturity in storytelling. The below is what I observed from Avatar.
1. We are at first confronted by a moral conflict, which is more grounded in reality than what is usually depicted from a story intended for children. In Avatar for example, you would normally expect clear division between good and evil (Fire Nation vs the world), where your heroes eventually eliminate all destructive threats in the name of justice. Instead, Avatar shows that everyone, including people from “good team” and “bad team”, are capable of both good and evil, and we as people are separated only by our ways of discriminating people without any attempt at understanding each other (Gonzalez Inarritu’s Babel anyone?).
The Awesome that is Avatar: The Last Airbender (plus a list of Korean cultural influences on Avatar)
January 8, 2009
WARNING: This post contains lots of images, over 1500 words, intimidatingly fanboyish, and definitely not safe for those even thinking of checking out Avatar. It’d break my heart to know that my spoilers ruined the experience for anyone (not that it’d completely sabatage the journey, since it’s hard to not be engaged by an epic like this). I apologise for the writing that may prove incoherent and horribly out of this blog’s character, but I just want to preserve these fleeting moments while it’s still fresh in my mind. I’ll come up with a very short spoiler-free review for those interested later. Having that said…
Gate of Northern Water Tribe that works like Panama Canal in Columbia
I haven’t quite finished the epic journey of Avatar just yet, but I do want to make a quick note on the fantastic design of Northern Water Tribe, one of many fascinating places that make up the world of hybrids in Avatar (almost everything is hybrid of influences in Avatar). What exactly is this place? Basically in Avatar, people can manipulate (or bend) the elements such as air and water. And the Tribe happens to be constructed entirely of water, snow and ice by water benders. I found it particularly fascinating not only because it looks like a charming place to be in, it’s also very unique and clever despite borrowing from a myriad of architectural elements.
[Off-topic]Sometimes world is beautiful because it is
December 20, 2008
It’s easier blaming Christmas for the lack of comments on your passionate writing, while denying the fact that it was probably bit tl;dr. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Have fun, chill out with whatever plans you guys’ve made and hopefully see you on January!
P.S. I’ve started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (slowpoke.jpg) and it’s great, I sincerely recommend it. There is a high likelihood of intensely fanboyish articles on it in future.
