As The New Yorker reported in a report on Mattel’s post-“Barbie” plans, it’s not just Mattel that’s leaning heavily into IP. Warner Bros. Discovery is working on a scripted “Harry Potter” TV series, attempting to lean into a brand that’s been tarnished for some by its creator’s transphobia, not to mention a series of lackluster prequel films. Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins told Variety in a profile published Wednesday that the studio’s upcoming animated films would focus on familiar franchises like “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” rather than going after “expensive original animated” films with less certain audiences.
Okay does anyone else here find ATLA to be incredibly overrated? Everyone raves about it, even my friends irl, so I watched and it was just…fine? Like I guess it’s a solid kids show, and i probably would have enjoyed it if i watched it when i was 12, but it just did nothing for me. I know I’m just not the target demo, but so many adults talk about Avatar like it’s the second coming.
I enjoyed ATLA and I’d rather have something like that be an exhaustively praised fad than some alternatives like, say, Gambo. I’ll give it that.
Shows targeted specifically toward adults can sometimes be downright juvenile.
I think people remember it fondly because it started a trend of more narrative focused western animation on TV. Like a Nickelodeon show with actual character development and worldbuilding was pretty unusual. And it seems to have that effect where some episodes/scenes just buried themselves in the grooves of people’s brains like early spongebob that’s probably partly a testament of quality and partly a product of endless reruns (at least that’s mine and some of my friends experience with the show).
It’s a Seinfield Is Unfunny situation where it doesn’t seem all that impressive compared to the other long-term narrative animations that have come out of the West over the past twenty years until you realize that the others likely wouldn’t have existed if ATLA didn’t prove that it could be successful in the first place.
I hated Seinfeld from the start and the shows that most directly took inspiration from it don’t do anything for me either.
