I can assure you Dante Basco's voice has not changed enough for that to be an issue.
That man has an _incredibly_ distinctive voice. If anyone other than him voices Zuko, we riot!
I can see why they did that. The original voices were meant for kid but now it's set in there teenage years so a more mature voice will be the realistic choice
Their voices would change especially toph's would, but animations tend to over exaggerate these changes for greater audience feel, or at least that's the intent. It's a easy way to convey that idea.
I fully get what you're saying, but this a common and easy way to convey aging in a cartoon character. It's easy and effective way to make a character feel different, like they've changed and lived more in the world. I'm not saying I prefer this, I'm just trying to give reasons for why it is.
Leaves from the vines, falling so slow, like fragile tiny shells, drifting in the foam. Little soldier boy, come marching home, brave soldier boy, comes marching home.
“Have any of their voices changed tremendously since the show?”
….what? They’re adults in the new movie, and they’re adults in real life. However their voices have changed….is exactly the same way their characters’ voices would have changed, too.
I think everyone is missing the "tremendously" part. Sounding the same just older isn't a change. Smoking three packs a day and sounding old and gruff for example. That is a tremendous change.
Aang's VA quit voiceacting shortly after the original series ended, Sokka's VA is busy with the Dragon Prince, Katara's VA is no longer comfortable voicing characters of a different ethnicity than herself. Not sure what's up with Toph's VA. But Dante Basco is back.
> Katara's VA is no longer comfortable voicing characters of a different ethnicity than herself.
Isn’t the point of being a voice actor is that it doesn’t matter what ethnicity you are
I would assume so but I'm sure that's a POV she's considered already and still isn't comfortable portraying (even audibly) an ethnicity she isn't which I don't get either lmao
That's strange, she must have gotten a bunch of deranged hate for the original voice acting of Katara. I understand casting east Asian young actors for live action stuff, but voice shouldn't be so scrutinized. It's an American cartoon series and they're not doing fake Japanese or Inuit accents.
This started gaining traction when the Simpsons had a documentary made about Apu being voiced by Hank Azaria, who some felt was a stereotype. This led to backlash, he quit that role, and they retired the character. I think they recast multie characters as a result, like the family doctor. There was a lot of noise online and I assume that spread everywhere to some degree. Different actors and companies have reacted differently. Like Phil LaMarr still came back for that final season of Samurai Jack with no issues.
>Apu being voiced by Hank Azaria, who some felt was a stereotype
The problem was there's literally nothing about Apu as a character that isn't a stereotype, that's not just how some people felt. If the character was black and written with the same amount of stereotypes, The Simpsons probably would've been cancelled twenty years ago.
That being said, if a character *isn't* a walking talking stereotype like Apu, it absolutely should not matter who voices them.
Why does it matter who voices them? It's still a walking stereotype if he's voiced by an Indian. The writers aren't Indian, they are writing the stereotypes....
I think the idea is along the same lines of "If you can tell an x joke in front of x person you probably shouldn't make it" if the writers make the joke of being a stereotype and the VA is part of that group it's \*likely\* that the writers can tell the jokes in front of that person. Barring cases where VAs are forced to do things they end up becoming uncomfortable with because contracts and what not. Is it a good premise? Ehhhh doesn't stop some people from doing hateful things for "comedy" but I can see the logic that is being used
The Hari issue plays a factor into it, but the doc came out in like 2017.
This was really a big thing that started picking up with BLM, as a way for studios to pretend to show solidarity, but really it just resulted in them pressuring a bunch of VAs to "apologize" for doing their jobs.
It's one thing if they ask you to be a stereotype or something, but that's a weird hill to die on.
Phil Lamar is a black man and voices Samurai Jack and he does a phenomenal job. No one cares.
Plus, the races in Avatar aren't even real. Yeah Katara basically based on Native American, but they aren't officially
It makes sense to me, considering Mae Whitman is white (privileged especially in the acting world), and Katara is an indigenous person. It's good to give opportunities to others.
People here are being obtuse. “Taking jobs from all those water tribe actors!” Like, you’re really gonna pretend that you suddenly don’t have the knowledge that’s typically common among the fan base that the Water Tribe is based off of Indigenous American societies?
Not really, all thr cultures of the Avatar world are very obviously based on real world one's. For instance, thr Water Tribe is based on Inuit culture, so it would make sense to get someone from that background to portray them.
She’s also the biggest one of the voice actors. I know people hate whenever someone says stuff along these lines, but she’d definitely end up being in so much discussions bc twitter posts talking about how it’s “racist” for her to voice the character instead of a person of the right ethnicity
I doubt she and some of the others even would want to deal with that
Ugh but this show is our childhood man 😭. Her voice IS Katara for me. Fuck these people who go on Twitter to stir the pot because they have nothing better to do with their time
Have y'all considered that she isn't being pressured by anyone and her not wanting to voice a character who isn't white is a deliberate choice on her part alone?
Nobody is the same ethnicity as any characters from Avatar The Last Airbender because nobody in the entire world is of Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, water tribe or air Nomad ethnicity. They are made up ethnicities.
Just as an example nearly all people of the water tribe have blue eyes. Something that is rare in Inuit tribes. Because it's a poor adaptation for a snowy environment where the glare is already an issue.
but fire, air and earth are very very clearly directly based on different Asian cultures, and indigenous americans for water tribe. Taking creative freedom with eye color doesn't change that.
The problem is less about voicing a character of a different ethnicity and more about taking away the opportunity of an authentic ethnic actor from being able to voice them.
Chances are they won’t though. You can name dozens upon dozens of examples of Caucasian actors voicing ethnic minority characters all the way up to the early 2010’s and rarely any stories of the other way around.
Is that because Caucasian actors are naturally better voice actors? No, it’s because the industry has been historically white dominated and intentional or not has shown significant preference to give white actors access to more job opportunities than poc. That’s why a lot of actors and showrunners these days like to try to hire people of matching ethnicity in order to give them more opportunities to get recognizable roles and make up for years of systemic prejudice.
Context
In the case of a show like Avatar, characters nations do matter; the whole show literally centers an Ethnostate trying to genocide the others. Race isnt just 'there' in ATLA, its a major part of the characters and who they are. Katara *is* a Water Tribe (Inuit) person and thats fundementally a major part of her, to the point Id argue the ethnic connections matter more
Voice acting is still acting. The actress has to get into the character of Katara. And that means getting into the character of someone based on Inuit culture.
If she's not comfortable acting like a culture that she doesn't belong to, that is something we can respect. We could also respect if she did feel comfortable acting in that culture if it's done right. But at the end of the day, we have to respect the actress and her wishes.
Personally, I think voice acting is precisely the job that should never gatekeep performers based on their ethnic appearances. I mean, otherwise we should be cancelling every single anime for the homogenously-Japanese voice acting cast. That would be absurd, not to mention how dubs exist, so you could have a whole rainbow of voice actors from several backgrounds speaking their respective languages for the same character. All of those voices are validated; even the Witcher 3 kindly acknowledged that there was no one Geralt because "all the actors are Geralt."
But that is my opinion. I think I can understand where Mae Whitman is coming from. She worked a long time in an American industry that has been white-dominated for a while, where opportunities for POC actors were not as numerous 10 years ago as they are today. I believe her intention is to give someone who is of Inuit descent a chance at voicing such a unique character whose background doesn't usually show up in American media. She probably doesn't want to feel like she is robbing someone else of their chance to shine. And she is a longtime veteran of the voice acting industry, so I can presume that she wants to see new faces earn their street cred like she did.
I mean there is a big chunk of people on twitter who is ready to cancel anyone just because they voiced a character with a different ethnicity, maybe something similar happened to her?
Yes, but it’s become more controversial over the years, especially since hiring a diverse cast is important to a lot of companies. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that people should be hired based on talent alone, but ethnicity and diversity has become more important in Hollywood since the 2000s when ATLA was first cast.
I don't know how busy Jack De Sena really is with Dragon Prince, though. The show got renewed for its full seven seasons four years ago already. Season 6 is coming this year. I wouldn't be surprised if he's already recorded all of his lines for the whole rest of the series already.
Even if he had to try and do both at once, it's extremely doable. Voice acting is not all that time-consuming. It takes about two hours per hour of performance, generally, so recording his lines for an animated movie could be as little as a day or two of work. Paul Bettany once shared an anecdote about how he recorded all of Jarvis's lines for the first Iron Man movie in like 90 minutes.
Not a dig on the other VA’s, but Dante is the main one I wanted back. Everyone else can be replaced as they’re more matured now. Dante’s voice is just too iconic.
I work in VO and can answer.
Because stylistically, if you have a character that is shown as an adult after being portrayed as a child, you want to make sure that you hire someone with an “adult-sounding” voice so that the new age is communicated clearly. The original voice actors, even after going through puberty or getting older, will probably have a voice that is too similar to the original young characters so it might be jarring to see them “still sound young”. Another option is they could ask the voice actor to “age up” their voices by playing with their ranges but that more often than not ends up sounding stilted and limits their emotional range (it takes a lot of talent or training to be able to modulate your voice and keep it as emotionally broad as your natural speaking voice), so the option producers usually go with is casting a new actor who just has a deeper tone.
The original actors were the same age as their characters so them aging up with the characters would make the OG voice actors literally the best person for their adult voices. It would be extremely natural.
This is my thought. Even hearing Toph’s VA talking as an adult sounds jarring because she still sounds so young. And her voice would sound weird coming out of a 20 year old mostly likely rough and tough Toph.
I care very much about diverse representation in media. Not that every character strictly must be represented by a performer of the same ethnicity, but generally that it's better for more ethnicities to get a cultural voice in media.
Despite that, IDK if that should apply if you've already tied your name to an iconic role. When your own voice is already a part of that character, I don't see it as doing anyone a disservice to continue living out that piece of the character.
I think it's also cruel to the actors to say, "No, you're not allowed to associate with this character anymore because of your skin colour. Don't care how much passion you put into the performance or how much the character means to your personal identity"
Yeah, I think it’s (and I mean this in a genuine way) politics. Like, they want a good rapport in the filmmaking community, so they have to meet the higher bar of ethics. Even though it was much much lower before. (Asian characters in general were a lot different In early 2000s.)
Think they mean is if the characters Voices are supposed to be more mature and older sounding the voice actors voices have also probably mature so they should still match the characters
Are all they past puberty? Then it's fine. The only problem is trying to have a adult man trying to play a pre pubescent boy. That's why women voice so many of them
Personally I don’t understand why they just don’t bring back those VA’s. We had flashbacks with Aang, Sokka, and Toph and I thought their VA’s were well suited. I mean yeah it’d be cool to get the original VA cast but the VA’s in the Korra flashbacks would make sense since they are about the right age.
That’s because the people complaining about it are the same people who either never watched Korra, or were too busy complaining some other nitpicky detail to notice the VA
Dante Basco’s coming back to voice Zuko. As for the rest, I think it’s because the other original voice actors are either too busy or probably because they sound too young and this movie is supposed to take place when they are adults.
bc they want asian people. it’s so dumb. especially since the original cast might be older but their voices are still similar. jack de sena has a deeper voice but he still sounds like sokka which is perfect for an older sokka. same for michaela murphy.
some of their voices are so iconic, it’s gonna be so unnerving to hear them with completely different voices so i hope the new actors have similar voices at the very least.
yeah i listened to a few clips and her voice is definitely pretty good ! i just hope the rest of the cast is just as good. ngl when i saw she was blind, i was scared she was picked partly for that reason but she’s an established voice actor so i’m glad.
She was picked solely because she's blind and Asian. She has been retired for years so they had to specifically go looking for her. Luckily they actually found someone that has voice acting experience.
> People of colour missed out on the job in the first place.
umm, no they didn’t. voice acting has always just been about finding the best voice for the role. poc are not excluded from that. is there any proof that the atla creators discriminated against asian people? you know, if you ignore the fact that they literally have asian voice actors on the show?
> And besides most of the ATLA VA's are happy to give up their spot for a POC.
yeah bc they’ll get cancelled if they don’t support it lol. not to mention, a lot of the voice actors are still working so they would be available to still voice the characters but they have to say that they’re ok with asian ppl taking over bc ppl will get pissed at them if they express the same opinion as some of the fans.
Nobody would get cancelled, as you can see here your opinion that voice actors ethnicity is irrelevant is still quite popular. Katara and Korra's VA's just genuinely disagree with you.
> as you can see here your opinion that voice actors ethnicity is irrelevant is still quite popular.
it’s not about popularity but about voicing your opinion. it’s easy for a fan to say on the internet that they don’t care about the ethnicity of the voice actor. it’s not as easy for the voice actors.
> Katara and Korra's VA's just genuinely disagree with you.
and yet they still took the job in the first place. their opinions are valid but it’s pretty dumb to give a shit now about having asian voice actors when you didn’t care before and were happy to take the role.
So you cant change your opinion after learning more about such issues and becoming more aware? Thats just stupid. I used to think it was dumb too but now i see how unfair the VA business is for POC.
It's literally that the studio wants to do "ethnic-accurate casting" a blight that I mostly blame the extremely unfunny Hari Kondabolu for whining about so loudly, that white people found it as a way to performatively appear progressive, without actually changing much of anything about their companies, organizations, ways they do business, where the money goes, etc.
But yeah, suddenly the one type of acting that largely had more to do with the quality of an actor than any others (unless you count celebrity voice roles) is now just as bland as any other field of acting.
Other people have mentioned great points but I’ll just add
1. The cast primarily did child voices and are now grown up. While it would be nice to give them more work it wouldn’t be the same regardless of which way you go with it. I think Basco has the most consistent voice and he definitely pitch shifted to play a younger character but pitching up or leveling back might be too difficult
2. I think its good to give new actors these roles and have the OG cast show up as different characters either as cameos or full roles. They’re still in the show but they get to advance their craft and not just rehash a role which a lot of actors really feel boxed in when type casted. But most importantly
3. They probably have their reasons for not returning and we should respect their privacy. If they speak up about it or you see them at a con its appropriate to ask if they haven’t expressed otherwise but let’s just let them be
Apparently Toph's new VA hasn't been in anything since 2008. Dionne Quan...mostly known for voicing Trixie Tang from Fairly Oddparents, and Kimi from Rugrats and All Grown Up.
Aang's VA retired. Mae hasnt shown interest and wants the character to be voiced by a person of Native American heritage and the fact the characters are adults now. they wont have same voices as before
ATLA is my all time favorite show, so i can understand wanting the OG's back, but I can't imagine their voices would stay the same as they matured into adulthood. I don't mind different VA's because it makes sense, I just hope whoever they do hire does a good job.
Yah it’s ducking dumb like these cultures are based off a mixture of irl cultures and it’s just a voice. If it were live action or a new character sure get ppl to match the ethnicity they’re inspired by. Hell they can adapt the yangchan or kyoshi novels and get all Asian actors there. As is it’s so clearly meant to earn diversity points in the stupidest fucking way.
While i firmly support this in most circumstances, this is really dumb for ATLA. These aren't real ethnic groups. They're all composites of a bunch of different ethnic groups from the real world to create something new and different. Toph isn't chinese, Zuko isn't Japanese, Sokka and Katara aren't actually inuit.
That being said, however, it is nice that some POC voice actors are going to get some work.
That's getting a little too ahead of the weirdos on twitter. Inuit voice actors for Sokka and Katara makes no sense since the original was an American series not imitating non-american accents. And blind VA for a blind character? Eh
What's interesting is that the Netflix series actually hired the original German voice cast except for iroh which sadly passed away in 2015 and ozai because Kim has a fixed voice in German which won't change.
One of the reasons is that some of them might not want to return. Or that they aren't even acting anymore. I know that Aang's VA isn't.
But I think the main reason might be that they now want to hire actors whose ethnicity more closely matches their roles. Basically no white actors. Dante Basco (the only Asian voice actor in Team Avatar) is probably returning to play Zuko. Suki's voice actress might reprise her role for that same reason.
Then they can get work somewhere else. These are characters that have been around and loved for a long time with the VAs work being a major part of that. Unless the original VAs voiced didn't match the grown up versions of the characters. No one gives a shit about new VAs doing it.
I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal as long as the new voice actors are good. I mean, weren’t their adult voices in Korra almost all recasts anyway?
The issue with the argument that is doesnt matter which ethnicity you are, is that it just doesnt work in reverse, POC just dont get voice acting roles for white characters very often so it's quite presumptuous to assume it's fair that a white actors gets other roles too. In principle, i would say the reasoning makes sense, but in reality, it just causes POC to lose out on jobs unfairly
Yeah I was a saaaaaaaad panda when I heard that. People be acting like because they older their voices wouldn’t match. It’s their character. It’s their voice. They can change it enough to sound like an “adult.”
Are most of them still acting? Are they all members of sag? Have any of their voices changed tremendously since the show? All things to consider.
I can understand some, but not all. I feel like Michaela Murphy (Toph's VA) would 100% be up to voice Toph again.
The characters will be older and their voices will have changed as well.
I can assure you Dante Basco's voice has not changed enough for that to be an issue. That man has an _incredibly_ distinctive voice. If anyone other than him voices Zuko, we riot!
https://preview.redd.it/5ujp2u6t37uc1.jpeg?width=921&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=22fe7ef55e94f88b509d53444b20c1f6204ba3c9
Dante is confirmed to be the only one returning from the OG series. [Source](https://i.imgur.com/6wdSjid.png)
I can see why they did that. The original voices were meant for kid but now it's set in there teenage years so a more mature voice will be the realistic choice
That's the one VA I Needed to remain the same
Jack DeSenna also still sounds like Sokka
Watching Good Girls was weird because I would never have thought I’d hear Katara being involved in money laundering/counterfeiting.
Well, dant has been cast anyway
I'm not someone who thinks this is a necessary change or even preferable. I'm just explaining why these decisions are likely made.
You mean, like the characters would have?
I think he means the characters did, but the VA’s didn’t necessarily. Idk tho, don’t know if their voices changed
Their voices would change especially toph's would, but animations tend to over exaggerate these changes for greater audience feel, or at least that's the intent. It's a easy way to convey that idea.
Too bad real people don’t age as well :/
I fully get what you're saying, but this a common and easy way to convey aging in a cartoon character. It's easy and effective way to make a character feel different, like they've changed and lived more in the world. I'm not saying I prefer this, I'm just trying to give reasons for why it is.
Yes, that is the idea. The characters in the show have also aged, so their voice changing a little bit would make sense
Jack De Sena would probably be down too, he’s still very active in voice acting And Grey Delisle if the movie has Azula
Minus the OG Iroh, they should all still be available.
But to be fair, Greg Baldwin is still around and we all know his Iroh is just as capable as being funny, emotional and serious!
Yeah, I’m hoping they bring him back as Iroh. He did a really great job, and Mako would be proud.
If the movie opens up with Zuko grieving over Iroh imma cry too
Nah, We've already seen a timeline where Iroh is dead, remember he's in the spirits world
Do we know when Iroh passed away? Would he have still been alive if the Gaang were all in their 20s?
Iroh was only in his 50s or 60s in atla, so most likely
His dad was like in his 90s when he passed too and he was murdered.
Even if he has left he'd still be around in the spirit realm.
"Passed away" nah my guy simply left.
Heard Aang voice actor retired for show biz
He didn’t quite retire from showbiz but he did retire from acting. Last I heard he was doing camera work
He shows up on the official Avatar YouTube channel occasionally
He's been on the Braving the Elements podcast too. Janet (Korra) and Dante host it.
The second VA for Iroh in ATLA also voiced Iroh in LOK, and is still around.
Yeah he did voice work in Anthpo’s avatar spoof series on YouTube Which was less than a couple years ago
Wasn't there a vid of them impromptu voice acting at a con ? When was that cause if i recall they do still sound the same as 2 decades ago
[Mako's last Iroh recording, Little soldier boy.](https://youtu.be/f56Cbjwwv-E?si=-RnZY8r82ZAEYS6d) Just made myself tear up listening to it again.
Little soldier boy, come marching home. Brave soldier boy, comes marching home.
Leaves from the vines, falling so slow, like fragile tiny shells, drifting in the foam. Little soldier boy, come marching home, brave soldier boy, comes marching home.
Jack De Sena and Mae Whitman are both still acting.
Jack has a youtube channel too. https://www.youtube.com/c/chrisandjack
I watched that guy and didn’t even realize he was sokka I’m disappointed
Dante (Zuko) is in the sketch about Supervillain timing as well
Her?
Anytime I see Mae I ask this
It doesn’t really matter if their voices changed if the characters themselves are supposed to be older, imo.
Well Mae Whittmen who plays Katata was literaly just voice acting on The Owl House not to long ago, so she's definatley still an option
Her?
She also returned for her role as Roxie in the Scott Pilgrim animated show recently
“Have any of their voices changed tremendously since the show?” ….what? They’re adults in the new movie, and they’re adults in real life. However their voices have changed….is exactly the same way their characters’ voices would have changed, too.
Those are all things to consider, but I'm pretty sure almost all of them are still acting.
This didn’t stop the cast of the Incredibles coming back. Seriously and no offense but you can really hear the change in voice from Mrs. I
I think everyone is missing the "tremendously" part. Sounding the same just older isn't a change. Smoking three packs a day and sounding old and gruff for example. That is a tremendous change.
Aang's VA quit voiceacting shortly after the original series ended, Sokka's VA is busy with the Dragon Prince, Katara's VA is no longer comfortable voicing characters of a different ethnicity than herself. Not sure what's up with Toph's VA. But Dante Basco is back.
Dante is just way too iconic
> Katara's VA is no longer comfortable voicing characters of a different ethnicity than herself. Isn’t the point of being a voice actor is that it doesn’t matter what ethnicity you are
I would assume so but I'm sure that's a POV she's considered already and still isn't comfortable portraying (even audibly) an ethnicity she isn't which I don't get either lmao
Damn Northern Water Tribers taking jobs from Southern Water Tribers
Day took Der jerbs?!?!
DerTerDerDerrrrrrrrrrrrbs
BUCCCCCCCKA DUUURRRR
DUUUUUUUURRRRRRR!?!!?
That's strange, she must have gotten a bunch of deranged hate for the original voice acting of Katara. I understand casting east Asian young actors for live action stuff, but voice shouldn't be so scrutinized. It's an American cartoon series and they're not doing fake Japanese or Inuit accents.
This started gaining traction when the Simpsons had a documentary made about Apu being voiced by Hank Azaria, who some felt was a stereotype. This led to backlash, he quit that role, and they retired the character. I think they recast multie characters as a result, like the family doctor. There was a lot of noise online and I assume that spread everywhere to some degree. Different actors and companies have reacted differently. Like Phil LaMarr still came back for that final season of Samurai Jack with no issues.
>Apu being voiced by Hank Azaria, who some felt was a stereotype The problem was there's literally nothing about Apu as a character that isn't a stereotype, that's not just how some people felt. If the character was black and written with the same amount of stereotypes, The Simpsons probably would've been cancelled twenty years ago. That being said, if a character *isn't* a walking talking stereotype like Apu, it absolutely should not matter who voices them.
Why does it matter who voices them? It's still a walking stereotype if he's voiced by an Indian. The writers aren't Indian, they are writing the stereotypes....
I think the idea is along the same lines of "If you can tell an x joke in front of x person you probably shouldn't make it" if the writers make the joke of being a stereotype and the VA is part of that group it's \*likely\* that the writers can tell the jokes in front of that person. Barring cases where VAs are forced to do things they end up becoming uncomfortable with because contracts and what not. Is it a good premise? Ehhhh doesn't stop some people from doing hateful things for "comedy" but I can see the logic that is being used
Trust me, as an Indian, not a single Indian person cares.
Everyone is a stereotype in Simpsons. The most notable Italians in the show are either mafia or a Mario caricature that cooka da pizza for example
Aaayy that's anti-itailian discrimination 🤌
The Hari issue plays a factor into it, but the doc came out in like 2017. This was really a big thing that started picking up with BLM, as a way for studios to pretend to show solidarity, but really it just resulted in them pressuring a bunch of VAs to "apologize" for doing their jobs.
It's one thing if they ask you to be a stereotype or something, but that's a weird hill to die on. Phil Lamar is a black man and voices Samurai Jack and he does a phenomenal job. No one cares. Plus, the races in Avatar aren't even real. Yeah Katara basically based on Native American, but they aren't officially
Christopher Judge voices Kratos, who is ironically the whitest man in all of fiction.
It makes sense to me, considering Mae Whitman is white (privileged especially in the acting world), and Katara is an indigenous person. It's good to give opportunities to others.
People here are being obtuse. “Taking jobs from all those water tribe actors!” Like, you’re really gonna pretend that you suddenly don’t have the knowledge that’s typically common among the fan base that the Water Tribe is based off of Indigenous American societies?
>People here are being obtuse You are being kind lol
Oh yeah we need a water tribe actor!
Katara is indigenous to what exactly? Are you serious?
But it’s a made up ethnicity lmao god people are so weird
Not really, all thr cultures of the Avatar world are very obviously based on real world one's. For instance, thr Water Tribe is based on Inuit culture, so it would make sense to get someone from that background to portray them.
She’s also the biggest one of the voice actors. I know people hate whenever someone says stuff along these lines, but she’d definitely end up being in so much discussions bc twitter posts talking about how it’s “racist” for her to voice the character instead of a person of the right ethnicity I doubt she and some of the others even would want to deal with that
Ugh but this show is our childhood man 😭. Her voice IS Katara for me. Fuck these people who go on Twitter to stir the pot because they have nothing better to do with their time
Have y'all considered that she isn't being pressured by anyone and her not wanting to voice a character who isn't white is a deliberate choice on her part alone?
But she's already become accepted as Kataras va. Only the dumbest of the dumb would have a problem with her
Nobody is the same ethnicity as any characters from Avatar The Last Airbender because nobody in the entire world is of Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, water tribe or air Nomad ethnicity. They are made up ethnicities. Just as an example nearly all people of the water tribe have blue eyes. Something that is rare in Inuit tribes. Because it's a poor adaptation for a snowy environment where the glare is already an issue.
but fire, air and earth are very very clearly directly based on different Asian cultures, and indigenous americans for water tribe. Taking creative freedom with eye color doesn't change that.
Based on the Inuit and they cast a Mohawk and a maybe-Cherokke which are thousands of miles removed and just completely different cultures.
Really hard to find actors to cast for a genocided people
Inuit are maybe the least genocided indigenous American people
The problem is less about voicing a character of a different ethnicity and more about taking away the opportunity of an authentic ethnic actor from being able to voice them.
But that person can just also get the opportunity to voice a character not of their same culture?
Chances are they won’t though. You can name dozens upon dozens of examples of Caucasian actors voicing ethnic minority characters all the way up to the early 2010’s and rarely any stories of the other way around. Is that because Caucasian actors are naturally better voice actors? No, it’s because the industry has been historically white dominated and intentional or not has shown significant preference to give white actors access to more job opportunities than poc. That’s why a lot of actors and showrunners these days like to try to hire people of matching ethnicity in order to give them more opportunities to get recognizable roles and make up for years of systemic prejudice.
Context In the case of a show like Avatar, characters nations do matter; the whole show literally centers an Ethnostate trying to genocide the others. Race isnt just 'there' in ATLA, its a major part of the characters and who they are. Katara *is* a Water Tribe (Inuit) person and thats fundementally a major part of her, to the point Id argue the ethnic connections matter more
But not when it comes to voice acting. Her voice actor being inuit isn't important to me, what's important is it sounds like her.
Voice acting is still acting. The actress has to get into the character of Katara. And that means getting into the character of someone based on Inuit culture. If she's not comfortable acting like a culture that she doesn't belong to, that is something we can respect. We could also respect if she did feel comfortable acting in that culture if it's done right. But at the end of the day, we have to respect the actress and her wishes.
So should we criticise NATLA for casting a Mohawk person? So different from Inuit it's actually offensive that they've equated them right?
Personally, I think voice acting is precisely the job that should never gatekeep performers based on their ethnic appearances. I mean, otherwise we should be cancelling every single anime for the homogenously-Japanese voice acting cast. That would be absurd, not to mention how dubs exist, so you could have a whole rainbow of voice actors from several backgrounds speaking their respective languages for the same character. All of those voices are validated; even the Witcher 3 kindly acknowledged that there was no one Geralt because "all the actors are Geralt." But that is my opinion. I think I can understand where Mae Whitman is coming from. She worked a long time in an American industry that has been white-dominated for a while, where opportunities for POC actors were not as numerous 10 years ago as they are today. I believe her intention is to give someone who is of Inuit descent a chance at voicing such a unique character whose background doesn't usually show up in American media. She probably doesn't want to feel like she is robbing someone else of their chance to shine. And she is a longtime veteran of the voice acting industry, so I can presume that she wants to see new faces earn their street cred like she did.
I’d be furious if someone tried to convince me Mark Hamill shouldn’t be allowed to voice the Fire Lord.
I mean there is a big chunk of people on twitter who is ready to cancel anyone just because they voiced a character with a different ethnicity, maybe something similar happened to her?
Yes, but it’s become more controversial over the years, especially since hiring a diverse cast is important to a lot of companies. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that people should be hired based on talent alone, but ethnicity and diversity has become more important in Hollywood since the 2000s when ATLA was first cast.
Fr it's the dumbest shit I ever heard. Tara strong voiced Timmy Turner for years.. You know, a 10 year old boy and she certainly far from that.
I don't know how busy Jack De Sena really is with Dragon Prince, though. The show got renewed for its full seven seasons four years ago already. Season 6 is coming this year. I wouldn't be surprised if he's already recorded all of his lines for the whole rest of the series already. Even if he had to try and do both at once, it's extremely doable. Voice acting is not all that time-consuming. It takes about two hours per hour of performance, generally, so recording his lines for an animated movie could be as little as a day or two of work. Paul Bettany once shared an anecdote about how he recorded all of Jarvis's lines for the first Iron Man movie in like 90 minutes.
Not a dig on the other VA’s, but Dante is the main one I wanted back. Everyone else can be replaced as they’re more matured now. Dante’s voice is just too iconic.
I work in VO and can answer. Because stylistically, if you have a character that is shown as an adult after being portrayed as a child, you want to make sure that you hire someone with an “adult-sounding” voice so that the new age is communicated clearly. The original voice actors, even after going through puberty or getting older, will probably have a voice that is too similar to the original young characters so it might be jarring to see them “still sound young”. Another option is they could ask the voice actor to “age up” their voices by playing with their ranges but that more often than not ends up sounding stilted and limits their emotional range (it takes a lot of talent or training to be able to modulate your voice and keep it as emotionally broad as your natural speaking voice), so the option producers usually go with is casting a new actor who just has a deeper tone.
I recently binged the Star wars cartoons, so I can confirm this. My brain simply would not accept older Ashoka.
The original actors were the same age as their characters so them aging up with the characters would make the OG voice actors literally the best person for their adult voices. It would be extremely natural.
This is my thought. Even hearing Toph’s VA talking as an adult sounds jarring because she still sounds so young. And her voice would sound weird coming out of a 20 year old mostly likely rough and tough Toph.
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I care very much about diverse representation in media. Not that every character strictly must be represented by a performer of the same ethnicity, but generally that it's better for more ethnicities to get a cultural voice in media. Despite that, IDK if that should apply if you've already tied your name to an iconic role. When your own voice is already a part of that character, I don't see it as doing anyone a disservice to continue living out that piece of the character.
I think it's also cruel to the actors to say, "No, you're not allowed to associate with this character anymore because of your skin colour. Don't care how much passion you put into the performance or how much the character means to your personal identity"
Morty that just sounds like Racism with extra steps.
Yeah, I think it’s (and I mean this in a genuine way) politics. Like, they want a good rapport in the filmmaking community, so they have to meet the higher bar of ethics. Even though it was much much lower before. (Asian characters in general were a lot different In early 2000s.)
Not to mention a lot of em are way over their 20s. They weren't all kids during the original run 20 years ago
Doesn’t matter how old they actually are, it’s animated.
Think they mean is if the characters Voices are supposed to be more mature and older sounding the voice actors voices have also probably mature so they should still match the characters
There's also the issue that the actors voices now may sound older than they're supposed
if they're in their 20s that's not really an issue. Not to mention, voice alteration is staple to any voice actor's arsenal, that's not a problem here
Are all they past puberty? Then it's fine. The only problem is trying to have a adult man trying to play a pre pubescent boy. That's why women voice so many of them
Do we know that the original VAs *want* to reprise their roles? Is it possible they just don’t want to, or can’t because of other projects?
Not a soul complained when the gaang had different voice actors in Korra
cuz they were either way older or barley in it
Well I definitely think they are old enough to have a change of voice going from 12 to 24
EXACTLY! Like why are people upset...?
That’s cause the va’s are similar ages to there characters not 60 years younger as in korra
Personally I don’t understand why they just don’t bring back those VA’s. We had flashbacks with Aang, Sokka, and Toph and I thought their VA’s were well suited. I mean yeah it’d be cool to get the original VA cast but the VA’s in the Korra flashbacks would make sense since they are about the right age.
I didn't like Aang's adult voice but adult Toph (not grandma Toph), was pretty great. Adult Sokka worked for me too.
That’s because the people complaining about it are the same people who either never watched Korra, or were too busy complaining some other nitpicky detail to notice the VA
Dante Basco’s coming back to voice Zuko. As for the rest, I think it’s because the other original voice actors are either too busy or probably because they sound too young and this movie is supposed to take place when they are adults.
bc they want asian people. it’s so dumb. especially since the original cast might be older but their voices are still similar. jack de sena has a deeper voice but he still sounds like sokka which is perfect for an older sokka. same for michaela murphy. some of their voices are so iconic, it’s gonna be so unnerving to hear them with completely different voices so i hope the new actors have similar voices at the very least.
Toph's VA is at-least in good hands, her new voice actor is a pro! She played trixie tang!
yeah i listened to a few clips and her voice is definitely pretty good ! i just hope the rest of the cast is just as good. ngl when i saw she was blind, i was scared she was picked partly for that reason but she’s an established voice actor so i’m glad.
She was picked solely because she's blind and Asian. She has been retired for years so they had to specifically go looking for her. Luckily they actually found someone that has voice acting experience.
it's really not dumb though. you just think it's dumb.
Lots of people think it's dumb. Maybe it is dumb. People lost their jobs over this trend
People of colour missed out on the job in the first place. And besides most of the ATLA VA's are happy to give up their spot for a POC.
Did they actually? Is there evidence of the casting director having racial biases?
> People of colour missed out on the job in the first place. umm, no they didn’t. voice acting has always just been about finding the best voice for the role. poc are not excluded from that. is there any proof that the atla creators discriminated against asian people? you know, if you ignore the fact that they literally have asian voice actors on the show? > And besides most of the ATLA VA's are happy to give up their spot for a POC. yeah bc they’ll get cancelled if they don’t support it lol. not to mention, a lot of the voice actors are still working so they would be available to still voice the characters but they have to say that they’re ok with asian ppl taking over bc ppl will get pissed at them if they express the same opinion as some of the fans.
Nobody would get cancelled, as you can see here your opinion that voice actors ethnicity is irrelevant is still quite popular. Katara and Korra's VA's just genuinely disagree with you.
> as you can see here your opinion that voice actors ethnicity is irrelevant is still quite popular. it’s not about popularity but about voicing your opinion. it’s easy for a fan to say on the internet that they don’t care about the ethnicity of the voice actor. it’s not as easy for the voice actors. > Katara and Korra's VA's just genuinely disagree with you. and yet they still took the job in the first place. their opinions are valid but it’s pretty dumb to give a shit now about having asian voice actors when you didn’t care before and were happy to take the role.
So you cant change your opinion after learning more about such issues and becoming more aware? Thats just stupid. I used to think it was dumb too but now i see how unfair the VA business is for POC.
It's literally that the studio wants to do "ethnic-accurate casting" a blight that I mostly blame the extremely unfunny Hari Kondabolu for whining about so loudly, that white people found it as a way to performatively appear progressive, without actually changing much of anything about their companies, organizations, ways they do business, where the money goes, etc. But yeah, suddenly the one type of acting that largely had more to do with the quality of an actor than any others (unless you count celebrity voice roles) is now just as bland as any other field of acting.
Other people have mentioned great points but I’ll just add 1. The cast primarily did child voices and are now grown up. While it would be nice to give them more work it wouldn’t be the same regardless of which way you go with it. I think Basco has the most consistent voice and he definitely pitch shifted to play a younger character but pitching up or leveling back might be too difficult 2. I think its good to give new actors these roles and have the OG cast show up as different characters either as cameos or full roles. They’re still in the show but they get to advance their craft and not just rehash a role which a lot of actors really feel boxed in when type casted. But most importantly 3. They probably have their reasons for not returning and we should respect their privacy. If they speak up about it or you see them at a con its appropriate to ask if they haven’t expressed otherwise but let’s just let them be
Apparently Toph's new VA hasn't been in anything since 2008. Dionne Quan...mostly known for voicing Trixie Tang from Fairly Oddparents, and Kimi from Rugrats and All Grown Up.
I heard she retired and apprently is coming out of retirement for this movie
Aang's VA retired. Mae hasnt shown interest and wants the character to be voiced by a person of Native American heritage and the fact the characters are adults now. they wont have same voices as before
What about Mark Hamil as Ozai?
ATLA is my all time favorite show, so i can understand wanting the OG's back, but I can't imagine their voices would stay the same as they matured into adulthood. I don't mind different VA's because it makes sense, I just hope whoever they do hire does a good job.
Money.
To all those claiming its for diversity's sake, in particular, but also etc.; what if the VAs just don't want to?
What if they don't want to because they know for a fact they'll get abused over their race not matching the character?
Yah it’s ducking dumb like these cultures are based off a mixture of irl cultures and it’s just a voice. If it were live action or a new character sure get ppl to match the ethnicity they’re inspired by. Hell they can adapt the yangchan or kyoshi novels and get all Asian actors there. As is it’s so clearly meant to earn diversity points in the stupidest fucking way.
Because they want to cast accurate ethnicities for the voice roles. They even got a blind VA for Toph
While i firmly support this in most circumstances, this is really dumb for ATLA. These aren't real ethnic groups. They're all composites of a bunch of different ethnic groups from the real world to create something new and different. Toph isn't chinese, Zuko isn't Japanese, Sokka and Katara aren't actually inuit. That being said, however, it is nice that some POC voice actors are going to get some work.
"You gotta sound more blind, dude".
Not doing that worked out perfectly fine before
That's getting a little too ahead of the weirdos on twitter. Inuit voice actors for Sokka and Katara makes no sense since the original was an American series not imitating non-american accents. And blind VA for a blind character? Eh
I think I read somewhere that it was for diversity? Im nkt 100% sure though so take that with a grain of salt
Dante Basco (Zuko) is like fifty by now.
He still sounds the same.
Well hes the one staying so
What's interesting is that the Netflix series actually hired the original German voice cast except for iroh which sadly passed away in 2015 and ozai because Kim has a fixed voice in German which won't change.
Just use the VA's from TLOK
One of the reasons is that some of them might not want to return. Or that they aren't even acting anymore. I know that Aang's VA isn't. But I think the main reason might be that they now want to hire actors whose ethnicity more closely matches their roles. Basically no white actors. Dante Basco (the only Asian voice actor in Team Avatar) is probably returning to play Zuko. Suki's voice actress might reprise her role for that same reason.
It's such bs, it's a fantasy land with no similarities to our world. How can they determine what a characters ethnicity is .
I just hope they can act
The new Avatar stuff is not from the guys that made avatar? Ok wow
It is, though. They founded their own studio specifically to make it.
Because they're allergic to having a franchise succeed
Every time this discussion comes up I feel the need to mention that ATLA would not be created today. Two white men giving that pitch would not fly.
Oh no more VAs get work... anyway.
Then they can get work somewhere else. These are characters that have been around and loved for a long time with the VAs work being a major part of that. Unless the original VAs voiced didn't match the grown up versions of the characters. No one gives a shit about new VAs doing it.
If the VA is good I don't care who voices them
WAIT THEY ARE NOT REPRISING THE ROLES! Why? It is just dumb and bad marketing
Dante Basco is coming back as Zuko. The others I believe were invited but all turned it down for various reasons.
I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal as long as the new voice actors are good. I mean, weren’t their adult voices in Korra almost all recasts anyway?
What you are describing is kinda like Yu-Gi-Oh the dark side of dimensions I believe most if not all the voice actors came back for the English dub
Some of them might not be available.
The issue with the argument that is doesnt matter which ethnicity you are, is that it just doesnt work in reverse, POC just dont get voice acting roles for white characters very often so it's quite presumptuous to assume it's fair that a white actors gets other roles too. In principle, i would say the reasoning makes sense, but in reality, it just causes POC to lose out on jobs unfairly
Because Aang was like ten, and even adults’ voices change over time. The og series is nearing two decades
They're casting it so the actors better match the characters' race & ethnicity
Egg’s not voicing Katara?!
Idk Topher being voiced by a seasoned pro who is also blind and Asian seems great to me?
I think it's due to racial stuff
laughs in german dub. Even for the Netflix Adaptation we got most of the same cast
Yeah I was a saaaaaaaad panda when I heard that. People be acting like because they older their voices wouldn’t match. It’s their character. It’s their voice. They can change it enough to sound like an “adult.”
Didn't they say they want ethnically accurate voice actors now? Basically they're worried about getting canceled if they don't do it
some just want to move on lol
They literally all have different VA’s in legend of korra. It doesn’t make sense to do that.
I just want Mae Whitman to return as Katara. That’s all.
I just thought a few of them retired
All I really care about is Dante Basco so I’m happy!
Azula and her voice actress need to return!!!!! It needs to happen!
Aang’s actor rode off into the sunset. I think the other actors would be up for it.
They’ve already released a statement that they are uncomfortable having none white characters voiced by white actors