Does Netflix's Avatar prove that good live-action adaptations are impossible?

When taking on the role of Uncle Iroh in the Netflix live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender, actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee can really only think of one thing he was asked to change byshowrunner Albert Kim: the accent.

"Albert actually was the one who broached and said, 'let's do it without the accent,' " Lee said in an interview with CBCNews. "And I was actually relieved because I'm not a mimic. I'm not a robot. I'm not hired that way I am a performer, and I need to bring my elements to it."

Something as small as that may not sound like such a bold choice, butLeeknew better.

Hischaracter's voice, first created by Japaneseactor Makoto Iwamatsu, then taken up by American Greg Baldwin following Iwamatsu's death,had already acquired a sort of untouchably iconic status among fans, who werealready giving the remakethe fine-tooth comb treatment.

That kind ofhyper fixation on exactly what elements from the original hadchangedmay have doomed the remake from the start.

While promoting the remake, creators and actors dodgedquestions about differences between the two shows, and a slew of scathing and glowing reviews muddied the waters onhow successful the live-action remake was.

It all just goes to show how difficult it can be to make a good anime adaptation.

First released in 2005, the original Avatar: The Last Airbender achieved alevel of Harry Potter-esque ubiquity most shows can only dream of. The cartoon told the story of 12-year-old Aang, the most powerful of the "benders" those able to telekinetically control fire, water, earth or air who istasked with saving a world influenced by Asian, Inuit and other Indigenous traditions.

Heavily inspired by the Japanese cartoon style of anime but created by two Americans, Avatar's unique melding of childlike storylines with mature storytellingcreated a cultural juggernaut. It garnered millions of fans, Peabody and Emmy awards, spinoffsand tie-in comics.

And afterthe animated series was brought to Netflix, media outlets likeVice,The Cut, IGN and Voxdubbed it one of the greatest shows of all time.

WATCH | Sask. Indigenous actor Joel D. Montgrand on starring in Avatar: The Last Airbender:

Sask. Indigenous actor Joel D. Montgrand shares details about his role in Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender

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An actor from the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan is appearing in one of the biggest shows of the year. Joel D. Montgrand plays the role of Hakoda in Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is out now.

The remake, however, didn't get such a glowingreception. And like so many other anime remakes, that's probably because the original was so loved.

Outlets likeUSA Todayand theNew York Timesmostly panned the remake andVariety suggested it would leave fans wishing Netflix had left the original "masterpiece" alone. Meanwhile,reviews from Indiewireand Screenrantwere favourable, withGamespotarguingitwas "sincere" and "respectful of the source material."

Past attempts

The increasingly large field of anime adaptations live and die by the tendency of fans to rigorouslycompare remakesto the original, searching for any perceived disrespect to the belovedsource material.

"Cowboy Bebop people were really, really protective over. One Piece people are really protective over, Death Note people were really protective over," IGN journalist Alex Stedman said.

LikeAvatar, each of those titles launchedas animes before being remade as live-action Netflix productions were thoroughly dissected by fans. But according to Stedman, with Avatar, there was aconstant stream of criticism throughoutits development.

"Avatar is kind of the crme de la crme in terms of people being like, 'Don't touch this, this is ours.' "

The first signs that things weren't going wellwas when theoriginal creators saidthey'd left the project due to a lack of creative control. Though they'd later retract that statement, the damage was done.

Then, there were the recent announcementsabout the show cutting a character's misogynistic traits,removing iconic side adventures and Kim's stated attempt to give his version of Avatar a more grown up, Game of Thrones like tone.

Stedman saysanime's entry intothe mainstream Hollywoodspace is fairly new. When fansfell in love with the original productionsdecades ago,there was astigma attached to them in the United States and Canada.

"People feel like they were bullied growing up for liking these things," shesaid."And now that they're cool, it's almost like, 'What? Now you're just going to take advantage of the thing that I loved and you're going to do wrong?' "

While Netflix's One Pieceremake managed to satisfyfans of the original last year, accomplishing that task has historically provenmore difficult.

Respect the source

Ben Whaley, an associate professor of Japanese at the University of Calgary who specializes in Japanese pop culture, sayspast failures have come from a lack of respect for the source material.

"Historically, when the earliest animations were coming over from Japan, the goal was to erase or to hide as much as we could the Japanese content," he said, pointing to examples like 1978's Gatchaman remake Battle of the Planets,2008's Speed Racer, themore recent Ghost in the Shellandeven M. Night Shyamalan's infamously panned Avatar remake The Last Airbender.

When it comes to more recent successes, many adaptations are able to hedgefan expectationsbyhidingtheir inspiration.

The 2019 filmAlita: Battle Angel was based on a popular Japanese manga series that wasn't as well known in North America, andWhaley says itwas changed so drastically that it was less obvious it was an adaptation. Likewise,most Western audiences probably weren't aware that Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow was based on All You Need Is Kill, a Japanese novel popular withyoung adults.

Both remakeswere so divorced from their source material that they were able to find some semblance of success with Western audiences. But becauseAvatar: The Last Airbenderis so popularin North America, the creators of the remake weren'table toskirt that line as much.

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While that demand for respect and fidelity to the original is definitely part of the struggle in making successful live-action anime remakes, Whaley saysit's not a negative thing that fans are so passionate.

"There is an excitement and an engagement and an investment around these properties, and people really love these characters and these stories," he said, noting that when theycheck out a new Netflix remake fans"want to see something that captures their excitement."