Is Zuko villainous for the whole movie?

Nah - he gets his letter sweater for track near the end.

Don John's whole purpose in the play is to just be a dick?

Pretty much. Other than setting up the Claudio-Hero crap.

I used to teach 'Much Ado'. It was great to have such a good film to show to the students. Highlights how Beatrice and Benedick are the more interesting sub-plot, too. Which is useful.

Is Zuko villainous for the whole movie?

Pretty much. His redemptive arc doesn't really kick into gear until the second season/second movie. For the entirety of this movie, he's the Dude Who's Trying to Capture Aang. He's a veritable jackass for a lot of the first season. He does get a sympathetic backstory, but I don't know how much of the first season they're including (will the Blue Spirit make an appearance?). By the end of this movie, presumably, he will be considered a traitor and an outcast, so maybe not as villainous as before, but still. In any case, Zhao, also of the Fire Nation, is completely villainous and has no redemptive arc, and he's played by Aasif Mandvi. Ozai, who is the Big Bad, is played by Cliff Curtis. So in casting Dev Patel, they had to follow suit and make the rest of the Fire Nation brown as well. Which is just weird because on the show, the Fire Nation is pretty light-skinned.

I remember reading somewhere that the first opportunity Cliff Curtis had to play a Maori was in Whale Rider, years into his career.

I really enjoyed him in Push.

I remember reading somewhere that the first opportunity Cliff Curtis had to play a Maori was in Whale Rider, years into his career.

He was in Once Were Warriors 8 years before Whale Rider.

PC-so it's one movie per season, then?

ita, I believe so. It's going to be a trilogy, and there are three seasons. I'm pretty sure I read or heard that the first movie is the first season, for sure; I don't know whether they confirmed the obvious assumption about the other two. They haven't cast any of the characters introduced in the second season.

Yeah. I didn't think the animated characters were stunningly Asian, so I'm not totally down the with the Race!FAIL. I am somewhat Martial Arts!Fail, because the kid playing Aang comes out of karate, which is about as far from airbending as you can get.

But whatever, I have ceded my bitching rights and set up my lawnchair next to amych and GC.

ION, we just got back from Up. I'm not sure what I think. My initial impressions are that it was a movie for adults, especially mid-lifers, nsm for kids. And it was kind of anvilly. And didn't need to be. And I sobbed like a baby, but didn't laugh enough to offset the sobbing. However, if the previews are any indication of what the non-Pixar world holds for kids movies, Up was freaking brilliant.

Mal seemed to like it, although parts were a little intense. He loved the house taking off, and is mulling over the dogs. He really really loved the short at the start of the movie (so did we), but I think the movie as a whole overloaded him a bit.

He's now taking solace in They Might be Giants Here Come the ABCs.

Oh, and we think the developer boss might have been a nod to Feathers McGraw from Wallace and Gromit.

And I sobbed like a baby, but didn't laugh enough to offset the sobbing.

That's a good description of how I feel. Yeah, I cried, but I know full well I was manipulated into it. I did laugh and laugh at most of the dog bits.

Yeah, I cried, but I know full well I was manipulated into it

I did make a mental note to joke that Carl needed to throw some anvils out of his house.

LOVED the dogs.