One Nerd Sings Na'vi Christmas Songs!

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Watchin’ James Cameron’s Giant Epic Collector’s Extended Super Bonus Edition of Avatar, and the goddamn adorable Sigourney Weavertar is showin’ off her school holding a copy* of—I am not making this up—Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax. This tells me two things:

1. Public education in Space Futureland is about as awful as it is here and now, if the best books you can get were written almost two hundred years ago, and

2. JAMES CAMERON IS FUCKING SUBTLE, YO.

Also, I continue to be highly pleased by the way a certain breed of geek has gotten interested in the Na’vi language. I usually don’t study other people’s conlangs with an intent to become fluent—too busy studying my own—but it’s a lot of fun to know that some people are.

Other Observations

First, I am trying to figure out what is up with Mo’at’s fancy forked pigtail double-queue. Is that what makes her a special shaman? ("Double nerve-braids! SO INTENSE!")

Second, I wish Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver were the human protagonists. They are the coolest humans, especially with the added stuff you get in this extended edition. Max also should get to do more.

And third, I am glad that they at least gave Selfridge (SUBTLE!!!!) a slight conscience, and didn’t make him a completely amoral company asshole. It’s possibly one of the most complex bits of characterization in the whole movie. And yes, that really isn’t saying much.

By the way, if you’ve got some hours to spare, the Rifftrax for Avatar is one of the best, containing the single funniest line I’ve ever heard. I would tell it to you, but it needs to be in context. Just know that it's right before the banshee-taming bit.


*Presumably one of those big damn copies librarians use for Story Time, since it was Na'vi-sized.

Comments

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

Sigourney is obviously teaching the CLASSICS. (Also, given what I remember from the movie, could it also be her character being unsubtle, even if she can only take out her urge for unsubtleness on the natives and not the administration?)


"Second, I wish Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver were the human protagonists. They are the coolest humans, especially with the added stuff you get in this extended edition. Max also should get to do more."

Oh sweet bajesus thissssssssss.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Creepy classics, though ... Dr. Seuss always made me kind of nervous, and the Lorax outright scared me.

Norm also would have been fun to follow, for all his avatar looked totally derpy. Pretty much anyone other than Jake would have been pretty entertaining, really.

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

Well, Norm himself looks a little bit derpy. So it's inevitable that his avatar would be even more so. But... yeah. I kind of wanted to watch a movie that was just him and Sigourney wandering the planet doing science. Like, putting together a documentary about the planet for the folks back home.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I think they built his head too tiny. (Turns out in the deleted scenes the Na'vi actually do complain about how weird-looking the avatars are. I feel better now.)

Apparently the deleted scenes were often Norm-centric, too--you get them carrying on about how they were sure he was going to be the guy to fix the race relations, he gets to bang Trudy, the Na'vi let him hang out with them, etc. Bummer that they took it out; he was a much more fun character that way.

... Actually, fulling adding the hour's worth of deleted scenes would've made this a WAY better movie. Frolicking Na'vi children! Drunk-ass hunting festival! ("I had thought ... with enough drink ... you would not be so UGLY!") Angry scientists bring their army of avatars against the evil corporate base! Max is a badass! Whee!

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

HOLYCRAP. Uh. That might actually be worth watching the DVD for. (I also feel better knowing the Na'vi acknowledge the uncanny valley factor of the avatars.)

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

*grin* Just remember there are two different kinds of deleted scenes--finished ones that made it into the collector's edition version of the film, and the truly deleted ones that never made it all the way through production. The secoond type is the one I'm talking about above, and it can be found on the bonus DVD, with somewhat terrifying polygonal templates of Na'vi. Damn shame, since the story in those scenes added a lot, and I'd have loved to see the finished versions of the happy children or the dancers.

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

...sigh. This is the problem with animation. When scenes get cut, they really get cut.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Such is the price of Technology. JUST AS THE MOVIE POINTS OUT.

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's fair to keep harping on poor Mr Cameron for his lack of subtlety. It was obvious that it is a genetic thing from his inability to think up something even a teensy bit more believable than 'Unobtainium". The man is obviously handicapped.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I am still hugely amused at the otaku-kin/Na'vikin debacle.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I was a little mystified by the probably sensationalized stories of people getting all depressed because Pandora was such a lush beautiful world and ours is grey and sad. I felt rather sorry for anyone who did feel this way, since I've been out in our world and it's fantastically beautiful. Maybe these folks have never been outside?

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

They need an upgrade for their graphics card. It's called "Washing your windows".
You of course, have been using the current state of the art in graphics adapters, called, as you so subtly point out, Outside.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I AM AS SUBTLE AS JAMES CAMERON YES I AM.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Michelle Rodriguez being awesome was nearly worth the price of admission all on its own.

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

1. Public education in Space Futureland is about as awful as it is here and now, if the best books you can get were written almost two hundred years ago

Books from hundreds of years ago being treated as up-to-date and uber-relevant in THE WOOOOOORLD OF TOMORROOOOOOW bugs the hell outta me. A particularly egregious example (forgive my shameless TV Tropes-ese) came when I was listening to a Doctor Who audioplay the other day which took place in the mindscape of a girl from the 50th century. Said mindscape was populated by "characters from the books of her childhood" such as Alice Liddel, Dracula and the Artful Dodger. I can dig that audiences won't have the same immediate mental associations and connections with fictional books of the future, but someone at least *trying* would be nice.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

See, now, if they mixed in a few older, identifiable characters with some weird new ones representing whatever more recent books the girl had read, I would have bought it. Plus, that allows you a lot of freedom to create new characters ...

Star Trek was guilty of that, too, but in their defense I've seen them try to fill up the gaps in the culture--they just aren't really good at it.

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I remember that episode where Kirk and Abraham Lincoln have to fight Genghis Khan (or was that who it was?) plus a bunch of more future-y bad guys for the moral edification of those aliens. I do remember thinking it was nice they didn't *just* go for bad guys the audience knew, even if they did get marginal development at best.