Talk:Themes in Avatar

"Struggle" comparison

"Adam Cohen of The New York Times compared the struggle of the Na'vi with "a 22nd-century version of the American colonists vs. the British, India vs. the Raj, or Latin America vs. United Fruit."

To compare the Na'vi struggle with the rather affluent colonial Americans against British taxes is misguided and ignorant. I suggest the struggle of the Native Americans against the new world immigrants would be more apt rather than the clueless comparison posted by this seemingly stupid journalist - and there I was thinking the The New York Times had a good standard of intelligent and considered journalism. Stevo1000 (talk) 00:36, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

I agree with your opinion but because the comment is sourced I don't think it would be wise to remove it (we are not, after all, endorsing the man's opinion, just noting his comments). Perhaps it would be better to expand upon it with something along the lines of "other reviewers thought the comparison of the Native Americans to the colonial Americans was more apt" followed up, of course, by refs pulled from reviews that expressed such a sentiment. I don't have any links offhand but I do recall reading the analogy in several reviews and analyses of the film so it shouldn't be too hard to find a few to use. Millahnna (talk) 15:37, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Thats the problem I guess - the comment is just noting someone's opinion so can't really remove references. But the jounalists allegory just does not compare. I'll have a look for sources referring to more apt allegorical struggles. Stevo1000 (talk) 20:44, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Check the reviews we use in the reception section of the film's article. I swear we noted the concept there at one point (we might still, I haven't read in a while). I just did a quick search on avatar american indians (haven't tried native american yet) and found these items which might be of interest (I haven't double checked to see if we are already using any of these):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/14/james-cameron-avatar-is-p_n_423068.html (no mention of native theme specifically but he Cameron is quoted on some other themes).

http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar (this one is actually referenced in a lot of blog comments I came across making the same comparison you and I made, scroll for paragraph using term genocide)

http://www.americanindiannews.org/2009/11/movies-native-film-star-tells-of-his-hero’s-journey-on-and-offscreen/ and

http://www.americanindiannews.org/2009/12/movies-big-and-blue/ (both about a Cherokee actor who voiced one of the navi in the film, he talks about other film roles too so I'm not sure how useful these will be)

Hope those help. I completely agree that that particular part of that journalist's comparison is a rather odd one (especially in light of the rest of his sentence which contains more apt allegories). Millahnna (talk) 21:07, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Google Scholar Search

In Google Scholar Search, there are some scholastic articles that cover Avatar and can be used here. The results can be seen here. If the article is to be a Featured Article in the future, it would benefit from using them. Also, this would be a good source to use. Erik (talk | contribs) 00:03, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Wrong statement about actors' races

"... all the "human" roles in the film are played by white actors and all the Na'vi characters by African-American or Native American actors." This is all too obviously wrong, as the main Na'vi character is played by Zoe Saldana who is Hispanic and therefore white by US definition, in any case neither African-American nor Native American. What might be the best way to correct this? --KnightMove (talk) 07:44, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, KnightMove, some tweaking is needed with regard to that entry, and with regard to the image caption on the subject...seen with these two edits between myself and Gabriel Yuji. For either aspect, we could add "With the exception of Zoe Saldana." So, for example, the image caption could state, "With the exception of Zoe Saldana, all the Na'vi characters were played by African-American or Native American actors, including C. C. H. Pounder and Laz Alonso."

As for Saldana's "race"/ethnicity, some editors on her Wikipedia talk page have cited her as being part or half African (not that anyone is fully black or white these days, according to scientists); but of course we need WP:Reliable sources for that information. Hispanic is not limited to a white categorization, though, including in the United States. Flyer22 (talk) 23:41, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Notability

I'm skeptical this article is even notable, there are plenty of discussions by film theorists about the various "themes", but if someone were to create a similar article for Star Wars, it would be dismissed as WP:FANCRUFT... LenaLeonard (talk) 17:25, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

LenaLeonard, I fail to see how this article does not pass the WP:Notability standards. Flyer22 (talk) 23:46, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Breitbart Revert

Breitbart is still a RS for its own opinion of things like Avatar. So why was its opinion removed?-Obsidi (talk) 21:19, 4 October 2018 (UTC)

Opinions need to comply with WP:WEIGHT. Independent RS coverage would be needed to show that Breitbart's opinion is actually a significant viewpoint. –dlthewave ☎ 11:56, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

The reason it was removed said nothing about weight. It was removed for the lack of ability to be a RS for facts, but that wasn't what was happening at all.-Obsidi (talk) 13:57, 5 October 2018 (UTC)