Crafting the Creatures of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender

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Here's your behind the scenes look at the creatures from the Netflix fantasy series Avatar: The Last Airbender season 1.  Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast:  Gordon Cormier, Dallas Liu, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Daniel Dae Kim and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee  Stream Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 now on Netflix!

Transcript

00:00 We could go another way.

00:01 You're not serious.

00:03 The creatures immerse you into the world that is Avatar.

00:07 There's no way you're getting me on that!

00:09 In the Avatar universe, almost all animals are hybrid creatures.

00:19 -Otter penguin. -Shark squids.

00:21 -Sky bison. -A winged lemur!

00:23 -Magimal. -It's a fun detail that fans really love,

00:26 that I really love.

00:28 So we started with imagery from the animated series and said,

00:31 "OK, what are real-world representations of these visual ideas?"

00:35 And from there, built this library of visual information and language

00:39 that we would then use to inform the physical and the digital builds

00:43 of all the creatures.

00:44 -Appa! -Appa?

00:46 He is my best friend.

00:49 -Sorry, Katara. -Yip-yip!

00:51 On screen, Appa is a flying ten-ton bison.

00:55 Off screen, he is half-back on a mechanical bull,

01:00 controlled by people to make him seem like he's moving.

01:04 I've had some of my best days on Appa.

01:06 It feels like you're flying through the air, which is a childhood dream.

01:09 And action!

01:10 We tried to keep as much live action as possible.

01:13 One thing we wanted to stay true to is the silhouette of Appa as he's flying.

01:18 So we used a manatee with a tail

01:21 because of the way the manatee swims in the water.

01:24 And then also we looked at the buffalo for the eyes and for the horn.

01:29 And on set, we had a full-size Appa head, but it has no emotion to it.

01:34 Gordon did an amazing job just relating to this thing.

01:37 And our VFX team did an amazing job of bringing that emotion

01:41 to the character of Appa, so it matches with what Aang is doing in the scene.

01:45 You wanna join us, Momo?

01:48 Momo is our very cute winged lemur who loves food.

01:54 And has some great banter with Sokka.

01:56 Bet you taste like chicken.

01:58 One of the biggest challenges with Momo was taking this creature

02:02 that I love the animated version of and making it feel real.

02:05 So we referenced a lot of different lemurs and monkeys for performance

02:10 because we didn't want to lose all that personality.

02:12 We worked on his eye sizes,

02:14 because it's all about how emotive Momo can be.

02:17 We have a little furry ball that we used for reference,

02:20 but the actors are acting with nothing else there,

02:23 and Momo is completely created in the computer.

02:25 Badger Mole!

02:29 The Badger Mole, in our world, just a tennis ball,

02:31 but Gawandeo and Ian did an amazing job.

02:34 For the Badger Mole, we wound up going over to the bear,

02:39 because that would help us with the weight.

02:41 And also his mouth, because his mouth gets really close to camera.

02:44 And we really wanted to articulate his mouth to make sure it was believable,

02:48 even for the gradation in his teeth, which was really fun.

02:52 The ostrich horse on set is actually a stunt vehicle,

02:56 and there's a stunt driver underneath our actors that are on top of a saddle.

03:00 Ostrich horses are ridiculously cool.

03:03 They have frenetic movements, but then also when he's walking,

03:06 he needs to be pristine, but it needs to also have weight and feel heavy.

03:10 It's fun getting to see the world of the Avatar come to life.

03:17 I hope that fans will be super excited when they see it.

03:21 Like, "Oh, my God, no way!"

03:22 That is one big birdie.

03:24 Audiences will love the characters, the emotional journey,

03:27 the storyline, the epic action, the humor.

03:30 Please tell me that he's saying, "Welcome, friends."

03:32 That's not what it's saying.

03:33 But I have a feeling they're gonna love Appa the most.

03:38 Or Momo.

03:40 One of the two. That's what they always say.

03:42 Don't worry, kid. You don't have to do this alone.

03:46 You have me, Tara, and a flying ball of fur.

03:52 What more do you need?

03:53 Really?

03:57 [laughing]

03:58 [music playing]

03:59 [music playing]

04:01 [music playing]

04:02 [music playing]

04:03 (dramatic music)

04:06 (dramatic music)

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