The Legend of Korra

(Spoilers below.)

Having watched and admired Avatar: The Last Airbender, I have now watched all of its semi-sequel, The Legend of Korra.  While there are aspects of Korra that are superior to Avatar, I don't think the series reaches the same high level, and I think that the reason has to do with the nature of television.

As I understand it, when Avatar was given the green light for production, the commitment was for three seasons right from the start.  Because of this, the creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were able to know how long they had to tell their story and how they could develop their characters over time.  It resulted in a show I referred to a novelistic. 

To the best of my knowledge, Korra's initial commitment was only for a single season.  As a result, the show suffers from a common TV ailment.  Stories and character arcs can only be developed one season at a time, as nobody knows how many shows will eventually be produced.

In Korra's case, this led to disjointed stories and character arcs compared to Avatar.  The first season was underdeveloped.  The villain, Amon, was the head of a social movement built around resentment of those with bending powers.  Except for an early robbery attempt broken up by Korra, there were no other events that would explain why the general population resented benders.   When Amon was revealed to be a bender himself, public opinion immediately shifted against him, but if there was anger against benders, why would the population now side with Korra and her friends?

There was an attempt to tie the second, third and fourth seasons together.  In season two, Korra's uncle Unalaq attempted to free and merge with an evil spirit Vaatu and bring about 10,000 years of darkness.  In season three, the villain Zaheer revealed that Unalaq was a renegade member of a group called The Red Lotus.  In season four, the defeat of Zaheer led to the rise of a military dictator, Kuvira.  Unfortunately, these attempts at continuity were band-aids.  Each season there was just another villain bent on destroying Korra.  In this way, each season's arc devolved into formula.

This is a common problem with TV series due to the nature of renewing for single seasons.  Boardwalk Empire suffered from the same problem, where there had to be a new threat to the main characters for each set of episodes.  This limitation is a major drawback to coherent storytelling and is something that Avatar miraculously avoided.  Has there been another series with continuing characters that got a multi-season commitment before going on the air?

Formula also worked it's way into other parts of Korra.  Team Avatar was again four characters, two male and two female, with one of the males as comic relief.  The brother and sister Desna and Eska seem based on the deadpan Mai in Avatar.  This season by season development also led to questionable character appearances.  Zuko, a character from Avatar, appeared in season three as he was concerned about the threat posed by Zaheer, but he was absent from season two, which was an equal threat to Korra and a larger threat to the world.  While it was nice to see the character return, he didn't have much to do and his appearance was ill-timed relative to the levels of danger Korra faced.

The large cast caused several characters to remain undeveloped.  Suyin Beifong had a large family, and while she was given enough screen time to become a rounded character, her husband and children were not for the most part.  While Tenzin and his children were well developed, his wife Pema was not. Kai was heavily featured for awhile and then seemed to vanish into the crowd.

On the plus side, the production values were higher than the Avatar series.  There was more 3D animation brought in for vehicles and machines.  The fight scenes were better choreographed and animated.  The climax to season four was as elaborate as anything I've seen done for television animation.  In Avatar, there was the tendency to pop character's faces into extreme takes.  I don't object to the takes, but felt that they were clumsily animated and were jarring as a result.  The facial animation in Korra avoided the extreme expressions, though once again television budgets resulted in lots of limited animation in acting scenes.

The reunion and reconcilation of the Beifong family was nicely done.  Toph Beifong was brought back from Avatar and given enough screen time to be as vivid as she was in the earlier series.  Her relationship with her daughters and their sibling rivalry was one of the more satisfying parts of the series.

Season four seemed to be about reconciliation and redemption.  Asami's father was brought back to redeem himself.  Even the villains Zaheer and Kuvira were shown to be misguided rather than just evil.  Bolin, Varrick, Zhu Li, Prince Wu and Bataar, Jr. are all brought firmly into the good guy camp regardless of their earlier actions.

Like Avatar, Korra will continue in graphic novels.  It's interesting, though, that the series creators will be stepping out of animation, at least for a while.  Working on an animated TV series is exhausting and I can imagine how much more exhausting work on Avatar and Korra must have been due to the ambitiousness of the shows.  DiMartino will be writing novels and Konietzko will be creating a graphic novel.  Based on their animation work, I look forward to what they do next.

While I've listed areas where I thought Korra had weaknesses, it's still an immense achievement.  Falling a little short of Avatar: The Last Airbender is nothing to be ashamed of, and in some ways it exceeded the earlier series.  While I'd pretty much given up on TV animation as a place for quality storytelling, DiMartino and Konietzko managed to beat the system.  I congratulate them on that and hope that broadcasters are smart enough to learn from their success.

Hirschfeld Exhibit in New York

If you are in New York City before October 22, I urge you to go to the N.Y. Historical Society and see The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld.  Hirschfeld (1903-2003) is best known for his caricatures of performers and for hiding the name of his daughter Nina in his drawings.  The exhibit contains original drawings, paintings, sculptures as well as lithographs and printed material.  You can see Hirschfeld's style coalesce in the mid 1930s.  From then until the 21st century, his work is of a uniformly high standard.  The work since 2000, when Hirschfeld was in his nineties, shows some deterioration in his line, but there's remarkably little loss of skill for a man his age.

The originals are a revelation.  While I have a shelf-full of books of Hirschfeld's work, none of the reproductions do justice to the originals.  For one thing, the originals are larger and so it is easier to see the quality of the line work and the detail.  Hirschfeld's control over the weight of his line has never been adequately captured in the printed reproductions of his work.

While his caricatures are they key to Hirschfeld's fame and popularity, they overshadow recognition of his abilities as a graphic artist.  Had Hirschfeld dealt with different subject matter, his work would still be worthy of study.  His use of rhythm, texture and composition are impressive and I'm fascinated by tension in his drawings between flat designs and dimensional volumes.

L to R: Cyd Charisse, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds.  Click to enlarge.

In the drawing above, look at the graphic treatment of most of the ankles.  Lines cross each other producing flat shapes.  For Rogers' legs, Hirschfeld uses three lines to describe four edges.  There's no logic to it, but it works.  See how flat Astaire's entire body is except for his hand and head.  In the same drawing, dimension is achieved by the overlapping volumes in the faces, skirts and O'Connor's right arm.

L to R: Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot.  Click to enlarge.

Take a look at the textures in this piece, all created with line.  Look at the contrast between the dots on Curtis's dress and the curved lines of his leg and chest hair.  Compare that to the flower pattern on Lemmon's top contrasted with the short stubby leg hair.  See the variety of texture on Monroe's dress contrasted to the open areas of her skin.  Note the treatments of the three performers' hair, all done with line but all having different value and texture.

L to R: Mildred Dunnock and Lee J. Cobb in the 1973 production of Death of a Salesman.  Click to enlarge.

Hirschfeld's drawings are built with curved lines.  Curves are inherently more friendly than straight or angular lines.  But Hirschfeld is very aware of his choices, as you can see in the above image.  Death of a Salesman is about how life crushes people and how the main character fails to achieve his ambitions.  The pain and tension in the character are manifested in the angular way Hirschfeld draws Cobb's hands.  Note the lack of detail in the shirt so that the contrast between the openness of the shirt and the density of the hands makes the hands stand out.  Note Cobb's face, where the features are jammed together in the middle, with lines radiating downwards.  This drawing gives life to the cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Hirschfeld has not just caricatured Cobb, he's captured the essence of Willy Loman, the beaten character that Cobb is portraying.

The exhibit is curated by David Leopold, who is also the author of The Hirschfeld Century: Portrait of an Artist and His Age.  The book contains more art than is in the exhibit, including many pieces I was unfamiliar with.  My main complaint is that the art is reproduced too small.  I long for an oversize Hirschfeld book where the work is reproduced the same size as the originals.  If you can't make it to New York, the book is reasonable substitute for seeing the exhibit, but the originals are vastly superior.

Wacky Walk Signal

In Toronto, the walk signals count down to let pedestrians know how much time is left before the signal changes. In Havana, they not only count down the "walk" but also count down the "don't walk" for both pedestrians and drivers.  That seems like an improvement.  In addition, though, the "walk" sign actually walks.  While the animation is not great, it's a nice idea.  Is this done anywhere else in the world?

 

While I'm sure that there is no connection, it reminded me of this Sheridan student film made by third year students several years ago.

Electropolis from Kevin McCullough on Vimeo.

Animation in Havana

Click any image to enlarge.

I just spent a week in Havana, Cuba, a city that is interesting for many reasons.  One of the highlights of my stay was a visit to Estudios de Animación, the state run studio that is part of the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos.  The studio is run by the brothers Juan and Ernesto Padrón and they generously toured me through their entire facility.

The studio is located in the Vedado section of Havana in a modern, multi-story building.

Inside is a full service animation studio, where work is done on paper, in stop motion, with 2D and with 3D software.  The lobby has a mural showing many of the studio's projects.

The studio does a variety of work.  There are educational films on Spanish grammar, how the body changes during puberty and Cuban history.  There are shorts made for festivals.  There are commissioned films and TV series for children.  They recently completed their first cgi feature that was a Cuba-Spain-Venezuala co-production entitled Meñique, directed by Ernesto Padrón.

I always feel at home in animation studios.  The artists there were like animation artists everywhere: friendly, happy to show off their work, and enthusiastic about the medium.  One artist I talked to talked about how much he loved working on paper and how superior he felt it was to software.  I shared complaints with another artist about the limitations of certain software packages.

As in most studios, the artist's desks were surrounded by toys, many of their own making.  The planes above this 3D animator were his own work, crafted from paper.  He also had built a replica of a rifle that appeared authentic until you touched it.

Ernesto and Juan showed me some stop motion shorts with tools as characters.  The puppets were amazingly lightweight.  There was a thin wire armature inside and the outside was a light, flexible foam.  They could be supported simply using pins to hold them to the stage surface.

Here are Juan (at left) and Ernesto in one of the 3D production rooms.

Juan has also done cartooning for print.  Here are some examples.

 

Here are some posters of recent work

By coincidence, I was there on July 1, the day that Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced that they would reopen embassies in each other's countries.  President Obama has moved to improve relations between the U.S. and Cuba, but some of the restrictions, such as the embargo, are acts of Congress and can only be repealed by Congress.  I hope that relations are eventually normalized.  It will make it easier for this studio to get the supplies they need and will make their impressive work more readily available in English-speaking countries.

I am grateful for the opportunity to see this studio and speak to the artists.  I was impressed with the quality and variety of their work. 

Below is a series of spot gags directed by Juan that I believe is from the 1980s.  I'm sorry that the resolution is so low.  Below that is the English version of the trailer for Meñique, directed by Ernesto.