![]() That creative restraint and respect for the music also animates (no pun intended) the cues where Furukawa utilizes all 98 members of the orchestra he assembled to score the Netflix series. “Just leaving space, not being verbose, letting the moment breathe.” “There was an old posting at one of the art schools I visited while I was in college, where it just said on the wall, ‘Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.’ And that’s always stuck with me,” Furukawa said. So my contribution was to bring a big orchestra - I’m an orchestral composer by training - so it makes it feel grand and epic.”īut Furukawa’s cue, “ Lu Ten’s Funeral,” shows how simple, melodic choices can transport us to a place of epic emotions. “I didn’t want to try to emulate what he had done because I would fall short. “Jeremy’s score, and he does a fantastic job of it, relies on a lot of world instruments,” Furukawa told IndieWire. “Avatar: The Last Airbender” ROBERT FALCONER/NETFLIXįurukawa uses the original Jeremy Zuckerman composition - one of only a few very key themes he was allowed to bring over to the live-action “Avatar” - but applies his own philosophy to it. By the time the string section joins in and Zuko sits down beside Iroh, the emotional weight of the original theme has hit fans with the force of a giant badgermole. It’s in that moment of connection between Zuko and Iroh, the beginning of this new father/son relationship we see over the course of the series, when a piano version of the original “Leaves from the Tree” theme plays. More hopeful strings begin to swell as a younger, softer Zuko (Dallas Liu) steps up to speak equally bland platitudes to his uncle.īut then, just as he’s walking away, Zuko shares a personal keepsake of Lu Ten’s. He receives praise but no comfort from Ozai with a kind of moody orchestral underscore highlighting the severeness of the Fire Nation. ![]() Instead of the graveside moment happening in the present, the Netflix series flashes back to Lu Ten’s funeral, Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) sitting expressionless and alone in a chair beside the coffin. Instead, what it does is create something that feels, in the words of Netflix’s “ Avatar: The Last Airbender” showrunner Albert Kim, “fresh, but familiar.” And composer Takeshi Furukawa’s score acts as the bridge, providing us something core to the original but in a completely new way. Replicating that exact moment would inevitably pale in comparison to the original, and to its great credit, the live-action series doesn’t try. Fan lore even has it that this was the last thing Mako recorded for the series before his death - the episode, “Tales of Ba Sing Se,” is dedicated to him. ![]() Often short-handed as “Leaves from the Vine” or “Little Soldier Boy,” it’s easily one of the most touching moments and iconic songs in a series that’s full of both. Iroh once had a son of his own, Lu Ten, and in one of the most poignant moments in the series, the retired general goes to his son’s grave, wishes him a happy birthday, and sings a song. ![]() ‘Black Twitter’ Documentary Sharply Charts Rise of Internet Phenomenon It’s over halfway through the original series’ run that we learn General Iroh, voiced in Seasons 1 and 2 by Mako Iwamatsu and in Season 3 by Greg Baldwin, wasn’t always the impish tea-loving old fart looking after his nephew Prince Zuko as they hunt for the Avatar. The original animated version of “Avatar” had 20 episodes per season to slowly tease out its characters’ depth, even those loyal to the Fire Nation who have been trying to destroy the Avatar (hence why our hero Aang is the last airbender) and conquer the world. This funeral is a new twist and old information in the story of “ Avatar: The Last Airbender” - and an example of the live-action adaptation at its most successful in both deviating from and honoring its source material. Of course, you don’t need that many camera positions to shoot a funeral. It’s a simple two-minute scene tucked in the middle of Episode 4, mostly shot-reverse shot, nothing fancy. One of the riskiest scenes in Netflix’s new “ Avatar: The Last Airbender” adaptation has nothing to do with any of the four elements, flying a 12-year-old over the skies of the Earth Kingdom, or the nefarious schemes of the extremely hot Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim).
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