The controversy lies on the casting of the actors in the movie The Last Airbender. Last December Entertainment Weekly reported that Shyamalan offered the roles of Aang to karate-trained Texan Noah Ringer, Sokka to Jackson Rathbone, Katar to Nicole Peltz and Zuko to Jesse McCartney who are all Caucasian actors to portray Asian characters.

This casting announcement started a controversy. Many accused Paramount and Nickelodeon of "whitewashing" the film. Comic book artist Derek Kirk Kim is also protesting and he said that Avatar is wholly built around Asian culture. Everything like the costume designs, written language, landscapes, martial arts, philosophy, spirituality and even eating utensils are very Asian. He further stated that it is offensive, insulting, and disrespectful to Asian people.

Madeline Ashby the writer also pointed out that studio casting of animes Akira and Cowboy Bebop have given the lead roles to white actors excluding Asians.

The actual genders and races of what the elements represent are in Rodney St.Michael's book, Sync My World: Thief's Honor GA SK. (myconnected.webs.com)

Air = Yellow "race" = Males = Scholars.

Water = Small Browns = Females = Shamans.

Earth = Blacks = Lesbian = Social Ubuntu Business Class.

Fire = Whites = Gays = Military, Militant Business Class.

Ether or Metal = Big Browns = Bisexuals = Working Class, Bi-military

(females & bis go together like Katara & Sokka or brown females and males).

Therefore Aang should be Chinese.

Katara should be a Malay like a Filipina.

The Earth Kingdom should be African.

Zuko should be White like Hitler, Alexander the Gay or Gen. Arthur McArthur.

The Fire Nation's army should be like the fiery Sacred Band of Thebes (an ancient elite gay army that Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell troops would be envious of) or the Sturmabteilung, the much-feared homosexual stormtroopers of Hitler.

And the Slumdog Millionaire (casted as Zuko) should be Sokka.

This film is just as messed up as the movie Angels and Demons. The branding of the priests were incorrect.

But anyway, from the guy who gave you the Sixth Sense, which did not portray childhood schizophrenia accurately or anywhere near the real world, what do you expect?

Bisexuals love horror and terror. They also scam people, just like the Wizard of Oz. The old Oz film which is also about the Elements is understandably all-white because they were ignorant back then. People have higher standards now, and realism is a must.

But M.Night, the Wizard of South Asia also has lessons for everyone after conning them:

1) Clearly, when people don't play roles that fit them, everything is messed up. (e.g. "male" clergy in what should be a female realm, forbidding gays in the military which is their territory)

2) Whites are not fit to play the leading roles of Air and Water in the world scene. Leave that to the ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, Korea and South East Asia).

3) Arabs are not necessarily the greatest evil in the world. Occasionally, they float like Ether to the ranks of Water. It is fiery whites that fit the role of Lucifer or Satan.

4) By acquiring objective reviews from leading critics, they have agreed themselves that these are all factual objective realities.

Thus, the Wizard, even if he is a con man, is also an accidental pseudo teacher. Partly, it's called sunyata or "emptiness."

The buzz is that the original casting call expressed a preference for Caucasian actors over Asian actors. Which makes no sense to me sense the characters are of Asian descent. So, I’m not quite sure what their reasoning was. There could be a big loss of revenue because of this because I imagine quite a few people might be hesitant to see the movie because of this.

I do plan to take my son to see it despite all the controversy that is surrounding the movie. He is a huge fan of the TV series and is very excited about the movie.