‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ co-creator shares how a Hayao Miyazaki rule influenced the show
I’ve always described Avatar as an homage, a love letter to Japanese anime. But we were always conscious that we weren’t trying to pass it off as a counterfeit. I didn’t want to, like, just copy what we were seeing and what we thought was cool. How could we make something from the heart that was authentic, but was also wearing our inspiration on our sleeve? We all deserve a little rest and relaxation after all this craziness.
There’s this great Miyazaki rule: everything you do at Studio Ghibli, even if it’s going to end up 3D, has to start as a handmade piece of art. And for me, I mostly did landscape oil painting. I love that stuff. So one of the biggest reasons for co-creating Avatar was a chance to do cool background paintings. Epic landscapes. Actually, all of Avatar, almost all the storyboards, were drawn on paper.
