Avatar 2: Learn from Titanic, Disney to Ghibli!

After the first week of global release, Avatar: The Way of Water has really become a “blockbuster” as expected with huge revenue, far outpacing other projects showing at the same time. James Cameron’s latest project brings audiences back to Pandora, but there are many other interesting details. Many segments in Avatar 2 remind the audience of many old works, spanning from different cult brands.

Inspiration for the sea clan Metkayina

According to the research team itself, the image of the Metkayina tribe is deeply inspired by the Maori people – a minority tribe living in New Zealand. In fact, a number of Maori actors assisted the design team in creating appropriate sets and costumes for the Metkayina characters in Avatar 2.

Learn how to be a Na’vi

That was General Quaritch’s strategy after returning to Pandora again. He advises his teammates to learn to walk and talk like a true Na’vi to fit in, like Jake Sully did in the past. This detail is reminiscent of some previous hit movie projects, when the main character also had to “integrate” into the mountains to survive, like Dutch in Predator or Walter in Apocalypse Now.

Kiri has a convulsion

Kiri is the daughter of old Doctor Augustine Grace, whose father’s identity remains a mystery. However, Kiri has a very special identity, associated with Eywa – the Mother of God and the god worshiped by Pandora. Kiri herself also has many signs that she is Eywa’s new “vessel”, such as the ability to control nature, breathe for a long time underwater… In the segment when linked with Metkayina’s Tree of Souls, Kiri convulsion and unconsciousness. These are all very familiar details in the horror film about exorcism, when the character goes through many events and is eventually linked with an unscientific entity.

Tarzan of Pandora’s Land

It is easy to see that the character Spider boy built has many similarities with the famous Tarzan guy through Disney cartoons. Like Tarzan, Spider-Man also had an unhappy, familyless childhood and was protected and raised by a different race of humans (in this case, the Na’vi). Since then, Spiders behave and live more like Na’vi than humans. Even his hair and appearance are reminiscent of Tarzan.

“Step into the belly of the beast”

Lo’ak, the second son of Jake Sully and Neytiri, has always felt like an outsider. That’s why he befriends a Tulkun fish named Payakan, who is also shunned and abandoned. To understand what happened to Payakan, Lo’ak performed a ritual to enter the fish’s mouth, attaching his hair to Payakan’s cells to visit the past. This is an expression of a commonly used term in cinema, “into the belly of the monster”, to refer to the darkest milestone a character has to go through in order to develop. In addition, this scene is reminiscent of the classic scene where Pinocchio’s grandson’s boat got lost in the belly of a whale.

Fishing

Near the end of the film, the audience is given the opportunity to indignation and heartache to witness humans hunting and killing many species of Tulkun fish just to get a little bit of fluid from their brains. This series of compounds can help people stay young forever, which is considered the most valuable substance that the people in Avatar 2 have ever found. This detail is tied to a real-life event, when a sperm whale was slaughtered to extract ambergris – a substance secreted from their digestive system and used for production. perfume.

Dedication to Titanic

Avatar: The Way of Water as a way that James Cameron pays tribute to the old “love story” – Titanic. In addition to inviting “rose” Kate Winslet back to the sea, James Cameron also brought a shipwreck scene at the end of the film that made viewers as nervous as the 1997 film. The shipwreck all humanity. into the deep sea, in which many characters are in danger such as Jake Sully, Neytiri, baby Tuk and General Quaritch. In particular, the scene of mother and daughter Neytiri stuck in a water-filled drill and panicking really “smells” Titanic.

Learn from Ghibli movies

After all, Jake Sully lost his eldest son Neteyam in a battle with humans. The whole family made a funeral for Neteyam according to the rites of the Metkayina clan, taking his body into the sea and then sinking it, releasing him into the heart of Metkayina’s Tree of Souls. This detail was inspired by the detail in the cartoon Princess in the valley of the wind, when the heroine Nausicaa used to lie in a place with similar visual effects.