TPIAH!!!   
So many Avatar topics in the TV/Movies section.  We keep making this film popular.

Well, the Blue people are the alien inhabitants of the planet Pandora. They are called the Na'vi. The atmosphere of Pandora is not conducive for humans so thats why they put on oxygen masks. So, the humans also want to be more friendly with the Na'vi people because of the rich mineral resources they possess, so they decided to build these genetically identical bodies called Avatars. The Avatar body is remotely mind controlled by the human.

^^I mean does anyone have a clue if these blue people represent an actual group in the real world.

some say they might be referring to native americans while others feel the movie is about the white man's responsibility to the environment and native peoples.

tpia.:

^^I mean does anyone have a clue if these blue people represent an actual group in the real world.

some say they might be referring to native americans while others feel the movie is about the white man's responsibility to the environment and native peoples.

Maybe we need to get to the director's mind or probably the writer of that story to get that answer. But i understand what you're trying to say. Avatar reminds me of the story of the New World when the English came to the West to discover new lands. They came in search of gold and perhaps an empty continent but the Red Indians were awaiting their arrival. We all knew what happened afterwards. Typical of Avatar, I might say but then with some new twists.

Their characteristics to me has a mixture of both African and Native American cultures.

The Na'vi language was created by a university professor specifically for this movie.

James Cameron admits the story borrows heavily from Pocahontas, so it's not surprising that people are seeing Native American references.

Just check out this remixed Pocahontas trailer with the audio for the Avatar trailer. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehpf4SO43DY

It's basically the same movie.

Avatar's storyline is a mixture of "Dances with Wolves" and "Pocahontas".

You cant miss the similarities between the American Indians and the Na'avi people (dressing, the language)

The navi's are so similar to the ancient indian tribes,the movie reminds me of colonialism and forced occupation of africa

Indians (either kind) aren't from Africa,

@kaethar
Native Americans are also called American Indians. They are not from Africa.

kaethar:

Indians (either kind) aren't from Africa,

there's some similarity in the cultures

native american and african that is.

Native Americans, Indian Americans or African Americans, we all get the gist. They always want to lord it. But we always stand.

African Americans are not Native Americans.

whatever

has anyone figured out why Avatar has such a universal appeal?



An avatar is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, a two-dimensional icon (picture) or a one-dimensional username used on Internet forums and other communities, or a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs. It is an object representing the user. The term "avatar" can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user


In Norman Spinrad's novel Songs from the Stars (1980), the term avatar is used in a description of a computer generated virtual experience. In the story, humans receive messages from an alien galactic network that wishes to share knowledge and experience with other advanced civilizations through "songs". The humans build a "galactic receiver" that describes itself:

The galactic receiver is programmed to derive species specific full sensory input data from standard galactic meaning code equations. By controlling your sensorium input along species specific parameters galactic songs astral back-project you into approximation of total involvement in artistically recreated broadcast realities,
From the last page of the chapter titled "The Galactic Way" in a description of an expereince that is being relayed via the galactic receiver to the main characters:
You stand in a throng of multifleshed being, mind avatared in all its matter, on a broad avenue winding through a city of blue trees with bright red foliage and living buildings growing from the soil in a multitude of forms.



Neal Stephenson
The use of Avatar to mean online virtual bodies was popularised by Neal Stephenson in his cyberpunk novel Snow Crash (1992).[citation needed],[8] In Snow Crash, the term Avatar was used to describe the virtual simulation of the human form in the Metaverse, a fictional virtual-reality application on the Internet


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(computing)




Temes of Avatar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themes_in_Avatar

why was I banned nah.

sheesh.   



@ topic
has anyone figured out why Avatar has such a universal appeal?



An avatar is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, a two-dimensional icon (picture) or a one-dimensional username used on Internet forums and other communities, or a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs. It is an object representing the user. The term "avatar" can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user


In Norman Spinrad's novel Songs from the Stars (1980), the term avatar is used in a description of a computer generated virtual experience. In the story, humans receive messages from an alien galactic network that wishes to share knowledge and experience with other advanced civilizations through "songs". The humans build a "galactic receiver" that describes itself:

.

jake sully really doesnt look so much like his avatar: