So, there’s been a little confusion for me on the whole “Avatar” and “Avatar” thing. And looking at various chats, including the one on hulu, I’m sure that I’m not the only one. The first that I heard about was the movie being made, inspired by the Nickelodeon cartoon series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. Then I heard that “Avatar” was going to be a live action film created by James Cameron.

“So, James Cameron is going to direct the Avatar movie, huh?”

Later, I found out that there are actual two separate projects under the name of “Avatar”: One is an idea that James Cameron has had in the works for years, but was waiting for the technology to catch up with his “ambitious” vision for the film; The other is, of course, “Avatar: The Last Airbender”.

There were some legal issues, and James Cameron ended up with the “legal” rights to use the name, which as much as I respect James Cameron, I was against because I have been a big fan of “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. So have I lost ya so far?

Ok, so there was a wildly popular cartoon series which ran on the Nickelodeon channel called “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. Meanwhile, James Cameron has had a special project in mind for years that he wanted to call “Avatar”. Now, if you follow the use of the word Avatar as it applies to its original meaning in Hindu culture, technically they’re both using it effectively, so both would be well-served to hold the title of “Avatar”. But the cartoon, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is an established franchise, so I think personally that it should have been given to them, as the James Cameron movie title could still be changed without effecting any past success.

Then that leads into discovering the movie teaser trailer for the James Cameron film, which after viewing, feels quite appropriate bearing said title. In any event, I hope that the cartoon movie can still use the longer franchise title of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” or maybe it will be called just “The Last Airbender”. Either way, consumers win out as both movies look to be really good.

Oh, yeah, and it appears that the movie based on the cartoon series will be live action, as well, with M. Night Shyamalan directing . . . interesting.

James Cameron’s “Avatar” due out this year: