Currently enjoying a resurgence of popularity on Netflix, Avatar: The Last Airbender debuted as Nickelodeon's first original action cartoon back in 2005. However, not many know that the series was almost beaten to the punch by Constant Payne, a dieselpunk anime-inspired science fiction show created by Angry Beavers writer Micah Wright.
The unaired pilot centers on Amanda Payne, a 13-year-old girl commuting to school with her father, the brilliant scientist Doc Payne. On the way, they are compelled to intervene in an airship hijacking being conducted by Doc Payne's brother, the villainous Welton Payne. Though Doc manages to take out Welton's thugs and save the crew, the evil scientist escapes with the help of his repulsor technology, and the episode ends with Amanda being dropped off for her first class of the day.
In addition to the strong action and science themes that underpin the narrative, the focus on Amanda brings in tropes common to teen dramas, such as wanting to drive, being late to school and gossiping with friends. The central father-daughter relationship was set up as the show's emotional core, while the adversarial sibling rivalry between Doc and Welton could have fueled much of the conflict. Had the show been picked up, it's likely that it would have continued to balance adventure with more relatable themes common to everyday young adult life. Other early 2000s cartoon series such as Jimmy Neutron, Totally Spies and Teen Titans employed a similar combination of thematic elements.
Although only a 10 minute pilot ever saw the light of day, the show's aesthetic is reminiscent of both traditional anime and the futurist movement of the 1920s and 1930s, epitomized best by Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis. The Paynes' home bears a striking resemblance to that film's New Tower of Babel. At the same time, the episode also incorporates more modern fashion, school culture and vernacular, differentiating it from most dieselpunk media, which are typically set in the interwar period between 1918 and 1939.
Constant Payne was never picked up by the channel, and disagreement over the exact reasoning behind the decision persists to this day. Some rumors suggest Nickelodeon did not approve of Wright's attempts to unionize the writers at the studio, while others suggest that, in the aftermath of the contemporaneous September 11th attacks, there was little appetite for a children's show featuring violence, airship accidents and explosions, in particular one controversial scene in which Amanda barely avoids crashing her airship into a two tower building complex. Ultimately, it's likely that the decision not to approve the show involved some combination of both of these two factors.
It's worth noting that Constant Payne's similarly anime-inspired successor, the Avatar franchise, would also incorporate zeppelin-like airships in later seasons, while its sequel series The Legend of Korra made use of a very similar dieselpunk world design. Though there's no way to fully confirm any correlation, its not impossible that Avatar creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko drew some inspiration from a show that was pitched to their employer around the same time they initially drafted their series.
In the years since, the show has never made any public resurgence or found financial backing overseas, suggesting it may permanently join the list of what could have been projects such as a sequel to the female-led Ghostbusters movie, Ridley Scott's The Vatican and Joss Whedon's Buffy: The Animated Series. Had it been aired, the show's combination of futurism, dieselpunk aesthetic and modern sensibilities would have likely led to a very unique animation experience.
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Original source: CBR.com.
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