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When considering the impact of these two narratives, it's hard to say which one has a more positive impact. Dances With Wolves' impact was strongly in favor of Native Americans. DDW is one of the most important representations of Natives in American media. This film came at a time when most representations involved Natives being wild and savage beasts. Avatar, on the other hand, did not deal with an existing tribe, that's what allowed the film to invent an unlikely win by the Na'vi. Although it did not have an extremely significant impact on a specific ethnicity, Cameron's main goal of communicating his case in favor for environmental protection was certainly represented in the film.

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“Avatar (2009 Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Dec. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film).

“Avatar.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 18 Dec. 2009, www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/.

“DANCES WITH WOLVES.” AFI CATALOG OF FEATURE FILMS, https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/58466.

“Dances with Wolves.” IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099348/?ref_=nm_knf_t2.

“Dances with Wolves - Native Perspectives.” Notes from the Frontier, 28 June 2019, https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/dances-with-wolves-part-2.

“Eytukan.” Avatar Wiki, james-camerons-avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Eytukan.

Hilbert. The Biggest Myth in Dances With Wolves. Youtube, 19 Jan. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=UADgce1fYa4. Accessed 25 Apr. 2022.

“List of Highest-Grossing Films.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Dec. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films#:~:text=Highest-grossing%20films%20%20%20%20Rank%20%20,%20%202015%20%2030%20more%20rows%20.

“Mo'at.” Avatar Wiki, james-camerons-avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Mo%27at.

“The 82nd Academy Awards: 2010.” Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2010.

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James Cameron’s vision for this movie was to use the story of the Na’vi Tribe as a lesson about why we should protect our environment and highlight the importance of spirituality and nature. This message was well displayed and audiences all around the world responded very well to it. Critics and fans expected the film to fail at the box office but it did the opposite (“Avatar (2009 Film)”). It quickly shattered records for highest grossing of all time at upwards of 2.9  Billion dollars. Avatar still holds the record for highest grossing film of all time with Avengers: Endgame close behind at nearly 2.8 Billion dollars (“List of Highest-Grossing Films”). The film won 3 Academy Awards in 2010, however they were for cinematography, visual effects, and art direction. Although it was nominated for Best Original Score, the animated Disney movie, UP, won the award (“The 82nd Academy Awards: 2010”).

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Although few Native American audiences disliked the film because of its inaccuracies in depicting the Lakota Tribe, most Native Americans were happy with the film and the message it sent to audiences. This film was a huge step in the right direction after a long history of western films depicting them as bloodthirsty savages. After the release of the film, non-Natives grew more interested in Native American culture, and Natives grew prouder of their culture now that they have been represented in a more dignified way than any other time in the past. Not only that, but Natives were also in higher demand for acting roles following the release of the movie. Many Sioux natives were involved in the film to help make sure it is respectful and accurate in its portrayal of Native Americans and their historical struggles with The United States (“Dances with Wolves - Native Perspectives”). The film won 7 Academy Awards including the Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Original Score in 1991 and grossed $424,208,848 compared to its 15-21 million dollar budget (“Dances with Wolves” IMDb).

A notable negative reception of the film was that of the Native Pawnee tribe. In Dances With Wolves, the Pawnee tribe was shown as more violent than the Lakota Tribe. The issue with this is that the opposite is true. In reality, the Pawnee were more peaceful. (“The Biggest Myth in Dances With Wolves” 1:30)

Ultimately, the positive aspects of this film most likely outweigh this unfortunate inaccuracy in terms of impact.

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After Dunbar discovers the Buffalo the Lakota Tribe has been waiting so long for, the tribe goes from being unsure of Dunbar to big fans of his. His involvement in the hunt solidifies his new place within the Tribe. The music used in this scene is quite intense and it has many similar instruments to those used in the war prep scene from Avatar. In this scene, we hear trumpets to the tune of a western hero, heavy drums, violin, as well as all of the diegetic rumble as the horses and buffalo run. This music accentuates the nobility of Lieutenant Dunbar and the Lakota warriors as they hunt to feed the Tribe.

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Dances With Wolves - Buffalo Hunt & Slaughter Scene

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This scene is part of the final battle. The music is dramatic with strings and Tribal sounding vocals. The music is just as dramatic as the events that we see occur. In this scene, we see the death of Tsu’tey. This is an important moment in the film because as the warrior leader and the newly appointed leader of the Tribe, Tsu’tey dying is a bad sign for the Na’vi’s chances of winning this important battle.

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Here, Sully and Neytiri are visiting other Tribes on Pandora and recruiting them to join them against the RDA’s soldiers. The music includes trumpets, heavy drums, grandiose choir vocals, and violin. These instruments are common with war music and it helps to convey the importance this event has in relation to the war that is coming.

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Are the main protagonist

Are high ranked soldiers who oppose the protagonist and look at him as a traitor.

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Are the spiritual leader of the tribe

Feel as though they can trust the protagonist from early on

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Are responsible for overall leadership of their Tribes

Are skeptical of the protagonist at first, but eventually help him on his journey

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Are the warrior leaders of their Tribes.

Reject the protagonist strongly, yet slowly warm up and form a strong bond with the protagonist.

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Are the protagonist’s native love interests

Teach the protagonist about the Tribe

Helps the protagonist build trust with the Tribe

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Are war veterans

Find love in an indigenous Tribe

Go against their army to protect the Tribe

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Avatar is set on the planet Pandora. The protagonist, Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington), is given the opportunity to be given an Avatar which allows him to live as a Na’vi humanoid, indigenous to Pandora. His goal is to collect extremely valuable rare earth minerals for earth, however in becoming close with the Na’vi people, he sides with them and helps them fight his own people in order to protect their sacred lands and the rest of their planet. Similarly to Dances With Wolves, this film's protagonist goes against his own army, finds love in an indigenous tribe, becomes assimilated into an indigenous tribe and gains a new appreciation for nature. Many characters share very similar archetypes as well.

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Dances With Wolves is set in the American Frontier during the later half of the Civil War era. The protagonist, Union Lieutenant Dunbar, is stationed alone at an abandoned fort, and is confronted by Lakota Tribe Natives. Eventually, Dunbar forms a close relationship with the Tribe, and even finds love within the Tribe. After his wedding, Dunbar learns that Union soldiers will be visiting soon, which prompts the Tribe to migrate away from them. On their way out, Dunbar visits the fort one last time and is captured by the Army as a traitor. He is then rescued by the Lakota warriors and brought back to the tribe. The film ends with Dunbar honorably leaving the Tribe with his wife in order to protect them now that he is a target of the Union Army.

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This film would not exist without James Cameron, who served as the writer, director, co-producer, and co-editor. Avatar was supposed to begin development after the release of Titanic (1997) with an original release date of 1999. However, Cameron decided to wait until technology caught up to his vision. In 2005, linguistic expert Dr. Paul Frommer. Cameron developed the script in 2006 and the film came out in 2009. The score was composed by James Horner, who worked with Cameron in Alien and The Titanic. Its production budget is estimated between 280 and 310 million dollars and the promotion budget was 150 million. The main reason for this astronomical budget was their use of groundbreaking editing technology (“Avatar (2009 Film)”).

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Kevin Costner and his friend Michael Blake (the writer of Dances With Wolves) had a hard time getting studios to produce the movie because they did not want to compromise their vision and studios were not interested in making a western at the time. They ended up developing the project with $70,000 of their own money, and eventually got foreign financiers for the project. Costner served as both the main actor and the director of the film. The music composers were  John Barry and Peter Buffett. The movie was filmed from July-November 1989, and was released in 1990. Its final budget was somewhere between 15-22 million dollars (“DANCES WITH WOLVES”).

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Although it was not a remake of Dances With Wolves, Avatar shares a lot of similarity with the Kevin Costner film. Between character archetypes and plot, both films share many common archetypes as well as thematic elements that play large roles in both stories.
One major commonality these films share is the white savior trope. In both films, A white (American) man enters an indigenous  tribe, and is praised and respected as a savior of the tribe. From the way they are treated to who exactly has it out for them, these white saviors face similar obstacles, however the resolution in both films are very different.
Dances with wolves ends with Dunbar leaving the tribe with his wife in order to protect the members of the tribe from the Union Army. Dunbar was not able to save the Natives in DDW because history prevents that from being possible. Not only were Native Americans outnumbered by the U.S., but they also had much worse weaponry. In Avatar, the film ends with Sully and the Na'vi fighting against the RDA, and leading them to victory. In the process, he is appointed as a new leader. In many ways, Avatar takes a lot of these films shared themes to the extreme. This culminates to this epic finale where the white savior wins for the people. Besides from the fairly outdated idea of having a white male savior save the day, the message of these films were positive, and surely have created positive impacts in society due to their convincing moral undertones.