Book 1 – Water
I’ve always heard good things about this cartoon from Nickelodeon but I never got around to watching it. I’ve played some of the Avatar games, including the first one on Wii to completion, and had a great time with it. But I never had as good of a reason to sit down and watch this show as I did when this came in for review, and I’m so glad it did.
Avatar is about a group of young martial artists who are trying to restore peace and balance to their world after the Fire nation declared war on the Air, Water, and Earth nations. Prophecy has told that the Avatar is the only one capable of keeping the peace as the Avatar is the only one able to master all four martial arts of each nation. That’s the jist of the show…
So the series begins with two siblings, Katara and Sokka, stumbling upon an iceberg. Contained within this iceberg is a young boy, Aang, and his large pet flying bison, Appa. Aang doesn’t really know where he is or what is going on, but he soon discovers that he has been inside of the iceberg for 100 years. He is indeed the Avatar, but reluctantly so, until he finds his homeland was ravaged by the Fire nation army.
The Fire nation’s wrath is quickly spreading to take over the other nations, and it’s largely up to Aang, Katara, and Sokka to stop their growth. Meanwhile, Prince Zuko of Fire Nation is determined to find the Avatar to bring him in front of Lord of the Fire nation so that his honor can be redeemed. He is one of several reoccurring characters that appear throughout. In fact, the series is packed with interesting, diverse, and reoccurring characters like Toph, Iroh, and Momo.
Few cartoons, especially in the last decade, are as interesting and profound as The Last Airbender. It’s something that can captivate any audience with its action, heart, humor, beautiful animation, and characters.
Bending On DVD
If you’re reading this review, you’re either familiar with the series or you’d rather I not spoil anything for you. In either case, I will refrain from going into much detail about the first season because it builds so well upon itself from episode to episode that it would be a shame to spoil it for anyone. Besides, once you watch the first couple of episodes, you will want to watch the remaining eighteen in quick succession.
As for the presentation of Avatar on DVD, expect a 4:3 aspect ratio and a good image quality. I don’t believe any kind of touching up or changes were made to the image quality for this particular DVD release, but the video looks good, no complaints. The same goes for the audio — the voices, effects, and wonderful music sounds great.
There are several extra features, including at least something on all six discs. Previously, this box set only had six discs, but the Collector’s Edition includes a really nice seventh disc. The seventh disc is actually packaged separately from the six disc box. Disc 7 is in a decorative sleeve case. Also contained within the box is a nice booklet, the Exclusive Preview Edition of the Art of the Animated Series. It’s just a sampling of the nearly 300 page book available now. The preview has roughly fifty pages of color drawings, descriptions, concept art, sketches, and so forth.
As for the extras on each disc, you will get:
-Disc 1 – “Kung Fu Featurette” (4.5m) – A brief look at the martial arts styles that inspire those in the series. These include Tai Chi for Water Bending, Hung Gar for Earth, Northern Shaolin for Fire, and “Pak Wah” (spelling has to be off there) for Air Bending. Some real life demonstrations by the Sifu consultant of the show and animated clips from episodes are put side by side for your comparison.
-Disc 2 – “Making of Avatar – From Real Life To Animation” (4m) – The least interesting extra feature of the set has one of the crew saying and acting out scenes from various moments in season one. After he acts out a brief sequence, the final animated version is shown. He goes through thirty or so of these.
-Disc 3 – “Behind the Scenes of Avatar – The Voices of Avatar” (4.5m) – Cast interviews with the voice actors and footage from the show.
-Disc 4 – “Ask the Creators” (3m) – Bryan and Michael are asked several questions about the show (how long does it take to make an episode, where is the animation done, etc).
– “Original Animatic of Chapter 15, Uncut” (22m) – A picture-in-picture comparison, with the much larger picture being a storyboard or animatic of chapter fifteen. The smaller picture has the final version.
-Disc 5 – Audio Commentary for episodes (chapters) 17, 18, 19, 20.
-Disc 6 – “Behind the Scenes with the Cast & Crew” (3m15s) – Just as it sounds, some behind the scenes footage with the folks behind the show.
– “Avatar Pilot Episode with Audio Commentary” (15m) – Show co-creators Bryan and Michael provide commentary while the original pilot episode plays.
– “Making of Avatar – Inside the Sound Studios” (6m10s) – Sound Designer Ben Wynn and his team show us how the effects and music are created and integrated into the show.
– “Making of Avatar – Inside the Korean Animation Studios” (25.5m) – A substantial extra feature in which subtitled interviews from some of the Korean animators at JM Animation answer questions and talk about their contributions to the show.
-Disc 7 – The new bonus disc for this Collector’s Edition includes an interesting thirty-plus-minute feature on Bryan and Michael as they tell their story of how the show came to be. This includes a lot of ‘vintage’ footage of them traveling and working to get the show created and all that, back when it happened in 2002. Footage of them winning a Peabody award and talking to their alma mater about the show are included. As the show crew quickly, they had to add a lot of help and many of these folks share their memories as well. It’s a very interesting feature for fans.
And there you have it — the Collector’s Edition of the Complete First Season of the Avatar – The Last Airbender cartoon.
To the summary…