Imagine this, dear readers. You’re a huge movie/television buff of a reviewer, who has lived through the best cartoon age in television history (80s/90s) and saw it at its peak, as well as its demise (thanks Children’s Television Act of 1990). You were there for cartoons like G.I. Joe, Transformers, and a very epic Robotech series. You saw cartoons tell stories across multiple episodes and leave you on the edge of your seat until everything wrapped up by the end of the week or by the end of the series.
Then poof! It’s all gone. Educational/Informational protocol enters the scene and suddenly instead of telling good stories, we have another outlet/media that wants to be our parents. I never watched cartoons for morals and reasoning, rather I used them as an escape from the day-to-day grind as a kid and young adult. But the government knew best and cartoons on network were history.
Cartoons turned into Save By the Bell experiments (Hey, Dude! And Salute Your Shorts were wonderful) and the world starts shifting from network entertainment that used to ensure every kid was awake at 6am on Saturday to cable entertainment that would run all day without coherent storylines (I’m looking at you, Spongebob! Although, I do appreciate the hell out of your efforts — get in the sea bear circle). By the end of the 90s, all good cartoons were either on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. Both networks are only accessible via a cable subscription, which not everyone has access to, yet both took the responsibility of meaningful childhood entertainment and have delivered on multiple occasions. Cartoon Network brought us Adventure Time, one of the most profound cartoons of the last decade, while Nickelodeon took a chance that paid off with Avatar: The Last Airbender — probably the most meaningful cartoon that ran from 2005-2008 before capping off its story, and a cartoon that resonates over a decade after its end.
The latter of the two I never gave the time of day to until the brother of a fellow reviewer (Hailey Salyers) brought it to my attention how impactful it had been with its story delivery and how fantastic it was for him as a child. A week after telling me about the cartoon, I get an email asking if I want to review it in Steelbook form. Eerily good timing, right?
Let’s get to it.
Story
Rarely, even with cable, do you get continuing storylines in cartoons. The two examples mentioned above, Avatar and Adventure Time, are the most recent cartoons that kept up with a continuing set of plot points that reached their zenith by the end of their run. Avatar especially gives you a healthy dose of story progression that is very much intense and in your face. The cartoon isn’t really made for young kids as much as it is budding teenagers and young adults.
The story follows a damaged world that thrives on four elements (earth, wind, fire, water) and who are waiting for its savior, the Avatar, to appear after he disappeared over a hundred years in the midst of a worldwide battle. Since his disappearance, one of the elemental nations, the Fire Nation, has taken the reigns as rulers of the broken world and has made an oppressive stance with its people — everyone follows the Fire Nation’s rules or be put in your place, generally six feet underground. Societies live on the edge with their day-to-day lives, even going as far as to repress their elemental gifts, while the Fire Nation does its best to ensure that the world never gets the Avatar back, a prophecy that has been foretold.
As destiny and fate generally go, the pair show up regardless of the Fire Nation’s efforts. The story finds two South Pole tribesmen, Katara and Sokka, who happen upon a lump of ice that contains two beings — Aang and Appa. After breaking the ice, no pun intended, Katara and Sokka soon learn that Aang is the predicted Avatar, as well as the last Airbender (an elemental group that is wiped out by the Fire Nation), while Appa is his trusted flying steed. Putting their lives behind them, Katara and Sokka go with Aang on his journey to become the fully formed Avatar, learning and mastering all the elemental arts, and help him to pick up the pieces of his broken life, which the Fire Nation has tried to erase. Of course, the Fire Nation is on the doorstep of Aang and crew at their every turn, trying to dismantle what the heroes are desperately trying to piece together to bring the world back into unity.
This journey lasts three years, which is just long enough for a proper arc to be formed.
The story of Aang, and his companions, is epic. Seeing his journey from an immature child that enjoys bending air to a young adult that realizes what he must do to save a war-torn world is both amazing as it unfolds, and somewhat tragic considering the ending (won’t spoil it for you). The slow transformation the show uses to make Aang more than just powerful comedy relief is methodical. The transformation of Aang, as well as his companions, comes through their journey into other cultures and how those folks were affected by the Fire Nation. You not only feel for Aang’s situation but also see the impact the FN has had on day-to-day life with villagers worldwide. It creates a sense of desperation and purpose, while also helping to transform Aang in the being he is destined to become. It’s a beautiful machine that doesn’t hold back the happiness or the horror of the world it exists within, as it all begins to stack up and weigh on Aang. For example, the early episodes show Aang discovering his own powers and how they can best be used, only to shift from goofy/playfulness to Aang going home to find out the Fire Nation killed everyone he knew or loved. Shifting from ‘wow, that’s funny and how did he do that’ to ‘Oh, God. That kid is the sole survivor of his people, and we’re reliving his memories? Why!? This is tragic and painful to watch’. It’s unbelievably good storytelling for a supposed kid’s show.
Related, it fascinates me that Nickelodeon took a chance on airing this show in the midst of its Spongebob episodic flurry. They could have ridden Spongebob to solid ratings well into the late 2010s, but they were dabbling in different ideas. Knowing that you have to commit for three years to complete the Avatar story is a very 80s way of thinking, and a welcomed one. This show doesn’t work without a well-built storyline that can’t deviate from its journey, otherwise, it runs the risk of losing everything it constructed on the way there. Good on Nickelodeon for allowing this old-world way of cartoon storytelling to be done in the midst of easy money with other episodic formulaic comedies because the journey is worth the effort for the viewer. I’ve always thought that if you want to make a movie or game last in the minds of viewers, then you build an endearing and engrossing storyline that they connect to and remember. Story counts for a lot, if not everything when it comes to the longevity of a product. This is the reason why Kojima Production games are so good because the story comes first.
Avatar: The Last Airbender — Books 1-3, are something to behold. They are unlike many cartoons today and the payoff, at least in my opinion, is worth the journey. The series is well-crafted, constructed, and executed. It’s easily in my top 5 cartoons of all-time. It is very Robotech in my view.
Steelbook
I’m not big on gimmicks when it comes to releases, but this Steelbook thing is pretty neat. Nickelodeon did a superb job on publishing a collector’s pack for Avatar that is worthy of the show. The complete series does its best to show off how beautiful and artsy the show is from the outside of the packaging. Each Steelbook comes with a different character on the front (Book I is Katara, Book II is Toph, and Book III is Aang). On the backside of each is a different picture of Aang with a different element, when combined it turns into a beautiful piece of art. Again, it’s gorgeous as it is artsy.
The construction of the box itself is something that shouldn’t be ignored in this review. The box has silver dividers so that each Steelbook doesn’t touch the other (you don’t want that art rubbing off) and the set comes with a Kyoshi excerpt. All of this equals out to a superb design that is meaningful and carefully crafted like the show. It’s what you want from your Avatar experience.
Additional Content
Book One: Water
◦ Behind the Scenes Kung Fu Featurette
◦ The Making of Avatar – From Real Life to Animation
◦ Behind the Scenes: The Voices of Avatar
◦ Ask the Creators Featurette
◦ Original Uncut Animatic – Episode # 15: Bato of the Water Tribe
◦ 4 Audio Commentaries with Creator, Cast & Crew
▪ Features Dee Bradley Baker (voices of Momo and Appa), Ben Wynn (sound effects), Aaron Ehasz (Head Writer) and Co-Creators: Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino
◦ Behind the Scenes with the Avatar Cast & Crew
◦ Avatar Pilot Episode with Audio Commentary
◦ The Making of Avatar – Inside the Sound Studios
◦ The Making of Avatar – Inside the Korean Animation Studios
Book Two: Earth
◦ Original Uncut Animatic – Episode # 21: The Avatar State
◦ 7 Audio Commentaries by Creators, Cast & Crew
◦ Interview with Creators and M. Night Shyamalan
◦ The Essence of Bending with Bryan Konietzko and Sifu Kisu
◦ Avatar Super Deformed Shorts
▪ Bending Battle
▪ Swamp Skiin’ Throwdown
▪ School Time Shipping
◦ Escape From the Spirit World: Animated Graphic Novel
Book Three: Fire
◦ 11 Audio Commentaries by Creators, Cast & Crew
◦ The Women of Avatar: The Last Airbender
◦ Book 3 Finale Pencil Test Animation
◦ Into the Fire Nation at San Diego Comic-Con
Overall
If you’re looking for a perfect Avatar collection, then you’ve got it.
