Late to the Party - Avatar: The Last Airbender
If you’ve checked out my little profile on our About page, you will see that I’ve recently taken an interest in a Nickelodeon cartoon called Avatar: The Last Airbender. Well, I had written that profile a good while ago and I had only managed to catch a scant few episodes here and there whilst flipping by Nick during some channel surfing. I’ve recently watched the whole first season (borrowed from a co-worker) and have started on Season 2 via Netflix. And now I’d like to share my thoughts on the series since I have a more complete view.
I’m gonna come right out and say it up front. Avatar is frickin’ fantastic. From outward appearances, it may seem like it’s one of those shows where some American company is trying to capitalize on the anime craze that’s popular with the kids these days. But don’t let that deceive you. Yes, the art style is definitely influenced by anime and it uses some of the traditional animation conventions from anime for emotions and such, but it doesn’t go over the top with them and blends them well. If you really, really hate anime, it’d probably bug you, but if you’ve got an open mind, then it’s not a big deal.
If you can get past any preconceptions you may have about the show, you’ll be happily surprised at the depth of it.
The basic gist of the show is thus: There are 4 nations of the world based upon the different traditional basic 4 elements of earth, fire, wind, and water. (As an old school Final Fantasy fanboy, that right there grabs my interest.) Each nation has people within them that are able to control these elements in a process called Bending. And the Avatar is a person who is able to master all 4 elements so as to keep balance and order to the world. The Avatar is reincarnated every time the current one dies.
The Fire Nation has decided that it wants to take over and it just so happens they do it at the same time that the Avatar has disappeared from the world. 100 years later, two Water Tribe siblings discover the latest Avatar, a 12 year old Air Nomad named Aang, frozen at the South Pole. The story begins from that point where Katara and Sokka of the southern Water Tribe join Aang on his quest to master the other 3 elements and fulfill his duty as Avatar.
It’s a great traditional fantasy/magic story with a large, arching, epic storyline. Oh, and did I mention that Bending is controlled by different forms of martial arts? Each of the 4 nations uses a different style in order to Bend. For example, Water Bending is done with Tai Chi type moves because of the fluid nature of that discipline. And they actually have a professional martial arts instructor on staff who guides the animators on the proper forms and movements. The animation of the martial arts is extremely well done, especially for a Nick show.
That’s not all that’s well done. The voice acting is high quality, especially considering most of the actors don’t have a ton of other experience in the field. Each character is brought to life well by their voice actors.
But where Avatar really shines is in the writing. Unlike most Nickelodeon shows, Avatar doesn’t talk down to its audience. It doesn’t assume all kids are dumb and need things explained to them and doesn’t dance around issues such as death. The characters are not just one-sided clichés and they often do things you wouldn’t expect them to do. They make mistakes and there are consequences. They grow and learn and become more than what they started as, particularly Prince Zuko, the protagonist from the Fire Nation who is trying to restore his honor by capturing or killing the Avatar. You can become emotionally invested in all of the main characters because they actually give them depth and personality. My favorite so far is Prince Zuko’s Uncle Iroh, who is voiced by the ultra talented Mako, whom you may know as Aku from Samurai Jack. (Sadly, Mako passed away part way through the second season but I have been told that his replacement is a man who actually has a history of studying Mako’s voice style and is able to replicate it with a great degree of accuracy.)
There are some basic individual stories and concepts that have been done before, but they do them well. For example, there’s an episode with the typical “boy thinks the girls can’t fight” thing, but they don’t drag it out and beat you over the head with it. However, overall, there is quite a bit of originality in the writing and you really want to see how the whole story plays out.
There is a good attention to detail and continuity that approaches the level of what Timm and Dini do with the DCAU. Characters and locales are revisited but again, they don’t talk down to the audience and spell out that the characters going back to a place they’ve been or seeing someone they’ve met before.
If you’re a fan of good action toons, I highly recommend you check out Avatar: The Last Airbender. I just hope it doesn’t go all Pirates of Dark Water on us, but it seems to be doing very well so it probably won’t get cancelled before they finish the story.
What say you?!