Avatar The Last Airbender – The Complete Book 1 Collector’s Edition | (original) (raw)
Not to be confused with James Cameron’s Avatar, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a cartoon from Nickelodeon that came out in 2005. The story is about the Fire Nation waging war with the three other nations: Water, Earth and Air. With the world in turmoil, only a 12 year old Avatar monk named Aang has a chance of defeating the Fire nation and bring back peace to the land. The story sounds generic, even similar to Episode 1 but this is one of the best cartoon I’ve seen. The show blends drama, comedy and action smoothly with entertaining stories. I always looked forward to the next episode.
Book 1 is titled “Water” and introduces us to Aang as he is found frozen by the Water tribe’s Katara and her goofy but brave brother, Sokka. Throughout the 20 episodes, the characters travel all over the 4 nations as Aang tries to fulfill his destiny. Our heroes travel on a giant flying bison named Appa and accompanied by Momo, a flying lemur looking from the air tribe. Although the creatures don’t talk, they really add a nice touch to the story because they’re loyal and funny. Following Aang and his crew is the Fire nation’s exiled Prince, Zuko and his wise uncle, Iroh. Prince Zuko wants to catch Aang so he can return as a proud warrior to his nation.
The heroes of the show (from left to right): Soka, Aang, Katara
What I really love about this show are the characters. While many anime titles has the heroes brooding and depressed because they have to save the world, Aang is portrayed as a happy kid who makes typical mistakes his age. He takes his role seriously but at the same time, he wants to sled on penguins and impress girls with his powers. Sometimes his priorities are out of whack but that’s what makes him so likable, he’s naive. While Aang is very powerful, his friends Katara and Sokka add a nice balance to the show. What they lack in power, they make up with their support and advice for the Avatar.
The Last Airbender borrows a lot from buddhist philosophies and it’s incorporated to the show perfectly. The relationship between Prince Zuko and Aang is ying and yang. They’re on the opposite end of the spectrum but you understand their intentions. Prince Zuko’s backstory is pretty heartbreaking and I rooted for him every time he battled against the Fire Nation’s commanders, who are also trying to capture Aang.
Appa the flying bison
The theme of each episode is pretty diverse ranging from bravery to just appreciating life. One episode even had a theme similar to The Dark Knight but this was released 3 years before that movie. Maybe Christopher Nolan is a big fan of this show. I like how the color palette of each episode matches the theme. For one story, it dealt with pain so the show used lots of reds while in another story, it had a very dark palette because it focused on mystery. Most viewers probably won’t notice the palettes but I really appreciated it because it showed the episodes were well thought out.
Avatar The Last Airbender is a show that everybody should watch. The characters are great and the story is compelling.
Video:
The Last Airbender is presented in 1.85: 1 widescreen and for the majority of the episodes, quality was good. Each disc contains 4 episodes for a total of 5 discs. The first disc had the biggest problem with halo effect on 3 of the 4 episodes. The picture was doubling up and I was afraid the rest of the discs were the same. Fortunately, the other discs looked fine and didn’t have the problem.
Prince Zuko is voiced by Dante Basco who played Rufio in Steven Spielberg’s Hook
Animation for the show is clearly influenced by manga and it looks good. The most impressive sights were the battleships and Aang’s air temples.
Grade: B
Audio:
The show has a Dolby stereo track. The dialogue is well balanced and I was surprised with the subwoofer use. The bass were pretty heavy on several action scenes, something you don’t expect from a cartoon. I wish there were more directional sound but you can’t expect much from a tv show.
Grade: B
Extras: Discs 1-5 each has a short featurette about the show ranging from the voice actors and capturing the life like animations. I’d skip these short extras and get to the real extras which comes in 2 other discs.
The first extra disc has 4 featurettes:
“Inside The Sound Studios” – Interesting look at how the sound effects are created.
“Pilot” – This has commentary from creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. They talk about their original ideas and how the pilot was there sales pitch to Nickelodeon.
From left to write, co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino, kung fu consultant Sifu Kisu and co-creator Bryan Konietzko
“Inside The Korean Animation Studios” – We are shown where Aang and crew come to life at the animation studio in South Korea. DiMartino and Konietzko also travel to the studio to supervise the work and get creative ideas from the Korean artists.
“Behind The Scenes” – Short recap of the process it takes to create a show from the voice actors to the artists and kung fu masters.
The collector’s edition comes with an exclusive disk featuring a documentary of the show’s creators, called Avatar Spirits. In this 30 minute film, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko takes us how Avatar is created from the ground up. They go in depth with their philosophy of the show and their interaction with fans. The fans motivates them to create better stories because it’s followed religiously.
Another interesting tidbit was hiring kung fu masters to choreograph for the fight scenes. So what you see in the cartoon are real kung fu moves. I also like how the creators only wanted 3 seasons of Avatar to solidify the story and they stuck to it. If you’re like me and you’ve never seen the show before, there’s spoilers for the ending of the show so make sure to fast forward that part.
The box set also comes with a mini book with a short bio of the characters and plenty of concept art from the show’s different nations.
All of the disks and mini book is packaged in a nice hard box with an embossed portrait of Aang.
Grade: A
Overall:
Just in time for next week’s big screen release of The Last Airbender, this collector’s edition is a great way to introduce new fans to Aang’s universe. This is also a must have for hardcore Avatar The Last Airbender fans. The boxset comes with plenty of extras and the mini book is a nice touch. The boxset retails for 56butAmazonhasitfora[lowpriceof56 but Amazon has it for a [low price of 56butAmazonhasitfora[lowpriceof26.99](a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DT1950?ie=UTF8&tag=nerdsoci-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003DT1950 "avatar Boxset collector's Edition Season 1"). At that price, I strongly recommend it!
Til next time “Yip, yip!”
Overall Grade: A
