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Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2

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Book 2: Earth
Season 2
The cover for "The Complete Book 2 Collection" DVD.
No. of episodes20
Release
Original networkNickelodeon
Original releaseMarch 17 –
December 1, 2006[1]
Season chronology
← Previous
Book 1: Water
Next →
Book 3: Fire
List of episodes

Season Two (Book 2: Earth) of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon, first aired its 20 episodes from March 17, 2006 to December 1, 2006. The season was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and starred Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Jessie Flower, Mako, Grey DeLisle, and Dante Basco as the main character voices.[1][3]

In the season's beginning, the protagonist Aang and his friends Katara and Sokka are on a quest to find an Earthbending teacher, which finishes when they recruit Toph. Sokka finds important information concerning the war with the Fire Nation. Aang quickly becomes interested in looking for his kidnapped flying bison Appa. His search leads him to Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, where he uncovers the great internal government corruption of Ba Sing Se. At the season's end, Ba Sing Se falls to the Fire Nation and Aang escapes with his friends on a recovered Appa.

Throughout the season's airing, the show received much critical acclaim, with praises such as, "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent."[4] Season 2 has won multiple awards, including the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award from the 34th Annual Annie Awards[5] and the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award from the 2007 Emmy Awards.[6]

Between January 23, 2007 and September 11, 2007, Nickelodeon released five DVD sets for the season: four sets containing five episodes each, and a fifth DVD collection of all twenty episodes.[7] All DVDs were encoded in Region 1. Only the first three  volumes have been released for Region 2.[8][9][10]

Production

The season was produced by and aired on Nickelodeon, which is owned by Viacom.[11] The season's executive producers and co-creators are Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who worked alongside episode director and co-producer Aaron Ehasz.[12] Most of the individual episodes were directed by Ethan Spaulding, Lauren MacMullan and Giancarlo Volpe.[3] Episodes were written by a team of writers, which consisted of Aaron Ehasz, Elizabeth Welch Ehasz, Tim Hedrick, John O'Bryan; along with creators DiMartino and Konietzko.[3]

The season's music was composed by "The Track Team", which consists of Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, who were known to the show's creators because Zuckerman was Konietzko's roommate.[13]

Cast

Most of the main characters who made their debut in the first season remained the same, with Zach Tyler Eisen as Aang, Mae Whitman as Katara, Jack DeSena as Sokka,[3] and Dante Basco as the anti-hero Zuko.[14] However, several new characters appear: Toph voiced by Jessie Flower, Azula voiced by Grey DeLisle and Long Feng voiced by Clancy Brown.[3] Two antagonists, Mai and Ty Lee, are introduced as Azula's minions who are tasked with capturing Aang. They were voiced by Cricket Leigh and Olivia Hack, respectively.[3] Mako, who voiced Iroh, died during production and was replaced by Greg Baldwin.[15]

Reception

In a review of the Volume 2 DVD Release for Book 2, Gabriel Powers from DVDActive.com described the series as one of the best children's series in recent times, making comparisons with Samurai Jack and Justice League, and complemented it for its depth and humour.[16] Powers also comments:

Without dumbing down its characters, plots, or humour, and without overtly taming-up the action or peril, Avatar manages to enthral children and adults, ages 4 to 56...There is a genuine classic feel to the series, which uses actual Asian history and lore as its base. Like Star Wars, the creative forces behind the show have tapped into that basic, generation spanning storytelling that will live long after the series' youngest fans are old and bitter.[16]

For the video and audio quality, Powers says "Season two generally looks better than the bulk of season one, but still has some issues" concerning image sharpness.[17] Jamie S. Rich from DVD Talk says that "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent".[4]

The show also received acclaim for its visual appeal. In the 34th Annual Annie Awards, the show was nominated for and won the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award, for Jae-Myung Yu's animation in "The Blind Bandit", and the "Best Directing in an Animated Television Production" award, for the episode "The Drill".[5] In 2007, the show was nominated for "Outstanding Animated Program" in the 2007 Emmy Awards for the "City of Walls and Secrets" episode,[18] though it did not win.[6] However, the show did win the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award for Sang-Jin Kim's animation in the "Lake Laogai" episode.[6]

Episodes

# Title Director(s) Writer(s) Original US Airdate Production code[1]

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DVD releases

Nickelodeon began releasing DVDs for Book 2 on January 23, 2007.[2] The first five DVD releases contain one disc that consisted of four episodes each.[19] The final DVD was the "Complete Book 2 Box Set", which contains all of the episodes in the season on five discs, and packaged with a special features disc.[7] All of the DVD sets for Book 2 were released with Region 1 encoding, meaning that they can only play on North American DVD players. The first three volumes, as well as the Box set, have been released in Region 2.[8][9][10][20]

Region 1

Volume
Released Discs Episodes
1 January 23, 2007 1 5
2 April 10, 2007 1 5
3 May 22, 2007 1 5
4 August 14, 2007 1 5
Box Set September 11, 2007 5 20

Region 2

Volume
Released Discs Episodes
1 Unknown 1 5
2 Unknown 1 5
3 Unknown 1 5
4 Unreleased 1 5
Box Set Unknown 5 20

Footnotes

1.^ Production code format taken from the commentary for "Sozin's Comet: The Phoenix King"

References

General
  • "Season 2". Avatar: The Last Airbender. IGN. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
  • "Season 2 DVD Information". TVShowsOnDVD.com. 2005-02-24. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
Specific
  1. ^ a b "IGN: Avatar: The Last Airbender: Season 2". IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  2. ^ a b "Avatar: The Last Airbender Search". Amazon.com, Inc. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast and Details". Tvguide.com. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
  4. ^ a b Rich, Jamie S. (2007-09-12). "Avatar The Last Airbender — The Complete Book 2 Collection". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2008-06-06.
  5. ^ a b "Annie Awards: Legacy - 34th Annual Annie Awards". International Animated Film Society. 2006-02-09. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  6. ^ a b c Mesger, Robin (2007-09-08). "59th Creative Emmy Awards Winners" (PDF). Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. pp. 11–12. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  7. ^ a b "Season 2 DVD Information". TVShowsOnDVD.com. 2005-02-24. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  8. ^ a b "Amazon.co.uk: Avatar — The Last Airbender: Book 2 - Earth, Vol. 1: Avatar: the Last Air: DVD". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  9. ^ a b "Avatar — The Last Airbender — Book 2 - Earth vol 2 [IMPORT]: Amazon.co.uk: DVD". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  10. ^ a b "Amazon.co.uk: Avatar — The Last Airbender: Book 2 - Earth, Vol. 3: DVD". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  11. ^ "List of assets owned by Viacom". Economic Expert. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  12. ^ DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan (2005-08-29). "Interview with "Avatar" Program Creators — Page 3" (Transcript) (Interview). Interviewed by Aaron H. Bynum. Retrieved 2008-05-29. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink2= ignored (|subject-link2= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan (2005-08-29). "Interview with "Avatar" Program Creators — Page 4" (Transcript) (Interview). Interviewed by Aaron H. Bynum. Retrieved 2008-05-29. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink2= ignored (|subject-link2= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ "Dante Basco". 2005. Retrieved 2008-03-31.
  15. ^ Fox, Margalit (2006-07-25). "Mako, 72, Actor Who Extended Asian-American Roles, Dies". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-06.
  16. ^ a b Powers, Gabriel. "Avatar: The Last Airbender, Book 2, Vl.1". DVDActive. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  17. ^ Powers, Gabriel. "Avatar: The Last Airbender, Season Two Collection". DVDActive. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  18. ^ "59th Creative Emmy Awards Nominations" (PDF). Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 2007. p. 1. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  19. ^ "The Avatar: The Last Airbender Series". Amazon.co.uk. Amazon.com, Inc. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  20. ^ AVATAR - The Last Airbender: The Complete Book 2: Earth Collection [2005]: Amazon.co.uk: DVD

External links

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