Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender
File:Avatar-TLAlogo.jpg Avatar: The Last Airbender logo
Created by	Michael Dante DiMartino Bryan Konietzko
Starring	Zach Tyler Eisen Mae Whitman Jack DeSena Jessie Flower Dante Basco Mako
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	29 aired of 60 in production
Production
Running time	23 minutes approx
Original release
Network	Nickelodeon
Release	February 21, 2005

Avatar: The Last Airbender (known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang in the UK) is an American animated television series airing on Nickelodeon since February 21, 2005. Produced at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California, and animated in South Korea, it was co-created and executive produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. In the United States, new episodes air Friday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in Nickelodeon's Friday-night block of programming.

Set in a fantastic, Asian-influenced world of martial arts and elemental magic, Avatar follows the adventures of Aang, the successor to a long line of Avatars, and his friends Katara, Sokka and later Toph, in their quest to save the world from the merciless Fire Nation, while avoiding capture from pursuers including Prince Zuko and other hunters from the Fire Nation.

A consistently high ratings performer in the Nicktoons lineup, even outside of its intended 6-to-11 year-old demographic, Avatar is popular with both audiences and critics. The series' success has prompted Nickelodeon to order another twenty-episode season, which began airing on March 17, 2006.^[1], as well as progressively release previously-aired episodes on DVDs. In addition, a videogame of the series is currently being developed for GameCube, Wii, Playstation 2, Xbox 360 and the PC.

Overview

Premise

File:Avatar-TLAmap.jpg

A map of the four nations

In another time and place, the world is divided among four nations: Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Within each nation, there is an order of men and women called "Benders" who have an inborn ability of learning to manipulate their native element. Bending is a powerful artform, combining martial arts and elemental mystics. The bending arts are waterbending, earthbending, firebending and airbending, respectively.

In each generation, one Bender is capable of bending all four elements; this is the Avatar, the spirit of the world manifested in the form of man or woman. When an Avatar dies, the Avatar Spirit reincarnates into the next nation in the Avatar Cycle. Starting with the mastery of his native element, the Avatar learns to bend all four elements in the order of the cycle, which parallels the seasons. (winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire and fall for air.) The opposite of his native element is the most diffcult to master. Throughout the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in harmony.

[2] The Avatar is also the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, home of the universe's disembodied spirits.

Plot synopsis

A century prior to the series' opening, Aang, a twelve-year-old Airbender of the Air Nomads' Southern Air Temple, learned from his monk instructors that he was the Avatar. Usually, the Avatar is told of his/her true identity only after turning sixteen; however, the Air Nomads feared that a war between the four nations was on the horizon, and that the Avatar would soon be needed to help maintain balance. Shortly thereafter, it was decided that Aang would be separated from his guardian, Monk Gyatso, and sent to the Eastern Air Temple to finish his training.

Confused, frightened and overwhelmed by all that was happening, Aang fled from his home on his flying bison Appa. While over the ocean, a sudden storm caused Appa to plunge deep into the sea. Unknowingly channeling his Avatar Spirit, Aang used Waterbending to freeze Appa and himself in an ice sphere, putting them in a state of suspended animation.

When the series opens one hundred years later, the Fire Nation is on the brink of victory in its imperialist war. The Water Tribes are in crisis—the Southern Water Tribe's warriors have gone off to war, leaving their home defenseless, and the Northern Water Tribe, though largely intact, is continually on the defensive. The vast Earth Kingdom is now the only true barrier to the Fire Nation's domination, but as the Fire Nation continues to encroach on its borders and conquer its territories, hopes for victory grow bleaker with each passing year.

In the present day, two teenage siblings from the Southern Water Tribe—Katara, a Waterbender, and her brother Sokka—discover and free Aang from his iceberg. Aang soon finds out that in his absence, the war the monks feared had happened. The very year he vanished, the ruthless Fire Lord Sozen took advantage of both the Avatar's absence and the firebending-enhancing powers of a powerful burning comet to launch a war on the three other nations. To Aang's shock and disbelief, the Fire Nation's opening gambit had been a genocidal assault on the Air Nomads. The Air Temples were stormed and the Airbenders slaughtered in an effort to break the Avatar Cycle, leaving him as the last known Airbender in existence.

Aang then realizes, as the Avatar, it is his duty to restore harmony and peace among the four nations. Along with his newly discovered friends Katara and Sokka, his flying bison Appa and his winged-lemur Momo, and now the blind Earthbender Toph, Aang travels the world to master all four elements, while evading capture by Fire Nation's banished Prince Zuko and now Princess Azula.

Although it takes years of discipline and training to master any one element, Aang must master them all and defeat Fire Lord Ozai by summer's end, when the return of Sozen's Comet will grant the Firebenders the power to finish the war. If these events come to pass, not even the Avatar will be able to restore balance to the world.

Episodes

Main article: List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes

Characters

Main characters

File:AvatarGroup.jpg

Main cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender, left to right: Katara, Aang, Zuko, Sokka and Momo

• Aang (Mitchel Musso in the pilot, Zach Tyler Eisen afterwards) - The fun-loving main character of the series and the current reincarnation of the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. As the Avatar, Aang must master all four elements to bring peace to the world. He seems to have a crush on Katara in episodes such as "The Fortuneteller" and "The Cave of Two Lovers."
• Katara (Mae Whitman) - A Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe who, along with her brother Sokka, discovered Aang in an iceberg. She and Sokka accompany him on his quest to defeat the Fire Nation and bring peace to the war-torn nations.
• Sokka (Jack DeSena) - A warrior of the Southern Water Tribe who, with his sister Katara, accompanies Aang on his quest to defeat the Fire Nation. Unlike his three companions, Sokka cannot bend. He also does not believe in the supernatural.
• Toph (Jessie Flower) - A 12-year-old Earthbender who flees her overprotective parents to join Aang on his quest. Toph is blind, but her unique Earthbending abilities more than compensate for her sight loss, making her the perfect master from which Aang can learn earthbending. Her travels with Aang, Katara, and Sokka gradually teach her the meaning of teamwork and friendship.
• Prince Zuko (Dante Basco) - The exiled prince of the Fire Nation bent on capturing the Avatar in his quest to restore his honor and right to the throne in the eyes of his father, Fire Lord Ozai. After he is branded a traitor at the outset of Book 2, he begins to change from a spoiled prince to an outcast, who is beginning to bond with and pity the same people his people terrorized. He is also a really bad tea maker according to the reaction of Iroh.
• Uncle Iroh (Mako) - A retired Fire Nation general and Prince Zuko's uncle. Iroh is a powerful Firebender, who until recently accompanied his exiled nephew Prince Zuko in his quest to capture the Avatar. Like Zuko, he is considered a traitor to the Fire Nation. Iroh's main hobbies appear to be drinking tea and playing Pai Sho. He also enjoys Music Night (which annoys Zuko).

Major secondary characters

Main article: Major secondary characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender

• Admiral Zhao (Jason Isaacs) - A hot-tempered Fire Nation Admiral also in pursuit of the Avatar and Zuko's principal rival throughout Book 1. Zhao disappeared at the end of Season 1 after a failed siege of the Northern Water Tribe. He is assumed dead.
• Fire Lord Ozai (Mark Hamill) - Lord of the entire Fire Nation. Continuing the war that his ancestor Sozin started, Ozai is awaiting the arrival of Sozin's Comet so he and his Nation can harness its power once again and put an end to the war.
• Avatar Roku (James Garrett) - The Avatar before Aang and a Firebender. Throughout the series, Avatar Roku appears as a spirit to guide Aang through his journey so he can rightfully fulfill his duty as the Avatar. His benevolence helps show that not all firebenders are evil.
• Princess Azula (Grey DeLisle) - Princess of the Fire Nation, Zuko's younger sister, and Fire Lord Ozai's favorite. Azula had been especially cruel all her life, with her mind set on war, manipulation, power, and torturing others, especially her brother. After the end of Book 1, Ozai sent Azula on a mission to arrest Zuko and Uncle Iroh, and capture the Avatar.
• Mai (Cricket Leigh) - An impassive, bored, young woman and one of Princess Azula's childhood friends, little is known about about Mai except that she appeared timid and shy as a girl, and also had a crush on Prince Zuko. She also appears cold (or, at least, shrewdly calculating) as she once called off a hostage trade for her younger brother in media res at Azula's "suggestion." Mai specializes in throwing weapons which she conceals on her person.
• Ty Lee (Olivia Hack) - A cheerful, optimistic former circus performer. Another childhood friend of Princess Azula's, but unlike Mai, openly shows a certain amount of fear towards Azula, who bullied Ty Lee into joining her search for the Avatar. Ty Lee principally uses her acrobatic skills in combat.
• Bumi (André Sogliuzzo) - A old king who loves bad puns, is a master Earthbender and the only one of Aang's peers known to still be living.
• Appa (Dee Bradley Baker)- A 100 year old bison which is the main transportation of the main characters of the show.

Minor secondary characters

Main article: Minor secondary characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender

Guest stars

Main article: List of Guest Stars in Avatar: The Last Airbender Episodes

Influences

Cultural references

Avatar is notable for its extensive borrowings from Asian mythology and art in order to create a fully realized fictional universe. Apart from its anime-inspired character designs, Avatar also draws on a motley mix of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Indian, and even Inuit language, philosophy, religion and culture to flesh out the show's settings and peoples. Explicitly stated influences include Chinese art and history, anime, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism[3] and Yoga.[4] The show staff even employs a cultural consultant, Edwin Zane, to review scripts.

Avatar

The term "Avatar" comes from the Sanskrit word Avatāra which means "descent." In Hindu mythology, gods, especially Vishnu, often manifest themselves into Avatars to restore balance on earth after a time period of great evil. This agrees with the calligraphy written above the word "Avatar" in the show's opening, which means "the divine medium who has descended upon the mortal world."[5]

Avatar State

The Avatar State is a defense mechanism, designed to empower the Avatar with the skills and knowledge of all the past Avatars.

This power makes the Avatar at his/her most powerful, but also at his/her most vulnerable. If the Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, then the reincarnation cycle will be broken and the Avatar will cease to exist.

Reincarnation

In the show, Aang unknowingly revealed that he was the Avatar when he chose four toys out of thousands. These four toys were the exact ones that past Avatars had chosen for generations when they were children, revealing Aang to be the reincarnation of the Avatar. This same test is used by Tibetan Buddhist monks when a reincarnated Dalai Lama is expected. Visions the monks have revealed who the Dalai Lama is, and this test finalizes that he is, indeed, the reincarnation.

The "leaders" of each nation know which children to test by looking for signs of consistency with the previous Avatar. These consistencies include being born within a week of the death of the last Avatar.

Elements

Avatar draws on four of the five classical Indian elements of Hindu and Buddhist traditions for the four bending arts - Fire (agni or tejas), water (ap or jala), earth (prithvi or bhumi), and wind or air (vayu or pavan). The fifth, aether (akasha or akash) is symbolized by Aang as an intermediary of the Spirit World. Some names in the series, such as "Agni Kai" and King Bumi the Earthbender, borrow directly from these elements.

Calligraphy

File:Avatar-TLAcalligraphy.jpg

A particular type of calligraphy is used for almost all of the text in the show. With the obvious exceptions of the English text on the masthead, titlecards and credits, all writing used is Classical Chinese calligraphy, a very old form of written Chinese once used in formal communication and literature. For each instance of calligraphy, an appropriate style is used, ranging from the archaic to the clerical. [6] The show employs calligrapher Siu-Leung Lee, PhD as a consultant and translator.

Fighting styles

One final Asiatic influence is found in the show's action choreography. The fighting choreography draws from martial arts films, and the fighting styles and weaponry are based upon Chinese martial arts, with each bending art corresponding to a certain real-world style. The creators use Tai Chi for waterbending, Hung Gar for earthbending, Northern Shaolin for firebending, and Ba Gua for airbending [7]. The show employs Sifu Kisu of the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association as a martial arts consultant [8].

Each different fighting style is unique in its own way. A good way to compare the four styles is that

• Airbenders evade the attack.
• Waterbenders move with the attack, and use their enemys power against them.
• Earthbenders intercept the attack.
• Firebenders strike before the attack occurs.

This, however, is only a generalization, and circumstances may cause this pattern to vary. Also, it appears that the ability to bend comes from both genetics and spirituality. This is hinted in the series when twin brothers in the episode "The Fortuneteller" announced that only one of them is an Earthbender while the other is not.

Nominations and awards

Avatar won two Pulcinella Awards in 2005 for "Best Action/Adventure Series" and "Best Series of the Year." It recently received 2006 Annie Award nominations for "Best Animated Television Production," and "Writing in an Animated Television Production," (Aaron Ehasz, John O'Bryan - The Fortuneteller) and won for "Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production." (Lauren MacMullan - The Deserter)

Media information

See main article Avatar: The Last Airbender media information for the following:

• Broadcast history (domestic and international)
• DVD release information
• Promotional and merchandising information
• Title sequence transcripts

Trivia

• The series was originally supposed to air during November 2004.
• The four Chinese characters above the title translate to, "The Divine Medium who had descended upon the Mortal World."
• The show is also available on iTunes.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of only a few Nicktoons with an ongoing storyline.
• New seasons of Avatar start in spring, then Avatar takes a new episodes break in the summer, new episodes return in the fall and the season ends in early winter.

See also

• Avatar: The Last Airbender (video game)

Elemental nations

• Water Tribe
• Earth Kingdom
• Fire Nation
• Air Nomads

Bending Arts

• Waterbending
• Earthbending
• Firebending
• Airbending

References

• Avatar: The Last Airbender (TV-Series). United States. 2005. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |crew= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |distributor= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
• Upperdeck Entertaiment's press release, (contains season 2 premiere date)
• Upper Deck Entertainment's Avatar: The Last Airbender Trading Card Game website
• Nickelodeon's Official Avatar: The Last Airbender Flash Site
• Nickelodeon Asia's interview with the creators
• "Kung Fu Fightin' Anime Stars, Born in the U.S.A." (New York Times) (Free registration required)
• Distant Horizon: Calligraphy Writings in Avatar
• The Comic Con teaser reel
• Volume 3 release date
• Paramount's King's Island press release
• LEGO press release
• Announcements of Upper Deck and THQ games
• Pictures of Mattel's toy line
• Volume 4 release date

External links

Official sites

• Official Site
• Official Site (Flash Version)
• Official Site (Australia)
• Official Site (UK)
• Official Site (YTV Canada)
• Official Site (Latin America)
• Official Site (Italy)
• Official Site (Germany)

Related sites

• The Track Team (Series Composers and Sound Design)
• Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Assoc. (Martial Arts Consultant)
• Siu Leung Lee's Calligraphy (Calligraphy Consultant)
• Titmouse Inc. (Main Title Animation)
• Salami Studios (Post Production Sound)
• Encore Video (Post Production Services)
• DR Movie (Animation)
• Upper Deck Entertainment's Avatar: The Last Airbender Trading Card Game website

Unofficial sites

• Avatar: The Last Airbender at the Internet Movie Database
• Avatar: The Last Airbender at TV.com
• Avatar Wiki at Wikicities
• Distant Horizon (Fansite)
• Firebender.com (Screencap source)
• AvatarSpirit.Net (Transcript source/Fansite)