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Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2

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Avatar: The Last Airbender
Season 2
Cover for the second season DVD
No. of episodes20
Release
Original networkNickelodeon
Original releaseMarch 17 (2006-03-17) –
December 1, 2006 (2006-12-01)[1]
Season chronology
← Previous
Season 1
Next →
Season 3
List of episodes

Book Two: Earth is the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko for Nickelodeon. The series starred Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Jessie Flower, Dante Basco, Dee Bradley Baker, Mako Iwamatsu and Grey DeLisle as the main character voices.[1][2]

In the second season, Aang and his friends Katara and Sokka are on a quest to find an Earthbending teacher which finishes when they recruit Toph Beifong. After finding important information concerning the war with the Fire Nation, Appa ends up kidnapped. Their journey leads to Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, where they uncover a great internal government conspiracy. Meanwhile, due to their actions at the North Pole in Book One, Zuko and Iroh are declared traitors of the Fire Nation and desert their country, becoming fugitives in the Earth Kingdom. Pursuing both Zuko and Aang is Princess Azula, Zuko's younger prodigy sister.

Book Two: Earth premiered on Nickelodeon on March 17, 2006. It consisted of 20 episodes and concluded on December 1, 2006. The season received considerable acclaim, with the series being called "consistently excellent."[3] The series won multiple awards, including Best Character Animation in a Television Production from the 34th Annie Awards[4] and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation at the 2007 Emmy Awards.[5]

Between January 23, 2007 and September 11, 2007, Paramount Home Entertainment released four DVD sets containing five episodes each before releasing the entire season as a boxset.[6]

Episodes

See also: List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleDirected byWritten byAnimated byOriginal air dateProd.
code [1]
211"Chapter One: The Avatar State"Giancarlo VolpeAaron Ehasz, Elizabeth Welch Ehasz, Tim Hedrick and John O'BryanDR MovieMarch 17, 2006 (2006-03-17)201
222"Chapter Two: The Cave of Two Lovers"Lauren MacMullanJoshua HamiltonJM AnimationMarch 24, 2006 (2006-03-24)202
233"Chapter Three: Return to Omashu"Ethan SpauldingElizabeth Welch EhaszDR MovieApril 7, 2006 (2006-04-07)203
244"Chapter Four: The Swamp"Giancarlo VolpeTim HedrickJM AnimationApril 14, 2006 (2006-04-14)204
255"Chapter Five: Avatar Day"Lauren MacMullanJohn O'BryanDR MovieApril 28, 2006 (2006-04-28)205
266"Chapter Six: The Blind Bandit"Ethan SpauldingMichael Dante DiMartinoJM AnimationMay 5, 2006 (2006-05-05)206
277"Chapter Seven: Zuko Alone"Lauren MacMullanElizabeth Welch EhaszJM AnimationMay 12, 2006 (2006-05-12)207
288"Chapter Eight: The Chase"Giancarlo VolpeJoshua HamiltonDR MovieMay 26, 2006 (2006-05-26)208
299"Chapter Nine: Bitter Work"Ethan SpauldingAaron EhaszDR MovieJune 2, 2006 (2006-06-02)209
3010"Chapter Ten: The Library"Giancarlo VolpeJohn O'BryanJM AnimationJuly 14, 2006 (2006-07-14)210
3111"Chapter Eleven: The Desert"Lauren MacMullanTim HedrickDR MovieJuly 14, 2006 (2006-07-14)211
3212"Chapter Twelve: The Serpent's Pass"Ethan SpauldingMichael Dante DiMartino and Joshua HamiltonJM AnimationSeptember 15, 2006 (2006-09-15)212
3313"Chapter Thirteen: The Drill"Giancarlo VolpeMichael Dante DiMartino and Bryan KonietzkoDR MovieSeptember 15, 2006 (2006-09-15)213
3414"Chapter Fourteen: City of Walls and Secrets"Lauren MacMullanTim HedrickJM AnimationSeptember 22, 2006 (2006-09-22)214
3515"Chapter Fifteen: The Tales of Ba Sing Se"Ethan SpauldingThe Tale of Toph and Katara
Joann Estoesta and Lisa Wahlander
The Tale of Iroh
Andrew Huebner
The Tale of Aang
Gary Scheppke
The Tale of Sokka
Lauren MacMullan
The Tale of Zuko
Katie Mattila
The Tale of Momo
Justin Ridge and Giancarlo Volpe		DR MovieSeptember 29, 2006 (2006-09-29)215
3616"Chapter Sixteen: Appa's Lost Days"Giancarlo VolpeElizabeth Welch EhaszJM AnimationOctober 13, 2006 (2006-10-13)216
3717"Chapter Seventeen: Lake Laogai"Lauren MacMullanTim HedrickDR MovieNovember 3, 2006 (2006-11-03)217
3818"Chapter Eighteen: The Earth King"Ethan SpauldingJohn O'BryanJM AnimationNovember 17, 2006 (2006-11-17)218
3919"Chapter Nineteen: The Guru"Giancarlo VolpeMichael Dante DiMartino and Bryan KonietzkoDR MovieDecember 1, 2006 (2006-12-01)219
4020"Chapter Twenty: The Crossroads of Destiny"Michael Dante DiMartinoAaron EhaszJM AnimationDecember 1, 2006 (2006-12-01)220

Production

The season was produced by and aired on Nickelodeon, which is owned by Viacom. 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.[7] Most of the individual episodes were directed by Ethan Spaulding, Lauren MacMullan and Giancarlo Volpe.[2] 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.[2]

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.[8]

Cast

Most of the main characters from the first season remained the same: Zach Tyler Eisen voices Aang, Mae Whitman voices Katara, Jack DeSena voices Sokka,[2] Dee Bradley Baker voices both Appa and Momo, and Dante Basco voices Zuko.[9]

However, several new characters appear: Jessie Flower voices Toph Beifong, Grey DeLisle voices Azula, Cricket Leigh voices Mai, Olivia Hack voices Ty Lee, and Clancy Brown voices Long Feng.[2]

Mako Iwamatsu, who voiced Iroh in the first two seasons, died from throat cancer after production was completed; he was replaced by Greg Baldwin for the following season and The Legend of Korra.[10]

In the episode "The Tales of Ba Sing Se, the segment titled "The Tale of Iroh" features a dedication to Mako at the end when Iroh is tearfully singing to mourn the loss of his only child Lu Ten.

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 complimented it for its depth and humour.[11] 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 culture 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.[11]

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. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 87% fresh rating in 2008.[12] 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".[3]

The show also received acclaim for its visual appeal. In the 34th 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".[4] In 2007, the show was nominated for "Outstanding Animated Program" in the 2007 Emmy Awards for the "City of Walls and Secrets" episode,[13] though it did not win.[5] However, the show did win the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award for Sang-Jin Kim's animation in the "Lake Laogai" episode.[5]

Home media

Nickelodeon began releasing DVDs for Book 2 on January 23, 2007.[14] The first four DVD releases contain one disc that consisted of five episodes each.[15] The final DVD was the "Complete Book 2 Box Set", which contains all of the episodes in the season on four discs, and packaged with a special features disc.[6] 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. Book 2 was released on Region 2 on July 20, 2009.

Volume Discs Episodes Region 1 release Region 2 release Region 3 release
1 1 5 January 23, 2007 Not released June 4, 2009[16]
2 1 5 April 10, 2007 Not released August 6, 2009[17]
3 1 5 May 22, 2007 Not released October 29, 2009[18]
4 1 5 August 14, 2007 Not released March 31, 2010[19]
Box set 4[20] 20[20] September 11, 2007 July 20, 2009 September 9, 2010[21]

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 July 21, 2008.
  • "Season 2 DVD Information". TVShowsOnDVD.com. February 24, 2005. Archived from the original on 15 September 2008. Retrieved September 6, 2008.
Specific
  1. ^ a b "IGN: Avatar: The Last Airbender: Season 2". IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on 29 September 2008. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast and Details". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  3. ^ a b Rich, Jamie S. (September 12, 2007). "Avatar The Last Airbender — The Complete Book 2 Collection". DVD Talk. Retrieved June 6, 2008.
  4. ^ a b "Annie Awards: Legacy - 34th Annual Annie Awards". International Animated Film Society. February 9, 2006. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  5. ^ a b c Mesger, Robin (September 8, 2007). "59th Creative Emmy Awards Winners" (PDF). Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. pp. 11–12. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 28, 2007. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  6. ^ a b "Season 2 DVD Information". TVShowsOnDVD.com. February 24, 2005. Archived from the original on 15 September 2008. Retrieved September 6, 2008.
  7. ^ DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan (August 29, 2005). "Interview with "Avatar" Program Creators — Page 3". Animation Insider (Interview: Transcript). Interviewed by Aaron H. Bynum. Archived from the original on August 4, 2008. Retrieved May 29, 2008.
  8. ^ DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan (August 29, 2005). "Interview with "Avatar" Program Creators — Page 4". Animation Insider (Interview: Transcript). Interviewed by Aaron H. Bynum. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved May 29, 2008.
  9. ^ "Dante Basco". 2005. Retrieved March 31, 2008.
  10. ^ "Avatar: Why Uncle Iroh Was Recast In The Last Airbender". ScreenRant. 2020-07-15. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  11. ^ a b Powers, Gabriel. "Avatar: The Last Airbender, Book 2, Vl.1". DVDActive. Archived from the original on 2008-10-11. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  12. ^ Powers, Gabriel. "Avatar: The Last Airbender, Season Two Collection". DVDActive. Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  13. ^ "59th Creative Emmy Awards Nominations" (PDF). Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 2007. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2007. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  14. ^ "Avatar: The Last Airbender Search". Amazon.com, Inc. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  15. ^ "The Avatar: The Last Airbender Series". Amazon.co.uk. Amazon.com, Inc. Archived from the original on August 1, 2008. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  16. ^ "Buy Avatar: The Legend of Aang - Book 2: Earth - Volume 1 on DVD-Video from EzyDVD.com.au".
  17. ^ "Buy Avatar: The Legend of Aang - Book 2: Earth - Volume 2 on DVD-Video from EzyDVD.com.au".
  18. ^ "Buy Avatar: The Legend of Aang - Book 2: Earth - Volume 3 on DVD-Video from EzyDVD.com.au".
  19. ^ "Buy Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 2: Earth - Volume 4 on DVD-Video from EzyDVD.com.au".
  20. ^ a b "Avatar: The Last Airbender — Season Two DVD Information". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 4 November 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  21. ^ "Buy Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Complete Book 2 Collection (4 Disc Box Set) on DVD-Video from EzyDVD.com.au". Archived from the original on 2010-09-09.

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