Avatar the Last Airbender: The Complete Series (2015)

Animé and Toons
Avatar the Last Airbender: The Complete Series (2015)
By Hervé St-Louis
March 27, 2022 - 20:04

Studios: Nickelodeon
Writer(s): Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
Starring: Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack De Sena, Dee Bradley Baker, Dante Basco, Michaela Jill Murphy, Mako, Grey Griffin
Directed by: Giancarlo Volpe, Ethan Spaulding, Lauren MacMullan, Dave Filoni, Joaquim Dos Santos, Michael Dante DiMartino, Anthony Lioi, Bryan Konietzko
Produced by: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, Miken Wong
Running Time: 1496 minutes
Release Date: 2015
Distributors: Paramount

Aang and Appa his flying bison were frozen for about a hundred year within an iceberg, leaving the world without an Avatar that could maintain the strenuous balance between the four kingdoms of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. The Fire kingdom in the absence of the Aang, the designated Avatar, and the last living airbender wages against the other nations and is winning. Brought back to life by Water kingdom youth Katara and Sokka, Aang must quickly master water, Earth, and fire in order to defeat the world-conquering Firelord before it’s too late. Can he?

This DVD set includes the entire animated series developed by Nichelodeon and that aired between 2005 and 2008. The series, greatly influenced by manga and animé, was a success for the studio but also a masterpiece weaving in several Asian and Inuit cultures into a new fictional world. Few Western-based series were able to draw so much from Asia in the past to such success and look as if they were produced in Japan or Korea. The best examples would be some of the series developed by Jean Chalopin, like Ulysses 31, Inspector Gadget, and The Mysterious Cities of Gold.

If you are familiar with Avatar the Last Airbender, you’ll know about the epic story and the long hero’s journey through which Aang goes through to fulfil his destiny. You’ll know about the humour and pantomime used to express many emotions and personality traits of characters. I binged the entire series in a few weeks, and that’s three full seasons of great stories. I had seen some of these episodes but never the entire series. It was amazing, and luckily, the series has not aged a bit since.

Aang was a silly kid without the will to take responsibility of his burden as the Avatar. His very escape from his role as the Avatar doomed his world and helped the disappearance of his own people. In this series, he learns much, but so do his companions and enemies. There are enough stories to develop each character here, until the magnificent finale where he fights the Firelord.

Each nation of element bender moves according to one Chinese traditional martial art. So the fights and the action are always innovative. Another innovative part of the series are the animals who almost never resemble those in our world. If you like political intrigues, and drama, you’ll find that in Avatar too.

This series is more than a compilation of several seasons in one set. It’s also filled a lot of features, interviews, commentaries, and other extras that shed some light on the series and its creators. There is more than enough material to entertain. While I did binge the series over a few weeks, I didn’t even completely watch all the features as there were so many.

If you have not had an opportunity to watch Avatar the Last Airbender, this is a good opportunity. The set is also available in Blu-Ray format. I found this at a local store on discount, which is why I jumped on it. You will be entertained by one of the best cartoon series of the 2000s. I can’t believe it’s so close to being 20 years.

Rating: 10/10