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Avatar - The Last Airbender: Book 3: Fire - Volume 1
Before
there were the 3D blue people getting about in skimpy outfits and
touching each other inappropriately with their ponytails, this smart,
funny and well crafted Nickelodeon series was entertaining both child
and adult alike. Following 112 year old Aang, an Avatar (Earth’s spirit
incarnate) who is charged with bringing peace to the Earth, Water, Air
and Fire nations by defeating the evil Fire Lord. Along with his
eight-legged bison Aapa (think Miyazaki’s Totoro crossed with
Pikachu), siblings Kotara and Sokka, and Toph, he travels through each
nation gaining skills before his final show down with the war mongering
Fire Lord Sozin. Each series or book Aang masters a new style of bending
– a fighting style utilising a specific element, and at the start of
this final book, he is just mastering the principals of firebending.
From
that description alone, it may sound like the stuff of standard Saturday
morning television. But what sets Avatar apart is the amount of
detail creators
Michael Dante
DiMartino and
Bryan Konietzko
have gone to create a truly immersive universe. A particular
example of this is the effort gone into differentiating each nation and
it’s people from the other, from the landscapes they inhabit, their
demeanours and beliefs, to the way they move. Visual references range
from traditional Asian cultures to John Woo, The Marx Brothers and
The Matrix permeating both the dynamic fight sequences and the
narrative.
The
current trend of chopping an entire series up into sets of saleable
packages poses a problem here, as sometimes one can end up with a dud
batch – it’s just how it is, keeping a consistent level of quality
through tens of episodes is a problem unique to television. As this disc
is just the first five episodes of the final series, the majority of
episodes are exposition focused, briefly introducing the key players in
the inevitable showdown at the end of the series, which in one sitting
can feel a little slow. That being said, the fourth and fifth episodes
(“Sokka’s Master” and “The Beach”) are hilarious, focussing on the
likeable B characters inhabiting the Avatar universe.
The
special features are limited – audio commentaries are provided on
episodes four and five with the creators, martial arts consultants and
writers which would be interesting to fans interested in the specifics
of production.
As any
long time fan of the show would know, any Avatar episode is
worth it, so if you can’t wait for the box set, run out and grab this. |
