July 10, 2008
Next week, the remaining 10 episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender will air each night, ending with what should be an explosive two-hour series finale on July 19. It has been over three years since Avatar: The Last Airbender began airing on Nickelodeon, and over time the show has grown from a deceptively simple kid's adventure series to one of the best American animated series ever.
In honor of Avatar's impending series finale, we here at BuddyTV sat down and racked our brains to list our top 10 favorite Avatar episodes. The choices were tough, since nearly every episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender is packed with humor, action and heart – but even in a sea of awesomeness, some episodes rose to the top.
June 17, 2008
For someone used to network TV, the almost haphazard scheduling of Avatar: The Last Airbender has been more than a little confusing. Nickelodeon has aired seasons of this show with extensive breaks between episodes, and then waited months and months between seasons. For a show aimed at a younger audience with a short attention span, this doesn't seem like the wisest plan. Especially since Avatar: The Last Airbender isn't a Spongebob Squarepants, which has nothing resembling an overarcing story and can air reruns forever without anyone much caring.
Avatar: The Last Airbender and its coherent, specific story arcs is a tale best seen beginning to end, and finally the end of the series – its last few episodes before its conclusive finale – will air in just a month. Strangely, the current schedule is that the last episodes will be aired straight through during the course of one week, an odd choice after the lengthy and painfully long schedule the show previously endured.
June 10, 2008
M. Night Shyamalan's new R-rated thriller The Happening is hitting theaters this Friday, and as he makes the rounds to promote the film he's getting hit with a lot of questions about the upcoming live action Avatar: The Last Airbender movie. Currently the flick is being called simply The Last Airbender so as to not conflict with director James “Titanic” Cameron's upcoming movie Avatar.
Shyamalan has reportedly been working closely with Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko to craft the movie, which he plans to be the first of a trilogy with each movie following one season of the series. Though Shyamalan has long received criticism for his particular brand of storytelling and for the films that followed his smash hit The Sixth Sense, the news that the original Avatar creators are involved and that Shyamalan seems to have huge respect for the story is encouraging news.
June 4, 2008
As Uncle Iroh might tell us, patience is a virtue. But patience as an Avatar: The Last Airbender fan can only last so long before we just want Nickelodeon to hurry up and air the last few episodes already.
Good news, Avatar fans. If you haven't yet heard, the remaining half of Book 3: Fire is coming to American TV in just six weeks. Though several episodes beyond the mid-season two parter "The Day of Black Sun" have aired outside of the US, and a few of those are already out on DVD, come July 14 Nickelodeon will finally air the last ten episodes of the series.
May 14, 2008
Fans would be thrilled to know that Avatar: The Last Airbender has made enough waves in the entertainment industry to have a film adaptation to its name. In fact, they’d be happier to know that M. Night Shyamalan, the man behind the success of the film The Sixth Sense, has enlisted his talents for the making of the live-action film adaptation, which is set to be released on July 2, 2010. According to Variety, the production team has titled the film “The Last Airbender,” dropping the “Avatar” to avoid confusion with James Cameron’s upcoming flick of the same name, which is set to be released in December 2009.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was inspired and influenced by Japanese filmmaker Hayao Mizahaki, whom Shyamalan believes is one of the greatest storytellers in the world. Shyamalan adds that “In 'The Last Airbender,' I see an opportunity to make a live-action version of a Miyazaki film.”
May 7, 2008
Fans would be happy to know that Volume 3 of the third season DVD of Avatar: The Last Airbender hit retail stores all over the United States yesterday, May 6. Late last year, Book 3: Fire, Volume 1, the first of four volumes, was made available for the retail price of $16.99. Volume 1 contained five episodes of the series, with an audio commentary by the creators of crew. While October 2007’s Volume 1 release included episodes “The Awakening,” “The Headband,” “The Painted Lady,” “Sokka's Master” and “The Beach,” yesterday’s Volume 2 release included just five episodes with no extras or features. The $16.99-worth Volume 2 included “The Avatar and the Fire Lord,” “The Runaway,” “The Puppetmaster,” “Nightmares and Daydreams” and “Day of Black Sun.”
Yesterday, the five-episode long Volume 3 DVD was released, and fans got the first look of four yet-unaired episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
March 12, 2008
The New York Comic Con is just a few weeks away, and Nick Magazine's associate editor Dave Roman is encouraging fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender to submit show-related creations that may be featured during the show's panel.
Roman wrote on his official blog that the magazine is considering featuring “fan-made things at NYCC… if they are FUNNY, short and PG rated!” Roman also gave some suggestions on what fans can send in, including a “short/ funny tribute video that covers fandom as whole or plays to the anticipation of the big finale, a well-edited compilation of the cool Avatar cosplay all in one place set to music, short fan-made videos/confessionals where people [or puppets, or cartoons] explain what they love about Avatar and/or why other people should watch it, a compilation of Avatar AMVs [Animated Music Videos], original parodies that are PG [or slightly PG-13] and Bender-rock: Musical acts inspired by Avatar.”
March 5, 2008
Nickelodeon’s hit cartoon series, Avatar: The Last Airbender has, in its more than three years on air, featured an extensive original musical score, courtesy of composers Benjamin Wynn and Jeremy Zuckerman, more popularly known among show and music fans as The Track Team. Unfortunately, Nickelodeon has yet to release an official compilation of the show’s music.
This could all change, however, should the combined efforts of avid Avatar: The Last Airbender followers and the Track Team pay off in the near future. At present, a petition for the network to create an official soundtrack for the series is going around online. So far, more than 3,900 signatures have already been collected for the petition, which was launched in January 27.