Series
|
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Creators: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko Country of Origin: United States Number of Episodes: 61 Original Run: February 21, 2005 - July 19, 2008 |
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an award-winning cartoon series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. It takes place in a world where gifted people have the ability to manipulate one of the four elements: fire, water, earth or air. For example, someone from the Earth kingdom may be able to lift rocks just by lifting their arms, which makes him an Earthbender.
Avatar centers around the character Aang, who is the Avatar (a person who can master all four elements and whose job is to mediate peace between the four nations). But due to unpleasant circumstances, Aang disappeared for 100 years, and the Fire Nation is now raging war against the other nations. It's now Aang's job to right his wrong and stop the Fire Nation from taking over the world. Too bad he's only 12-years-old and isn't even close to mastering all four elements, but with the help of his talented friends, there is still hope.
The creators of the series were heavily influenced by Asian culture: the Bending movements were taken from various Asian martial arts, the characters write using Chinese calligraphy, the food and clothes are from different Asian countries, etc. A lot of research and consulting went into making sure that everything was as realistic as possible. Avatar is also known for combining the distinct styles of Western cartoon and Japanese animation.
| Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino: The best anime balances great action sequences with humor and emotion, something we try to do on Avatar. We love all the films of Hayao Miyazaki, especially Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. Both movies deal with spirituality and the environment in an entertaining way. Also, there's a lot of great animation. |
Avatar is a truly unique and engaging series. Even though it's target age demographic is for 6- to 11-year-olds, it's intricate details, realistic folklores and whitty humour will interest people of all ages.
