For those of you who don’t know, Avatar is thenewest animated show on Nickelodeon, and debuted last night. Normally, I couldn’t give two shits about Nicktoons because, hey, most of what theyhave is crap these days. But Julia seemed interested to watch it, so I sat down with her.
Dear Lord, this is the awesomest show ever. Seriously. Here’s my view on why:
First: the animation. Dear Lord, the animation. I haven’t seen anything this well-drawn from America outside of a movie in… Ever. Seriously. it rocks. The movement is so fluid, the landscapes so realistic… But it still keeps a lighthearted cartoony-kinda look to keep it amusing.
The plot: The plot of the show is something along the lines of "The four nations (based around the greek elements, of course, even though this seems to be a mostly asain-based world) lived in Harmony for years, with members of each nation becoming masters of that element. These people are known as elemental benders. Firebenders control fire, waterbenders control water, etc.
One day, the Firebenders started a huge war with everyone else. (Of coruse they did- Heaven Forbid any of the OTHER elements ever be evil.) Their terror spread far, until there was only one hope for the world- the Avatar, the one who could control all four elements. But jsut when the world needed hiom most, he disappeared.
Now, 100 years later, he has returned- as a 12-year-old kid. he is the Last Airbender. And the world’s fututer rests in his hands.
Heaven help us all."
I’m amazed at how well they handled the plot- they didn’t feel a need to rush through it, theydidn’t try to cut to the fighting too quickly, and we still had time to see some village fun.
Characters: You have to see this show for yourself to see how well they handled it. I cannot begin to explain it.
All in all: this show has the possibility to become the greatest aniated show I have ever seen. Which means, of course, that it won’t even complete the oriignal 13 episiodes. THis IS Nickelodeon we’re talking about, after all.
