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This cartoon on Nichelodeon has surprised me. It's shaping up to be a darn good story. Like Babylon 5, the entire series is one story.
I look back on advenure cartoon TV series I've enjoyed throughout my life, for example Tarzan (not the current Disney version), Batman, Tales of the Black Water (I might have messed up that name), Star Trek (that rocked), Smurfs (yes there were some excellent fantasy adventure stories included, smarty pants), X-Men (that really rocked), Justice League (so did that, and then some), and so on, I can't remember any that were better, and maybe even as good as, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The third season has just started, and it stands to reason that there will be one more because each season has the title of one of the 4 elements, but they are also re-running a lot of episodes from previous seasons.
Am I the first "Nauvoodle" to make this happy discovery?
[ October 13, 2007, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: Randy ]
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I dislike/do not appreciate anime, which is what I thought Avatar was, and it looked absolutely unappealing. It was recommended by a mom I know who said that she, her husband and her 10 year old son all love it; she's recommended it to her parents, who liked it enough to buy the DVDs; her siblings all got hooked; anyway, she convinced me to give it a try.
She let us borrow season 1, Waterbenders, and season 2 Earthbenders on DVD. The first episode was entertaining enough that I watched the second episode (my kids loved it right away) and before long my husband and I both were sucked in, as well. We watched a couple episodes a night and my husband insisted that we not watch any new episodes unless he was home to join in. He is usually pretty non-committed to TV shows and doesn't care if he misses something, but not with Avatar.
My kids are a 15 year old girl, a 13 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. There aren't too many things they all agree on, so Avatar is a great find. We don't get Nickolodeon, so we have downloaded the newer Season 3 shows off of itunes and have started buying the first two seasons on DVD. My kids would often rather watch them instead of a movie.
After all that, I don't want to raise expectations too high but if you're skeptical, just give them a try. Some episodes are better than others, but they all work as chapters/parts of the whole. I think they've gotten better as they go. They're clean and fun and you can't beat a show that features a haiku duel (an episode in season 2).
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I'm not surprised at your experience, chockhopper, it's good stuff. Some of it does remind me a little of anime, which has never appealed to me either, but the stories are solid.
I watch it with my daughter. Recently, we saw an episode from the 2nd season where the star, Aang, and his friends, never appeared. Didn't even stick their noses in for a second. It was all about their foes. How often do you see a cartoon series that do something like that? And it was a great episode.
The good guys all have flaws in their characters. And some of their enemies have a good share of honor, empathy, and even nobility. Not stock characters.
I strongly suspect that most people who enjoy fantasy adventure would enjoy Avatar: The Last Airbender.
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We've been watching it since the beginning. I really liked the most recent episode where Saka learns about sword fighting. It's an excellent example of how the series mixes humor and story.
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It's a very well done series with a bit of a western bend to it (i.e. it takes a lot of the conventions from Japanese anime and Miyazaki style animation, but still uses a lot of stateside conventions for animation; Tex Avery and Chuck Jones nods appear every once in awhile).
Plus, thay have Mako providing voice-over. Mako rocks .
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I recognized the voices of George Takei (sp?) (Sulu of Star Trek) and Rene Aberjoinis (sp?) (Odo of Star Trek: Deep Space 9) on three of the episodes. That's neither here nor there, but as a fan of Star Trek, it was fun.
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While we were in Utah we saw the final few episodes of the series on Teevee. besides the pain of having to endure commercials, it was a really great series.
I was totally geeking out on it. I know that M Night Shamalamadingdong dude is supposed to be working on an Avatar movie, that's supposed to actually go to theatres, I think... in a couple years. To keep our collection complete we need to snag the last fire volume to say we have them on all on disk.
I've been impressed by the powerful themes of forgiveness and creativity in finding ways not to kill others, etc.
I would say more about the last episode... but ... um... well... that'd be spoiling it... but it was pretty good.
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Wha? Season 5 of Babylon 5 isn't that good? Well, darn.
We've gotten to the middle of Season 3 and loooove it.
Thank you to the Nauvoodles - especially you, ray - for recommending this series. (And I'm making a mental note to check out Airbender.)
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I thought season five of Babylon 5 was pretty good. It was a very good wrap up with some excellent regligious themes (even though the author is a self proclaimed atheist).
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Originally the content of 5 was intended to be intermingled with 4. But, instead 5 ended up with the psi cops story and a bunch of stuff. Season 5 was better than most sci fi, but of all 5 seasons 5 was the weakest, IMO.
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Gotcha. Kinda like Season 7 of Buffy is not as stellar as earlier seasons, but still eminently watchable. (Personally, the moment when Andrew and Spike are waxing poetic about onion blossoms is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.)
We just finished watching Disc 4 of Babylon 5 and arrrrgh! it's a two-parter. We've got to wait for Canflix to mail the next one. I just hate it when a "to be continued..." is on a separate disc.
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B5: The reason season 5 is not nearly as good as the other four, is because Season 5 was because they didn't think they actually were going to GET a season 5... So when JMS (the show's writer/producer) wrote season four he PACKED IT with all sorts of stuff that he would've slowly divulged over season 5, which made season 4 better. Ultimately though, what killed Season 5 was the fact that it went to TNT (the station of Walker Texas Ranger and Professional Wrestling) and the execs kept trying to throw that into the series (a fact that is indisputable if you also have "Crusade" the single season spin off series of B5 that never got a chance to really take off at all...)
Another matter that really creamed Season 5 is the major cast change that happens... which I can't tell you about because it would spoil certain things... but one actor who shall remain nameless tried to get more money out of the last season and so the writer was forced to go a different direction with that character and introduce a new one in that person's stead... and new actors take a bit of getting used to...
That said, I like season five better than season 1, mostly because telepaths are my faves... especially Lyta... (though I was always somewhat annoyed with JMS's intents with her character... I never felt he liked her enough to make her really get a good story).
That said... Avatar is definitely a whole lot of Awesome... again there are certain cahracters I would've liked to have seen play out in the final battle that didn't get any time... but alas, not all writers can be as good as me.
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I love Avatar. I now let my 5 year old watch some of the episodes. It was a great series. I agree with the comments about one reason it is so good is having one over-arching storyline from beginning to end. In addition to the Star Trek voices, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) is the voice of Fire Lord Ozai.
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It was a great series. I enjoyed the whole thing. We have been able to draw many gospel parallels from it. I'm thinking this would make EQ more interesting.
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I love this show! It took me awhile to give it a chance because it looked like anime and i really don't care for it, but my daughter wanted to rent the series from Netflix. I took a peak at some of it and I began to like what I saw. So I ordered all three seasons and we all watched it. Not only is the storytelling is excellent, but I love the characters and boy is the animation pretty! I love to point out all the Asian influences.
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Oh certainly. It surprised me how mature Avatar is. There's so many layers. Some moments parallel real moments in history. One scene that sticks out for me is when Azula invaded Ba Sing Se. You see people crying in agony. It reminded me of the photo of the French man crying after the Nazi's invaded Paris.
Speaking of Ba Sing Se, the whole Orwellian thing was pretty creepy.
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We just finished watching Avatar last night (not a conventional FHE, but c'mon, it was the 4-part finale ), and LOVED it. Just like chockhopper said 2 1/2 years ago, this is a show we wouldn't watch unless the whole family was sitting down together, as everyone was really into it, from my almost 3yo to my 16yo to my 49yo husband.
GREAT finale. Or as my 16yo says, "Awesome Sauce!" We're really hoping the movie lives up to its potential. Superbowl trailer.
Thanks for the recommendations, everyone. Hmmm, now what do we watch?
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They are still letting that guy direct stuff? I am surprised. My kids will have to see it. Hopefully he doesn't mess it up.
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We love the cartoon and have all of the DVDs. The teaser trailers for the live action version look seriously awesome... but I must admit, I'm a bit leery of what M. Night will do to it. Or has done to it, whatever. I've never been all that impressed with his movies.
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There's some controversy about the movie. Some are angry that white kids play some of the characters. Particularly the kids who play Sokka and Katara. I do think it looks a bit out of place to have white kids play characters that are inspired by Inuit Indians.
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I agree that it will feel a bit odd. I think that's one of the reasons that JKR was quite adamant that HP be played by a brit.
I remember when Kung Fu first came out there was a bit of controversy that David Carradine was playing Caine.
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I looked around and M Night said he will omit the Chinese calligraphy and make up his own calligraphy. I don't like that. I always liked the Chinese influence of the TV show.
But he did say that Momo will be in the movie. I like Momo. His little theme music was cute.
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Yeah. In fact the calligraphy consultant for the TV show had this to say:
quote:It is not only a disappointment on the cast. They are removing all the successful elements of the original TV series. I think that would keep a lot of Asian audience away.
I am disappointed to learn that the Avatar movie has removed the successful cultural elements of the original Avatar TV series. Whether this is a right decision will be seen in the box office.
posted
At least they didn't get rid of Appa. Now what about Momo? Clearly they're only gonna cover Season 1 in this movie.
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but if you're skeptical, just give them a try. Some episodes are better than others, but they all work as chapters/parts of the whole. I think they've gotten better as they go. They're clean and fun and you can't beat a show that features a haiku duel (an episode in season 2).![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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for a great series.
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), and LOVED it. Just like chockhopper said 2 1/2 years ago, this is a show we wouldn't watch unless the whole family was sitting down together, as everyone was really into it, from my almost 3yo to my 16yo to my 49yo husband. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
