The world renowned and critically acclaimed animated series from Nickelodeon, Avatar: The Last Airbender, began in 2005 and ended in 2008, capturing the hearts and minds of viewers young and old. Not only was the series’ premise of four elemental nations already captivating, but the show’s themes of imperialism and the importance of balance ensured that this series separated itself from most of Nickelodeon’s animated outings. Years later, the series spawned its own film studio (Avatar Studios), with one of its first projects being this animated film, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. This film follows Team Avatar, Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka, and Zuko, years after the ending of the original series as they attempt to pioneer peace among the nations amidst discovering the remnants of the Air Nomads, Aang’s tribe thought to be long gone. Now, I read somewhere that there were originally plans to release this film in theaters, and after seeing the movie for myself, I really wish they stuck with that plan. I can’t even imagine how mindblowing it would be to see this spectacle in a movie theater. The animation was one of the original series’ highlights, but the animation in this film was a next level visual treat. Between the breathtaking environments and the insane action set pieces, I quite literally could not take my eyes off of it. The utilization of frame rate and color vibrance was masterful. I could feel the passion of the animators through the screen. Speaking of the incredible action, each sequence was thrilling to watch, serving as a captivating mix of martial arts and each character using their airbending, waterbending, earthbending, and firebending prowess to the absolute fullest. In terms of the characters and the plot, Team Avatar is back like they never left. Despite the original series ending in 2008 and the characters having different voice actors to represent their older age, the chemistry between the characters is just as endearing and entertaining to watch as they were in the original series. There were certain comedic bits that definitely made me laugh out loud. Whether Sokka was cracking jokes or Zuko shaking his head at his former rival Aang’s childish shenanigans, the older versions of these beloved characters still perfectly portrayed how far all of them have come in terms of their character journeys and their relationships with each other. There are even references and Easter eggs to the original series that fans are sure to appreciate. (Cabbages! That’s all I’ll say.) In terms of the newer characters such as the ancient airbender Tagah and the non-bending extremist group the Denied, I’m not going to reveal too much about them for the sake of story spoilers, but their character arcs and their understandable motivations were welcome additions. Through Tagah, we even gather more information and lore about the Air Nomads and what they had to endure at the hands of the other nations, which I appreciated and led to a rather interesting clash of ideologies. The movie was rather short, and in terms of gripes, I do wish the film was a bit longer so we could not only flesh out these storylines a bit more, but to also spend more time on the character relationships and characters from the original series that didn’t really have a reason to be missing here. (Where was Suki? Also, some more time between Aang and Katara would’ve been nice.) However, those gripes didn’t affect my enjoyment of the film at all. As a matter of fact, even if I wasn’t already a massive Avatar fan, this would still be considered one of the best animated films I’ve seen in recent memory. I strongly recommend giving this a watch, and I hope to see more projects like this from Avatar Studios in the near future. Score: 9/10
Noah Robinson 