They CAN make good shows?

[Zeta]

Hell hath frozen over.

There must be something really strange going on. Because Nicklodeon has a good show on. For the first time since Fairly Oddparents got stale and Invader Zim was canceled. I know! I don't get it, either. After years and years of shitty teen "comedies" and waves and waves of crappy Klasky Csupo cartoons, Nick finally produces something worth watching. I mean, REALLY worth watching. I mean, after stuff like Danny Phantom and Rocket Power - I was pretty much going to give up on nick, but they somehow managed to do something good.

Anyways, it's called "Avatar: The Last Airbender". At first, the anime influence and REALLY good animation made me think that it was obviously foreign and dubbed. However, it appears that it was in fact - written, produced, and designed in the US for Nickleodeon. We're talking art that's arguably better than stuff seen on Teen Titans - at least up to par with the Batman animated series.

Anyways, the thing takes place in a magical land that draws a lot of influence from China. Chinese-style clothing, archetecture, culture, wildlife, everything. Anyways, there are four seperate tribes divided by territory and the typical elemental magical powers- fire, water, earth, and air. The fire tribe is this huge, militaristic nation based on imperial China. The air tribe are a bunch of Shaolin monks. The earth tribe are a bunch of scholarly Confusians. The water tribe are eskimos. I guess the writers ran out of China. And well - they're KIND of asian, right?

Well, the thing is, that the whole planet has been at bloody war for the past 100 years. The fire-tribe keeps on invading the territory of the other tribes. Since the fire-tribe has technology and weaponry, they pretty much easily kick the ass of the seal-eaters, schoolboys, and monks.

This is all supposed to be kept in check by the Avatar - the magical version of the Dali Lama. See, this entity keeps on being reincarnated into people from all the different tribes. So he has the mystical skills to master all four of the elements.

Well, it turns out that he's just been stuck in an iceburg for the past 100 years. And he's 12. And he's got an extremely short attention span.

And from there the story develops pretty much like you'd expect it would. I watched the first three episodes and was really blown away. The elemental effects (such as hydrokinesis or blasts of air) are gorgeous. The landscapes are painstakingly detailed. The character designs and everything basically feel like you're watching Nausica or Spirited Away or some other Studio Ghibli project except episodical instead of as a movie.

The casting is superb - with you know - actual kids casted as kids instead of 60-year old women on helium doing the voices. They apparently purposely casted quite a few genuine asians in several roles as well.

And the atmosphere, story, and characters really reminded me of one particular game - Zelda: Wind Waker. Remember how everyone said the good part of the art direction is that it looked like a Saturday morning cartoon. Well, this is that cartoon. You've got giant steeds, battles across different regions, the plucky but not annoying and still believably young hero, lots of sailing, adventures into mystical temples. Pretty much everything you would expect in a good Zelda game only animated.

I'm still baffled as to how this happened. I can only assume the marketing execs had a sudden attack of good taste when they actually approved this series for production. The closest thing I can come up with is that Hayao Miyazaki is really masquerading as "Dave Filoni" or something and trying to make a series for Nickelodeon.

[G.Silver]

Commercial here.

http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersi ... va&clip=16

What's up with this? I go to their website so they can advertise their show to me, but before I can watch the Avatar ad, they run an ad for Cocoa Puffs? It's their official site! How desperate for money are they? Why don't they throw up a few "oh nos spyware!" pop up ads too while they're at it? (maybe they did and Firefox blocked them...)

[Pepperidge]

I was intentionally keeping my expectations low for this series, but I'm happy to hear that it turned out pretty good.

The only question remains is whether or not they've actually planned out a story or if we're just going to be left hanging when the show is inevitably canceled after 13 episodes.

[Carl with a K]

That kid looks like Malak from Star Wars:KOTOR. Just, ya know, observing.

[Double-S-]

I don't know what this is, because the only tv I watch is 24.

[Spazz]

I didn't see any Cocoa Puffs ad.

[Zeta]

The only question remains is whether or not they've actually planned out a story or if we're just going to be left hanging when the show is inevitably canceled after 13 episodes.

Yeah. The show's already got a cult following that's predicting it's inevitable demise. It's just too good for Nick's brain-fried audience.

Anyways, according to the episode titles, it looks like it's either going to be one self-contained story - or the plan was to stretch out the story across four seasons - one for each element.

So, yeah. Unless some grace of God grants the children of the United States to ability to recognize something that doesn't have 14-year old girls whining about braziers and boys riding giant toys around - this show is pretty much doomed.

[chriscaffee]

It looks okay, but meh, don't really care.

[j-man]

Looks sweet. I can't wait until like 2008 when they finally show it in England.

[Segata]

Looks pretty cool. Does anyone know of a site that would have torrents for the episodes that have already aired?

[Ngangbius]

I've just learned about this show last week from a similar reaction topic from another message board I go to. I guess the surprise from various people(including me) about this show airing on Nick says alot about the network.

This new show reminds me of a time when Nick regularly aired action serial cartoons in the 80's such as Lost Cities of Gold and Spartikus and the Sun Beneath the Sea(Les Mondes Engolutis). Never thought that this current Nick would ever revive this concept again, but then again they are probably feeling pressure from CN due to the success of Teen Titans and DBGT.

Oh and I like the show so far and Zeta hit the nail on the head in that it is very Ghibli-ish. Here's really hoping that it will complete it's 26-episode run without Nick shuffling it around in their whacky scedules.

[Psxphile]

I caught it last week while flipping channels. I knew absolutely nothing about it but was quickly enamoured by what I saw. It aired the first two episodes twice in sucession that day (Tuesday? Wednesday?) and then again on Friday proper followed by the third.

I was surprised to see such a thing on, of all things, Nick. I had to stop by Toonzone after the first airing to prove to myself I wasn't just imagining it.

[Delphine]

I caught it last week while flipping channels.

*snicker*

[Neo Yi]

It is VERY nice to know I'm not the only one who massively enjoyed Avator. Yea, manage to watch all three episodes so far and I find it promising. There's beautiful animation (despite the anime influence), great character personality, hell, there's barely any corny lines or dialogues. Even Aang isn't annoying, which is a GOOD thing. I'm keeping a close eye on this one.
~Neo

[Ngangbius]

Here's an interesting note about the production of the show that was discussed on TZ:

Avatar was sent to the anime studio who did Sky Blue. They are based out of Korea, but don't say people don't call Sky Blue an anime film. They were picked based on the animation quality of that film. Originally the show was going to be pitched to GAINAX, so don't say the intention was not to mimic anime.

They supposedly pitched to Ghibli too. Yeah, they were gunning for anime, and getting a good studio to do it. The Sky Blue Studio does superb work when budget and time are allowed, so I was surprised to see that not reflected in it.

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=134619

Interesting...

Sky Blue is the American name of the Korean film, Wonderful Days.

[Knuckles Dawson]

Sounds like a keeper, I'll look into it when I get a chance.