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Avatar: The Last Airbender (season 1)
Encyclopedia
Season One of Avatar: The Last Airbender
, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon
, aired 20 episodes from February 21, 2005 to December 2, 2005. The series was created by Michael Dante DiMartino
and Bryan Konietzko
, and starred Zach Tyler Eisen
, Mae Whitman
, Jack DeSena
, Mako
, Dante Basco
, and Jason Isaacs
as the main character voices.
The season revolves around the protagonist
, Aang
, and his friends Katara and Sokka
and their journey to the North Pole to find a Waterbending master to teach Aang and Katara. Fire Lord Ozai, the current Fire Lord of the Fire Nation, is waging a seemingly endless war against the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, and the already vanquished Air Nomads. Aang, the current Avatar, must master the four elements—Air, Water, Earth, and Fire—before defeating the Fire Lord and ending the war. Along the way, Aang and his friends are chased by various pursuers, including Prince Zuko, a banished Fire Nation prince, and Admiral Zhao, a key member of the Fire Navy.
Each episode of Season One attracted more than a million viewers on its first airing. Season One won "Best TV Series" and "Best Animated Television Series" in the boys 9–14-year old demographic at the 2005 Pulcinella Awards, which gives awards for excellence in animation.
Between January 4, 2006 and September 19, 2006, five DVD sets were released in the United States, each containing four episodes from the season. On September 12, 2006, Nickelodeon also released the "Complete Book 1 Collection Box Set", which contained all of the episodes in the season as well as a special features disc. The original releases were encoded in Region 1, a DVD type that plays only in American DVD players. From 2007 to 2009, Nickelodeon released Region 2 DVDs, which can play in Europe.
The first has been adapted into a live-action film The Last Airbender
, directed by M. Night Shyamalan
and was released in 2010.
, which is owned by Viacom
. The show's executive producers were co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who worked alongside episode director and co-producer Aaron Ehasz. Eight episodes were directed by Dave Filoni. Animation directors Lauren MacMullan
and Giancarlo Volpe
directed five episodes each, and Anthony Lioi directed two. Episodes were written or co-written by a team of writers, which included Nick Malis
, John O'Bryan
, Matthew Hubbard, James Eagan, Ian Wilcox, Tim Hedrick and Elizabeth Welch Ehasz. All of the show's music was composed by "The Track Team", which consists of Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, who were known to Dante and Konietzko because Zuckerman was Konietzko's roommate.
and Mako starred as antagonists Zuko and Iroh, though their role in the show would change near the end of the season. Aang's animal companions, Appa and Momo, were both voiced by Dee Bradley Baker
. In the third episode of the season, a new enemy to both Aang and Zuko, Admiral Zhao, was voiced by Jason Isaacs
. When the season neared its middle, Aang and his companions stumble upon Jet, who was voiced by Crawford Wilson
.
claims "the colors are bright, and the picture is nearly flawless." He says later in the review that "the audio is very nice, with lots of directional effects and nice musical cues." Barnes & Noble
reviewer Christina Urban praised the season's masterful combination of "elements from Chinese kung fu, Tibetan philosophy
, Japanese martial arts
forms, and even Hindu spiritual beliefs". According to Aaron Bynum from AnimationInsider.net, "the series posted double digit year-to-year gains in May". He also said that the show has been number one in the boys 9–14-year old demographic, and has attracted many age and gender groups in its pool of 1.1 million viewers who watch each new episode.
In addition, the season has won many awards throughout its runtime. During the 33rd Annual Annie Awards, the show was nominated for the "Best Animated Television Production" award. Because of the episode "The Fortuneteller", the show was nominated for the "Writing for an Animated Television Production" award. For the episode "The Deserter", the season was nominated for and won the "Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production" award. During the 2005 Pulcinella Awards, the season won the "Best Action/Adventure TV Series" award as well and the general "Best TV Series" award.
versions of the single-disc volume sets started being released on February 19, 2007;. As with the original Region 1 NTSC
DVDs, each set contains four episodes per disc. The Complete Book One Collection was released on January 26, 2009 containing all twenty episodes on five discs. These Region 2 releases lack the commentary tracks and other DVD extras found on the Region 1 releases.
.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz...
, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
, aired 20 episodes from February 21, 2005 to December 2, 2005. The series was created by Michael Dante DiMartino
Michael Dante DiMartino
Michael Dante DiMartino is an American animation director, best known as the co-creator, executive producer and story editor of the hit TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon...
and Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko is the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He has also worked as a character designer at Film Roman for Family Guy and as Assistant Director for Mission Hill and King of the Hill. He was a Storyboard Artist and Art Director for the...
, and starred Zach Tyler Eisen
Zach Tyler Eisen
Zachary Tyler "Zach" Eisen is an American actor and voice actor. His roles include Aang in the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, Lucas Nickle in The Ant Bully , Andrew in Nick Jr.'s Little Bill, and Pablo the Penguin in Nick Jr.'s The Backyardigans...
, Mae Whitman
Mae Whitman
Mae Margaret Whitman is an American television, movie and voice actress. She is known for her role as Ann Veal in the TV series Arrested Development, her role as Amber on the TV series Parenthood, her role as Roxy Richter in Scott Pilgrim vs...
, Jack DeSena
Jack DeSena
Jack DeSena is an American screen and voice actor. He is best known for his work on the sketch comedy series All That, having joined the show's cast at the start of its 7th season in 2001 Jack DeSena (born John Patrick DeSena; December 6, 1987, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American screen and...
, Mako
Mako (actor)
, born , was an Oscar- and Tony-nominated Japanese actor. Many of his acting roles credited him simply as Mako, omitting his surname. -Early life:...
, Dante Basco
Dante Basco
Danté Basco is an American actor, voice actor, poet, and dancer. He is best known for playing Rufio in the 1991 live-action Peter Pan film Hook...
, and Jason Isaacs
Jason Isaacs
Jason Isaacs is an English actor born in Liverpool, who is best known for his performance as the villain Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, the brutal Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot and as lifelong criminal Michael Caffee in the internationally broadcast American television series...
as the main character voices.
The season revolves around the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, Aang
Aang
Aang is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character is created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang is depicted as the show's main protagonist, and as such has appeared in all but one...
, and his friends Katara and Sokka
Sokka
Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack DeSena...
and their journey to the North Pole to find a Waterbending master to teach Aang and Katara. Fire Lord Ozai, the current Fire Lord of the Fire Nation, is waging a seemingly endless war against the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, and the already vanquished Air Nomads. Aang, the current Avatar, must master the four elements—Air, Water, Earth, and Fire—before defeating the Fire Lord and ending the war. Along the way, Aang and his friends are chased by various pursuers, including Prince Zuko, a banished Fire Nation prince, and Admiral Zhao, a key member of the Fire Navy.
Each episode of Season One attracted more than a million viewers on its first airing. Season One won "Best TV Series" and "Best Animated Television Series" in the boys 9–14-year old demographic at the 2005 Pulcinella Awards, which gives awards for excellence in animation.
Between January 4, 2006 and September 19, 2006, five DVD sets were released in the United States, each containing four episodes from the season. On September 12, 2006, Nickelodeon also released the "Complete Book 1 Collection Box Set", which contained all of the episodes in the season as well as a special features disc. The original releases were encoded in Region 1, a DVD type that plays only in American DVD players. From 2007 to 2009, Nickelodeon released Region 2 DVDs, which can play in Europe.
The first has been adapted into a live-action film The Last Airbender
The Last Airbender
The Last Airbender is a 2010 American fantasy adventure film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It is a live-action film adaptation of the first season to the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender....
, directed by M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
and was released in 2010.
Production
The show was produced by and aired on NickelodeonNickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
, which is owned by Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
. The show's executive producers were co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who worked alongside episode director and co-producer Aaron Ehasz. Eight episodes were directed by Dave Filoni. Animation directors Lauren MacMullan
Lauren MacMullan
Lauren MacMullan is an animation director. Her first primetime TV job was on The Critic, followed by directing for King of the Hill. She went on to become the supervising director and designer for Mission Hill. After the show was cancelled quickly, she got a job directing on The Simpsons, and...
and Giancarlo Volpe
Giancarlo Volpe
Giancarlo Volpe is an Italian American animator, director, and producer.Giancarlo is currently producing the CG television show, "Green Lantern: The Animated Series" working with animation legend Bruce Timm....
directed five episodes each, and Anthony Lioi directed two. Episodes were written or co-written by a team of writers, which included Nick Malis
Nick Malis
Nick Malis is a television comedy writer and producer based in Los Angeles and New York City.-Biography:A native of New York City's SoHo district, Malis attended Stuyvesant High School before graduating from Harvard University...
, John O'Bryan
John O'Bryan
John O'Bryan is one of the current writers of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series on Nickelodeon. He has been writing for the series ever since the beginning of the show.John O'Bryan is a writer on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and is heavily involved in storyboarding and writing episodes.The roles...
, Matthew Hubbard, James Eagan, Ian Wilcox, Tim Hedrick and Elizabeth Welch Ehasz. All of the show's music was composed by "The Track Team", which consists of Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, who were known to Dante and Konietzko because Zuckerman was Konietzko's roommate.
Cast
Most of the show's main characters made their debut appearances within the first three episodes. Zach Tyler Eisen and Mae Whitman provided the voices of protagonists Aang and Katara, with Jack DeSena as Sokka's voice. Dante BascoDante Basco
Danté Basco is an American actor, voice actor, poet, and dancer. He is best known for playing Rufio in the 1991 live-action Peter Pan film Hook...
and Mako starred as antagonists Zuko and Iroh, though their role in the show would change near the end of the season. Aang's animal companions, Appa and Momo, were both voiced by Dee Bradley Baker
Dee Bradley Baker
Dee Bradley Baker is an American voice actor. He is noted as his long-running-role as Klaus Heissler in American Dad! and other various characters including Squilliam Fancyson in the hit TV series SpongeBob SquarePants, Nightcrawler in X-Men: Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance...
. In the third episode of the season, a new enemy to both Aang and Zuko, Admiral Zhao, was voiced by Jason Isaacs
Jason Isaacs
Jason Isaacs is an English actor born in Liverpool, who is best known for his performance as the villain Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, the brutal Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot and as lifelong criminal Michael Caffee in the internationally broadcast American television series...
. When the season neared its middle, Aang and his companions stumble upon Jet, who was voiced by Crawford Wilson
Crawford Wilson
Crawford Wilson is an American actor and voice actor, from Memphis, Tennessee. He is best known for playing the lead role in the Nintendo GameCube RPG Baten Kaitos Origins, Sagi...
.
Reception
Film critics appreciated the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender because it attracted the attention of "an audience beyond the children's market with crisp animation and layered storytelling." As for the video and picture quality, Gord Lacey from TVShowsOnDVD.comTVShowsOnDVD.com
TVShowsOnDVD.com is a website dedicated to cataloging, campaigning for, and reporting news about Region 1 television series releases on DVD. The site's slogan asks "Is YOUR Favorite Show On DVD?"...
claims "the colors are bright, and the picture is nearly flawless." He says later in the review that "the audio is very nice, with lots of directional effects and nice musical cues." Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
reviewer Christina Urban praised the season's masterful combination of "elements from Chinese kung fu, Tibetan philosophy
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
, Japanese martial arts
Japanese martial arts
Japanese martial arts refers to the enormous variety of martial arts native to Japan. At least three Japanese terms are often used interchangeably with the English phrase "Japanese martial arts": , literally meaning "martial way", , which has no perfect translation but means something like science,...
forms, and even Hindu spiritual beliefs". According to Aaron Bynum from AnimationInsider.net, "the series posted double digit year-to-year gains in May". He also said that the show has been number one in the boys 9–14-year old demographic, and has attracted many age and gender groups in its pool of 1.1 million viewers who watch each new episode.
In addition, the season has won many awards throughout its runtime. During the 33rd Annual Annie Awards, the show was nominated for the "Best Animated Television Production" award. Because of the episode "The Fortuneteller", the show was nominated for the "Writing for an Animated Television Production" award. For the episode "The Deserter", the season was nominated for and won the "Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production" award. During the 2005 Pulcinella Awards, the season won the "Best Action/Adventure TV Series" award as well and the general "Best TV Series" award.
Episodes
| Series # |
Season # |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Region 1
Nickelodeon started releasing Season One DVDs in North America on January 31, 2006 with a series of single-disc sets containing four episodes per disc. Later the Complete Book 1 Collection was released on September 12, 2006 containing all twenty episodes plus extras on six discs.Region 2
PALPAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
versions of the single-disc volume sets started being released on February 19, 2007;. As with the original Region 1 NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
DVDs, each set contains four episodes per disc. The Complete Book One Collection was released on January 26, 2009 containing all twenty episodes on five discs. These Region 2 releases lack the commentary tracks and other DVD extras found on the Region 1 releases.
| Volume | Discs | Episodes | Release date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |||
| 1 | 1 | 4 | January 24, 2006 | February 19, 2007 | March 15, 2007 |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | March 28, 2006 | June 4, 2007 | July 5, 2007 |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | May 30, 2006 | September 3, 2007 | March 13, 2008 |
| 4 | 1 | 4 | July 18, 2006 | February 18, 2008 | June 19, 2008 |
| 5 | 1 | 4 | September 19, 2006 | May 26, 2008 | March 5, 2009 |
| Box set | 6 | 20 | September 12, 2006 | January 26, 2009 | June 4, 2009 |
Film adaptation
The Last Airbender is a live action film based on the first season of the animated television series and had a theatrical release on July 1, 2010. The film is directed by M. Night ShyamalanM. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
.
Footnotes
- 1. Production code format taken from the commentary for "Sozin's Comet: The Phoenix King"