Kids and tweens around the nation are patiently waiting for the arrival of third and final season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. But much like the 100 year wait for the Avatar to return, Nickelodeon is keeping fans waiting on the release of final season. Since February, rumors have circulated the Internet stating that this will be the month the Avatar series will return to the air. February 23, came and left and Avatar Aang was nowhere to be found. March 16 passed, and the Avatar remained a mystery. Now it’s April, and the rumors predict an April 27 release. Don’t hold your breath. As one of the most brilliantly produced and loved animated shows to hit the air in years, creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko want to savor the last moments of the Avatar, and give fans everything they’ve been hoping to see.
For those who don’t know, Avatar is the story of Aang, a 12-year old airbender who wrestles with his fate of saving the world from the Fire Nation and just being a regular kid. DiMartino and Konietzko plan to go out with a bang, the duo has already promised that the last episode will be an epic battle between Aang and the Fire Lord.
The ground-breaking animated series premiered on February 21, 2005. Since then, the animated series quickly rose to become one of the top shows for kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14. It’s a children’s series with a grown-up flavor. Unlike the standard Nickelodeon programming, Avatar: The Last Airbender presents adult themes coupled with childhood antics and humor. The series follows a more Japanese Anime style of animation. It introduced children to complex adult conficts and overlapping story-archs, while maintaining levity through overly animated emotions and witty dialogue. This may be one of the first shows since the glory days of The Transformers to penetrate such a strong demographic in both boys 9-14 and kids. And parents seem to love the show too. The September 2006 one-hour special, “Secret of the Fire Nation,” had an audience of 4.1 million viewers, the best ratings of any cable show that week, according to Nielsen Media Research.
A few questions remain. What will become of the conflicted Prince Zuko, now that he’s betrayed Uncle Iroh? His sister will no doubt betray him in season 3, when she brings him back to the Fire Lord. Also, Aang still needs to truly master fire bending. Will Zuko become his reluctant teacher? Then there is the question of what will become of the character of Uncle Iroh, played by Mako? The actor passed away July 21, 2006 of esophageal cancer. Viewers will remember Iroh as the voice of wisdom on the Avatar?. Even though he was from the Fire Nation, his allegories, based on tea and the fictional game Pai Sho, gave the series a strong subconscious-moral foundation that exceeds most children’s programming today. Episode 215, “Tales of Ba Sing Se,” was dedicated to Mako, who was also the voice of Aku in Samurai Jack and Splinter in the new TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) movie.
Will season 3 start off with a new voice for Uncle Iroh or will the uncle we’ve all come to know and love be written out of the script as another casualty of the war? I think the latter would be the most classy route for Nickelodeon. The Bag Man can’t picture (or listen to) another person voicing Uncle Iroh’s character, it would be too distracting. It’s like watching the third and fourth Harry Potter movies without Richard Harris playing Dumbledore. The actor passed away from hodgkin’s disease shortly after Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released.
Avatar: The Last Airbender recently received a Genesis Award from the Humane Society for “Outstanding Children’s Programming.” The press release described “Appa’s Lost Days” as “…a mythical tale about animals held captive for human entertainment that resonates with the way animals are used in circuses today.” Paramount has commissioned a live-action Avatar movie based on the animated series with writer-director M. Night Shyamalan based on the Nickelodeon series. It is set for release in 2008.
I HOPE APPA TAKES A HUGE DUMP ON THE FIRE LORD!!!!!!!