Elizabeth Welch EhaszAvatar - The Last Airbender: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] (Packaging May Vary)

I am a huge animation fan. I have always loved shows that take pride in good animation whether it be Jonny Quest, Gargoyles, Batman the animated series, Talespin, whatever. Unfortunately, after the 90s there was a decline in quality animation in favor of a low quality, high level of production animation. Avatar looked different, but when it first came out I was busy with sports and never got a chance to watch it on tv. Now after all these years of hearing a lot of good things about avatar I decided to find out whether the show really is as good as people claim or if it’s merely that it came at such a low era in animation that it is being compared to other shows of the same time. After watching it I can say it is the most impressive animated tv show I’ve ever seen. The animation is flawless and the movements are so fluid and with a show based on fast movements and fights that is a fairly rare and very impressive accomplishment. Really my only issue with the show is the way vehicles are animated is more of computerish as opposed to traditional animation which clashes at times, but I don’t let it distract me enough to hurt the show. The voice acting in the show is another impressive aspect. The voices and emotions are perfect and when taking into account the characters being animated appropriately it works perfectly together. Then there’s the soundtrack... I must admit while watching it at first the soundtrack is so perfect that I really didn’t “notice” it cause it wasnt distracting or too in your face. It wasn’t until I was about halfway through the series i decided to listen to the soundtrack on YouTube. It was at that time listening to it as a stand alone that I realized how good it was(and recognized it from the show but because I was so focused on the beautiful animation I wasn’t giving it the attention it deserved), and from that point on I paid more attention to it during the show. Then there’s the story... I’m a sucker for animated shows that are continuous and build on each other and avatar does that masterfully. The development of characters is fabulous and there is an emotional aspect that you actually really feel and get drawn into(credit the animation, voice acting, soundtrack, and writing for that). One warning to people so they don’t get mad like I did. I watched the entire series for the first time with this BluRay set, and I would watch 2-3 episodes per night. Well one night it was getting late and I needed to get up early but I wanted to watch one more it turned out to be “City of Walls and Secrets” and without giving spoilers this episode was great and left me with some serious suspense, so even though it was already really late I watched one more episode to see what would happen next... the next episode was “Tales of Ba Sing Se”... and it was a “filler” episode that I absolutely hated because I was in such suspense and they changed directions all the sudden and ignored what happened the episode before. Now people tend to love “Tales of Ba Sing Se”(and I like it too now that I’ve watched it without the expectation I had) but it’s just a word of warning not to expect something from it that you won’t get. That was the only time during the entire series I was disappointed. So overall it’s the best show I’ve seen cause the animation is on a level of its own, the emotion and acting is superb, and the story and soundtrack will definitely entertain you. I can’t imagine anyone disliking the show.

I don’t really understand how to review a dvd box set. So I’ll just tell you about Avatar. This was a gift to my niece. As she grew up we watched it together always. At this point, it’s practically a collectors item. This series in an original American animated odyssey that can easily answer to any authentic Japanese anime. It captures enough of the otherworldly mystic ability but the characters could easily be people you know. It’s American heart with Japanese style. There are always unanswered questions. Especially with me. But this series from start to finish is about family, including the family that you don’t share DNA with. But the people in your life who you matter to. And who matter to you. There’s the wisdom of the ages, from one of the greatest characters, who unfortunately passed before finishing the last season. And so distinct and wise was his voice, that his character didn’t say very much after. And he will never be forgotten to any fan who watched because we all wished that he was our uncle. But what he was a part of before he left this world, was no cartoon. It was a work of art. And he played it brilliantly. Yes. There was air bending and fire bending, earth bending and water bending. It was really about growing up and that journey into self discovery. Not from one character. But from almost all of them. Results varied. But the best part is that we are dropped into the middle of a story. A world we don’t know. Geographically it could be earth? But we don’t know. When is it? I mean these elemental powers exist. It’s split the world into 4 nations. Earth, Air, Fire, Water. It really could be anywhere. At any time. And there’s nothing to date it. Because it’s all so foreign. It makes it Timeless. My niece and i will someday sit down and watch the whole series again. And it will be as great as it was then.

First of all what a MESS of reviews my god.... What was amazon thinking mixing the dvd reviews together with the blu ray reviews?In case you haven't noticed this review is for the recently released avatar the last airbender blu ray set. What the hell took them so long? The legend of kora has been on blu ray for a while now.... All well we have it now so it doesn't matter. Lets get into the review!We all know the story of the last airbender by now, I don't really have to repeat it. It's a fantastic journey were the boy Aang goes on to learn the rest of the 3 elements so that he can save the world from the fire nation. The slip cover looks amazing and the art cover for the blu ray case looks fantastic. Really well done compared to the legend of kora blu ray set, even though I wish it also had an artbook like the legend of kora blu ray set because I do indeed like the artwork of the avatar series.Some technical features are that the picture is in a 4×3 size hence the black bars to the side. I guess it makes sense that they didn't want to stretch the picture due to the old animation originaly made to fit tv screens. I'm not complaing seeing as I own other old animes on blu rays with that aspect raito like yu yu hakasho.It's 3 disks per book. Book water being on disk one, two and three, Book earth being on disk four, five and six, the final book, the Book fire being on disk seven, eight and nine. It's has 1 disk more than the legend of kora blu ray being 4 hours longer than legend of kora which is quite a big difference.The whole runtime is 1464 minutes which in simple terms is 24 hours and 14 minutes long. This doesn't touch the fact that on how long the special features are.... That's a lot of watch time... That's even more runtime than a 51 episode anime series. If you think your going to watch this in a day? That would be physically impossible... It's something that it can take you more than a week to watch if anything. Even a 25 episode animes that's quite a lot to watch in one sitting... So if your are wondering if this is your bang for your buck, yes it is...Special Features Include: The Making of Avatar Featuretts, Original Uncut Animattic "Bato of the Water Tribe", Original Uncut Animattic", Behind the Scenes with the Avatar Cast & Crew, Avatar Super Deformed Shorts, Into the Fire Nation at San Diego Comic-Con, The Women of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" as well as even more Featuretts, Audio Commentaries and More. Thats a lot of special features right there, pretty sure most of them were on on the previous dvds just ported over to the blu ray set.The picture looks better than ever even with the black bars on the side, the technicolor gives it better color, Audio is dts-HD Master Audio and Dolby Audio, it sounds great for only 2.0 audio, though should be 5.1 audio like the legend of kora... Still it looks great on blu ray, even though it's older textures still being there.Conclusion? This is one of the best blu ray purchases I have made in a LONG time. The price alone is fantastic for so many episodes! If this wasn't a cartoon but an anime then the price would probably be nearly over 100 dollers! For only 29.99 plus tax? This is a steal! Go buy it right now.I also recommend buying the legend of kora blu ray set.