During their three-season run on Nickelodeon's award-winning animated TV series, the likable young Aang (otherwise known as the Avatar) and his mostly tween- and teenage friends have faced challenges both minute and monumental and earned quite a fan following. Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko,
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) features charismatic characters, an inviting scenario influenced by Asian art and mythology, martial arts-inspired action sequences, and an epic-scale overarching plot. Now these successful storytelling elements have been adapted into a live-action feature film. Written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, The Last Airbender (not yet rated), from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, arrives in theaters on July 1, 2010, in both traditional and 3D formats.
The tale is set in a deftly imagined fantasy world consisting of four great nations-the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation-with individuals in each locale being able to "bend" or control their native element. Only the Avatar, who serves as a bridge between the human and the spirit domains, is capable of manipulating all four elements and maintaining the balance of power-and peace-among the realms. However, the Avatar has not been seen for a century.
 |
The Fire Nation has upset the status quo by waging a devastating war against the other kingdoms and people are beginning to lose hope. Then two teenagers-a novice waterbender named Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her warrior brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone)-make a startling discovery: a 13-year-old boy who has been trapped in ice for years. Aang (Noah Ringer) awakens to learn that he is the last of his kind (the peaceful Air Nomads have been decimated by the Fire Nation). Already trained as an airbender, he has not yet mastered the other elements and still struggles to accept his destiny. With the help of his new friends, Aang begins his quest to gain the necessary knowledge and use his power to restore order to his war-torn world. Dev Patel plays Prince Zuko, the exiled son of the Fire Nation leader, who has been tasked with capturing the Avatar in order to re-establish his honor. Ending with a climactic battle, the movie presents the opening salvo of Aang's story and is first of a planned trilogy.
Kids can visit the official
web site for a preview of the action, which seems to translate rather well into big-screen format. Perhaps not quite as intimate and charmingly quirky as the animated series, the movie looks to be packed with dynamic special effects, dramatic battle scenes, and vividly delineated settings. In addition to watching trailers, viewers can access the "Features" section to explore each nation's environments, technologies, creatures, characters, and battle abilities by scrolling through a combination of photos, videos, and text. Several online games are also available, many of which allow players to take on the role of Aang and play from his perspective.
Book Tie-ins
Simon Spotlight has published a series of tie-ins each adorned with a fan-grabbing movie photo and a logo featuring the flags and insignias of the four nations. With a cover image depicting a mysteriously cloaked and tattooed Aang, The Avatar's Return (K-Gr 4) retells the events with succinct text and movie photos set against old-fashioned parchment-style pages. Quite a lot of action, dialogue, and plot twists are jam-packed into the narrative, but kids already familiar with the premise from the TV series or film will have no trouble following the story's gist. With a similar layout and large-size text, Aang's Destiny (Gr 1-4), a "Ready-to-Read Level 3" book, focuses tightly on events from the boy's perspective as he begins to accept his role and responsibilities as the Avatar with the help of his new friends. This offering combines clear language and brief chapters with movie photos that closely support the narrative.
Armed with a blazing ball of flame and a penetrating stare, Zuko graces the cover of
Trial by Fire (Gr 2-5). This fast-reading chapter book is printed on parchment-style pages and illustrated throughout with full-color movie images. Mixing a slightly formal tone with brisk action, Zuko's first-person narrative clearly presents his motivations while detailing his encounters with Aang and his friends. Another chapter book,
Battle of the North (Gr 2-5), boasts a similar format and an equally combustible cover-the fiery Zuko juxtaposed against a shadowy Aang, his arrow-shaped tattoo aglow in icy blue. Written dossier-style, this offering contains info about the Fire Nation and the Northern Water Tribe, describing each people's bending skills, weaponry, battle strategies, and major figures, as well as their (and the movie's) climactic confrontation. This "scroll" pairs cartoon-style illustrations with movie photos. Filled with dialogue, clearly described action, and cliffhanger chapters, the
Movie Novelization (Gr 3-7) will satisfy readers looking for a more detailed retelling of the entire plot. Eight pages of captioned full-color movie images are included.
Graphic Novels
Del Rey has published a pair of movie-inspired graphic novels that are sure to please fans (Gr 4-8). Set before the happenings depicted in the film,
Prequel: Zuko's Story provides background about this enigmatic character, describing how he is banished from the Fire Nation and stripped of everything he holds dear for daring to question his father's authority of. Fire Lord Ozai offers redemption only at the completion of a seemingly impossible undertaking (finding the long-disappeared Avatar is believed to be a fool's task), one that demands Zuko's absolute commitment and sets him on an anguished path of self-discovery. Told from Zuko's point of view through crisp narrative, lively dialogue, and dynamic black-and-white manga-style artwork, this tale establishes the inner turmoil of a complex character who plays an important role in the
Avatar universe. An appended section effectively explains how a collaborative manga is created, pairing pages of Dave Roman and Alison Wilgus's script (both captions and descriptive text) with the visual interpretations created by artist Nina Matsumoto. Written by the same authors with art by Joon Choi,
The Last Airbender provides a gripping graphic novel version of the movie's plot. With well-timed pacing, concise narrative, and powerfully depicted visual interpretations of the story highlights, the tale translates wonderfully into manga format.
The Animated Series
The movie is sure to reignite interest in Nickelodeon's animated TV series. Numerous "Avatar" books designed for youngsters of various reading levels have been published by Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon. A recent offering, Journeys Through the Earth Kingdom (Gr 2-6), collects together four previously published books based on screenplays from the series. Featuring black-and-white illustrations at the beginning of each chapter, these action-packed tales, often sprinkled with humor, relate the points of view and adventures of four characters: Aang, Azula (princess of the Fire Nation), Toph (an earthbender), and Sokka. Del Rey has recently re-launched a film-comic sequence, originally published by TokyoPop, adapting the animated TV show into graphic novel format. Illustrated with full-color film stills taken directly from the animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender: Volume 1 (Gr 2-6) re-creates the first episode, "Book One: Water: The Boy in the Iceberg," as Katara and Sokka rescue Aang from his icy prison. Like the TV show, this book includes plenty of action punctuated by slapstick humor. An appended section provides info about the four nations. Volume 2 is scheduled to pub in September.
Finally, older readers (Gr 5 Up) will enjoy browsing the wonders of
Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Art of the Animated Series, a handsome volume from Dark Horse Books. On pages that pair commentary with gorgeously reproduced illustrations, series creators DiMartino and Konietezko provide a detailed look at "
Avatar's creative process, from the very first sketch of Aang, all the way through to the epic final episodes" with images carefully selected to "highlight the best artwork" and provide "an excellent overview of how the show was created and produced." Written in a refreshingly down-to-earth tone, the text is entertaining and insightful and the images are stunning. Give this fun-to-flip-through book to dedicated admirers of the show, film fans who want to learn more about the storytelling origins and youngsters interested in animation.
Pub Info
KILPATRICK, Irene, adapt. The Last Airbender: The Avatar's Return. Simon Spotlight. 2010. pap. $3.99. ISBN 978-1-4169-9939-3.
SOLLINGER, Emily. The Last Airbender: Aang's Destiny. Simon Spotlight. 2010. pap. $3.99. ISBN 978-1-4169-9938-6.
TEITELBAUM, Michael. The Last Airbender: Trial by Fire. Simon Spotlight. 2010. pap. $5.99. ISBN 978-1-4424-0290-4.
JAMES, Brian. The Last Airbender: Battle of the North. illus. by Shane L. Johnson. Simon Spotlight. 2010. pap. $5.99. ISBN 978-1-4169-6085-0.
TEITELBAUM, Michael, adapt. The Last Airbender: Movie Novelization. Simon Spotlight. 2010. pap. $5.99. ISBN 978-1-4424-0174-7.
ROMAN, Dave & Alison Wilgus. The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko's Story. illus. by Nina Matsumoto. Del Rey. 2010. pap. $10.99. ISBN 978-0-345-51854-5. _____. The Last Airbender. illus. by Joon Choi. Del Rey. 2010. pap. $8.99. ISBN 978-0-345-51855-2.
TEITELBAUM, Michael. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Journeys Through the Earth Kingdom. Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon. 2010. pap. $7.99. ISBN 978-1-4169-9446-6.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Volume 1. Del Rey. 2010. pap. $7.99. ISBN 978-0-345-51852-1.
KONIETZKO, Bryan & Michael Dante DiMartino. Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Art of the Animated Series. Dark Horse Books. 2010. Tr $34.99. ISBN 978-1-59582-504-9.
RSS
