TV Show Info:
Creators: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
Cast: Dee Bradley Baker, Zach Tyler, Mae Whitman, Jack De Sena, Dante Bosco, Mako, Jessie Flower, Grey DeLisle, Olivia Hack, Cricket Leigh
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Nickelodeon/Paramount Home Video
Release Info:
Original Air Dates: February 21, 2005-July 19, 2008
Season Air Dates: September 21, 2007-July 19, 2008
DVD Box Set Release Date: September 16, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $44.99
Episodes:
It’s with a heavy heart that I write this review. I’ve been reviewing Avatar - The Last Airbender since Book 2. I’ve been watching the show just as long. As a lover of great cartoons, Avatar - The Last Airbender was one of my favorite shows. A casualty of the writer’s strike and Nickelodeon fooling around, the third season of Avatar, Book Three, was also the last season of this Emmy-winning series. With the way Nickelodeon pushed the remaining episodes of Avatar - The Last Airbender Book Three under the rug for so long, smushing them together in a one week long event in July, it’s no surprise the series, which was originally slated for two more seasons, ended.
I can’t say this enough. I love Avatar - The Last Airbender. It’s one of those shows I can enjoy with my kid. Our entire family watched this show together. We had a marathon during that July week in which the last episodes aired. It was sad to see this show go, but there is hope. There is a rumor going around that an animated movie will be made about the series. Hopefully it’s being made to tie up the loose ends. M. Night Shyamalan is also making a live action trilogy of the show. That should prove to be rather interesting based on his past movies.
While this season, especially the end, felt a bit rushed, the overall quality of Avatar - The Last Airbender is on par with the quality of the first two seasons. There are some corny moments, but the humor is part of the show’s charm. While Avatar - The Last Airbender has some violence (the fighting scenes), it’s definitely geared towards a younger audience, so it can be enjoyed by anyone from around the age of 6 or 7 upward until adulthood. I know I’m not the only adult who enjoys this show, so the whole family can really get into this show together.
Avatar - The Last Airbender may have been somewhat predictable at the end, but kids can learn some good moral lessons here. What’s interesting about this season is that it becomes very clear that the main character, Aang, will not compromise his values for anyone or anything. In the eternal battle of good vs. evil, good always prevails, even if it looks like evil is going to win or evil appears to be more powerful. Finally, and most importantly, any person regardless of whether they are good or evil, can change for the better. These are all of the things I’ve learned (and your kids can learn) from Avatar - The Last Airbender.
The Avatar - The Last Airbender Plot
The Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Complete Book 3 Collection DVD Set is made up of 21 episodes littered across four discs. The original episodes aired from September of 2007 until July of 2008. The majority of the second half of the show aired during one week in July, leading up to the four episode-turned movie ending, Sozin’s Comet.
Here is a list of all of the episodes with a brief description of each of them.
Disc One
“Awakening” - At the end of Book 2, Katara (Mae Whitman) saves Aang’s (Zach Tyler) life after Azula (Grey DeLisle) attacks him during the takeover of the Earth Kingdom. Aang is still badly hurt and the Avatar crew are allowing him to recover aboard a ship, as they sneak into the Fire Nation. Katara sees her father for the first time in years, which is hard for her to handle. In the meantime, Zuko (Dante Basco) has returned home a hero, after Azula tells everyone he killed the Avatar.
“The Headband” - Aang puts a headband over his Airbender arrow and does not shave his head. With this disguise, he’s seen as a delinquent and taken to a Fire Nation school. He teaches the students about having fun and dancing, something missing from the Fire Nation. He teaches them traditional dances that he learned when he used to visit his friend in the Fire Nation, many years ago. Zuko visits Uncle Iroh (Mako) in prison, but Iroh won’t talk to him for his betrayal.
“The Painted Lady” - After Katara learns about the trouble a Fire Nation factory is causing to a water-dependent community (due to water pollution), she uses her water bending powers to pretend to be the fabled “Painted Lady” and save them from destruction.
“Sokka’s Master” - Sokka (Jack De Sena) wants to be trained by a sword master. The best sword master in the Fire Nation is the one he wants to teach him, but he cannot let him know he’s from the water tribes. Iroh secretly starts working out, becoming physically fit when the guards aren’t paying attention. The Avatar gang tries to get used to life without Sokka as he trains.
“The Beach” - Zuko hires an assassin to kill Aang, just in case he’s not really dead. The assassin has this eye that has evil destructive abilities, causing the gang to have to run for their lives. Zuko, Azula, Mai (Cricket Leigh) and Ty Lee (Olivia Hack) are forced to a vacation at the Firelord’s beach house. There, they try to party with a group of local teenagers, as well as discuss the problems they’ve all been facing with one another.
Disc Two
“The Avatar and the Firelord” - Both Zuko and Aang learn about the start of the war. Zuko learns a major secret about his family. The two also learn that Avatar Roku and Firelord Sozin grew up as best friends. The two chronicle their history together and Aang finds out how Roku disappeared right when the world needed him the most.
“The Runaway” - Toph (Jessie Flower - Meet the Robinsons) uses her abilities as an Earth bender to make money. Katara disapproves of this. However, when the rest of the crew tells her to lighten up, she takes it upon herself to make a bunch of money, with disastrous results!
“The Puppetmaster” - When the Avatar crew stop at an Inn, they learn that people have been disappearing from the nearby Fire Nation village. After snooping through the Inn, Katara and the rest of the gang learn the Innkeeper is from the Water Tribes, but that isn’t the only secret she is keeping.
“Nightmares and Daydreams” - Aang cannot sleep. He’s been up the last few nights, worried about his battle with the Firelord, during the invasion. He’s exhausted to the point of becoming delusional, so the crew try to get him to relax. Zuko feels pressure to be a good “future Firelord”, but he’s beginning to have doubts about what he’s done and wanting to return to a place where he doesn’t fit in.
“The Day of Black Sun, Part 1: The Invasion” - The Avatar gang meets up with a series of allies, who break through to the inner walls of the Fire Nation palace. They will fight during the eclipse, when the members of the Fire Nation lose their powers. Since Azula found out about the invasion when the Earth king unknowingly told her, the Fire Nation is ready in wait. Meanwhile, Zuko makes a decision that will forever change his future.
Disc Three
“The Day of Black Sun, Part 2: The Eclipse” - With the invasion not going as planned, the adults, including Katara and Sokka’s dad, distract the Fire Nation guards so the crew and a few other younger members of the Invasion crew can escape. Zuko confronts his father and ends up leaving the Fire Nation behind.
“The Western Air Temple” - The Avatar crew hides out at the Western Air Temple. When Zuko shows up, they try to fight him, but Zuko attempts to convince them he’s changed. He wants to fight on their side. The weird assassin guy, whom they call Sparky Sparky Boom Boom comes back to attack them, even when Zuko tries to call Sparky off.
“The Firebending Masters” - Since Zuko has changed sides, he’s lost his passion for fire bending. This makes him unable to teach Aang how to fire bend. The two must head to an ancient city where ancient frebenders worshiped the original fire benders, the dragons, in order to get their power back.
“The Boiling Rock, Part 1″ - Sokka and Zuko break into Boiling Rock prison. They pretend to be guards, so Sokka can try and find his father. Along the way, he finds his girlfriend, Suki. Sokka and Zuko decide to escape with Suki, when they cannot find Sokka’s father, but nothing really goes as planned.
“The Boiling Rock, Part 2″ - After Sokka’s dad arrives at the prison, Sokka again plans to break him out. Zuko sacrifices himself to the guards to help keep Sokka hidden. However, the plan to get them all out is still on. When Azula, Mai (Zuko’s jilted girlfriend) and Ty Lee show up at the prison, all plans change.
Disc Four
“The Southern Raiders” - Katara is the only one who hasn’t warmed up to Zuko. Wanting her to trust him, the two of them hunt down the man who murdered her mother. When push comes to shove, Aang hopes Katara will use forgiveness and not violence when trying to avenge her mother’s death.
“The Ember Island Players” - The Avatar crew can’t help but attend a performance at the Ember Island Players Theater. It is about all of them, after all. Nobody is happy but Toph, by how they are portrayed. Katara is seen as bossy and treats Aang like a little kid. Sokka is dumb and has even stupider jokes. Zuko is seen as a moody, brooding character. Toph is loud and disgusting, and Aang is played by a girl!
“Sozin’s Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King” - The Avatar crew is relaxing, when Zuko tells them they need to practice. They will be fighting the Firelord in three days. After telling Zuko they are delaying the fight, Zuko tells them the Firelord’s real plan for the day of the Comet. They have no choice. They have to fight. Aang is told he’ll have to kill Ozai, but he runs off, afraid he cannot do that.
“Sozin’s Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters” - Aang wakes up on a strange island. He tries to find out where he is, but cannot seem to figure it out. Alone, except for Momo, he realizes he must summon the other Avatars within him. He uses them as a sounding board, to see if they would kill Ozai or not. The Avatar gang searches for Aang, but ends up finding Iroh and some allies instead.
“Sozin’s Comet, Part 3: Into The Inferno” - Zuko takes on Azula, with Katara watching. He is going to fight her for the role of Firelord, a role Ozai has given to Azula. She has gone nuts though and Zuko thinks he can take her on alone. As the comet arrives, Sokka, Suki and Toph try to destroy the Fire Nation army by air as Iroh and the other white lotuses fight by land.
“Sozin’s Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang” - It’s the final showdown between Firelord Ozai and Aang. Aang must decide to kill Ozai or not. All of the fates of the main characters are decided in this episode.
Storyline/Plot: 
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:
Audio/Visual:
Like all of the other DVD releases for this show, Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Complete Book 3 Collection is presented at a 1.33:1 aspect ratio in full frames. This is standard for an animated television series. The video comes through fairly clear. I didn’t really notice any visual flaws save for some minor compression errors. Everything looked excellent. I’d expect as much for a cartoon such as this, which aired in 2007 and 2008.
The audio for Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Complete Book 3 Collection is standard, as well. The audio is English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The sound is nothing special. It’s not as dynamic as a better track would have been, but it gets the job done. I didn’t have to play with the volume at all. Even the sound effects and music come through sounding spiffy. I wish a 5.1 would have been included. It would have made the sound that much better. This track features Closed Captioning.
Visual: 
Audio:
Bonus Features:
Like all the previous full Book DVD Box Sets for Avatar - The Last Airbender, this set contains a few different bonuses. The first bonus starts things off with a four part audio commentary. This is called “Inside Sozin’s Comet”. It is featured commentary that is played along with the four part ending for the show. I really enjoyed this commentary. Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have always been very active within the Avatar community. There is a lot of information about the show and their vision for this ending. Truth be told, it’s one of the best cartoon commentaries I’ve heard. All of the commentaries that were on the Avatar volume sets are available for individual episodes, as well.
The rest of the bonuses are on a fifth disc. To start things off, there is a featurette that looks at the female characters that appear on the show. This is called “The Women of Avatar: The Last Airbender“. The creators, fans of the show and the voice actors discuss the female characters, the creative vision for them and how that played out. Next up is the featurette “Book 3 Finale Pencil Test Animation”. This is quite a long featurette, but well worth it. A series of animation portraits are displayed from the third season. You’ll find that this was one of the best features on the bonus disc, especially if animation and art interest you.
Finally, the DVD includes a recording from the Avatar panel at Comic Con in 2007. The result is the featurette “Into the Fire Nation at San Diego Comic-Con”. Some of this is redundant, because it shows images of the show from the third season, but at the time when it debuted, no one had seen Avatar Book Three. Still, the discussion is good and worth a listen, at least once.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
Fans of Avatar - The Last Airbender will want to purchase Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Complete Book 3 Collection. It’s a better deal than purchasing these episodes by the volume set. It also has extras that aren’t included in the volume sets. I like having all of my episodes in one set anyway. While I recommend that nearly everyone start watching Avatar - The Last Airbender, newcomers to the show will want to start with Book 1 before purchasing Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Complete Book 3 Collection. This set is the very last set for the television show, so buy this to complete your collection and remember what a fabulous show this was.
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: Avatar - The Last Airbender, The Complete Book 3 Collection, DVD Review, TV show, Aang, Zuko, Katara, Nickelodeon, Cartoon
Written by Dominick Evans - Visit Website
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Dominick is in his late 20s. He lives in Michigan with his life partner, Ashtyn, their 14 year old son Robert, and their Shih-Tzu, Oliver. Dominick is a writer and the head editor for both LI Kids and Literary Illusions. He enjoys composing music and is an aspiring director/screenwriter. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his family, playing and watching sports, playing video games, watching movies, and singing.
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