Eric Nam voices Aang in Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. Photograph: Paramount+ View image in fullscreen Eric Nam voices Aang in Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. Photograph: Paramount+ Animation in film Review Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender review – engaging TV-to-movie adventure A feature-length continuation of the much-loved animated series provides enough for fans as well as the uninitiated
Prefer the Guardian on Google A vatar just can’t catch a break at the movies. Not the blue-cat-people franchise that makes at least a billion dollars each time, mind you – though that mega-successful series is part of what vexes big-screen versions of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a Nickelodeon animated series that predates the release of the similar-named, different-premised James Cameron film. Following the anime-inspired, fan-beloved show’s three-season run on cable, the material was adapted into a live-action feature, The Last Airbender, by no less than M Night Shyamalan, released six months after Cameron’s megahit. The Last Airbender was a decent-sized hit, but loathed by fans and critics alike – even today’s crop of Shyamalan boosters can’t find much positive to say about it – and failed to kickstart the hoped-for live-action film series. (Netflix has since made an unrelated live-action adaptation as a TV show .)
Read more More recently, Paramount announced that an animated sequel film, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, following the characters years after the events of the series, would arrive in movie theaters – only to delay the release and eventually backtrack its theatrical status, turning it into a direct-to-streaming movie. The film was then leaked online, well ahead of its debut. Now it’s getting a token two-city theatrical release, simultaneously with its debut on Paramount+, to make sure it qualifies for this year’s Oscars. Given the franchise’s cinematic luck so far, the film-makers may not need to clear shelf space quite yet.
But that’s nothing to do with the quality of the movie itself, which very much deserves a wider theatrical berth than it’s getting, and will probably look more impressive than at least a couple of this year’s eventual best animated feature nominees. Avatar: The Last Airbender was always a good-looking show, its Japanese-influenced animation bound only by TV budgets, but Avatar Aang takes its action-fantasy design further, with old-fashioned hand-drawn characters augmented by gorgeous computer-animated environments and backgrounds. Its colorful, kinetic style is so naturally appealing that animation fans may want to check it out even if they don’t know much about the source material.
Should that audience dip into Avatar Aang, they shouldn’t be too lost. As with a lot of TV-to-movie adaptations, the movie seems more or less comprehensible to newbies, quickly explaining that the young adult Aang (Eric Nam) belongs to a near-extinct lineage of “airbenders” in a world where other super-powered tribes can control water, fire and earth. Aang, as established in the series and reiterated here, is also the legendary chosen “avatar” able to command all four elements. Since halting a century-long war at the end of the series, Aang has stayed with his childhood sweetheart Katara (Jessica Matten) as they attempt to rebuild the world in greater harmony. The movie reunites the now-grown Aang and Katara with their longtime pals Toph (Dionne Quan), an earthbender; Zuko (Steven Yeun), a firebender; and Katara’s goofy, non-be…