Customer Reviews

Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 1 Water, Vol. 3

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yup, the series is about tribal benders who can work with a particular element, earth, air, water or fire. The Avatar, a child, must master all 4. Talking about elements, this series has elements for great TV ---fun, excitement, great characters, plot, and wow, even Values! So this review is mainly for parents. I'm a mom and came to love this program too AFTER my kids urged me to watch every new episode along with them.

My sons, ages 7 and 11, started watching Avatar from the beginning and loved it so much they made sure they watched not only every new episode but also reruns. Of all the cartoons they watch, this one is very good in not only visuals (ala japanese anime), exotic locales, fun and excitement... but also in intriguing story telling and realistic character development.

Every episode is like a chapter in an epic, developing the plot and revealing more and more about each of the main characters Katara, Sokka and the Avatar Aang(ages 12-15) and also of the secondary characters(more kids and also adults). Their sidekicks are their helpful, sometimes silly, and endearing pets Apa and Momo.

The Avatar episodes bring the young heroes into situations where they have to make choices and as viewers we journey with them as the make both good and bad choices, and watch as they learn and mature as they go along.

The Avatar series reveals the universality of human spirit as the young heroes face challenges and conflict. Despite and maybe because of the exotic people and settings, the writers never resort to TV stereotyping about gender, color, age, weight, education or lack of, etc., that you find woven in for punch lines and demeaning in other TV programming.

This is the only or one of the few new popular kids programs that doesn't insult yours or your kids intelligence, and actually has family values. I highly recommend this cartoon to parents looking for something that the whole family can watch and have fun together.

Yes, I'm an adult, yes, I love Avatar. It's a kid's show but it's so exciting for adults too. It has both a cultural expert on their staff and a martial arts expert. The story telling is great and even if you don't like anime it's a good series.

Being a college student has its ups and downs...one of those ups being when you're not stuck in front of the computer for hours on end (or in my case, wrapped up in books and scripts) it allows you to find some quality programming-and I'm not talking about American Idol and Laguna Beach. Surprisingly, I used to come home after class and find Avatar on all the time. At first, it was just another annoying cartoon-until I took a closer look. This series is great for families and people of all ages. The main characters are faced with many challenges that help represent many of the moral values kids miss out on these days by watching other shows. It is a fantastic parenting tool as well as being highly entertaining. Much of the comedy is directed at the younger audience, but somehow manages not to be patronizing to the older audience. It even has many of the characters loved by people of all generations-pirates, bandits, and warriors-while including a bit of history in the process. Overall, the animation is marvelously done, the voices are very fitting, and the scripts are very well written. I would highly recommend this!

I love this series! One of my kids picked up vol 1 from the library and we can't wait until to get vol 3. The show is fun, has good values and enough action to keep kids interested. The characters are likeable and complex and the animation is great. All three of my kids aged 8-12 enjoy this show. Good music too!

Well, first let me say I am an "Avatard", or overly obsessed fan of Avatar. I have much anticipated this DVD since it contains my favorite episode of the first season, The Storm. In this ep. two of the main character's pasts are explained in greater detail which really helps explain why the main character Aang winds up 100 years into the future. Although Avatar is supposed to be for a younger audience I as a teenager am completely entranced in the mystical world of Avatar and have several friends who are the same.

I may be only 12, but I absolutely love The Avatar: Last Airbender. This show is wonderful for all ages, suiting from young to old. I am an avid watcher, tune in every Friday night. ^^ The Avatar presents wonderful cinemetography, and gives kids a safe amount of action, while still suplying their urge. The show also has a wonderful plot, very gripping, it keeps you on the edge of you seat every week :D So to make a long story short, although there is an absense of rating- it in my mind gets a whole family. ^^

This is the 3rd volume of Book 1, and the plot thickens. I would have really have enjoyed it more in movie form.

With a time limit newly imposed on the Avatar's save-the-world-from-fiery-conquest goals, "Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 1 Water, Vol. 3" leaps back into loosely-entwined one-off stories. And the third volume further explores both the characters and the kingdoms at war -- the trio of kids encounter some moral ambiguity, terrorism, feuding, and the story of how Aang ended up frozen in an iceberg for a whole century.

Katara discovers an ancient waterbending scroll that some pirates stole from the North Pole -- and desperate to be able to tutor Aang, she steals it from THEM. Unfortunately, Prince Zuko is in the area (VERY reluctantly looking for a new lotus tile for his uncle), and he joins forces with the pirates to capture the Avatar.

Then the gang encounters a young outlaw named Jet and his band of teenage warriors, who are striking out against the Fire Nation. Katara is swept away by Jet, but Sokka is dubious about him and his fanatical hatred of the Fire Nation people... ALL of them. And when the kids arrive at the Great Divide (think the Grand Canyon with insectile monsters), they end up in the middle of a feud between two rival clans who have hated one another for a whole century. Aang tries to mediate them as they go through the Divide, but old grudges die hard.

Finally, a massive storm hits the town where Sokka is working for a fisherman, bringing back memories of Aang's past. Guilt-ridden, he tells Katara about his early life as the Avatar, about the separation from his kindly father figure, and why he ended up in the iceberg. In the meantime, Zuko's abrasive manner starts rubbing his crew the wrong way, but then Iroh tells them the terrible reason why he's so obsessed with capturing the Avatar.

Despite mostly not addressing the big new arc revelations, "Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 1 Water, Vol. 3" starts dipping into remarkably mature waters for a show aimed at kids -- you've got terrorism, long-running feuds, running away from home, and a truly nasty scene where it's shown how Zuko got that big burn scar. Thankfully the writers avoid the typical preachy attitudes you find in most kids' TV; instead, they just let the conflicts unfold pretty naturally.

All four episodes are solidly written standalone stories, with plenty of dangers (pirates! bug-monsters! hurricanes!), solid fight scenes (a double hijacking), and a hefty dose of humor ("He's a gigantic fluffy monster with an arrow on his head! It's kinda hard to miss him!"). Each of them moves along at a brisk pace (although "Jet" is a bit slower than most) and has some spectacular moments speckled throughout -- breaking dams, waterfalls, and that whole eye-of-the-storm scene.

And courtesy of the last episode, Aang and Zuko get a lot of development -- Aang's carefree childhood was abruptly being turned into all-Avatar-all-the-time, and he hides quite a bit of guilt over his past actions. And we see how Zuko became the grim, scarred, Avatar-obsessed outcast he is today, due to a minor discourtesy that blossomed into a disastrous fight with his own father. Yet we also see that he does care about his crew, even if he doesn't always act like it.

This isn't a very good volume for Katara, since her brain apparently implodes for two whole episodes. But though Sokka doesn't display any massive personal growth, he also gets to show that he's more than comic relief -- he has some solid intuition and rock-hard morals, even towards the Fire Nation civilians.

"Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 1 Water, Vol. 3" is a nice solid foursome of standalone episodes, fleshing out the characters and the greyer shades of their world. Definitely worth checking out.

Cant wait for the movie to be released. Fun for all family get together movie night.

What can say? We love the Avatar series. We are starting from scratch and have only seen Book 1. All the volumes are great and the Avatar is a great story of good vs. evil and personal sacrifice for the good of many.