Avatar: The Last Airbender (season 1) facts for kids

Season One (Book 1: Water) of Avatar: The Last Airbender had 20 episodes and they were shown from 21 February 2005 until 2 December 2005. The series was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and starred Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Mako, Dante Basco, and Jason Isaacs as the main character voices.

The season goes around the protagonist, Aang, and his friends Katara and Sokka and their journey to the North Pole (to North Water Tribe) to find a Waterbending master to teach Aang and Katara how to control water. Fire Lord Ozai, the current Fire Lord of the Fire Nation, is waging a seemingly endless war against the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, and the already destroyed Air Nomads. Aang, the current Avatar, must master the four elements—Air, Water, Earth, and Fire—before win the Fire Lord and ending the war. Along the way, Aang and his friends are chased by various pursuers, including Prince Zuko, a banished Fire Nation prince, and Admiral Zhao, a key member of the Fire Navy.

Each episode of Season One attracted more than a million viewers on its first airing. Season One won "Best TV Series" and "Best Animated Television Series" in the boys 9–14-year old demographic at the 2005 Pulcinella Awards, which gives awards for excellence in animation.

Between 4 January 2006 and 19 September 2006, five DVD sets were released in the USA, each had four episodes from the season. On 12 September 2006, Nickelodeon also released the "Complete Book One Collection Box Set", which had all of the episodes in the season as well as a special features disc. The original releases were encoded in Region 1 (USA), a DVD type that plays only in American DVD players. From 2007 to 2009, Nickelodeon released Region 2 DVDs (Europe), which can play in Europe.

The first has been adapted into a live-action movie The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan and was released in July 2010.

Production

The show was produced by and shown on Nickelodeon, which is owned by Viacom. The show's creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, worked with Aaron Ehasz. Eight episodes were directed by Dave Filoni. Animation directors Lauren MacMullan and Giancarlo Volpe directed five episodes each, and Anthony Lioi directed two. Episodes were written or co-written by a team of writers, which included Nick Malis, John O'Bryan, Matt Hubbard, James Eagan, Ian Wilcox, Tim Hedrick and Elizabeth Welch Ehasz. All of the show's music was written by "The Track Team", which consists of Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, who were known to Dante and Konietzko because Zuckerman was Konietzko's roommate.

Cast

Episodes

DVD releases

Region 1

Nickelodeon began releasing the Season One DVDs on 31 January 2006. Each DVD, with one exception, had four episodes on one disc. The exception was The Complete Book One Collection Box Set, which had all of the 20 episodes in the season on six discs.

In the USA, all Season One DVDs were encoded using NTSC. Since this is not compatible in most countries outside North America, Nickelodeon released separate DVDs in regions where the video would be encoded using PAL instead. These releases began on 19 February 2007; each DVD was released months after the original release. As with the original DVDs, each set contained four episodes on one disc, with the exception would be The Complete Book One Collection Box Set, which contained all of the twenty episodes in the season on five discs.

Movie adaptation

The Last Airbender is a live action movie based on the first season of the animated television series and had a theatrical release on 1 July 2010. The movie is directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

General

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