100 Facts About Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar The Last Airbender is a globally recognized franchise that asks important questions like

what would you do if you had a flying best friend that was a bison? And is it okay to tattoo

children? I'm Dave Baker. Today, we're listing 100 facts you didn't know about Avatar The Last

Airbender. Avatar The Last Airbender is arguably the greatest animated TV series of all time. It

won five Annies, a Genesis Award, a Primetime Emmy, and a Kids' Choice Award, as well as a

Peabody Award. The extended Avatar franchise includes a live-action feature film, animated

series, sequel, a prequel novel series, comic books, as well as a live-action Netflix series

that's coming soon. The show tells the story of a world that houses super-powered warring clans of

elemental manipulators, all fighting for survival. The four clans are based on the four elements

earth, wind, fire, and water. The show is deeply influenced by Chinese, Inuit, Korean, and Japanese

cultures. Avatar The Last Airbender was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Brian Cognetsco

DiMartino and Cognetsco met in college when they both attended the Rhode Island Institute of Design

They met at a Halloween party where DiMartino was dressed in a homemade iguana costume. Cognetsco

began the process of preparing a pitch for the show when the original Invader Zim was cancelled

and he was laid off. The first idea that the two creators would pitch was about two young boys

coming of age while playing in a forest near their homes. Eventually, this idea was abandoned

when the development exec at Nick felt that it was too similar to other ideas they had in the

pipeline. The initial idea for the show came around in 2001, when Brian Konietzko took his

old sketchbook drawing of a bald monk and redrew it as a young boy. The duo pitched the idea to

Eric Coleman, the vice president of Nickelodeon, and were picked up for development. The show ran

from February 21st, 2005 to July 19th, 2008. The voice cast of the show includes actors

Zack Tyler as Aang, Jack Messina as Sokka, Mae Whitman as Katara, and Dante Bosco as Prince Zuko

Other famous actors that appeared in the show are Mako, Gray Griffin, Jason Isaacs, Mark Hamill

and Clancy Brown. The pilot, Chapter One, The Boy in the Iceberg, was directed by Dave Filoni

who would later go on to direct The Mandalorian and numerous other Star Wars projects

The pilot that was aired and is currently streamable as episode one was not the original pilot that was produced

The original pilot offered a different female character in place of Katara named Kaya

Some of the shots from this unaired pilot were used later in the show at various points

The show was not released on Blu-ray until June of 2018. In May of 2020, the show was made available to stream on Netflix

In June, it was made available on CBS All Access. The show is so popular on Netflix that it has almost set a record

for the most consecutive days in the top 10 on the platform. It's currently tied at 57 straight days with Ozark

The animation for the show was completed by South Korean studios JM Animation, RD Movie, and MOLI Animation

DiMartino was so committed to improving the quality of the animation that he lived in Korea for months in order to work directly

with the animation studios on a person-to-person level. If you're wondering why the show opens in the snow

it because DiMartino saw early test footage of characters in the snow and made a mental connection to a recent documentary he had watched about people living in the South Pole In fact an early conception of the show was based entirely on the true life story of whalers whose ship got stuck in frozen blocks of ice and were forced to make a harrowing trek to safety

In this version of the show, we would have followed members of the water tribe as they attempted to make the perilous journey after their ship was encapsulated by the glacier

This version of the show would have seen a more survivalist horror premise play out

Development execs at Nick felt that this was too mature of a direction So the show was retooled

The idea of starting the show with an icy locale was still kept, though, as the first episode of the show opens with Sokka and Katara attempting to hunt

and then discovering Aang frozen in a glacier. When asked about those early developmental sessions, Konietzko said

Our love of Japanese anime, Hong Kong action, and Kung Fu cinema, yoga, and Eastern philosophies

led us to the initial inspiration for Avatar. Another discarded idea for the show was that in its initial conception

it would have taken place in the future, thousands of years out from where we are today

When developing the world of Avatar, the creators were looking for visual signifiers that would have helped them set it apart from not just the other shows that were on the air at the time, but from our literal world

Giving Aang tattoos was one of the many ways they worked to make the world distinct, and also to make him visually distinct from the other characters

All of the animals within the show are hybrid creatures. Appa, the flying bison, is named Appa for the Korean word for dad

Originally, when Aang was going to be frozen, it wasn't just going to be Appa with him

It was going to be a whole herd of flying bison, but that proved too expensive to produce

The visuals and personality of Aang were solidified after the creators watched a Shaolin Wheel of Life performance

with a young child performing intense martial arts displays. DeMartinez spent so much time visually developing Aang that they didn't actually have any art for Katara when they went to pitch it

So before their initial big pitch meeting, he whipped up some character sketches and tried to come up with as much backstory as possible

During the development process for the Fire Nation, DeMartinez took a trip to Iceland and toured their highly volcanic terrain

It's pretty difficult to imagine what the show would have been like without Zuko, but he was actually added at a very late stage in the process

To round out the supporting cast, DeMartinez came up with the idea for Sokka, who would act as a foil to Aang and Katara

At one point, the show was going to feature a secondary crew of villains, an all-female firebending squad that was going to pursue Aang for revenge

The show is well known for its intricate and impressive martial arts fighting sequences

They accomplished this task by hiring real martial arts experts from multiple disciplines

and then filming them fighting each other. The animators would then use this as reference when they would be building and composing shots

This process is very similar to what old Disney animators used to call rotoscoping

There are differing schools of thought of just exactly when Avatar The Last Airbender takes place

Some people think it takes place in the 1800s. 1800s. Other point out many pieces of technology that come from much later in our timeline

Aang's visuals are now iconic, but at the time, development executives were worried that children

wouldn't think he was cool because he didn't have any hair. His glowing avatar eyes are a visual

reference to beloved anime, FLCL. Avatar, The Last Airbender received the ultimate compliment

in 2006 when they were adapted into Lego form However it was short Only two sets were ever released an air temple and a Fire Nation ship 2006 also saw the release of Avatar The Last Airbender the trading card game

It utilized a gaming system called Quick Strike, which was intended to be a universal combat fighting system

that would allow the trading card company Upper Deck to pit multiple franchises against each other

In Season 1, Episode 18, there's an arm wrestling match with definitely not Ryu from Street Fighter

The Avatar character Sokka took on a life all his own. He was originally planned to be a bit character and just a supporting role

However, the writers of the show played into voice actor Jack DeSina's more energetic performance

and dialed up the character's intensity. During the second season, when Zuko cuts his hair off and goes into hiding

this is a reference to what samurai warriors would undergo if they left the path of a warrior

A video game trilogy was released based on Avatar beginning in 2006

Avatar The Burning Earth and Avatar Into the Inferno were released in 2007 and 2008

Later, an MMORPG was released titled Avatar Legends of the Arena. All of these previous games are maligned by the fan community

Instead, they all highly recommend the fan-created game titled Ang Project. The four Chinese characters that appear in the background of the opening translate to

the divine medium who has descended upon the mortal world. Episode 7, The Southern Air Temple, is the only episode of the show that does not have its title on a white background

It opens on a shot of a sunrise. The bit character of the Cabbage Man was not initially intended to be a recurring character in the cast

but became something of an inside joke in the Avatar office and was subsequently brought back numerous times

Today, the Cabbage Man consistently ranks as one of the fan-favorite Avatar characters

He's number 12 on Ranker's list of most beloved Avatar characters. Later in the show, it's revealed that Aang and Appa bonded as children

and that all airbenders learned their skills from flying bison. The first time that we see Appa fight is in the episode Batteau of the Water Tribe

Most viewers didn't even know that he could fight. In season two, episode eight, The Chase

it's revealed that Appa sheds his fur. He does so once every hundred years

One of season two's best episodes is Lake Logai. It sees Aang coming against a former foe, Jet

who's been brainwashed by a faction of the Earth Kingdom. This episode is based on a true story

In the 1950s and 60s, there was a prison camp that housed political prisoners of the same name

In fact, Logai is short for Lodongaisu, which translates to reform through labor

The Avatar world has its own calendar. The outer ring features the Chinese Zodiac

The next ring in has 16 separate eras. And then inside that, there are two rings that symbolize days and months

In the world of Avatar, the only person who can strip someone of their bending abilities is the Avatar

The creators refer to this ability as anti-bending or unbending. This becomes so prevalent that in Legend of Korra, the main villain, Amon, has the ability to anti-bend

Over the course of the show, Korra gains the ability as well. Uh, kind of

It's more complicated than that, but we don't want to spoil it. Go watch the show. In 2012, Dark Horse Comics published a series of comics by Glenn Yang

that showcased Aang's journey after the Hundred Years' War, titled Avatar, The Last Airbender, The Promise

In 2019, a series of YA novels were published following Avatar Kyoshi

These books were written by FCE. Legend of Korra the sequel to Avatar was released on April 14 2012 The show takes place 70 years after the original series It was also created by Konietzko and DiMartino It lasted until December 19 2014

It ran a total of four seasons, comprising a total of 52 episodes. It was initially intended to only

be a 12-episode miniseries, but through the course of development, the story evolved. Just like its

predecessor, it won an Annie Award, Daytime Emmy Award, and a Gracie Award. The show is highly

regarded for how it handled issues of socio-political unrest, and how it

handled race, gender, and sexual orientation in the medium of children's animation

It features a voice cast of J.K. Simmons, Janet Varney, Aubrey Plaza

Henry Rowans, and Anne Heche. Legend of Korra was announced at Comic-Con with the title

Avatar, The Legend of Korra. Then, later in its production, they changed the title

to The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, and then simply Legend of Korra

All the music for the show was comprised by Jeremy Zuckerman, who did the original music for

Avatar, The Last Airbender. Spoiler alert, during the series finale, it's heavily implied that Asami and Korra are romantically involved. This was later

confirmed by Cunetsuko and Demartinez on a Tumblr post, making Legend of Korra a big step forward in

terms of representation. In an answer to many Avatar fans' prayers, Legend of Korra is currently

available to stream on Netflix. 2010 saw the release of The Last Airbender, or The Last Airbender in 3D

if you're going off of the poster art. The film was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It

It was produced for a budget of roughly $150 million and pulled in $319 million in its total run

However, its opening weekend haul was just above $16 million. Many critics said that the film lacked a cohesive vision

that the acting and writing were all over the place, that the directing was sloppy, and that the 3D conversion did not function well

The film was originally going to be part of a planned trilogy, each movie covering one season of the show

However, that never happened. An additional controversy surrounded the film due to the fact that many people were disturbed by the fact that the characters in the film

who were obviously Asian in the animated show, were being portrayed by white actors

This spawned the term race-bending, which is still utilized whenever this conversation inevitably crops up over and over and over again

Very little is known about the Netflix Avatar series at this point. However, one depressing aspect of the production is that both Cognetsco and DiMartino

who were both involved in the production for an extended period of time, have departed the show over creative differences

DiMartino wrote an open letter to fans, giving some insight into the reason that he left

He outlined that the production was getting away from him, and that Netflix was not interested in producing a version of the show

that was in line with his and Konietzko's creative sensibilities. He concluded the letter by saying

I also want to be clear that this doesn't mean this is the end of my involvement with the Avatar universe

These stories and characters are important to me, And the renewed interest and excitement in Avatar and Korra

has been so inspiring to see. While we're all waiting patiently for the new Avatar show

there's something of a dearth of new content, which has led fans to make their own

TikToker KathrynLynRose is composing a whole Avatar-themed musical. If you're wondering when the show is going to debut

most reasonable expectations suggest that it would be released by Netflix in 2021

if not 2022, considering the whole global pandemic then