What made Avatar the Last Airbender such a good show?

What made Avatar the Last Airbender such a good show?

Lightning in a bottle shit that can't be replicated like having a clear vision and a staff that was fully dedicated to the premise while also being in bizarrely good graces for the standards of 2000s Nick.

For me it was the worldbuilding. It's just got that "wonder" factor to it that makes you want to explore and learn more in the next episode. The same kind of vibe that sucked me into something like lord of the rings, the elder scrolls games, game of thrones, even star wars to an extent.
Also the characters, especially zuko.

Everything, it came out at the perfect time and is still timeless.

The list of everything they did right is too long. Everything from the background art to the setup to the suspense writing to the sound design to the comedic timing & pacing, and everything in between. They even managed to make a prophecy trope not feel like a forced cop-out. They really just didn't screw anything up.

this. the world, its power system, the characters, the humor, the action, the emotion, the music, the voice acting. it's just not fair man, aatla does so much well and only stumbles with energy bending and azula's lightning-fast mental boom

Both of these, basically a Lord of the Rings Trilogy situation where everything just magically fell into place and produced gold.

Something I have never seen anyone really put a spotlight on with the timing of Avatar's release is that Avatar debuted a year and a half after the last 'real' stateside Jackie Chan movie, and started when Jackie Chan Adventures was in its last season. There's an entire genre of comedy-action that was notable in American pop culture through the 80s/90s and "Kung Fu" was a significant subgenre there. The not insignificant number of martial arts themed cartoons of the era was riding that wave. Yes anime had a similar niche but the audience at large didn't have to be primed specifically with anime to enjoy it.

But Jackie Chan's career decline was inevitable. He was an ultra-mega-superstar and able to get much more money for smaller parts, he disliked the American film industry's procedures and China got a whole lot richer so he could make much more money just making movies for them, and realistically he was turning 50 and physically not able to do all the stunts that made his earlier works exciting. Plus fewer movies were getting produced by any one studio, at least compared to the early 90s and 80s so while his movies already saturated the airwaves he wasn't about to lock out the box office. Add to that there was not any 'next Jackie Chan" waiting in the wings to take to take over his niche. Most martial artists big, or getting big (relatively) in the 2000s were stoic action hero types staring in dramatic roles. Stephen Chow might've gotten ""discovered"" a lot later by the by Americans, and Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle made it stateside a matter of months before Avatar's first airdate. But that's actually the end of his on-camera kung fu career, since he's only a bit younger than Jackie.

It's not all a question of being the exact right genre, but having the opening sure helps

Great character writing and plot, anime-inspired animation, unique world and aesthetic, distinct music

He also worked on Rush Hour 3 and other American-Chinese productions. It's just that Mainland money was more attractive than just being the Chinese Kung-Fu guy in Hollywood

RH3

I supposed I leaned over the buddycop label to exclude that, which is another tentpole of the hybrid action/comedy genre. But even on the movies Jackie Chan was making in the 00's in HK/China he moved away from the buffoonery for lack of a better term. I can't prove it was a deciding factor, but I assume the fact he did more movies like Police Story was the reason they weren't localized with pomp.

Of course kids in Austin Texas watching Rumble in the Bronx for the 1st time on TBS afternoon movies probably didn't know if it was released last week.

Toph

It was a Naruto for American Sensibilities (Characters are not as bloodthirsty, female characters were more prominent and the Avatar world wasn't inspired by only Japan)

Main leads let actual competent writers into the show with only like 2 actually bad episodes which aren't even the worst on TV (divide, painted lady)

Had the themes, main world, themes, aesthetics, themes already planned out while not being too rigid about changes during the process of pitch to production

Was the first show of its kind at a time where most cartoons that actually succeeded where on kids channels and adult animation other than Simpsons was struggling

Actual themes

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Action
Quality animation
Sense of adventure
Slice of life

It was just a little something for everyone

How did they fuck up Korra so much?

She should've been around Zokka/Katara/Zuko's age (and they focused too much on romantic subplots)

No tard wangling the writers and teen drama no wanted to see.

The groundwork they did is also why the fights were as good as they were: basic measures like Sifu Kisu consulting, rooting the bending styles in real martial disciplines for consistency, then inventing interesting exceptions and combinations. That’s an efficient choreography engine to sell the central conceit of the show and the main action scenes. They had to pull off the bending for the idea to work and they did.

ATLA is what happens when you have actually competent writers and let them do their thing instead of putting stupid constraints on them.

Are we ever going to see an adventure cartoon as good as it?

It's the perfect mix of depth behind a simple accessible premise. There's also enough room to involve "yourself" into the world by considering what sort of Bender you would be, classic Harry Potter/Hunger Games child-friendly stuff.
Sometimes it's just that simple.
There's enough complexity to the magic to feel like it's truly magical, but it's also super easy to understand.
It's a fantasy world but still grounded by being other undervalued cultures.
The characters are serious enough to feel developed but can also still be childish.

nick not being clear how much they wanted with the team being bad at telling one season spanning stories

Amon should stay. He didn't have to be next Zuko, but he could play the role of Lunatic from Tigger % Bunny anime - anti hero/villain who has his shit going on in between of clashes with heroes until him being important for the finale

what's weird is in every how-to-pitch video or announcement, Nick is like

c'mon guys, we REALLY need another Avatar, just make another one of those, guys

and then the shows they actually wind up making are

Rock Paper Scissors

Big Nate

The Patrick Star Show

it's Pony

Tyler Perry's Young Dylan

Middlemost Post

had a fun, likeable cast that felt human

the world and magic is solid and easy to understand while still being able to surprise you with wildcards

it stuck to its main theme (balance) and didnt undermine it or stray from it

theres a lot more to it but i think this is what it does that I think a lot of nu fantasy fails at

It's industry wide now though.

Everything has to be a comedy, where there has to be a joke every five minutes, just there to appeal to kids.

I'd say anime is better but they to want to make shows that appeal to a small audeience instead of a massive one, nothing wrong with that but just feels limiting.

It hit an audience who wanted anime but didn't quite know what anime was yet

pretty anime style instead of dogshit fugly amerigolem scribbles that instill visceral disgust in viewers

plot based story instead of brainless monster of the week topped with fart jokes

Execs are out of touch and always have been. Atla proved it. Now they're taking away everything that isn't spongebob because the same obese hemhorroid-assed execs are still in power sucking up millions in salary while animators starve and writers can't get work. kids respond to the endless stream of garbage by switching to anime or checking out and starting tiktok at age 8.

anime style

here's your (you)

I hated most of the characters, specially toph.

I genuinly don't know why but I saw this thumbnail and thought it was the one for a porn parody game.

Why?

It was basically Nickelodeon's answer to the fantasy adventure trend of the early 2000s like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

It's the first show that late millennials and Gen Z saw that had a beginning, middle, and end.
For me, it was Digimon.