Avatar's New Projects Are Everywhere — But the Best Ones Succeed by Going Beyond "The Last Airbender"

Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko's latest entry in the fantasy series is the first to pull every child away from the IP's anchor point.

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If there's an object lesson right now in the different paths franchises can take, and the different levels of success they have, it's found in the year that "Avatar" is having. Avatar: The Last Airbender was a 2005 project from Nickelodeon Animation Studios created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Brian Konitzko, and its omission from The New York Times' Best TV Shows of the 21st Century was so egregious that ten different friends didn't yell at me, someone who didn't work on it.

(IndieWire never makes that mistake).

The series ended in 2008 after three seasons (or, as the series calls it, "the books") and a four-episode finale that is one of, if not the, most flawless series finales in television history, structurally, animatedly, or otherwise. A style that is influenced by the expressiveness of anime, but is very much in the boldness of line and color by various disciplines of martial arts behind the elemental "bending". Related stories 'Girls' is back: Lena Dunham and the entire cast reunite for a five-episode limited series revival.

Most people can bend one of the four elements, of course, and thus are known as Earthbenders, Firebenders, Waterbenders, etc. But only the Avatar - if you know the words - can master all four elements and bring balance to the world. Animation of the original series was overseen by three South Korean studios, mainly JM Animation in the early seasons and MOI Animation in the later seasons. The unified look they all achieved was a wonderful balance in itself.

ATLA can be as lively, imaginative and chaotic as its hero, Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen), the last airbender, and his best friend, Apa the sky bison (Dee Bradley Baker). He was also able to create spiritual and luminous landscapes that made the world of the show, "Four Nations" amazingly complete and distinct.

Much has been written, and rightly so for a series of such an unapologetically joyous, native Asian world, about the effects of The Last Airbender. For example, the Earth Kingdom is much taller than the Chinese bureaucracy, while the Fire Nation seethes with the sharp industrialism of the Japanese Empire. But "ATLA" has had its own influence in directing animated series as well — from the visual splendor of something like "Blue Eyed Samurai" to the incredible action of "All Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood" to the deep friendships and tectonic character development of shows like "She-Ra: Princesses of Power" or "Star Wars Rebels."

Everything that doesn't scratch the surface, let alone hidden tunnels, is what makes Avatar: The Last Airbender great. Which perhaps explains why people keep trying to bring it back.

M. Night Shyamalan's live-action "The Last Airbender" is an adaptation of the 2010 original, and the less said about it, the better. Netflix has attempted a live-action series that retells chapter-by-verse of its animated progenitor, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and while Dallas Liu somehow found a way to become Prince Zuko, the series also faced a number of similar problems in the live-action adaptation. There is an understandable tendency to make the design and aesthetics of the live-action world recognizably similar to that of the animated world. But animation is much more expressive, so much more information can be conveyed through color and line size and boldness and unrealistic physical type that nevertheless conveys real emotion. None of the live-action projects have found ways to do things that only animation can.

On the animation side, DiMartino and Kunitzko first created a direct sequel, The Legend of Korra, which aired on Nickelodeon from 2012 to 2014, focusing on the Avatar directly after Aang, following Princess Hibu/Avatar Korra (Janet Te Varney) of the Water Tribe itself. This is partly for a slightly older audience already familiar with the original series, and also for making some really creepy silent movie jokes (proposals) in Season 2.

"Kora" adds complexity to the "ATLA" animation style, which fits the original urban setting of the Republic City where the story takes place. Everything has a little more rivets and angles, a little less space. The animation is, perhaps, less precise and crisp, relying more on the weight and impact and larger explosions that are the complex choreography of "Avatar." But it's very much like a companion piece.

Or so it was, until the "Avatar" franchise began spinning out many other companions. Leaving aside the comics, tie-in books, video games, and other side joys of exploiting a successful IP, there is, of course, the Netflix show. But in 2021, DiMartino and Konitzko launched Avatar Studios to take on many, many other animated projects that are still more difficult than a turtle crab.

It shows how Paramount+ wants to continue as Hollywood's new Lion Turtle, with a new animated film out earlier this year called Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, which follows a now-grown-up Aang and valiantly tries to be more than a little fanboy for the adults who are now part of Avatar's most compelling story. There's also a spin-off dedicated to another previous Avatar, Kurok, though "Avatar Kurok: Wave of Chaos" likely won't feature as many damn monsters as Kurok's furs promised in the flashback.

Time and time again, the creative team behind the original remake have looked at Avatar: The Last Airbender and decided not to subvert Fire Lord's design aesthetic, overall time period, character focus, and tone. And as a result, none of those projects are as good as the original project.

Not the newest attempt at the "ATLA" universe, at least not yet. But Avatar: The Last Airbender is at least a breath of fresh (irradiated, post-apocalyptic sandstorm-y) air, as it really gives itself room to be its own thing in animation style, storytelling framework, and themes.

Set hundreds of years after Korra in a world that seems vastly different from the four nations we've come to know and love, Seven Shelters has a sort of The Force Awakens relationship to its ancestral set — young heroes with cute animal sidekicks, a very similar turn in the opening voiceover that announces each episode, big side-by-side conflicts. Kid-Friendly Hijinks There's a fun, still-unexplained mystery of how Korra did or didn't create the cataclysm that left most of the world uninhabitable, and a fun, still-unexplained mystery about how many Avatars there are. But it gets away with being close to the original in terms of plot and tone because it feels different.

Seven Havens animation was mainly made by the French studio La Chouette Compagnie. While some of the colors and cultural touches are still aligned with the original animated shows in terms of shapes and fighting style, much of Seven Shelters is truly different — to use a Ghibli analogy (a gibbonology?), Seven Shelters looks to Nausicaa of the Wind Valley rather than Totoro or Koraving.

On the one hand, the show's look at creative destruction and interesting creatures and a kind of broken stained-glass feel to the world beyond Elora's paradise (one of the seven) is just another reminder that "Scavengers Reign" looked really cool. On the other hand, by bringing more Hindu and Jain influences into Ellora's design and re-combining them with the existing world of ATLA, Seven Sanctuary feels like an evolution from the existing world rather than a pale shadow.

The show has already proven that doing something that feels completely different may be the only way for a franchise like "Avatar" to survive.

The first three episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender are streaming now on Paramount Plus.