If there’s any object lesson to be learned right now about the different paths franchises can take and their varying levels of success, it’s found in the year that “Avatar” has had. “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was a 2005 project from Nickelodeon Animation Studios, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and its omission from The New York Times’ Best TV Shows of the 21st Century is so serious that ten different friends yelled at me, a person who has never worked there.
(IndieWire would never make that mistake).
The series ended in 2008 after three seasons (or “books,” as the show is called) and a four-part finale, which remains one of the most structurally flawless series finales in television history, animated or otherwise. The style is influenced by the expressionism of anime but shaped in boldness of line and color by the very different martial arts themes behind the fundamental “bending”.
Of course, many people can bend one of the four elements, and so are known as earthbenders, firebenders, waterbenders, etc., but only the Avatar – who sings along if you know the words – can master all four elements and bring balance to the world. The animation of the original series was supervised by three South Korean studios, primarily JM Animation in the early seasons and MOI Animation in the later seasons. The unified look they all achieved was a wonderful kind of balance in itself.
“ATLA” can be as spirited and imaginative and chaotic as its protagonist, Aang (Jack Tyler Eisen), the titular last airbender, and his best friend, the sky-bison Appa (Dee Bradley Baker). It was also capable of soulful, dazzling scenarios that made the show’s world, “Four Nations,” feel charmingly complete and distinct.
Much has been written about the influence on “The Last Airbender,” and rightfully so, given that the series has such an unapologetic, joyful Asian and tribal world. For example, the Earth Kingdom is the very height of Chinese bureaucracy-coded, while the Fire Nation seethes with the edgy industrialism of Imperial Japan. But “ATLA” has also had its own influence on the direction of animated series — from the visual grandeur of something like “Blue Eye Samurai,” to the incredible action of “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood,” to the deep friendships and tectonic character development in shows like “She-Ra: Princess of Power” or “Star Wars Rebels.”
All that doesn’t scratch the surface, let alone the bottom secret tunnelsWhat makes “Avatar: The Last Airbender” great. Which probably explains why people keep trying to get it back to running.
M. Night Shyamalan “The Last Airbender” is the live-action film adaptation of the 2010 original film, and the less said about it, the better. Netflix has tried to make a live-action series retelling chapter and verse of its animated progenitor, “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” and while Dallas Liu has somehow found a way to become Prince Zuko, the show has also faced many of the same problems as the live-action adaptation. There’s this desire, which is clearly understandable, to make the design and aesthetics of the live-action world more similar to the animated world. But animation is much more expressive, so a lot more information can be conveyed through color and shape and boldness of line and that kind of surreal physicality that still conveys real emotion. No live-action project has found ways to do things that only animation can do.
On the animated front, DiMartino and Konietzko first created a direct sequel, “The Legend of Korra”, which ran on Nickelodeon from 2012 to 2014 and focused on the incarnation directly after Aang, with the Water Tribe’s own hebi princess/Avatar Korra (Janet Varney) being an older teen than the 12-year-old Aang. This is somewhat aimed at older audiences, those already familiar with the original series, and also meant to make some truly terrible (complimentary) silent movie jokes in Season 2.
“Korra” builds on the animation style of “ATLA,” which fits the main metropolitan setting of Republic City where the story takes place. Everything has a little more rivets and angles, a little less width. The animation is, perhaps, less careful and clear, relying more on weight and impact, and bigger explosions than the intricate choreography of “Avatar.” But it feels exactly like a companion piece.
Or that was, until the “Avatar” franchise started including a number of other companions. Leaving aside comics, tie-books, video games, and other ancillary pleasures of exploiting successful IP, there is, of course, the Netflix show. But in 2021, DiMartino and Konietzko parted ways with Avatar Studios to manage several other animated projects, still holding tighter to the original than Turtles the Crab.
It’s a sign of how Paramount+ wants to proceed as Hollywood’s new Lion Turtle heads up, with a new animated movie arriving earlier this year called “Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender,” which follows a now-grown Aang and tries valiantly to be more than a bit of fan service for adults who have now grown older than the most interesting parts of Avatar’s story. There’s also a spinoff dedicated to another past Avatar, Kuruk, though “Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos” probably won’t involve as much monster-fucking as Kuruk’s fur in the flashbacks promised.
Over and over again, the creative team behind the originals and newcomers looked at “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and decided No Design aesthetic, overall time period, focus characters and tone to overthrow the fire god. And as a result, none of those projects are as good as the original.
Nor has the latest endeavor been established in the world of “ATLA,” at least not yet. But “Avatar: Seven Heavens” is at least a breath of fresh (irradiated, post-apocalyptic sandstorm-y) air because it actually gives itself space to become its own thing in animation style, storytelling framework, and themes.
Set hundreds of years after “Korra” in a world that looks very different from the four nations we know and love, “Seven Heavens” has a kind of “The Force Awakens” relationship with its progenitor series — young heroes with cute animal sidekicks, a very similar spin on the opening voiceover announcing each episode, big battle set pieces, and heavy themes paired with kid-friendly hijinks. There’s a fun, yet unexplained mystery of how Korra did or didn’t cause the cataclysm that made much of the world uninhabitable, and a fun, yet unexplained double-down on the number of Avatars in existence. But it falls far short of coming close to the original in plot and tone because it looks like apart.
The animation of “Seven Heavens” mainly comes from the French studio La Chouette Compagnie. While some of the colors and cultural touches in the figures and fighting style still align with the original animated show, the majority of “Seven Heavens” is truly different – to use a Ghibli analogy (a Ghiblilogy?), “Seven Heavens” looks at “Novice of the Valley of the Wind” rather than “Korra”’s kinship with “Totoro” or “Howl’s Moving Castle.”
On the one hand, the show’s eye for creative destruction and interesting critters and a kind of broken-stained-glass feeling for the world beyond Elora’s Haven (one of the seven) is just another reminder that “Scavengers Reign” felt really good. On the other hand, however, by incorporating more Hindu and Jainist influences into Ellora’s design and remixing them with the existing world of “ATLA”, “Seven Heavens” feels richly developed from that existing world, rather than a pale shadow of it.
The show has already proven that doing something that stands out is probably the only way for a franchise like “Avatar” to survive.
The first three episodes of “Avatar: Seven Heavens” are now streaming on Paramount+.