Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 1 Water, Vol. 4

This series is nice. The animation is anime-like, but I noticed that in its DVD form that some of the quality is removed and in some places blotchy.

I'm a voice person. The voice talents on this series are truly remarkable. I've been in love with Prince Zuko's voice since the beginning. The special features on this DVD show the actors doing their thing, and they explain some of the behind the scenes work in the dialog and show how they match it up to the animation. For some reason, Katara isn't shown in the special feature and no explanation is given for her absence.

Dante Brasko is the voice of Zuko. The voice of Aang is a real boy (not an older woman with a funny voice pretending to be a kid voice), in the series Aang is a 12 year old boy. Momo has a Human voice behind his lemur chatter. I can only believe it, because I watched the actor doing it on the DVD.

In the Avatar's universe there are four nations. Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. A hundred years of War have passed, since the Fire nation attacked the other nations. The Air nation has been completely annihilated. Aang is the last Airbender, the last of his nation.

In the series, Aang is the Avatar, master of the four elements. He's supposed to be the bridge between peoples, and between the real world and the spirit world. Aang is reincarnated in a cycle of all the Nations. According to the legend, if he is killed while he's in the Avatar state, the reincarnation cycle will be broken.

In their adventures; Aang, Katara, Saka, Momo, and Appa the flying bison - they often run in to prejudices as old as the war. It's a mindset that is unnerving, even in a fiction world.

The dialog is above and beyond what is usually offered in children's cartoons. I actually have hope for the generation of kids growing up with watching Avatar.

The martial arts in the animations is based on real life martial arts. Each type of bending is a showcase of a different style of movement.

I'm 43 myself and I look forward to every new episode with happy anticipation. When will the new season start already?!

My only complaint with the DVD is the length of the previews in the beginning. And the announcer mispronounces Saka's name. The announcer says SOH-KA. The announcer needs a good Nickelodeon sliming for not paying attention.

The kids loved all 3 DVDs. We will be ordering the next one soon.

I want to echo what other reviews have said. This is a great series for all ages. It is a truely well written and well paced exposition of the process of growing up, making and keeping friends, and accepting a place in the world. Ang starts out as a kid who just wants to play and gradually over the series discovers how to be a responsible productive person. The side and back stories are also uplifting and instructive. Good for all ages. Most of the other things on Nick and CTV have devolved to cheap idiot food that has no art or story line. Kudos to whoever thought this series up.

As I have said before this is great cartoon for kids, it's funny the series gets better as the stories and most shows can stand alone with having previous knowledge of the previous one.
So it's a great item for your kids I recomend that you buy the season dvd if you don't have any it's cheaper.