Steve Fritz Interviews Avatar Creator

Steve Fritz over at Newsarama has an interview with Michael Dante DiMartino of Avatar: The Last Airbender fame:

The main parallel throughout the series has been Aang and Zuko’s stories, and that parallel continues in Season 3. In “The Awakening,” Aaron Ehasz, the writer of the episode, did a great job of thematically tying all the stories together. The scene when Katara breaks down in front of her father is one of my favorite moments of the season--the writing, acting, and animation are fantastic. She seems to be angry with Aang for leaving, but really she’s been harboring all this resentment and anger at her father for leaving her years ago and it all comes out in that moment.

Avatar Musings

September 21 was the day Martial Law was declared in the Philippines but this year, it's also the day the first episode of Avatar The Last Airbender, Season 3 will be airing. A trailer is also up at YouTube.

Avatar Sneak Peaks

Avatar: The Last Airbender fans might want to drop by the San Diego Comic Con this week as Nickelodeon has the following event lined up (info courtesy of Steve Fritz at Newsarama):

SATURDAY, JULY 28
- 10:30 -11:30AM -- Into the Fire Nation: Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 3 Sneak Peek – A first look at what's to come in the third season, including clips from new episodes. Creator Bryan Konietzko, director Joaquim Dos Santos, Head Writer Aaron Ehasz (Futurama) and a voice artist Dee Baker (The Fairly OddParents), who voices Appa and Momo. Moderated by Eric Coleman, Vice President/Executive Producer, Animation Production and Development. Room 6A

Avatar Book 3

Got this from Stark Raving Mad.

From TV Shows on DVD:

This morning Paramount Home Entertainment has announced the DVD release of Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 3: Fire, Volume 1 on October 30th. The first single-disc release contains the first 5 episodes of the new season, with a running time of about two hours. Those episodes are reportedly to be titled "The Awakening," "The Headband," "The Painted Lady," "Sokka's Master," and "The Beach." In order to get this release out at that time, with that many eps, and assuming they are waiting until after the 2nd season DVD collection hits in the second week of September, then Nick will have to begin broadcasting in the third or fourth week of September. Cost of the B3,V1 disc is expected to be $16.99 SRP, similar to the previous individual DVDs in this series. Here's a look at the packaging. Oh, look! Fire! Wait, when did Ang grow hair?

SD Avatar: The Last Airbender

Remember the Avatar: The Last Airbender game/online comic I plugged weeks ago? Well aside from that pre-season 3 promotions, Nick also released an animated short here but you need a secret code. There's three shorts planned and this is the first so far. Got one of the codes from Marco: KOH. Hope it still works. =)

Avatar Updates

NICK LAUNCHES AVATAR GAME

Nickelodeon announced it will launch a new online game based on its super hot series Avatar: The Last Airbender next week on February 3. If that isn’t enough, they will also include a lot of other stuff to keep hardcore fans salivating until the third season starts later this year.

The new content, in the form of an animated online comic book from Avatar creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, will be revealed within a four-week online gaming event called “Avatar: Escape from the Spirit World” on a dedicated website, www.avatarescape.com.

To help them move forward in the game, players can tune into Nickelodeon on Saturday mornings in February, from 10 am to noon (eastern), and gather cheat codes that unlock the next level. During the final week of the event, on February 24, a special cheat code will be announced on-air which will unlock a special brand new Avatar short online, entitled "School Time Shipping.” Produced in the super deformed style of animation, which uses a style similar to caricature, this brand new short form content offers Avatar fans an opportunity to see their favorite characters in a whole new way.

The “Escape from the Spirit World” game will also be supported with an on-air promotional sweepstakes (in the U.S. only) featuring new winners each weekend over the four weeks of the event period, producing a total of 50 winners. Partners supporting the sweepstakes include Mattel, Paramount, Simon & Schuster, Tokyopop, THQ, Upper Deck and Lego.

From: Newsarama

Nostalgia + Nickolodeon

Those suffering from Avatar: The Last Air Bender withdrawal symptoms can buy themselves an early Christmas gift: Avatar-themed Lego toys

Avatar Returns

Steve Fritz of Newsarama writes about the latest news when it comes to animation. Some of my friends can look forward to the fact that the next two-episode release of Avatar: The Last Airbender will be next week, as well as Nickolodeon spending as much as $1 million per episode. In the same article, he also states that Avatar will return to a more regular schedule in the future, and that Nickolodeon has agreed to do a third season (and perhaps more after that, following a new story arc).

In the meantime, it seems Bleach and Trinity Blood will be debuting on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim... in the US.