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Avatar: The Last Airbender (season 2)
Encyclopedia
Season Two of Avatar: The Last Airbender
, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon
, first aired its 20 episodes from March 17, 2006 to December 1, 2006. The season was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino
and Bryan Konietzko
and starred Zach Tyler Eisen
, Mae Whitman
, Jack DeSena
, Jessie Flower
, Mako
, Grey DeLisle
, and Dante Basco
as the main character voices.
In the season's beginning, the protagonist
Aang
and his friends Katara and Sokka
are on a quest to find an Earthbending teacher, which finishes when they recruit Toph
. Sokka finds important information concerning the war with the Fire Nation. Aang quickly becomes single-minded in looking for his kidnapped flying bison Appa
. His search leads him to Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, where he uncovers the great internal government corruption of Ba Sing Se. At the season's end, Ba Sing Se falls to the Fire Nation and Aang escapes with his friends on a recovered Appa.
Throughout the season's airing, the show received much critical acclaim, with praises such as, "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent." Season 2 has won multiple awards, including the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award from the 34th Annie Awards
and the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award from the 2007 Emmy Awards
.
Between January 23, 2007 and September 11, 2007, Nickelodeon released five DVD
sets for the season: four sets containing five episodes each, and a fifth DVD collection of all twenty episodes. All DVDs were encoded in Region 1. In the UK, only the season boxset was released without being released in four volumes first. The boxset was released on July 20, 2009.
, which is owned by Viacom
. The season's executive producers and co-creators are Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who worked alongside episode director and co-producer Aaron Ehasz. Most of the individual episodes were directed by Ethan Spaulding
, Lauren MacMullan
and Giancarlo Volpe
. Episodes were written by a team of writers, which consisted of Aaron Ehasz, Elizabeth Welch Ehasz, Tim Hedrick, John O'Bryan
; along with creators DiMartino and Konietzko.
The season's music was composed by "The Track Team", which consists of Jeremy Zuckerman
and Benjamin Wynn, who were known to the show's creators because Zuckerman was Konietzko's roommate.
as Aang
, Mae Whitman
as Katara, Jack DeSena
as Sokka
, and Dante Basco
as the anti-hero
Zuko. However, several new characters appear: Toph
voiced by Jessie Flower
, Azula voiced by Grey DeLisle
and Long Feng voiced by Clancy Brown
. Two antagonists, Mai and Ty Lee, are introduced as Azula's minions who are tasked with capturing Aang. They were voiced by Cricket Leigh
and Olivia Hack
, respectively. Mako
, who voiced Iroh, died during production and was replaced by Greg Baldwin
.
and Justice League
, and complimented it for its depth and humour. Powers also comments: For the video and audio quality, Powers says "Season two generally looks better than the bulk of season one, but still has some issues" concerning image sharpness. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 87% fresh rating in 2008. Jamie S. Rich from DVD Talk
says that "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent".
The show also received acclaim for its visual appeal. In the 34th Annie Awards
, the show was nominated for and won the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award, for Jae-Myung Yu's animation in "The Blind Bandit", and the "Best Directing in an Animated Television Production" award, for the episode "The Drill". In 2007, the show was nominated for "Outstanding Animated Program" in the 2007 Emmy Awards for the "City of Walls and Secrets" episode, though it did not win. However, the show did win the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award for Sang-Jin Kim
's animation in the "Lake Laogai" episode.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz...
, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
, first aired its 20 episodes from March 17, 2006 to December 1, 2006. The season was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino
Michael Dante DiMartino
Michael Dante DiMartino is an American animation director, best known as the co-creator, executive producer and story editor of the hit TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon...
and Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko is the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He has also worked as a character designer at Film Roman for Family Guy and as Assistant Director for Mission Hill and King of the Hill. He was a Storyboard Artist and Art Director for the...
and starred Zach Tyler Eisen
Zach Tyler Eisen
Zachary Tyler "Zach" Eisen is an American actor and voice actor. His roles include Aang in the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, Lucas Nickle in The Ant Bully , Andrew in Nick Jr.'s Little Bill, and Pablo the Penguin in Nick Jr.'s The Backyardigans...
, Mae Whitman
Mae Whitman
Mae Margaret Whitman is an American television, movie and voice actress. She is known for her role as Ann Veal in the TV series Arrested Development, her role as Amber on the TV series Parenthood, her role as Roxy Richter in Scott Pilgrim vs...
, Jack DeSena
Jack DeSena
Jack DeSena is an American screen and voice actor. He is best known for his work on the sketch comedy series All That, having joined the show's cast at the start of its 7th season in 2001 Jack DeSena (born John Patrick DeSena; December 6, 1987, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American screen and...
, Jessie Flower
Jessie Flower
Jessie Flower is an American voice actress. She is most well known as the voice of Toph Bei Fong in the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. She also voiced the character Meng in the season one episode "The Fortuneteller". She voices Peggy in Random! Cartoons episode Tiffany...
, Mako
Mako (actor)
, born , was an Oscar- and Tony-nominated Japanese actor. Many of his acting roles credited him simply as Mako, omitting his surname. -Early life:...
, Grey DeLisle
Grey DeLisle
Grey DeLisle is an American voice actress, singer-songwriter, and comedienne. To date, she has released four solo albums and has featured on the tribute album Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash and film soundtrack of Loggerheads...
, and Dante Basco
Dante Basco
Danté Basco is an American actor, voice actor, poet, and dancer. He is best known for playing Rufio in the 1991 live-action Peter Pan film Hook...
as the main character voices.
In the season's beginning, the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
Aang
Aang
Aang is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character is created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang is depicted as the show's main protagonist, and as such has appeared in all but one...
and his friends Katara and Sokka
Sokka
Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack DeSena...
are on a quest to find an Earthbending teacher, which finishes when they recruit Toph
Toph
Toph Bei Fong is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character was voiced by Jessie Flower.Toph Bei Fong is a blind Earthbending master...
. Sokka finds important information concerning the war with the Fire Nation. Aang quickly becomes single-minded in looking for his kidnapped flying bison Appa
Appa
Appa is a fictional character on the Nickelodeon animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and in the film The Last Airbender. In the series, Appa is the only known living sky bison, a species of animals that can fly naturally, and is the animal guide of the protagonist, Aang...
. His search leads him to Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, where he uncovers the great internal government corruption of Ba Sing Se. At the season's end, Ba Sing Se falls to the Fire Nation and Aang escapes with his friends on a recovered Appa.
Throughout the season's airing, the show received much critical acclaim, with praises such as, "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent." Season 2 has won multiple awards, including the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award from the 34th Annie Awards
34th Annie Awards
The ceremony for the 34th Annual Annie Awards, honoring the best in animation in 2006, was held on February 11, 2007 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California.The nominations were announced on December 4, 2006.Winners are marked in bold text....
and the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award from the 2007 Emmy Awards
59th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on September 16, 2007 and were televised live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. EDT for the first time in high definition...
.
Between January 23, 2007 and September 11, 2007, Nickelodeon released five DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
sets for the season: four sets containing five episodes each, and a fifth DVD collection of all twenty episodes. All DVDs were encoded in Region 1. In the UK, only the season boxset was released without being released in four volumes first. The boxset was released on July 20, 2009.
Production
The season was produced by and aired on NickelodeonNickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
, which is owned by Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
. The season's executive producers and co-creators are Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who worked alongside episode director and co-producer Aaron Ehasz. Most of the individual episodes were directed by Ethan Spaulding
Ethan Spaulding
Ethan Spaulding is a crew person on the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He directed twelve episodes, and held various crew positions on several others...
, Lauren MacMullan
Lauren MacMullan
Lauren MacMullan is an animation director. Her first primetime TV job was on The Critic, followed by directing for King of the Hill. She went on to become the supervising director and designer for Mission Hill. After the show was cancelled quickly, she got a job directing on The Simpsons, and...
and Giancarlo Volpe
Giancarlo Volpe
Giancarlo Volpe is an Italian American animator, director, and producer.Giancarlo is currently producing the CG television show, "Green Lantern: The Animated Series" working with animation legend Bruce Timm....
. Episodes were written by a team of writers, which consisted of Aaron Ehasz, Elizabeth Welch Ehasz, Tim Hedrick, John O'Bryan
John O'Bryan
John O'Bryan is one of the current writers of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series on Nickelodeon. He has been writing for the series ever since the beginning of the show.John O'Bryan is a writer on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and is heavily involved in storyboarding and writing episodes.The roles...
; along with creators DiMartino and Konietzko.
The season's music was composed by "The Track Team", which consists of Jeremy Zuckerman
Jeremy Zuckerman
Jeremy Zuckerman is an American composer and musician mostly known for composing the score of the TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He studied at Berklee College of Music, Boston, and California Institute of the Arts and has collaborated with musicians such as David Lee Roth.Jeremy is one half...
and Benjamin Wynn, who were known to the show's creators because Zuckerman was Konietzko's roommate.
Cast
Most of the main characters who made their debut in the first season remained the same, with Zach Tyler EisenZach Tyler Eisen
Zachary Tyler "Zach" Eisen is an American actor and voice actor. His roles include Aang in the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, Lucas Nickle in The Ant Bully , Andrew in Nick Jr.'s Little Bill, and Pablo the Penguin in Nick Jr.'s The Backyardigans...
as Aang
Aang
Aang is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character is created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang is depicted as the show's main protagonist, and as such has appeared in all but one...
, Mae Whitman
Mae Whitman
Mae Margaret Whitman is an American television, movie and voice actress. She is known for her role as Ann Veal in the TV series Arrested Development, her role as Amber on the TV series Parenthood, her role as Roxy Richter in Scott Pilgrim vs...
as Katara, Jack DeSena
Jack DeSena
Jack DeSena is an American screen and voice actor. He is best known for his work on the sketch comedy series All That, having joined the show's cast at the start of its 7th season in 2001 Jack DeSena (born John Patrick DeSena; December 6, 1987, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American screen and...
as Sokka
Sokka
Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack DeSena...
, and Dante Basco
Dante Basco
Danté Basco is an American actor, voice actor, poet, and dancer. He is best known for playing Rufio in the 1991 live-action Peter Pan film Hook...
as the anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
Zuko. However, several new characters appear: Toph
Toph
Toph Bei Fong is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character was voiced by Jessie Flower.Toph Bei Fong is a blind Earthbending master...
voiced by Jessie Flower
Jessie Flower
Jessie Flower is an American voice actress. She is most well known as the voice of Toph Bei Fong in the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. She also voiced the character Meng in the season one episode "The Fortuneteller". She voices Peggy in Random! Cartoons episode Tiffany...
, Azula voiced by Grey DeLisle
Grey DeLisle
Grey DeLisle is an American voice actress, singer-songwriter, and comedienne. To date, she has released four solo albums and has featured on the tribute album Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash and film soundtrack of Loggerheads...
and Long Feng voiced by Clancy Brown
Clancy Brown
Clarence J. "Clancy" Brown III is an American actor and voice actor. He is known for his roles in live action as The Kurgan in the cult classic film Highlander, Byron Hadley in the award-winning The Shawshank Redemption, Brother Justin Crowe in HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivàle, and Career...
. Two antagonists, Mai and Ty Lee, are introduced as Azula's minions who are tasked with capturing Aang. They were voiced by Cricket Leigh
Cricket Leigh
Cricket Leigh is an American actress. Cricket was born in Michigan, raised in Chicago and graduated from New York University before moving to Los Angeles. She played all eight characters in, and wrote Constantly Distracted in 2005. She also played Alma on Pop Tarts in 1999. In 2002, Cricket Leigh...
and Olivia Hack
Olivia Hack
Olivia Hack is an American actress and voice actress, best known for providing the voice of Rhonda Wellington Lloyd in Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!, and for playing Cindy Brady in the 90's theatrical Brady Bunch films. She has also done voices for Fillmore!, Bratz as Cloe, Family Guy, Blood+ and...
, respectively. Mako
Mako (actor)
, born , was an Oscar- and Tony-nominated Japanese actor. Many of his acting roles credited him simply as Mako, omitting his surname. -Early life:...
, who voiced Iroh, died during production and was replaced by Greg Baldwin
Greg Baldwin
Greg Baldwin is an American actor. Raised in Spring, Texas, he currently resides in the San Fernando Valley with Melissa Baldwin, his wife of twenty-six years and their two children, Sydney and Cooper...
.
Reception
In a review of the Volume 2 DVD Release for Book 2, Gabriel Powers from DVDActive.com described the series as one of the best children's series in recent times, making comparisons with Samurai JackSamurai Jack
Samurai Jack is an American animated television series created by animator Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on both Cartoon Network and Toonami from 2001 to 2004. It is noted for its highly detailed, outline-free, masking-based animation, as well as for its cinematic style and pacing...
and Justice League
Justice League (TV series)
Justice League is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 2001 to 2004 on Cartoon Network. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It is based on the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics...
, and complimented it for its depth and humour. Powers also comments: For the video and audio quality, Powers says "Season two generally looks better than the bulk of season one, but still has some issues" concerning image sharpness. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 87% fresh rating in 2008. Jamie S. Rich from DVD Talk
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...
says that "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent".
The show also received acclaim for its visual appeal. In the 34th Annie Awards
34th Annie Awards
The ceremony for the 34th Annual Annie Awards, honoring the best in animation in 2006, was held on February 11, 2007 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California.The nominations were announced on December 4, 2006.Winners are marked in bold text....
, the show was nominated for and won the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award, for Jae-Myung Yu's animation in "The Blind Bandit", and the "Best Directing in an Animated Television Production" award, for the episode "The Drill". In 2007, the show was nominated for "Outstanding Animated Program" in the 2007 Emmy Awards for the "City of Walls and Secrets" episode, though it did not win. However, the show did win the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award for Sang-Jin Kim
Sang-Jin Kim
Kim Sang-Jin is a South Korean film director, writer and producer.-Filmography as director:*Millions In My Account *Gangster Lessons *Two Cops 3 *Attack the Gas Station...
's animation in the "Lake Laogai" episode.
Episodes
| Series # |
Season # |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DVD releases
Nickelodeon began releasing DVDs for Book 2 on January 23, 2007. The first five DVD releases contain one disc that consisted of four episodes each. The final DVD was the "Complete Book 2 Box Set", which contains all of the episodes in the season on five discs, and packaged with a special features disc. All of the DVD sets for Book 2 were released with Region 1 encoding, meaning that they can only play on North American DVD players. Book 2 was released on Region 2 on July 20, 2009.| Volume | Discs | Episodes | Region 1 release | Region 2 release | Region 4 release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 5 | January 23, 2007 | Not released | June 04, 2009 |
| 2 | 1 | 5 | April 10, 2007 | Not released | August 06, 2009 |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | May 22, 2007 | Not released | October 29, 2009 |
| 4 | 1 | 5 | August 14, 2007 | Not released | March 31, 2010 |
| Box set | 4 | 20 | September 11, 2007 | July 20, 2009 | September 09, 2010 |
Footnotes
- 1. Production code format taken from the commentary for "Sozin's Comet: The Phoenix King"