Avatar: The Last Airbender is a story set in a world where some people can control (in the story referred to as “bending”) the elements such as water, earth, fire, and air. These abilities are tied to different nations, each with its own culture.
The balance of the world depends on one person called the Avatar, who can master all four elements. However, when the story begins, that balance has been broken, and the world is in conflict. The show follows a young boy who is discovered to be the Avatar with the potential to bend all four elements unique only to the Avatar, along with his friends, as they travel across the world. Along the way, they learn to control their abilities, face growing challenges, and try to restore balance. It mixes adventure, humor, and serious themes while following a journey that gradually becomes more intense over time.
The creators and producers of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, met at a Halloween party in 1995 during their time as students in the Rhode Island School of Design, and began their professional partnership later that year when Konietzko assisted DiMartino in painting backgrounds and cels for the latter’s student film.
DiMartino drew inspiration for what would become the Southern Water Tribe from a documentary on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, and he pitched Konietzko the idea of a group of people similarly trapped in the South Pole. Konietzko was suddenly inspired by DiMartino’s idea and formulated a concept of a group of children in the South Pole who were terrorized by “fire people” and rescued by the young nomad. Konietzko and DiMartino reconvened that evening and began developing the series’ setting over the next two weeks. Although DiMartino and Konietzko were themselves fans of the two successful British fantasy series that Nickelodeon sought to emulate, the pair chose to differentiate their own series by inserting influences from Asian cultures and philosophies, traditional martial arts, yoga, anime, and Hong Kong cinema. The co-creators successfully pitched the concept with early sketches of Aang, Katara, and Sokka, three color images depicting the desired action, adventure, and magic aspects, and a description of the series’ characters, setting and full story arc. The series was introduced to the public in a teaser reel at Comic-Con in July 2004 and premiered on February 21, 2005.
