TV: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Do you recognize the picture?

No?

I'm so sorry you've been deprived.

I love cartoons. Yes, I'm a 10 year old trapped in the body of a woman well over a quarter of a century old. Sounds better when I say young at heart. While you'll have to wait and see what I post about in my TV section to learn of my preferred cartoons, this post is about Avatar: The Last Airbender. My favorite place for basic knowledge on the Net is Wikipedia, which gives a perfect three line summary of the premise for the show:

The show is set in an Asian-influenced world of martial arts and elemental manipulation; the series follows the adventures of Aang and his friends, who try to save the world from war with the Fire Nation. The show's protagonist Aang is trapped in an iceberg when he is found by two members of the Southern Water Tribe, Katara, and Sokka. After being freed from the iceberg, Katara and Sokka join Aang on a long journey across the globe; their ultimate goal is to help Aang acquire the skills to defeat the Fire Lord, and end the war.

The animation is great, the jokes are funny, and the premise of the story is worthy. It has anime influences (the creators love Miyazaki) and had won awards for its awesome episodes (including an Emmy!) But it's just a CARTOON, you say. A well written cartoon, with developed characters, I say. A soap opera has nothing on this show. I can't tell you how funny the show is! I realize you don't have full context but...
(Katara and Sokka are brother and sister, helping Aang, the Avatar)

Katara: Are you saying I'm a liar?
Sokka: No. I'm saying you're an optimist. Same thing really.

Stranded in the desert...
Sokka: [while hallucinating] Drink cactus juice! It'll quench ya!
[runs around]
Sokka: Nothing's quenchier!
[while doing 'the worm']
Sokka: It's the quenchiest!
Then...
Katara: You've been hallucinating on cactus juice all day, and now you lick something you find stuck to the wall of a cave?
Sokka: I have a natural curiosity.

The next new episode will air July 14.

As with anything cool, there is a live action movie coming out. I'm not sure how I feel about it although Avatar creators are apparently excited about it because M. Night Shyamalan is writing, directing, and producing. He's...spooky. They've had to drop the word Avatar from the movie title, though, to avoid conflict with Cameron's Avatar movie. Pooh. Oh, well...cool pic of Aang in the Avatar State.