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Links page for articles, news, information regarding the show, cast & crew for Avatar the Last Airbender.

About the Show

Cast & Crew

Voiceover Actors in Toon with Nick, by Terrie Roberts, October 27, 2006

• Excerpt from this article re: the voice of Iroh following Mako's death: 
• "Mako's death was so hard," acknowledged Noonan. "We knew he was sick, and he knew he was sick, and he really stuck in there for a long time. Mako was Japanese, and we would have loved to have a Japanese-American do that voice. But his voice was so specific and so hard. We're a very creator-driven organization; we believe the show's passion has to come from the creator, and we really go with their guidance. The execs and all have their say, but the creators felt strongly that it didn't make sense to change his voice and get another actor that isn't going to sound like him. So we literally had to get a guy who's a great mimic and did a really great impersonation of Mako.
  
  "That doesn't end up happening on every show, though. Avatar is a more realistic show, and they're very specific about their characters. Mako was a really big character in the show, and though at first we were considering changing his voice entirely, in the end the creators wanted to be consistent and carry on. We loved his voice, and hopefully, this is our way of keeping the character's voice close to what Mako would have done."
  
  "Uncle Iroh is such an important character," adds Coleman, "and we don't want to do anything that would compromise him as a character in the series overall."
• (please click on the link above to read full article) 
  

Nick: "Secret of the Fire Nation" Ratings by Aaron Bynum, September 20th 2006 (link to article appearing on Animation Insider)

• For a full list of news/articles for Avatar the Last Air Bender found on Animation Insider click here   

Avatar coming to big screen

By Colin Mahan (source info TV.com)

M. Night Shyamalan will direct a live-action adaptation of hit kids' show.

Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan is gearing up to write and direct a big-screen adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon kids' cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender for Paramount Pictures. Avatar will be the first film Shyamalan directs that is based on characters created by someone else.

Avatar follows the adventures of a gifted 12-year-old boy who is the last hope of a race of beings who can control the elements. The show regularly lands in the top 10 animated programs on TV and is Nickelodeon's top-rated Friday-night show.

Paramount hopes to turn the cartoon into a three-picture film series, according to Variety. Both Paramount and Nickelodeon are owned by Viacom.

Shyamalan was last in theaters with The Lady In the Water, which was based on a kids' story he wrote for his daughter. Lady received withering reviews from critics and grossed $42 million in the US, the director's lowest box office to date.

The film was also reportedly responsible for his break-up with Disney, whose Buena Vista Pictures produced and distributed his previous films Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village. The tumultouous behind-the-scenes drama was detailed in Michael Bamberger's 2006 book The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale.

Coincidentally, this week Terminator and Titanic maestro James Cameron also announced his intention to create a movie named Avatar, this one about a futuristic space war in which soldiers control fighting "avatars" with their minds.