{"id":31,"date":"2012-02-06T00:06:58","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T06:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/?p=31"},"modified":"2026-07-17T11:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:08:27","slug":"avatar-the-last-airbender-the-complete-book-3-collection-long-initial-thoughts-daemoncorps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/?p=31","title":{"rendered":"Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Complete Book 3 Collection: (Long) Initial Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

After having to make the ever-so-difficult decision of choosing whether to get Avatar Book 3<\/em><\/em><\/span> or the latest <\/span>DBZ Double Feature<\/em>, I finally decided to go with the former. At least then I can say that I actually completed one of my DVD series.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Packaging:<\/strong>
\nLooking at the packaging, it looks like the designers have done a good job of keeping things consistent with the previous two sets. However, one nitpick I found was that some logos were moved around or dropped completely (like the \u201cNick DVD\u201d one). While stuff like this is really no big deal, it somewhat irks me when I see all the \u201cbooks\u201d together only to see on further inspection that the third one is slightly different. You will also notice that the back cover lacks a cheap stock picture of Aang on the back like the first two sets. While this doesn\u2019t bother me, I personally think it\u2019s something of an improvement, considering that in the previous releases we were greeted with crazy awesome front cover art only to turn the box over and see something that could have easily been done on MSPaint.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Further checking out the packaging itself, you will find that the inside of the set is the same as the previous two, with the discs being held in \u201cdigipacks\u201d overlapping each other to make for better space, with exception to the fifth disc (odd numbers, y’see). Some may say that this setup annoys them to no end, since the discs overlapping means you might have to take out one disc before getting to the disc that you want underneath it or that the packaging cracks and is near impossible to replace, but I\u2019ve personally had no problem with them. On the contrary, I think they look much nicer than just regular thin packs and shows that Nickelodeon actually put some effort into the release.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the past two Complete Book releases, there was an insert listing of the episodes and special features found on each disc. The same goes for this release. However, there is an additional second insert with the map of the Avatar World with an advertisement for the upcoming Avatar MMORPG on the back. Nothing wrong with some self promotion, I guess. Though having that same image of the Avatar World Map as an insert in each set is a bit dull. You would have thought they’d have done something fancier like what they have on the official site<\/a>, pinpointing exactly where each episode took place in that season. Man, that woulda been awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Content \u2013 Bonus Disc<\/strong>
\nAs you may have already known by now, the Avatar series is first released in single discs, with five episodes per disc (well, six in the last disc\u2019s case). Going for about $12 in most places, that means that if you\u2019re planning on collecting the entire season that way, you\u2019re gonna have to hock over a total of $60. You don\u2019t want to do that, do you? This Complete Book release collects each single disc from that season as well as a bonus disc of pretty snazzy extras for a total of $50 in most places.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Immediately going for the bonus disc upon opening, there was a total of three exclusives, each just as awesome as the next. Being an animation nerd, I first went to the Pencil Test Animation<\/em> feature, which provides some rough animation of the fight scenes in the finale. It is interesting to note that at times, the animation switches from the rough pencil to the final completed animation. I\u2019m not so sure why, but it\u2019s probably because the bulk of that animation was rendered in 3D or maybe they just didn\u2019t have those parts penciled. Not that big of a problem, though.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"ATLA3\"<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"ATLA8\"Next up was the Women of Avatar<\/em> feature, going into detail on the main women in the series: Katara, Toph and Azula. The creators and voice actresses give their own opinions on the characters as do some fans (some may know \u201cAvatar Mom\u201d and \u201cIsaia\u201d from the online fandom). You would think that in this day and age, media would not be heavily biased in terms of things like gender. Sadly, that\u2019s still a problem; if things are not heavily male oriented, they\u2019re heavily female oriented. This feature does a good job of giving props to the series for reaching a happy medium, giving both genders in the series the ability to fight (with little to no fan service).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Last up is the Comic-Con<\/em> feature; covering the Avatar Panel at Comic-Con preceding Book 3\u2019s airing. While most have seen the panel online, this is a much cleaner version, from a camera that wasn\u2019t from a random fan in the audience. Cleaner footage is always a good thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sadly, the comic shorts included in each single release are not included in this set. But the content in the bonus disc gladly makes up for that. The features in total clock in at about an hour for just that disc (not including the audio commentary on the episode discs), so rest assured, this set definitely delivers in the extras department.<\/span><\/p>\n

Content \u2013 Episode Discs<\/strong>
\nAs great as the series as a whole is, I personally think the story dropped a bit during its final season, taking the route of combining incredibly plot-heavy episodes with incredibly light ones, rather than coming to a happy medium between the two, like the first two seasons did. Regardless, the season itself still holds up well, giving the series a fitting goodbye. Though I personally enjoyed the season two episodes best.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I haven\u2019t gone through the entire set, though I have checked out the audio commentary from the final episode. The commentary is just as interesting as the ones in past sets, giving insight from the creators, cast and crew. There is audio commentary on every disc, but not on every episode. One thing I would have liked for the insert menu in the set to have was a listing for which<\/em> episodes had commentary. The way it\u2019s set up, you have to pop the DVD in and navigate through the menu to find which ones have it. Again, nothing major, though.<\/span><\/p>\n

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One gripe I had with all the Avatar episode discs (including the other two season releases) was how the episodes are lacking in chapters. The series itself is formatted like a novel, with each episode being called a \u201cchapter\u201d and the entire season a \u201cbook.\u201d But terminology aside, I think that\u2019s no reason for the episodes to not be divided into chapters (er, I guess “smaller chapters”) for easier navigation. Sure, there\u2019s the fast forward option and you can always \u201cclick and drag\u201d if you\u2019re playing the discs on your computer, but really\u2026 chapter divisions are practically expected in all DVD releases. It just makes sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Another minus to these sets are the Nickelodeon promos that play at the beginning of each one. In some cases, you can go immediately to the menu screen if you hit the \u201cMenu\u201d or \u201cTitle\u201d button on your remote, but with these discs, you have to hit \u201cNext\u201d for each trailer, which can get to be an annoyance especially if the disc has multiple trailers. I\u2019m all for self promotion, but this is a bit ridiculous. I mean, is preventing me from getting to my episodes faster really going to make me want to pick up the next Spongebob releases?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Overall:
\n<\/strong>Taking into account both the pros and cons of the set, I think this is a definite buy for those who have been keeping up with the series already. And really, why wouldn\u2019t you have been? Even for those who were disappointed with this final season, it still has everything Avatar fans have come to enjoy from the series. Just make sure you don\u2019t get it for the retail price of $80. You can pick up the set from most places for $45-$50. It can be even cheaper if you\u2019re willing to wait a couple years. But c\u2019mon\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

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… you want this set now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Originally posted on Wednesday, September 17, 2008.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After having to make the ever-so-difficult decision of choosing whether to get Avatar Book 3 or the latest DBZ Double Feature, I finally decided to go with the former. At least then I can say that I actually completed one of my DVD series. Packaging: Looking at the packaging, it looks like the designers have done a good job of keeping things consistent with the previous two sets. However, one nitpick I found was that some logos were moved around…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[232,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogspot","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7977,"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/7977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animationrevelation.com\/readables\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}