Off the Cuff - #26 – Avatar, The Simpsons, and Greece
By Eric Barrett
Comics, Cartoons, and all things related
*I have to say I’ve been diggin’ on a new cartoon called “Avatar.” It’s on Nickelodeon. I’m not really sure what time it airs regularly, because I only seem to catch it when I’m flipping the channels. In fact, I only seem to catch the same two or three episodes!
The animation is pretty remarkable, but the story is the real star of the show. It’s a compelling story where each episode is closely intertwined with the others. In short it’s one of those “continuous” stories.
The show follows a young boy who’s the long-awaited “Avatar.” In the time since the last Avatar, the world has become controlled by an evil group of “Bender’s” with the power to control fire. Shockingly they are known as the Fire Bender’s. Naturally it’s up to the Avatar to master the four elements, Earth, Fire, Water, and Air in order to turn back the threat.
Yeah, I realize it sounds kind of like your typical “young boy learns to become powerful and save the world” story. And I suppose it is. But there is a level of depth to the characters, and the story, that you just don’t see in a lot of cartoons. Especially Nickelodeon cartoons.
The other part of the show that I really enjoy is that in order to use their elemental based attacks they have to perform kata. These kata are the special forms or movements required to unleash their elemental powers. That means that the creators of the show had to come up with unique martial arts for each discipline. This is easily one of the best “martial arts cartoons” I’ve ever seen. Very well done, and everyone should do themselves a favor and check out the show.
*Okay, confession time. Part of what makes that show appealing to me is that it almost feels like you’re watching a video game. A very cool video game!
*Holy Cow! As I was looking for some Avatar images, I came across a page that claims that each Avatar episode costs around $1,000,000 dollars to produce! That’s amazing, I had no idea it cost that much. I guess it’s a good thing that the cartoon is leading it’s targeted age group (5-11 yrs).
*I’ve noticed a significant increase in “continuous” story shows, like Avatar. I’m not sure why this is exactly. I have to think that it has a lot to do with the success of anime in this country.
But it seems to really have exploded after Dragon Ball Z proved to be such a phenomenal success in this country. I don’t if that’s just my own perception or if that’s really the case. In any case, just some food for thought.
*I was a little concerned while reading the last issue of Space Ghost. I’ve enjoyed this title more than I expected. And as I cracked the cover of the last issue I was afraid that I’d never be able to read more about Space Ghost’s exploits. But luckily when I finished the issue there was a note in the back that said in a few more weeks the same creative team will come back to do another Space Ghost mini.
I’d love to see this turn into a regular title, but I’ll take it one mini at a time.
*I was looking at a Greek newspaper today, and you know what they say about that…”it’s all Greek to me!” Ba dum bum.
Okay, enough with the corny jokes. While looking at the paper I noticed that out of the 30 pages of print, there must have been 6-10 comic strips. Interestingly (at least to me) none of them were on the same page. Instead of a “comics page” they were spread fairly evenly throughout the entire publication.
I suspect that some of them were political cartoons, but since I couldn’t read them, I don’t know that for sure. Just thought it was interesting how different cultures treat the comic medium.
*On a slightly related note, I have yet to run into Wonder Woman or Hercules.
*This is the first OTC I’ve ever typed on Word 2003, and I just discovered the “reading” layout. It rocks! I need to use this layout more often…assuming I ever used 2003 again.
*While at this conference I’ve been working, 
I saw a couple of Germans who were using their laptop to watch The Simpsons on DVD. The DVD was in English, and they laughed at all the correct places. I say you can consider yourself funny when you can get different cultures to laugh at the same jokes.
*Speaking of The Simpsons, I find it unbelievable that The Simpsons has reached the 350 Episode mark. I’ve written about a total of 45 columns for two websites, and I feel the strain of that. I can’t imagine doing another 305 columns.
*I guess that about wraps up another column….so now I only need to do 304 more…
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