The comentaries are back! by Gord Lacey (All reviews)
4/10/2007
With Princess Azula hot on their tails, the kids travel deep into the Earth Kingdom in search of an Earthbending master for Aang. There they encounter an Earthbending tournament, a tank-train full of giant lizards, and a library buried deep underground. To top it off, Appa is captured!
Nickelodeon is continuing season 2 with volume 2, another 5 episodes:
Disc 1 (2:02:40)
The Blind Bandit (24:31)
Zuko Alone (24:30)
The Chase (24:36)
Bitter Work (24:32)
The Library (24:31)
Video
This series looks very, very good on DVD. I love the new cartoons that are colored on computers; the colors are bright, and the picture is nearly flawless. There are a number of jaggies that can be seen, usually on objects that run diagonally across the screen. There aren't any chapters in the episodes, but there's a "play all."
Audio
Viewers are given the option between three stereo audio tracks; English, French and Spanish. The audio is very nice, with lots of directional effects and nice musical cues. I didn't hear any flaws in the audio; sounds good. There aren't any subtitles, but the episodes are closed captioned.
Commentary Tracks
This release has two commentary tracks:
The Blind Bandit with Bryan Konietzko - Co-Creator, Michael Dante DiMartino - Co-Creator and Ethan Spaulding - Director.
The Chase with Michael Dante DiMartino - Co-Creator, Giancarlo Volpe - Director and Joshua Hamilton - Writer.
Mini-Comic (part 2 of 4)
Each volume in season 2 will have an exclusive mini-comic inside. There's no mention of it on the packaging, but it's in there, and it's mini (4 pages of the comic, and 2 pages of sketches).
Summary
Woohoo! Those stupid animatics have been replaced with two commentary tracks for this release, which makes me very happy. I used to study a form of Kung Fu, and it's very interesting to listen to Konietzko and DiMartino talk about the various styles they use in the series.
Something very weird happened while I watched this disc; my girlfriend watched it with me. She has absolutely no interest in cartoons or comic books, so I was surprised when she wanted me to start another episode, then another, and another, and then she was pissed off when "The Library" ended. There's something about this cartoon that appeals to kids, teens, adults, and cartoon-hating girlfriends; it's that good. The true test of the show will be whether she asks me when I'm getting Season 2 volume 3 (it comes out on May 22).
