The original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series aired on Nickelodeon from 2005-2008. In 2007, Sangjin Kim won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for the series, which ran for 61 episodes.
In the series, the world is divided into four nations — the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads — each represented by a natural element for which the nation is named. Benders have the ability to control and manipulate the element from their nation. Only the Avatar is the master of all four elements. The ruthless Fire Nation wants to conquer the world but the only bender who has enough power, the Avatar, has disappeared … until now. His tribe soon discovers that Aang is the long-lost Avatar. Now Katara and Sokka must safeguard Aang on his journey to master all four elements and save the world from the Fire Nation.
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In 2010, M. Night Shyamalan adapted The Last Airbender for the big screen, which earned over $319 million at the worldwide box office off of a $150 million production budget. The movie was met with harsh reviews from critics and fans of the beloved animated series, especially given the whitewashing controversy.
