While I'm sure we'd all like to forget the terrible movie "The Last Airbender", Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show that should never be forgotten in the sands of time and should be looked upon as one of the best animated series of all time.

The story takes place in a world quite different from our own. The world is separated into four nations; Water, Earth, Fire and Air. The divine entity that possesses the ability to master all four elements and keep in touch to the spirit world is called the Avatar. The Avatar is born into one of the four nations and is taught the other three bending techniques during his/her life and is basically the peace keeper of the world. The basic story begins 100 years after the Fire Nation attacks the other nations and begins a world war. To make matters worse the Avatar vanishes without a trace. That's where Aang comes in.

Aang is a young Air nomad who has been trapped in an iceberg for 100 years and is found by two teens from the Water Tribe, Katara and Sokka. Aang soon realizes he and his flying bison, Appa, have been in stasis for over 100 years and the world has been flung into a near hopeless state. And to add more insult to injury, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation has made it his obsession to tracking down the Avatar and bringing him before Fire Lord Ozai(his father) and restoring his honor. He is accompanied by his seemingly lazy uncle Iroh, who has more secrets than he leads to believe.

This is the basic premise behind the show and I have one word for it as a whole... amazing. It is really rare when a show that's aimed for children nowadays can be so mature yet not take itself too seriously at the same time. Everything about this show is magnificent. The characters are all likable, the animation is beautiful, and the Asian influences are all exceptionally done. And the show only gets better as it goes on.

Near the middle of Season 1, Aang realizes his true destiny is to stop the Fire Lord from drawing immense fire bending power from a comet that will arrive in the summer of the next year and has to travel the world searching for masters to teach him the bending skills. This leads to a thrilling climax at the end of Season 1 where the Fire Nation leads an attack on a huge Waterbending city which leads to some of the best action in the whole season.

Season 2 introduces a new main character, Toph. Toph is a blind young girl who learned the art of seeing through Earthbending and joins the gang as Aang's teacher. We're also introduced to Zuko's sister Azula and her friends Ty Lee and Mai. Azula is one of the darkest villains I have ever seen in a TV show, animated or otherwise. We get a lot of character development out of the characters too. Most of all Zuko. We learn about his past, his relationship with his family and just why he wants to capture Aang so much.

Season 3 is probably the most epic of the bunch(and probably the darkest). More character development fleshes out the characters and makes them more human and relateable. The series finale is one epic battle against Aang and Ozai while others fight against the Fire Nation for their freedom. The ending is very satisfying and the battle scenes have some of the best animation out of the whole series.

I haven't even covered most of what makes this show so great but if you're really intrigued I definitely recommend looking it up. With a great voice cast, a great plot, and beautiful animation this is without a doubt the best show to come out of Nickelodeon.