Good news, ye devotees of the ’benders! Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender (now on Paramount+) maintains the running misery of the Cabbage Merchant. And we fans of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series — which originally ran from 2005-08 and saw its cult status further bloom during Covid lockdowns — needed some good news. This feature-length continuation of the epic saga had its theatrical release date delayed last year, then waylaid entirely earlier this year due to its leak and subsequent digital pirating. So we’re denied a much-anticipated big-screen immersion in this gorgeously animated fantasy world. Silver lining, we get to see it earlier than anticipated (legitimately, mind you) thanks to its Paramount+ streaming debut. Lauren Montgomery, who worked on the series and its spinoff, The Legend of Korra (underrated and excellent!), directs a fresh voice cast (it’s more representative of the characters’ East Asian origin) for a new adventure that, I’m grateful to report, doesn’t make a mess of the cabbages this animated endeavor has carefully cultivated over the years. So to speak, of course. 

The Gist: Thirteen years have passed since the conclusion of the series’ events, which means Aang (Eric Nam) is now a young adult, since that’s how time functions on this and every world, as far as we know. We get a brief and helpful recap of said events to knock the dust off the ol’ memory. This is a world of four nations, one for each element: air, fire, water, earth, and some members of those nations are born with the ability to manipulate, or “bend,” those materials. Aang is not only an airbender, but the Avatar, a chosen one who can bend all four elements, and keep the nations united. But at age 12, he was frozen for 100 years and awakened to a world where the nations were at war, lorded over by the Fire Nation, who wiped out all the airbenders. He assembled a group of friends to help hone his considerable powers and defeat the Fire Nation, bringing peace to the world. The reunion of that group of friends in this here movie is as inevitable as death, taxes, and another passably mediocre season of The Simpsons.

But we’re not quite there yet. Aang still tools through the skies on his flying bison Appa — part Totoro, part Catbus, all ADORBSIES — with his also-cute flying lemur buddy Momo. He’s collecting airbender artifacts for his temple when he’s attacked by a group of disaffected non-bender rebel-types dubbed the Denied, who seek the staff of an ancient avatar named Sonom. Aang doesn’t have it, but is now pressed to find it first lest the peace he established, focused in the everyone’s-welcome capital of Republic City, be disturbed. It’s worth noting that early-20s Aang is still burdened by the considerable weight of responsibility — nothing like maintaining the spiritual and political balance of four elements and their respective nations of millions to keep a fella up at night — but is also more confident and assured. It also seems as if he’s been hitting the weights, counting his macros and eating wisely, because the dude’s cut now. Cut as hell. 

Bully for Katara (Jessica Matten) then, right? The waterbender and Aang are still the hottest couple this side of Ba Sing Se, and she’s just as committed to the world’s prosperity and unity as he is. She’s still his rock, for sure. And her non-bender brother Sokka (Roman Zaragoza) is still the goofball comic relief, and earthbender Toph (Dionne Quan) is still tough as nails, and firebender Zoko (Steven Yeun) is still the frenemy-but-now-minus-the-enemy-part, and the new peaceful lord of the Fire Nation. And it goes without saying (even though I already said it once before) that the Scooby Justice League Bender Gang reunites to help Aang with this Sonum staff/the Denied situation, right? The quest leads them to thawing an even more ancient airbender than Aang: Tagah (Dave Bautista), frozen for 1,000 years and wise enough to not only help Aang further develop his airbending powers, but also reveal that the staff can turn individuals into airbenders. Aang’s understandably intoxicated by the notion of reestablishing his nearly extinct tribe, but there’s something about this Tagah guy that feels archetypically untrustworthy. I dunno, maybe I’m wrong. But I’m probably not. 

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? This is as good a place as any to review the expansion of the Last Airbender universe (and as good a place as any to not indulge any big-blue-people James Cameron’s Avatar jokes, which would just confuse the matter). Which is to say, M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action movie is still pretty horrible, and the Netflix series (which is the TV equivalent of Disney’s gruesome “live action” reinterpretations of their animated films) is too stiff for my liking. As for the TV-to-feature-film transition, Aang is more substantive than a fan-pleasing property that so-so-ed its way through theaters recently, The Mandalorian and Grogu. 

Performance Worth Watching Hearing: Is it a good or bad thing that I barely noticed the changes in the voice cast? Otherwise, I enjoyed the gravitas Bautista delivers as Tagah. 

Sex And Skin: Save anything beyond kissing between Katara and Aang for the fanfic, kids.

Our Take: Avatar Aang is not a monumental entry in the franchise, but it is a finely rendered reintroduction to this world and its characters — the animated version, of course — and a meaty-enough addition to the larger mythology. It’s wholly consistent with a series that always bullseyed the Pixaresque demographic sweet spot that appeals to both youth and adult audiences. It seamlessly reestablishes the principals and delivers enough backstory to refresh old fans and welcome new ones. Newbs might not grok some of the emotional intricacies between these heroes, but that’s far from a dealbreaker. Only the most curmudgeonly among us won’t find something here to please them.

And one of those somethings is the animation style, which is a touch more refined (especially compared to the original series, which emerged prior to the high-def age), intended as it is for bigger screens than even your 85” OLED. It really is a shame that so few will see this in theaters (the film enjoyed a brief run in a couple cities to qualify for awards), but that doesn’t mean we still can’t appreciate the fine balance of sharp lines and occasional emotional extremity (primarily within fight sequences) of fantasy anime with the softer edges and goofy comedy of traditional cable-TV children’s series. Aang finds its characters appropriately angsty for their age, but the film never goes overboard, carrying over the series’ finely modulated blend of comedy and drama.

Montgomery oversees some lovingly rendered and thrilling set pieces — a wild airship journey choked with tornados, a hilariously trippy excursion through the spirit realm — filling out a lion’s share of large-scale action sequences and a third-act melange of one-on-one battles, all finely conceptualized and executed with a sense of consequence. One gets the sense that Aang is part of a feeling-out process, its lickety-split near-sprint through this story — if there’s one beef to be had, we’d love to spend more down time with the characters and learn about their adult lives — that’s a somewhat tentative beginning of a franchise re-launch. But there’s no denying that for longtime fans, it’s some welcome and tasty cabbage.

Our Call: Aang isn’t the be-all-end-all killer-of-killers of Last Airbender films, but knowing that they likely have it in them for future endeavors means we shouldn’t get all, you know, bent out of shape about it. Not at all. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.