New York and Los Angeles Avatar fans, it’s your lucky day. Variety has the news that the upcoming animated film Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender will play—for one week only!—in select theaters in these two cities. From July 24th to July 30th, the movie will have three showings daily at Los Angeles’ AMC Burbank Town Center 6 and Manhattan’s AMC Empire 25. (Those attending San Diego Comic-Con also have a chance to see the film on the big screen on July 24th.)
While this is a treat for fans, it also has a more practical purpose: As Variety notes, “The news signals that Paramount will likely be campaigning Avatar Aang for next year’s Oscar for best animated feature and other accolades.”
Avatar Aang continues the story told in Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s both a sequel to that series, and a prequel to The Legend of Korra. The synopsis says:
The new film, based on the animated series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, sees Avatar Aang, the world’s last Airbender, learn of an ancient power that could save his culture from extinction. With the help of his friends, he embarks on a global quest to find it before it falls into the wrong hands and threatens to upend the peace they sacrificed everything to achieve.
The movie stars Eric Nam as Aang, Dave Bautista as Tagah, Jessica Matten as Katara, Román Zaragoza as Sokka, Steven Yeun as Zuko, and Dionne Quan as Toph. Freida Pinto, Ke Huy Quan, Taika Waititi, Geraldine Viswanathan, Ronny Chieng, and Ken Jeong also provide voices, and Dee Bradley Baker returns to voice Appa and Momo. It’s directed by Lauren Montgomery and co-directed by Steve Ahn and William Mata.
Tickets are on sale now. If you’re not near one of these two theaters, you can watch the movie when it streams on Paramount Plus starting July 25.
