Blu-Ray Review: The Legend of Korra Book 2: Spirits

Is the book two home release worth the price? Yeah, I’ll be the judge of that.

 

The Book Two home release is your standard fare of audio commentaries and special features, as well as something I’ve never seen before in a home release called Scene Bending. There’s a lot more than I thought there would be, but the 14 hours of extra content can get a little misleading.

The commentaries blew me away with how in depth Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino get in regards to designing all of the aspects of the show. For instance, when they talk about “The Beginnings” episodes, they go into detail how Raava and Vaatu change, with Raava getting smaller, and her designs getting smaller as her power diminishes. Unavaatu, on the other hand, got bigger and his designs got more embellished as he grew more powerful. Later, during “A New Spiritual Age,” you learn how everyone just loved this episode, and wanted to premiere it at Comic-Con.

The audio commentaries really delve into the why and how of what was going on in each episode.  One of the main themes of the season is “What happens when people lose their values?”  You hear them go over that, or a derivative there of,  a lot throughout the series. Another interesting tidbit of information you get is how everyone who did commentary actually have known each other for a long time, mostly from before The Last Airbender days. I’ll probably end up watching all of the episodes with the commentaries again, because the behind the scenes insight you get is mind-blowing. You’ll come to know how much they love Studio Mir, also.

The Tenzin-narrated “Re-telling Korra’s Story” gives a very abridged look at Book One. This is a great look at Book One, and fills in the beginning of Korra’s journey from teenager, to teenage Avatar. Amon’s run at making bending extinct was a fantastic beginning to a new Avatar saga, and it shows how all of the main characters met. Korra’s journey through Book One is boiled down to 33 minutes, and was really well cut. Hell, even if you have watched Book One, it’s worth the re-watch.

“Feuding Spirits: Korra’s Family” is a five minute introduction to the feud between the two sides of Korra’s family, and giving a bit of insight to Book Two, and how the plot moves. There really isn’t much to report on here, except that there’s a bit of spoilers, so watch this after watching the season.

“Inside the book of Spirits,” however, is your basic introduction to Book Two. It delves into the creative process, and gives a look into how an episode is written. This is a very broad overview on the production process for the episodes. It’s kind of nifty, but if you’re looking for an in depth behind the scenes look, the audio commentaries do a better job than this. At the end of this, they give a brief look into Book Three, and the side effects of Korra’s battle with Unavaatu.

What I think is the absolute best special feature on this disc is the Scene Bending. Scene Bending is the animated scene (with the voice overs and basic effects) and the animated storyboards side by side, for a comparison of how it went from storyboard, to animation. Then, they show the final scene as it aired. The best ones to watch are “The Beginning” episodes, “Harmonic Convergence,” “A New Spiritual Age,” and both “Civil Wars” episodes.

If this Blu-Ray was about $14.99, I would say buy it just for the features. Luckily, spending two dollars on the set of episodes online makes buying them through digital mediums cost prohibitive. For the price of the discs, that makes it a fantastic deal. The features are definitely worth it, especially the worth of knowledge that Konietzko and DiMartino gives you during the commentaries. This is a surprising must buy, because Nickelodeon’s product are pretty bad, generally.

We are giving away a copy of LoK: Book Two! Just be the first to comment below, and be a US resident. Make sure your email address is valid on the Disqus thread, and I will email the winner.