American Dragon: Jake Long

Last updated
American Dragon: Jake Long
American Dragon Jake Long logo.png
Also known asAmerican Dragon
Genre [1]
Created by Jeff Goode
Developed by
  • Eddie Guzelian
  • Matt Negrete
Written by
  • Billy Lincoln
  • Kat Green
  • Michael Gurley
Directed by
Voices of
Opening theme
Ending theme"The Chosen One" (instrumental) (2005–06)
Composers
  • Kat Green (2005–06)
  • Billy Lincoln (2005–06)
  • Adam Berry (2006–07)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes52 (55 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Jeff Goode
  • Eddie Guzelian
  • Matt Negrete
  • Christian Roman
ProducerLarry Johnson (Line producer)
EditorDong Hun Oh
Running time22 minutes
Production company Walt Disney Television Animation
Original release
Network Disney Channel
ReleaseJanuary 21, 2005 (2005-01-21) 
September 1, 2007 (2007-09-01)

American Dragon: Jake Long, or simply American Dragon, is an American animated television series. It was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, created by Jeff Goode and co-developed by Eddie Guzelian and Matt Negrete. It premiered on Disney Channel on January 21, 2005, and ended on September 1, 2007. [2] Fifty-two episodes were produced. [3]

Contents

Premise

The Huntsman and Huntsgirl in the second and final season. Huntsmanpic.JPG
The Huntsman and Huntsgirl in the second and final season.

Set in the New York City borough of Manhattan, this animated series tells the story of a Chinese-American boy named Jake Long (voiced by Dante Basco), who must balance ordinary adolescence with the ability to change into a dragon. When he eventually unlocks his full potential and turns into the American Dragon, he has to overcome obstacles to protect the magical creatures living in the city, but as his ordinary self, Jake has issues with his deep crush on his schoolmate Rose (Mae Whitman) who, unbeknownst to Jake, has a dark, magical secret of her own: she is a natural dragon-slayer known as the Huntsgirl, a member of the Huntsclan, a cult of ninjas that slays mythical creatures and who Jake has fought consistently. The leader of the Huntsclan is the Huntsman (Jeff Bennett) who raised Rose.

Jake navigates the city with his two best friends – Trixie Carter (Miss Kittie) and Arthur P. "Spud" Spudinski (Charlie Finn). When Jake gets home, it is to an extended family who all live together: Jake, his sister, their parents, and Jake's maternal grandfather Lao Shi (Keone Young). Jonathan (Jeff Bennett), a businessman dad originally from the Midwest, is unaware that he is married into a family of dragons from his Chinese wife Susan (Lauren Tom) (who lacks any dragon abilities, which skipped her generation). Lao Shi trains Jake in the magical, mystical ways of the dragons. Jake also cares very deeply for his annoying, overachieving, and seemingly perfect younger sister Haley (Amy Bruckner) (a nascent dragon), despite feeling like he is stuck in her small shadow. Grandpa's cynical sidekick, a magical talking Shar-Pei named Fu Dog (John DiMaggio), is Jake's animal guardian and other best friend.

Episodes

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
1 21January 21, 2005 (2005-01-21)January 29, 2006 (2006-01-29)
Special July 1, 2005 (2005-07-01)
2 31June 10, 2006 (2006-06-10)September 1, 2007 (2007-09-01)

Characters

Main

Main villains

Recurring and guest

Voice cast

Main cast

Additional voices

Production

American Dragon: Jake Long was created by Jeff Goode. The show was pitched to Disney Channel executives as an animated show in 2002. After being greenlit by Disney Channel, the pitch bible was then developed into its television adaptation with executive producers Matt Negrete and Eddie Guzelian, with Christian Roman serving as director.

Disney Channel ordered an initial twenty-one 30-minute episodes the first season. The series premiered on January 21, 2005. It was initially scheduled for the fall of 2004, but was moved to January when Brandy & Mr. Whiskers was completed in time for its September debut. It premiered in the UK a month early, on 19 December 2004.

The theme song was originally performed for the first season by the band Mavin.

In 2006, Disney Channel renewed the show for a second season. It had also been announced that Steve Loter, who had served as director of Kim Possible, would join the show for its second season as director and executive producer alongside Matt Negrete and Eddie Guzelian. However, following Disney Channel's renewal of Kim Possible for a fourth season, Loter would resume his role as the director but still serve as an executive producer of Jake Long. Nick Filippi, who had also done directorial work on Kim Possible, was assigned as the new director of Jake Long. With Steve Loter joining the staff, the show had all of its characters and backgrounds re-designed with new animation upon request by both Loter and the executives as they had disdain for the previous seasons' designs.

The theme song for season 2 was also re-recorded by The Jonas Brothers.

The show ended its run on September 1, 2007. After the show ended, reruns continued to air on Disney Channel's late-night lineup every night at 1:30am. The show was brought back to the daytime lineup weekdays at 2:00pm from October 1–5, 2007, and 1:00pm from October 9, 2007, to May 15, 2008. The show's late-night timeslot was moved to 2:30am on May 17, 2008, and to 3:00am on January 1, 2010. On May 7, 2010, the show started airing only 4 nights a week (Monday-Thursday), and the show was completely removed from Disney Channel after June 25, 2010. The series was syndicated to Toon Disney from February 20, 2006, to February 12, 2009, as well as its primetime Jetix block from 2007 to 2008. When Toon Disney was converted to Disney XD, the series was carried over and aired from February 14, 2009, to October 15, 2012.

Crossover with Lilo & Stitch

Jake Long and his allies come to Hawaii in an episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series entitled "Morpholomew" to investigate one of Jumba's experiments, while Lilo enters a skateboarding competition in an attempt to impress her crush by winning a new skateboard for him while he is in Australia. Meanwhile, he and Stitch team up to stop Gantu and rescue the experiment.

Other media

Video games

Two video games based on the show were produced, one for the Nintendo DS and one for the Game Boy Advance. Additionally, the characters of Jake Long and Rose were added to a Disney crossover MMORPG mobile game.

Books

Jeff Goode has written two books about American Dragon which were released in 2004, before the initial TV show started airing.

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References

  1. American Dragon: Jake Long - Metacritic.com
  2. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 30. ISBN   978-1538103739.
  3. Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 124. ISBN   9781476672939.