(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from American Dragon: Jake Long)
Doug (vo): It's the 20th anniversary of Jake Long: American Dragon, and I'll be honest, this will be a very easy review to do. It's totally fine for kids, doesn't have much for anyone that's older, and it's very decent at being exactly that. Are some spots stronger than others? Yeah. Some spots weaker than others? Sure. But I think it's pretty obvious this isn't going to be on the same level as Gravity Falls or Avatar: the Last Airbender or Steven Universe, any of those shows. But I don't know if it's necessarily trying to go for that, but I still wanted to see it because it did look really creative. And even if a show mainly meant for kids is still creative, I have a soft spot for it. I think that's where I fall on this show. I can't say it's exactly my thing, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a little bit of a soft spot for it.
Premise[]
Doug (vo): Jake, voiced by Dante Basco, is a popular preteen boy just trying to find his place in school and life and all that. He's also from a family of Chinese dragons. And if you're thinking to yourself, "Oh, he must battle a lot of monsters from Chinese folklore and such", you'd be kind of wrong. Yes, every once in a while that works its way into the mix, but it also works in a bunch of folklore from a bunch of other nationalities. At first, I was put off by that because I did want to learn more about Chinese folklore, but it actually did get cooler the further it went along because you find out about other folklore that maybe didn't know that much about, and they give it their own unique spin. He has a grandfather who's trying to teach him the way of the dragon, a bratty little sister who's a fire breather herself, his mother who the dragon power skipped over a generation with, which is kind of a shame...I would have liked to seen her as a dragon...and a human father who has no idea any of this is going on. And at first, I did find that a little distracting, but I will admit as the joke kept going, it got funnier and funnier. He's got two friends named Spud and Trixie, a talking dog named Foo, voiced very obviously by John DiMaggio. I mean, come on, I know you're Bender and Jake from Adventure Time, I know you don't change the voice that much, but can't you alter it a little bit here? He's also got the hots for a girl named Rose, played by Mae Whitman, but there's a twist. Rose is also the Hunts girl, who's part of the Hunts clan, led by the Hunts...man. Yeah, okay, ladies aren't the most creative of names, but look at that Huntsman, he looks cool and he is pretty intimidating. And yeah, this is another one of those "will they, won't they?" relationships where they're interested in each other, but they also don't know they're literally fighting each other as well. And while that trope has been done to death, I will admit I'm a sucker for it. I love Batman and Catwoman, I love Out of Sight, I love looking forward to their reactions when they inevitably find out they're enemies. In fact, for a while, a lot of scenes in the show, I was going, "Okay, come on, how long is it going to take for them to figure out that he's a dragon?" It was getting on my nerves, but as I kept going, I found it was interesting the timing of when they reveal certain secrets at certain moments. I think it goes without saying at some point, Jake has to figure out that Rose is Huntsgirl and his last ditch effort to deny it and act like it was someone else was so funny, I had to pause the show, I was laughing so hard. Also, yeah, I can see why people wanted Zuko and Katara together because these are the same actors and they do have great chemistry.
Review[]
Doug (vo): So okay, the show sounds perfectly reasonable, again, for a younger audience, and for the most part, it is, but the first season does have some issues that I can say as an adult did get a little grading. Dante has a very naturally young sounding voice, so he says he doesn't usually change it that much. Here, he definitely is like this is not his normal voice, he is doing something different and I think he was encouraged to, and a lot of times, it sounds a little odd. Thankfully in the second season, they drop that and he's allowed to use much more of his natural voice.
Jake (season 1): What's going down? Are we going to crack open a can of smack daddy on this Huntsman here or what?
Jake (season 2): Hey, Dad, do you think that maybe we can dial down the crazy sightseeing on this vacation a little bit?
Doug (vo): But part of that could be the writing for him, again, especially in the first season when it comes to saying these catchphrases and lingo. I can't even say it's a product of the times because I don't remember kids talking like this at the time. It feels much more like adults interpreting how they think kids talked at the time. Things like "Holla!" and "J to the A to the K to the E". It's very "Does a mall baby chili fries?" or "NOT!".
(Footage from The Proud Family is shown before cutting back to American Dragon: Jake Long)
Doug (vo): It's funny cause I just got done watching Proud Family, which also had a lot of lingo of the time, but somehow, that lingo felt more timeless. Like, I can hear what they're talking about now and it doesn't feel out of place, nut they really try to hammer in this catchphrase, "Oh man!" over and over and over, and even in the second season, they kind of call it out almost like they were admitting, "Yeah, this was a studio note, we had to work this in every single time".
Jake: Aww, man! / Aww man! / Oh man!/ Aww, ma-!
Teacher: Silence! You say that "Oh man" thing way too much!
(Various footage is shown, mostly focusing on the comedy and animation)
Doug (vo): The comedy in the first season isn't really that funny, either. And again, I get it, it's not trying to hit people my age, but I still feel like some of these jokes could have been punched up a little bit more. The only character I usually got a good laugh out of was Spud, who let's just say it, is basically the stoner character of the group. But even with the lingo and the elements that don't work in the first season, the show is still working fine. And the nice thing is when they get to season 2, they do fix a lot of these problems, the comedy does get better. Okay, again, I can't say it's going for my age group or older kids, but there are some good jokes I acknowledge are well written, and they're not just from the Spud character. They dial down a lot of catchphrases and the lingo and they try to have more of a continuing story. The only thing I really didn't care for in the second season is the animation change. It's supposed to be a grade later and I think they're trying to grow up the characters a little bit, so they're trying to grow up the style a little bit. It adds a little bit more of a Bruce Timm style like Batman: The Animated Series, which yeah, okay, this obviously isn't, but maybe it was trying to grow into something like that over time, but the original style is a lot more eye-catching. My God, what did they do to the Huntsman? He looks terrible! Did somebody say the red eyes don't make sense, so get rid of them? Who cares? Keep them, they look cool! Whether he's supernatural or not supernatural, I don't care, just keep the red eyes because him just wearing a goofy mask just looks exactly like that, he's just wearing a goofy mask.
(Footage focusing on the second season is shown)
Doug (vo): The second season, though does evolve pretty well. The characters do mature, they are in a different place in this season than they were in the first season. Sometimes, the romance between Jake and Rose can be a little forced. Not that their chemistry isn't good, but they do sort of that third act breakup with a stupid reasoning that doesn't really make sense. It remind me a lot of Spider-Man 3, like when they broke up there, it also didn't make sense. It just is very, very similar. But I will say it doesn't last long, and at first, I thought it ended on a good note. And if you're wondering what I mean by that, well, without going into spoilers, they kind of make it look like everything wraps up at a certain point. The story around Rose and the Huntsman and the Hunts clan seems to be done. I just assume I saw the last episode, but then I saw there were 10 more. I looked it up and it said, "Oh, yeah, on Disney+, some of these episodes are shown out of order.", so I just went, "Oh, okay. Well, I guess I'll just keep watching to finish it up."
(Footage from the series finale, "The Hong Kong Longs" is shown)
Doug (vo): And it turns out this was shown at the exact moment it was supposed to be shown and there are, in fact 10 more episodes, so there is another finale. And while I can't say the finale is bad, it's nowhere near as good as the first one. The first one was almost perfect. It's like they had two separate finales for two separate seasons, but then they found out they only had one season left, so they squished them together. And yeah, it is a little odd. It's hard to say it ruins anything or it destroys the show. Like, there are things in the last finale that do work, they are effective, but man, that first one was so much stronger, I really do wish it ended there.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): But with that said, yeah, this is a good show. All the actors have a lot of charm, the world they create is imaginative, I like exploring it and it does introduce a lot of folklore that maybe people aren't aware of while also giving its own modern unique take on it. The animation is pretty good and again, while it doesn't seem like it was geared towards people my age, I did want to see what was going to happen, I wanted to know how everything was going to turn out. So yeah, that's about it. It's a solid...good. It's a good show. Again, if you are in a younger age range, if you're older, I don't know if you're going to get into it, but you never know, so there might be enough imagination in this world and charm to these characters that they might pull you through enough. Spread your wings and see for yourself if you think the show is fire.
(A scene where Jake is transforming into his dragon form is shown)