Have you ever wondered what would happen if Disney tried to make an anime? No? Didn’t think so. But I think that’s what they did when they created American Dragon: Jake Long. Again, another one of Disney’s more creative shows American Dragon: Jack Long. When Nickelodeon was showing Avatar and everyone saw how big it was everyone was trying desperately to create a show that was just look like Avatar but not a carbon copy of Avatar. For Cartoon Network it was Samurai Jack and Juniper Lee which you could argue was a copy of Jake Long. Jake Long was kind of Disney’s answer to Avatar. While the show didn’t come close to reaching Avatar it was still a good show nonetheless.
The show primarily focuses on Jake an Asian American who comes from a long line of dragons. When he turns 13 years old he is trained by his grandfather to become the American dragon who will protect New York and all of it’s magical creatures from the forces of evil. At first Jake really doesn’t take his role seriously and just rather slacks off and have fun with his friends but as time goes on he starts to grow more mature with his role and take his role seriously. One of the major faults of Jake in the series is his crazy language that he keeps using in the first season that was really annoying and just made him seem weird. Luckily by the second season they fixed that and had him talk like a normal person but unfortunately the animation got downgraded in the second season. Yeah I’ve heard some people like the animation in the second season more than the first season but for me the animation in the second season wasn’t really all that good. Now Jake’s not along in his journey, he has his wise grandfather who provides him wisdom, his friends who are always ready to lend a helping hand, and Fu Dog the talking dog who serves as Jake’s assistant. As far as villains go the show had two main villains. The first was the Huntsclan a group of mystical humans who hunt down mythical creatures for sport. In a not so obvious twist Jake’s school crush just happens to be a member of the Huntsclan and Jake has to make the hard choice to keep her at bay but as the show goes on their relationship keeps developing and is one of the best romances Disney has ever done. The sacrifices they make for each other and the lengths they go to be with each other is both heartwarming and beautiful. The other major villain was the Dark Dragon a mysterious dragon gone evil who wants to rule over humans and mythical creatures. In the past Jake’s grandpa fought and defeated him but he came back. The show had a good balance between action, adventure, and comedy. We got some great fight scenes, interesting adventures but lots of mythical beings we weren’t familiar with at the time, and plenty of funny moments to make us laugh but at the same time it had serious moments for us. This was a great series and it’s a shame Disney cancelled it after two seasons just when it was really starting to get good. While it may not have rivaled Avatar or Samurai Jack the show had its own unique charm that could be enjoyed by both kids and adult. I doubt Disney will bring this back but if they do it’s more than welcomed.