American Dragon: Jake Long

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Format Animated television series Children's television series

Created by Jeff Goode

Starring Dante Basco Keone Young John DiMaggio Amy Bruckner Miss Kittie Charlie Finn Mae Whitman Jeff Bennett Lauren Tom Kyle Massey Nicholas Brendon Sandra Oh

Country of origin United States

Original language(s) English

No. of episodes 52 (List of episodes)

Production Running time approx. 22 minutes (per episode) Broadcast Original channel Disney Channel

Original run January 21, 2005 – August 12, 2007

External links Website

American Dragon: Jake Long is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Contents

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• 1 Premise • 2 Production • 3 Characters o 3.1 Major characters o 3.2 Secondary characters • 4 Magical creatures and characters • 5 Episodes • 6 Criticism • 7 Movie • 8 Trivia • 9 Appearances in Other Media • 10 References • 11 External links

Premise[]

Jake is a descendant of a long line of shape-shifting dragons, and it is his duty to protect the community of magical creatures secretly living among the masses in New York. He lives with his parents, Johnathan and Susan, and his eight-year-old sister, Haley. His grandfather and sister are also dragons, the dragon powers having skipped his mother's generation. His Caucasian father is unaware of his family being dragons. Throughout the series Jake is taught how to use his innate magical powers by his grandfather and a 600-year-old Shar Pei named Fu Dog. Jake needs these powers to protect the other magical creatures of the city from various malevolent beings most notably the villainous Huntsclan led by the Huntsman. His best friends are Trixie and Spud, with whom he skateboards. They are also aware of his secret. He is infatuated with Rose, another schoolmate. The stories are driven by Jake's search for balance between his life as a schoolboy and his secret life as a powerful magical guardian.

Production[]

American Dragon: Jake Long was created by Jeff Goode, who also created the hit MTV series Undressed. The Walt Disney Company ordered an initial twenty-one 30 minute episodes for the first season, all of which have been made. It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on The Disney Channel January 4, 2005, in the United States on The Disney Channel on January 21, 2005, and on Toon Disney on February 2006. It has also been broadcast on The Family Channel in Canada. The theme song is performed by the band Mavin previously known as Badge. The theme song for Season 2 is performed by the band The Jonas Brothers. It had been announced that Steve Loter, who had served as director of Disney Channel's Kim Possible, would be joining the show for its second season as director and executive producer alongside the current executive producers Matt Negrete and Eddie Guzelian. However, following Disney's renewal of Kim Possible for a fourth season, Loter would resume his role as director of that series, but still serve as an executive producer of Jake Long. Nick Filippi, who had also done some directorial work on Kim Possible, will be 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. On January 5, 2007, it was announced that after two seasons, American Dragon: Jake Long would end production after 52 episodes. Episode 52, the final episode, being "The Hong Kong Longs". [1]

Characters[]

Major characters[]

Jacob "Jake" Luke Long (Dante Basco): The main protagonist of the show. Jake is a proud, lazy skateboarder who is, in secret, a dragon. He uses his duties as a dragon to help defend the underground magical world of New York City, while continuing his training into becoming the first American Dragon.

File:Amdraggang.JPG (From left to right) Lao Shi, Fu Dog, Spud, Jake and Trixie in Canal Street Electronics (second season)

Luong Lao Shi (Keone Young): Jake's grandpa and Dragon Master. Lao is a Chinese dragon. He runs the Canal Street Electronics shop and his only friend is Fu Dog. His attempts at training Jake sometimes causes more damage than help. His name is a play on the Mandarin Chinese word for "teacher".
Fu Dog (John DiMaggio): Fu is a 600-year-old talking Shar Pei and Lao's only companion. Like many cartoon animals, Fu is able to walk upright, and has no trouble using his front paws as hands, despite the apparent absence of opposable thumbs. He's particularly skilled at potion-mixing. Despite his age, he frequently keeps up-to-date with current trends and events, occasionally putting him at odds with Lao Shi.
Trixie Carter (Miss Kittie): Jake's best friend. She is sassy, vivacious, and is somewhat of a tomboyish character. She is a fashion enthusiast, though does not necessarily partake in typical "girl" wear. In the situation of Jake and Rose's relationship, Trixie always showed a dislike and distrust towards Rose, advising Jake to be wary around her. She occasionally refers to herself as 'Mama Trixie'.
Arthur "Spud" P. Spudinski (Charlie Finn): Spud is Jake's other best friend and is extremely loyal. Although apparently slow-witted, he is actually a genius. He owns a laptop computer that sports surveillance capabilities and other functions. In "Bring It On", he developed a global-positioning device to track his cheerleader crush, Stacey.

The Huntsman and Huntsgirl in "The Academy".

Rose/Huntsgirl (Mae Whitman): Rose, Jake's paramour. A member of the Huntsclan. There is a birthmark on her right palm and wrist resembling a Chinese dragon, otherwise known as the "Mark of the Huntsclan". Jake eventually learns of her secret identity as the Huntsgirl. She in turn eventually learns that Jake is the American Dragon (see "The Hunted"). Contrary to expectation, Rose helped Jake throughout the show until the Huntsman learned of their relationship (see "Homecoming"). After Rose's wish for all Huntsmen to be destroyed (herself included) was granted, Jake immediately wished that Rose had never become a member of the Huntsclan.
The Huntsman (Jeff Bennett): Jake's main enemy, the Huntsman (referred to as "Huntsmaster" by his subordinates) is the leader of the Huntsclan. The Dragon Council rates him as the #4 threat to the magical community. He ultimately meets his demise when Rose's wish to destroy all Huntsclan is granted.

Secondary characters Main article: List of secondary characters in American Dragon: Jake Long There are many secondary characters that appear in American Dragon: Jake Long. Some are family and friends while others are enemies. Magical creatures and characters Main article: List of magical creatures and characters in American Dragon: Jake Long There is a menagerie of magical creatures and characters that appear in American Dragon: Jake Long. Episodes Main article: List of American Dragon: Jake Long episodes

Criticism[]

File:Jake.JPG Jake's original Season 1 dragon form in "Old School Training". File:JakeS2.JPG Jake's Season 2 dragon form in the Season 2 opening sequence. Many audiences had mixed opinions about Jake's excessive use of street slang. While some liked it, others despised it as irritating. There is no doubt that Jake's personality is homage to the second and third-generation immigrants who willingly embraced American culture (and adapted to its varying accents). Executive producer Eddie Guzelian also admits that the bravado of Jake's character was helped shaped by Dante Basco's ad-libbing and their own writing, which parodied the "wannabe MTV gangsta" crowd.[2] Season 2 seems to have toned down on Jake's superfluous use of slang. Many audiences and fans found that they had mixed opinions of Season 2. The art style was changed drastically for the second season, giving the show an edgier look than the more traditional designs of the first season. However, many fans have grown past the initial shock of the drastic art change, and at the least accept the second season as its own experience or else grown to prefer it. The outcry that accompanied its initial showing has died down considerably. Season 2 Director Steve Loter has offered some explanation to the change in aspects such as the dragon forms, in which the forms were meant to be directly related to the dragon's human form and current level of development. In the case of Jake, he would start out as a short, scrawny teenage dragon (as he is as a human), and would need to train and develop into a muscle-bound dragon (much like his form from Season 1) over time. Movie A movie based on the series was made using four random episodes from Season 2, The Academy, Supernatural Tuesday, Dreamscape, and The Rotwood Files. Production took nearly a month, starting on April 10, 2007 and ending on May 8, 2007. A bonus episode was added later in May, (Breakout) but it appeared to be out of order; In Dreamscape, Jake and Rose are using their dream charms, and in Breakout, Jake is given his dream charm.

Trivia[]

The name Long (龍) is the Chinese word for dragon.
The name Lao Shi (老師) is the Chinese word for teacher. Though 老 can be used as a term of respect for an old, wise, and elder person, which would make 'Shi' Jake's Grandfather's given name.
Concept sketches show that Jake's best friends were originally going to be named Jamal and Brook, and did not look like they did as of now. Jamal was a big African-American boy and Brook was a Caucasian girl. Other concept sketches show that Haley was originally going to be named Brittany.
Before coming up with the current title, the show had three previous titles. They were: Last Dragon, American Dragon, and Jake Long: American Dragon. Many other names were also considered for the show, including "The First American Dragon" and "Extreme Dragon".
In Season 2, the numerical address of Canal Street Electronics is 10048, which was also the former zip code of the World Trade Center, and was made in memoriam to the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.
According to executive producer Matt Negrete, almost all of the early Season 2 episode scripts ran longer than needed; nearly eight minutes had to be cut from "Half Baked" and "The Academy".[3]

Appearances in Other Media

Jake, Spud, Trixie, Lao Shi, and Fu Dog made a guest appearance in the Lilo & Stitch: The Series episode "Morpholomew" on July 1, 2005.
In October 2006, an American Dragon: Jake Long game for the Nintendo DS ("Attack of the Dark Dragon") and the Game Boy Advance ("Rise of the Huntsclan") were released.

References[]

1. ^ Matt Negrete. "Awwww man!" (HTML). amdrag.blogspot.com. 2. ^ Eddie Guzelian. "Cast Away..." (HTML). amdrag.blogspot.com. 3. ^ Matt Negrete. "Breakout: Anatomy of an Episode" (HTML). amdrag.blogspot.com. External links • American Dragon: Jake Long at the Disney Channel Official Site • American Dragon: Jake Long at the Internet Movie Database • American Dragon: Jake Long at TV.com • American Dragon: Jake Long at JeffNet • Unofficial Amdrag Blog by Eddie Guzelian & Matt Negrete [hide] • V

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