A guy on the internet talking about old cartoons, a novel concept, I know.
Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back once again! Peeps, I recently took a look at my blog and it reminded me of something I realized back a couple of months ago: My blog's lacking in animation talk. Seriously, only like HALF of the stuff on this blog's about animation.
And because this is a blog mainly about animation, I decided to start a little thing I like to call: Blast from the Past, where I take an episode (usually the first episode) from animated series that were coming out when I was growing up, and give them a review; and the lucky show I'm reviewing for this first installment is none other than Jackie Chan Adventures.
Jackie Chan Adventures...boy was it SO much better than it had any right to be. To those unaware, cartoons starring popular celebrities is a practice that dates back even to the 1960s. Tons of celebrities have been given their own animated series: The Beatles, Andre 3000, The Harlem Globetrotters. Hell, Chuck Norris was given two: Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos and...
That show was a cartoon in itself...and that's why it was amazing.
The point to this is that the majority of these celebrity starred cartoons are nothing more than just cheap cash-ins of a celebrity's popularity. But that' when Jackie Chan Adventures came in and broke the mold. The show aired in 2000, back when Jackie Chan was at the Height of his popularity. Jet Li wasn't as big as he was in the West yet, and Chan was still riding off the waves of Rush Hour's success, not to mention Rush Hour 2 was on the way. So it made sense to capitalize on that success. Let's not waste any more time and dive into the first episode.
Jackie Chan Adventures Episode 1 is titled: "The Dark Hand" and it starts off with archaeologist Jackie Chan (yes he's an archaeologist in this series), his archaeologist colleagues, and tourists inspecting a castle in search of artifacts. When they reach their designated area, one of the tourists sets off booby traps. In this scene we get a brief but very well animated scene of Jackie escaping the castle which involves him picking up a shield and blocking arrows and using said shield to escape the castle. After escaping, we're treated to two different groups watching Jackie from afar.
You could probably make a meme with this picture, someone get on that!
The next scene picks up with Jackie in his home/his uncle's shop training. Here we're introduced to two mainstay characters of the series: Jackie's Uncle...Uncle (They just call him that throughout the series), a crotchety yet wise old man who's easily the funniest character in the episode (and throughout the rest of the series) and Jade, Jackie's niece who moves in with him because she was struggling at her old school.
Because he has no experience with kids, Jackie and Jade's first meeting doesn't go well. But they aren't given much time to bond when three strangers come in the shop in search of the shield Jackie acquired at the castle. Not liking the vibes these three were giving him Jackie lies about the shield and he receives a threat from this mysterious trio.
Get used to these faces people
Suspicious of these tree men, Jackie leaves Jade in the care of Uncle and secretly tails the car they're driving in the only way Jackie Chan can: By running across rooftops. Unfortunately, our hero slips up and lands right on top of the car he was following. This leads into a fast paced fight scene between Jackie and the thugs on the playground. The fight is again animated great and it's very creative, as Jackie is using every bit of the environment around him to fight these guys. After laying the smackdown the thugs leave and Jackie is knocked out by a mysterious person. This person turns out to be...
NICK FURY...
...Okay not really.The man above is Augustus Black (voiced by the great Clancy Brown), an old friend of Jackie's and the Captain of a secret spy organization called Section 13, who were following Jackie in search of the shield so the can keep it away from The Dark Hand, an organization who have had a hand in every crime in existence. Yes. Every crime.
The Dark hand, led by Valmont, are in pursuit of ancient artifacts and the shield is on their list. In the scene where we first meet Valmont, we also get a first look at Shendu, a talking dragon statue with magical abilities. with these said abilities, Shendu summons these ninja spirits known as the Shadow...
Sorry...I had to do it...
The Shadowkhan, along with Valmont's heavy hitter Tohru, work to get the shield, Tohru manages to kidnap Uncle and gives Jackie the ultimatum of giving him the shield for his (Jackie's) Uncle.
The climax of the episode takes place on a rooftop, Jackie and Tohru are standing off demanding the shield for Jackie's Uncle. Jackie refuses the offer by throwing the shield back at himself. This small distraction allows for Jade (Who had followed Jackie to the location of the meeting) to sneak Uncle away from Tohru's grasp. Knowing the two had gotten to safety, Jackie makes a run for it, but is cut off by the Shadowkhan.
This leads to the highlight of the episode: Jackie is fighting off all of the ShadowKhan using the shield. The animation for this fight is so fast paced and fluid (To my surprise, it still holds up after nearly fifteen years). As the fight's going on, Jade and Uncle are running downstairs trying to get out of the building while Tohru is following them via elevator. Jackie is soon surrounded by the Shadowkhan but Jade yells at him to throw her the shield. Jackie does this and Jade catches but she's unfortunately caught by Tohru who makes off with the shield, in return, causing the Shadowkhan to disappear.
BUT! There is a twist!
Shortly after Tohru and the Shadowkhan leave, Uncle reveals that it wasn't the shield The Dark Hand was after, but the talisman that was in the center of the shield; and as luck would have it, Jade had sneakingly removed the talisman from the shield, outsmarting Tohru. Now the chase is on, Jackie, Uncle, and Jade aid Section 13 as they hunt for the eleven other talismans before the Dark Hand can get to them.
Jackie Chan Adventures does what every good first episode of a series should: it introduces us to our heroes, our villains, and sets up the plot for the series (Or at least, the first season). The thing that separated this series from a lot of Celebrity cartoons and probably the reason it lasted for five seasons is that, it feels very much like something you would see from a Jackie Chan movie and it captures the "essence" of Jackie Chan so to speak: Crazy stunts, silly comedic moments, great to watch martial arts fights. Combine that with the three main characters (Jackie, Jade, and Uncle) who all have great personalities that play off each other so well, you have a recipe for success. If you haven't seen Jackie Chan Adventures, give the first episode a try, you might like it.
Til next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation. Take Care...
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