Jackie Chan Adventures

Jackie Chan Adventures is an animated television series developed by John Rogers, Duane Capizzi and Jeff Kline, and produced by Columbia TriStar Television (now Sony Pictures Television), Adelaide Productions, The JC Group and Blue Train Entertainment. The cartoon series premiered on September 9, 2000, and ran for five seasons until its conclusion on July 8, 2005. The series focuses on a fictionalized version of Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan, who operates in life as an archaeologist and special agent, combatting threats that are mainly magical and supernatural (based on real-life mythologies and supernatural stories from Asia and around the world) with the aid of his family and allies.
Many of the episodes created for Jackie Chan Adventures featured references to Chan's actual works, with the actor making live-action appearances in the form of an interview situation, answering questions about his life and work. The series was aired in the United States on Kids' WB, with re-runs and second run premieres airing on Toon Disney's Jetix programming block, Cartoon Network's Toonami block, Nicktoons, and in Canadian broadcasts on YTV's Vortex. The series proved a success on children's television, including abroad, leading to the creation of a toy franchise and two video games based on the series.
Jackie Chan Adventures is set in a world which magic and supernatural forces exist but are unknown to much of humanity – these include demons, ghosts, spirits, spells, and various creatures and gods. Although the series focuses mostly on those from Asia, primarily Chinese mythology and folklore, it also includes those from other locations in the world, including Europe and Central America. In the animated series, the actor Jackie Chan exists in this setting as a professional archaeologist with a high degree of martial combat skill, who is forced to accept the fact that magic and the supernatural exists when he uncovers a talisman in an artifact that possess magical powers sought out by a criminal organization.
Throughout the series, Chan is aided by his family, including his uncle and his niece Jade, and his ally Captain Black – head of a secret law enforcement organization codenamed "Section 13" – alongside additional companions introduced over the course of the series. Each season of the program primarily contains an overarching storyline in which Chan and his allies must face off against a dangerous demonic figure, aided by human henchman, by preventing them from finding a series of magical objects that can help them to conquer the world. Alongside the overarching plotline, seasons also include standalone stories that focus on Chan and his friends combatting magical and supernatural forces that are either evil or not understanding of their situation. While storylines feature action sequences focused on magic and martial arts, they also include comedic situations akin to several of Chan's works in action-comedy films.
While Chan does not provide the voice of his animated character, he appears regularly in live-action inserts at the end of the program to offer insights on Chinese history, culture and philosophy as well as answering fan questions read by Stacie Chan offscreen.
The series often features references to Jackie Chan's films and his own life throughout the series. In the episode "A Night at the Opera", Uncle states that he was part of the stage group "Seven Little Fortunes", which Jackie Chan was actually part of in real life. Another example is in the episode "The Invisible Mom" where Jackie is bitten by a Snake, and uses a kung fu style known as "the drunken master" from one of his earliest headlining films of the same name. According to Jackie during one of his question segments, the characters of the show are based on certain people in his life. Uncle is based on his agent and father, Jade is based on an assortment of his nieces, and Tohru is based on one of his stunt team members as well as himself. The episode "And He Does His Own Stunts" is a reference to the fact that Jackie Chan does his own stunts in his movies.
Some episodes' titles are based on actual film names. For example, "Half a Mask of Kung Fu" is based on Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, four episode titles ("Enter the Viper", "Enter the Cat", "Re-Enter the J-Team", and "Re-Enter the Dragon") are based on Enter the Dragon (in which Jackie Chan performs as a stuntman), "Shanghai Moon" is based on Shanghai Noon, "Armor of the Gods" is based on Armour of God, "Project A, for Astral" is based on Project A and "Rumble in the Big House" is based on Rumble in the Bronx.
The series aired in the Republic of Ireland on RTÉ Two from April 30, 2001, and was regularly rerun until 2014.
Common Sense Media gave the show 4 out of 5 stars, saying "Lighthearted, entertaining, suspenseful, and humorous, this show may not be deep, but it's a lot of fun".
A number of books were released to accompany the series.
A number of comics were released to accompany the series.
In 2001, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released episodes from the first season on VHS and DVD. But one format differed from the other in that of the four DVDs released, three were select, individual episodes while the fourth contained the whole season of 13 episodes; the VHS series had only three, separate episodes. Also, there was a difference in the titles of said episodes released on VHS and DVD. The Day of The Dragon VHS box cover art was the same as that of the first season DVD case cover, which featured Jackie, Jade and Uncle with the villains behind them, dimmed in a yellowish background. On these, the episodes were presented without the teasers that originally appeared prior to the opening/intro sequence as they aired. They are currently unavailable and out-of-print, especially since they had limited pressings and no plans have been announced to follow up season one with DVD box sets of the remaining four seasons. However, the entire series can be ordered and seen via video-on-demand service at Amazon and iTunes. As of October 2010, the entire series was made available on the Netflix streaming service.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment plans to release the second season on DVD through Amazon.com, and other online retailers. Mill Creek Entertainment announced all five seasons on DVD in Region 1.
There has only been one Jackie Chan game, Jackie Chan Adventures, first released on Game Boy Advance then re-released on PlayStation 2, under different titles.
Following Jackie Chan Adventures, Chan set off to create local productions in Asia. The first, Jackie Chan's Fantasia, is a 52-episode Chinese animated series produced by Nanjing Hongying Animation Entertainment. It aired in 2009 on CCTV and in English on Sonic-Nickelodeon.
In 2017, Chan announced All New Jackie Chan Adventures, a $6 million 104-episode Chinese CG-animated series produced by Zhejiang Talent Television & Film, Khorgas JJ Culture Media Co., and VJ Animation Studio. It was released in China in 2017, with a feature film scheduled for 2019. Despite the name, it is unrelated to the American series.
Later in 2008 the series was adapted into multiple South Indian languages by Sun TV Network.