Jake and the Never Land Pirates

Jake and the Never Land Pirates, titled Captain Jake and the Never Land Pirates for the fourth season and associated merchandise, is an American animated interactive preschool children's television series for Disney Junior. Based on Walt Disney's Peter Pan franchise, which was itself based on the 1904 play and 1911 book by J. M. Barrie, it was the first Disney Junior original show following the switch from Playhouse Disney. It stars Sean Ryan Fox, Megan Richie, Jadon Sand, David Arquette, Corey Burton, Jeff Bennett, Loren Hoskins, and Dee Bradley Baker. The series was created by Disney veteran Bobs Gannaway, whose works include Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Secret of the Wings.
The series focuses on Jake, Izzy, Cubby, and their parrot Skully, a band of young pirates who spend their days competing for treasure against Captain Hook and his pirate crew, consisting of Mr. Smee, Sharky and Bones. They are often accompanied by several characters, including their living pirate ship, Bucky, and their mermaid friend, Marina.
The series' fourth and final season, under the name Captain Jake and the Never Land Pirates, premiered on September 14, 2015. The show ran until November 6, 2016.
The show takes place some time after the events of Peter Pan and before Return to Never Land and focuses on Jake, Izzy, and Cubby. Each episode consists of two eleven-minute segments in which Jake his crew and the audience have adventures around Never Land and outsmart Captain Hook and his crew. Every episode begins with a prologue of Jake asking the viewer to say "Yo-ho-ho!" with him and his crew. In each segment, they earn gold doubloons each time they solve a problem together, and at the end they count them and put them in their "Team Treasure Chest".
The first season of the series followed more "playful" conflicts, such as Jake and the crew reclaiming their basketball or skateboard from Captain Hook. The second season had less interactive moments and a larger scale of adventure, with plots such as the characters finding a lost city of gold and an ancient pirate pyramid. The third season has an updated theme song and more action. The fourth and final season has one fourth-wall break at the end of each episode.
Almost every episode contains two eleven-minute animated segments, followed by a live-action song by the Never Land Pirate Band. The singing characters Sharky and Bones appear in both animated and live-action forms, being part of Hook's crew.
The show's musical elements are handled by Loren Hoskins and Kevin Hendrickson, who were emailed by the show's creator Bobs Gannaway, asking if they would be interested in creating songs for the show. According to Hoskins, Gannaway "just wanted good music to listen to while he was writing the pilot". Gannaway searched "pirate music for kids" online and found his way to Captain Bogg and Salty, listening to their songs while working on the script. He introduced the band to Jay Stutler, vice president of music at Disney Television Animation. "We're in charge of creating every note of music for the show. We create the underscore. We sit in the studio and record the background music that comes in and out." The music for the show has been praised for being enjoyable for both the children, and the adult caretakers. Three soundtracks have been released featuring songs from the show.
The series aired worldwide on Disney Junior. It premiered on May 6, 2011 in Canada, on May 7, 2011 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, on May 29, 2011 in Australia and New Zealand, on June 1, 2011 in South Africa, on July 4, 2011 in India, on July 11, 2011 in Southeast Asia, and on April 29, 2013 in Zimbabwe, with TVNZ in New Zealand and 7flix in Australia. It was also broadcast in Belgium on Club RTL, in France on M6 and TF1 as part of the TFOU block, and in Greece on ERT1 (Season 1 Only).
The series has received generally mixed reviews. A review in Variety called it "part video game, part interactive cartoon, part advertisement for 'Peter Pan' merchandise". The Los Angeles Times gave a mixed review of the show's portrayal of Captain Hook compared to the classic Peter Pan, stating that the character "has been laundered — reasonably enough, yet sadly as well — into a shell of his former self, too silly to be frightening, not even a decent bully, just a kind of (much) older boy who wants to steal your toys." Common Sense Media rated it "on" for ages 3 and older, praising the educational content, role models, and especially the messages of the show, and expressing only mild concern about the moderate violence. As the flagship of the newly launched Disney Junior channel, the series was rated the most-watched program among boys ages 2–5 during its first few weeks on the air, with 2.9 million viewers, including 1.1 million ages 2–5, and over 600,000 women ages 18–49 (presumed to be mothers and other caregivers). On July 27, the series was awarded #2 of the Best TV Shows 2011 list.
The character Jake has too received positive reviews. The character has been thought of as a "classic Disney character", lovable and entertaining addition. He has quickly become an icon at Disney's Hollywood Studios from the popular Disney Junior Live as well as being added on the park's entrance drawings. The atmosphere character can be seen at the Hollywood And Vine character breakfast and the Animation courtyard, while at Disney California Adventure, Jake can be found on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood Land.
Upon the initial release of the series onwards, there has been a high demand for toys, games, and other merchandise from the show. At the American International Toy Fair in New York City, Disney announced a line of toys to be released in the summer of 2012.
On May 24, 2012, the Jake's Never Land Pirate School app was released on Apple and Android devices. As well as a storyline-based MobiGo cartridge video game by Vtech.
A variety of other video games are based on the series including:
A spin-off series of shorts of the show centering on Skully, titled Playing With Skully, aired on September 19, 2012. Another short series entitled Jake's Never Land Pirate School premiered on November 26, 2012. The third spin-off, Mama Hook Knows Best! premiered on September 29, 2013, starring Sharon Osbourne as Mama Hook, but instead of a series, it was a book. The fourth spin-off entitled, Jake's Buccaneer Blast premiered on October 26, 2014, as the first Lego Duplo adventure.