American Dragon: Jake Long

**American Dragon: Jake Long** is an American television series created by Jeff Goode.

It focuses on a teenage slacker who is given the ability to turn into a dragon and defends all mythical creatures that secretly reside in the human world.

The series premiered on Disney Channel on January 21, 2005 and aired for two seasons until September 1, 2007.

## Plot

Set in the New York City borough of Manhattan, this animated series tells the story of a Chinese-American boy named Jake Long, who must balance ordinary adolescence with the ability to change into a dragon. When he eventually unlocks his full potential and turns into the American Dragon, he has to overcome obstacles to protect the magical creatures living in the city, but as his ordinary self, Jake has issues with his deep crush on his schoolmate Rose who, unbeknownst to Jake, has a dark, magical secret of her own: she is a natural dragon-slayer known as the Huntsgirl, a member of the Huntsclan, a cult of ninjas that slays mythical creatures and who Jake has fought consistently. The leader of the Huntsclan is the Huntsman (Jeff Bennett) who raised Rose.

Jake navigates the city with his two best friends: Trixie Carter and Arthur P. "Spud" Spudinski. When Jake gets home, it is to an extended family who all live together: Jake, his sister, their parents, and Jake's maternal grandfather Lao Shi. Jonathan, a businessman dad originally from the Midwest, is unaware that he is married into a family of dragons from his Chinese wife Susan (who lacks any dragon abilities, which skipped her generation). Lao Shi trains Jake in the magical, mystical ways of the dragons. Jake also cares very deeply for his annoying, overachieving, and seemingly perfect younger sister Haley (a nascent dragon), despite feeling like he's stuck in her small shadow. Grandpa's cynical sidekick, a magical talking Shar-Pei named Fu Dog, is Jake's animal guardian and other best friend.

## Cast and Characters

### Main

* Dante Basco as Jacob Luke "Jake" Long
* Keone Young as Luong Lao Shi
* John DiMaggio as Fu Dog
* Charlie Finn as Arthur P. "Spud" Spudinski
* Kittie Kaboom as Trixie Carter
* Amy Bruckner as Haley Kay Long
* Lauren Tom as Susan Luong-Long
* Jeff Bennett as Jonathan Long
* Mae Whitman as Rose/Huntsgirl
* Paul Rugg as Professor Hans Rotwood

### Villains

* Jeff Bennett as The Huntsman
* Clancy Brown as The Dark Dragon
* Adam Wylie as Bananas B
* Lauren Tom as Councilor Chang
* Jonathan Freeman as Eli Excelsior Pandarus

### Recurring

* Sandra Oh as Sun Park
* Adam Wylie as Nigel Thrall
* Lacey Chabert as Jasmine
* Kyle Massey and Nicholas Brendon as Huntsboy #88 and Huntsboy '#89
* Matt Nolan as Brad Morton
* Corey Burton as Sigmund Brock
* Tara Strong as Stacey Wintergrin / Kara Oracle / Sara Oracle / Veronica / Bertha the Giant / Huntsgirl #18
* Kari Wahlgren as Silver
* Susanne Blakeslee as Ms. Dolores Derceto
* Jessica DiCicco as Danika Hunnicutt
* Phil Morris as Hank Carter
* Liliana Mumy as Olivia Mears
* Tia Carrere as Yan Yan

## Episodes

See Also: List of American Dragon: Jake Long Episodes

 2 | 31

## Production

American Dragon: Jake Long was created by Jeff Goode (who also wrote the pilot for MTV's Undressed). The show was pitched to Disney Channel executives as an animated show in 2002. After being greenlit by Disney Channel, the pitch bible was then developed into its television adaptation with executive producers Matt Negrete (previously a writer on Fillmore!) and Eddie Guzelian (a writer and story editor for Kim Possible), with Christian Roman serving as director.

Disney Channel ordered an initial twenty-one 30-minute episodes the first season. The series premiered on January 21, 2005. It was initially scheduled for the fall of 2004, but was moved to January when Brandy & Mr. Whiskers was completed in time for its September debut. It premiered in the UK a month early, on 19 December 2004.

The theme song was originally performed for the first season by the band Mavin.

In 2006 Disney Channel renewed the show for a second season. It had also been announced that Steve Loter, who had served as director of Kim Possible, would join the show for its second season as director and executive producer alongside Matt Negrete and Eddie Guzelian. However, following Disney Channel's renewal of Kim Possible for a fourth season, Loter would resume his role as the director but still serve as an executive producer of Jake Long. Nick Filippi, who had also done directorial work on Kim Possible, was assigned as 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 upon request by both Loter and the executives as they had disdain for the previous seasons' designs.

The theme song for season 2 was also re-recorded by The Jonas Brothers.

The show ended its run on September 1, 2007. After the show ended, reruns continued to air on Disney Channel's late-night line-up every night at 1:30am. The show was brought back to the daytime line-up weekdays at 2:00pm from October 1–5, 2007, and 1:00pm from October 9, 2007, to May 15, 2008. The show's late-night timeslot was moved to 2:30am on May 17, 2008, and to 3:00am on January 1, 2010. On May 7, 2010, the show started airing only 4 nights a week (Monday-Thursday), and the show was completely removed from Disney Channel after June 25, 2010. The series was syndicated to Toon Disney from February 20, 2006, to February 12, 2009. When Toon Disney was converted to Disney XD, the series was carried over and aired from February 14, 2009, to October 15, 2012.

## Release

### Home Media

The series was made available on Disney+ in the U.S. on February 26, 2021.