Jackie Chan Adventures Reboot

Jackie Chan is a name globally known. His brand is so massively successful that any product released with his name on it has the potential to make money. To Jackie, the money isn’t what he’s aiming for; Chan takes pride in Chinese culture, and his hopes are to help children develop good morals and habits with his new show and to bring his culture to the rest of the world.

90’s kids will remember the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon series that aired in the early 2000s. Revered martial arts movie star Jackie Chan played a fictionalized animated version of himself who protected the world from demons and monsters. His team consisted of his smart-alecky niece Jade, his equally grumpy and powerful Uncle, and their former foe Tohru. The show was just as fun and action-packed as it sounds and featured an animated version of Jackie Chan battling bad guys and preventing the zodiac talismans from falling into the wrong hands.

If you’re expecting J:Team to be a revival of the Jackie Chan Adventures, you can abandon those ideas and lower your standards. The many things the 90’s kids loved about the original animation has changed. Other than Jackie, this new J:Team series nothing to do with the Jackie Chan Adventures at all. The show is targeted at kids aged three to 10 and Chan hopes the show teaches kids positive values, “highlighting traditional Chinese virtues and healthy habits”. “It’s meant to help young children to do things they don’t always like to do, like, don’t look at your phone for too long, remember to brush your teeth, respect your elders, pick up the trash.” Chan will be 3D-animated as a teen who will join forces with a full squad of kid protagonists to protect a mystical dreamland from nightmare monsters. Great show for the kids, but disappointing to the kids in all of us who loved the original Jackie Chan Adventures

EXTRAS:

The new Jackie Chan Adventures bears a resemblance to the animated series called Dream Defenders, produced by a Singaporean animation company, Tiny Island Productions in 2013.

Naturally, there are still some differing components from Dream Defenders despite the similar theme and design. Jackie’s teammate Xiao Mei, seems to follow the magical supergirl archetype as seen in the trailer; using a magical tool to transform into a cute looking outfit, the transformation resembles transformations seen on other popular animes such as Sailor Moon, MewMew Power, and the likes.