‘Jackie Chan Adventures’ to Return With New Animated Series and Feature Film
My fellow millennials can join me in fond memories of the Saturday mornings spent rapt before new episodes of The Jackie Chan Adventures on Kids! WB. Revered martial arts movie star Jackie Chan played an Indiana Jones-esque fictionalized version of himself, a former archaeology professor who takes up the arguably more vital work of protecting the world from demons and monsters. He teamed up with his precocious niece Jade, his powerful but cranky Uncle, and their hulking foe-turned friend Tohru in pursuit of the mystical talismans, little octagonal stones that imbue their holder with fantastical superpowers. The show was just as fun as it sounds, full of Shaw Brothers-caliber kung fu action and slapsticky humor from the always-game Chan.
And today, you can start your day with a little good news. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that the Chan-man (and for once, I’m not referring to Channing Tatum; note to self: put “Jackie Channing Tatum” in the “Good Ideas” folder) will revive the animated series as J-Team: The All-New Jackie Chan Adventures. From the description that THR’s item provides, it sounds like some substantial changes have been made. The new series will eschew the original’s 2D design for 3D computer-generated animation, and Chan will join forces with a full squad of kid protagonists to protect a magical dreamland from encroaching beasties. (The original was set in San Francisco.) Chan’s leaning a little harder on the morals, too — the item quotes him as saying, “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.”
At present, the show has only been ordered for broadcast across the hundreds of TV stations in China, but that just means an Americanized re-dub must be in the works for an eventual release. Generations may give way from one to the next, but the unadulterated joy of watching Jackie Chan kick demon buttocks transcends time.