American Dragon: Jake Long

American Dragon: Jake Long is an American animated television series. It was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and created by Jeff Goode. It premiered on Disney Channel January 21, 2005, and ended September 1, 2007.

Premise
Set in the New York City borough of Manhattan, this animated series tells the story of Jake Long (voiced by Dante Basco), who must balance ordinary adolescence with the power and 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 crush on his schoolmate Rose (Mae Whitman) 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 that slays dragons. The leader of the Huntsclan is the Huntsman (Jeff Bennett).

Jake navigates the city with his two best friends - Trixie Carter (Miss Kittie), a witty, blunt, and sharp-tongued girl who is usually the most logical and mature of the group; and Arthur P. "Spud" Spudinski (Charlie Finn), who appears to be slow-witted but is actually a genius. When Jake gets home, it is to an extended family: Jonathan (Jeff Bennett), a businessman dad originally from the Midwest who is unaware that he is married into a family of dragons from his Chinese wife named Susan (Lauren Tom) (who cannot turn into a dragon as the power skipped her generation). Jake's maternal grandfather Lao Shi (Keone Young) trains his grandson in the magical, mystical ways of the ancient dragons. Other characters include Jake's younger sister Haley (Amy Bruckner) (a nascent dragon), and Grandpa's cynical sidekick who's also Jake's animal guardian and another best friend, a magical Shar-Pei named Fu Dog (John DiMaggio).

Cast and characters

 * Dante Basco as Jake Long
 * Keone Young as Luong Lao Shi
 * John DiMaggio as Fu Dog
 * Mae Whitman as Rose/Huntsgirl
 * Charlie Finn as Arthur "Spud" Spudinski
 * Kittie as Trixie Carter
 * Amy Bruckner as Haley Long
 * Jeff Bennett as Jonathan Long, Councilor Kulde, and the Huntsman
 * Lauren Tom as Susan Long and Councilor Chang
 * Paul Rugg as Hans Rotwood
 * Matt Nolan as Brad Morton
 * Sandra Oh as Sun Park
 * Jonathan Freeman as Eli Excelsior Pandarus
 * T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh as Mrs. Carter
 * Tara Strong as Stacey, Kara, Sara, Veronica and Bertha
 * Kyle Massey as Huntsboy #88
 * Nicholas Brendon as Huntsboy #89
 * Clancy Brown as The Dark Dragon
 * Kari Wahlgren as Silver
 * Susanne Blakeslee as Dolores Derceto
 * Clarence Williams III as Councilor Andam
 * Jessica DiCicco as Danika Hunnicutt
 * Adam Wylie as Nigel Thrall, Bananas B, and Fred Nerk
 * Macy Gray as Trixie's Grandmother and Miss Jenkins

Production
American Dragon: Jake Long was created by Jeff Goode. Disney Channel ordered an initial twenty-one 30 minute episodes for the first season, and the series premiered on January 21, 2005. After its cancellation, reruns continued to air from 2007 to 2010.

The series was syndicated to Toon Disney on February 2006. When Toon Disney was converted to Disney XD, the series was carried over and aired from February 13, 2009 to 2012.

Crossover with Lilo & Stitch
Jake Long and his allies come to Hawaii in an episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series entitled "Morpholomew" to investigate one of Jumba's experiments, while Lilo enters a skateboarding competition in an attempt to impress her crush by winning a new skateboard for him while he's in Australia. Meanwhile, he and Stitch team up to stop Gantu and rescue the experiment.

Video games
Two video games based on the show were produced, one for the Nintendo DS and one for the Game Boy Advance.


 * Attack of the Dark Dragon (DS) — released October 12, 2006
 * Rise of the Huntsclan (GBA) — released October 12, 2006

Books
Jeff Goode has written two children's books about American Dragon which were released in 2003 and 2004 - before the initial TV show started airing.


 * American Dragon Book 1: The Dragon Hunter, ISBN 0-7868-1926-X — released April 1, 2004
 * American Dragon Book 2: The Gnome Eater, ISBN 0-7868-1927-8 — released May 1, 2004