Teen super heros of the 2000's trend

*sigh* American Dragon: Jake Long is not at all like typical superhero shows. They 'spoofed' some scenes i.e. Spiderman with the dropped items and The Karate Kid with Jake's training, while some shows like Danny Phantom thought it would be totally excellent to try and copy the dynamic central starcrossed-lover plot of American Dragon. That is what made Amdrag different. It did involve some cornball slapstick, but it had a good story with an imperfect (not kimperfect) main character and was unique in its own right.
 
While I gave agreement that the show had some departures from the other teen shows, it still has it's share of cliches. Probably the worst cliche would be the Jake/Haley sibling rivalry. If not for her last few appearances on the show, she would qualify as the ADJL version of DW from Arthur.
 
It is a tale of two shows. When the Huntsclan (for the most part, not including the episodes when 88 and 89 are the sole Huntsclan representives or "The Egg"), the Dark Dragon are involved, or it is focused on the Jake / Rose relationship, it can be really awesome deep story with lots of plot development, similar to the manga / anime style.

Speaking of which, the whole Huntsclan storyline reminds a lot of anime, in season one Huntsgirl was very much like many manga / anime antagonist characters, a character that was an antagonist and worked for the bad guys, but not a bad person, just happens to work for the bad guys. I see a lot of those characters in anime, thought most of the time, it was antagonist countries that an evil dictator, not a private organisation like the Huntsclan.

But the rest of the series it is like the others, with the genetic villian of the week format.
 
Danny Phantom didn't copy American Dragon's starcrossed lover's plot. This has been a plot element in superhero stories (and other genres) for thousands of years with the arguably most well known being Romeo and Juliet. For the superhero equivalent, there's Batman and Catwoman.



This kind of plot always bothers me because it is yet another victim of "smart sister, dumb brother". This is why I usually consider Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond to be a breath of fresh air since he's generally intelligent and capable while keeping his struggle in-between school and home without making him a complete idiot.
 
I noticed this trend during the middle of the decade. We even discussed it a few years back.

I think the idea that's been put forward that it's Spider-Man's influence is interesting.
 
I agree that the series dealt with genetic villains when it wasn't focused on the Huntsman, the Dark Dragon or the Jake and Rose relationship. Despite its rushed conclusion, I thought that the series did a decent job with those storylines. Though, only Homecoming provided a good ending to the Huntsman/Huntsclan saga. If there were less genetic villain of the week kind of episodes and better focus on the main villains and relationship, then I think that the series would have stood out more and possibly had a better, more satisfying conclusion.



That's certainly true. In most of the two sibling household in shows and movies, animated or in live-action, it's almost always the smart sister and dumb older brother case. At least Haley became more likable, to me at least, during the later part of American Dragon. She was fairly annoying to me during season one. I forgot that Terry was able to balance school life, home life and being Batman without losing his grades. That's definitely something different from the usual formula. I didn't think that we saw that much of his little brother, but we barely saw how he was at home during most of the series anyway.
 
This is where I totally agree with you. Shows like ADJL and DP focused too much on random episodes that had no purpose when their best stuff was always with the continuing storylines and charachters.

Juniper Lee was far worse than these two shows when it came to that, though. it outright rejected plot many times.
 
Agreed and disagreed. See aside from having a decent plot, one thing that gives Season 2 of American Dragon viewability is that unlike Season 1, the filler is actually fun and enjoyable, whereas the 1st Season was only at it's best at it's storyline episodes.
 
Of course, but that's all the more reason why it's good not to use the school setting excessively just the same. In all fairness, Batman Beyond, Kim Possible, Danny Phantom and American Dragon have aspects that make them unique. But in a decade where the majority of shows are placed in High School, the similarities are just more noticable.

Heck, perhaps Spongebob Squarepants succeeded for that reason. No superheroes and aside from the occasional boating school episodes, the show is fairly different from the other cartoons in this decade. Many including myself liken it to something you'd see in the old Looney Tunes/Disney/Hanna Barbera shorts.
 
I think that the "Go to school, save the world" type of cartoons of the last decade was kickstarted first and foremost by two things: namely the first Spider-man movie and Kim Possible (which both came out in 2001 and both became extremly popular).
 
True, however Batman Beyond came out before those shows (btw, spider-man came out in 2002) and that had the same format, albiet darker. And before that there was the Powerpuff Girls (who were toddlers, but still the same format remained, one could also argue Freakazoid as well).
 
Yes, but there wasn't a heavy lack of adult shows until around the middle of the decade. Earlier portions of 2000 include the following adult centered shows:

- House of Mouse
- The Legend Of Tarzan
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
- Spongebob Squarepant
- Catdog
- Catscratch
- Justice League/JLU
- Duck Dodgers
- The Mummy
- Jackie Chan Adventures

Now granted some of these aren't superhero shows, I think the shift to constant kid/tween/teen heroes is simply part of the odd idea that the young demograph have a burning distain for adult and not simply just because of the success of KP or BB.
 
I see your point about Juniper Lee. I don't remember too many episodes where they dealt with a specific storyline, but most of the ones I saw were where Juniper had to defeat the monster of the week while still doing her usual school/home stuff.



That's true. I forgot how most of the fillers in season two were enjoyable, while season one's fillers were decent at best, but I remember mostly that they were boring compared to episodes focused on its storyline. I also think that season two was developed the plot in a much better way, or at least up until the finale since that didn't really cover enough to feel like a decent closure for the series.
 
The thing I enjoyed most about American Dragon was the Jake/Rose story. How they meet, grow to like one another, and their secrets being outed to one another. One of my favorite examples of romance being handled in a superhero/action show, since they didn't rely on the whole 'hints and teases until the final episode where they decide to go out in the series finale so it offers some form of closure' that just about every other show in existence likes to follow and I'm not a fan of. The whole Huntsclan story was pretty nice, but yes, I agree outside of that the standalone episodes were pretty forgettable.
 
Well I would love to see if they did the series in a anime style story pacing, in which all of the episodes are connected, and the whole series is a long journey.

I do feel disappointed, there wasn't enough development in the Dark Dragon storyline. I know they didn't want to use him too often, if he gets defeated ever episode, he loses a bit of his ora of invinsibility. I thought the Dark Dragon should have had more followers, and have a handful of evil dragons to make up a elite army, something like 5 of 6 members. Including someone with the personality of say Grimmjow from Bleach.

Also explain the whole origin of the Huntsclan, personally my theory the Huntsclan were orignally meant to be good guys that help the magical world keep the world safe from evil magical creatures like the Dark Dragon, but they turned corrupt and decided to hunt all magical cratures. And in turn what happened in the last episode, takes it full circle.
 
I honestly dislike the generic super hero teenager genre. There are a few exceptions, like Kim Possible.

And about American Dragon: I like the show, plot, and characters, but what really put me off was the attempt to be cool by using really annoying slang. Think Rocket Power. That doesn't mean I won't watch it, though. :sweat:
 
Yeah, I noticed that improvement, but it was still there.

I also agree with those who like the Jake/Rose relationship. It's definitely interesting. Not a favorite, but I liked the moments in the show with those two.
 
Back
Top