Courier-Mail - February 24, 2005

New boy wonder is a fire-breather

24feb05

YOU might find a bigfoot in America but you won't find a dragon.

Or so animator Jeff Goode discovered when researching Disney's latest children's series, American Dragon: Jake Long.

"I've always been intrigued by dragons because they appear in the mythology of almost every country in the world – except America," Goode says.

"In American folklore there are hardly any magical creatures at all."

With Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings rekindling interest in the fantasy genre, Goode saw an opportunity to redress the situation. "If America had a dragon, what would it be like? That was the starting point for the show."

The answer was Jake Long. Jake is a Chinese-American teenager who lives in New York. He also happens to be able to transform into a large fire-breathing dragon and is responsible for protecting the supernatural creatures that inhabit the city (think unicorns in Central Park, leprechauns on Wall Street and centaurs on the subway).

The series is fast-paced and fun, and with Jake's grandfather acting as mentor, many have compared the show to Karate Kid.

"Ultimately, we can't help but allude to that Karate Kid kind of dynamic – a wise Chinese grandfather teaching his 13-year-old grandson the ways of being a dragon," Goode says.

Director Chris Roman adds: "But at the same time, dragons are really cool. Most kids, especially boys, have a fascination with large magical creatures."

However, both Goode and Roman know launching a new kids' show can be risky, with children the hardest audience to please.

"Adults tend to be a lot more forgiving from an animation point of view. They're more interested in the story. Whereas, you put kids in front of an animation and they tend to know when you cut corners," Roman says.

"There was a lot of pressure to try and dumb it down and make it a little more simple. But we kind of went with our gut and kept some complex issues and fantastic creatures in there."

American Dragon is the first Disney series to be set in a real place and to use the Photoshop design program to create the backgrounds.

Roman says while using the new technology means getting "really detailed backgrounds within an animation budget", hand drawing is not on the way out just yet.

"I think it's similar to the fear that CGI will replace live actors," he says.

"The main advantage of technology and computers is the speed. If we want to draw 1000 characters it would take forever to hand draw, but just a few minutes on a computer.

"It is unlikely it will replace the artistic flair that a human has, but the way that the two will work together will change."

 American Dragon: Jake Long, Disney Channel, Foxtel/Optus, Friday 5pm

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