Jackie Chan Adventures is one of the best Kids WB shows of all time. It stood toe-to-toe with classics such as Animaniacs, newcomers like Static Shock, and acquired cartoons like Yu-Gi-Oh!. But unlike the rest, it came completely out of nowhere. It wasn’t attached to the WB brand, DC Comics, or another anime Pokémon competitor. Instead, it was based on some action hero we knew vaguely from the movies our dads and older brothers watched.
The series recently celebrated a major milestone, marking 25 years since its original premiere in September 2000. It’s also currently available for free on Tubi, so I decided to take a nostalgic trip back to see if it held up, and before I knew it, five episodes and a bowl of cereal later, I found myself binging.
Jackie Chan Adventures blended martial arts action, fantasy, and comedy into a staple for after-school viewing. Centered on a fictionalized version of Jackie Chan, the show followed him, his niece Jade, and his eccentric Uncle as they traveled the world battling ancient evils and recovering powerful magical artifacts, primarily the ancient 12 talismans — each was tied to the Chinese zodiac and had a different power. The Ox Talisman granted superhuman strength, the Rabbit unleashed incredible speed, the Rooster bestowed telekinesis, and each of the others carried its own unique ability. With inventive fight choreography, memorable catchphrases, and a mix of Eastern folklore and Western cartoon humor, the series stood out as both a tribute to Jackie’s real-life stunt persona and a unique entry in 90s cartoon canon.
Even as a kid, you could tell this show stood a cut above the rest. It had fluid animation, great voice acting, and secondary characters just as interesting as the titular hero. Jackie Chan Adventures was always a reliable cartoon to unwind from my hectic fourth-grade curriculum. It had a freak of the week format that kept things fresh, but it told a narrative across the entire series, unlike other cartoons that constantly reset the status quo.
The series put Chan in one wild scenario after another: brawling with street thugs, escaping booby-trapped tombs, and even clashing with superpowered ninjas reminiscent of the Hand from Daredevil. It had Indiana Jones swagger, given Chan’s archeology background, and a secret spy mystique through the fictionalized Chan’s ties to a secret government organization called Section 13. Yet no matter how over-the-top the setup, the stunts pulled off by his animated counterpart still felt believable, as if Chan could really do them himself — despite his tongue-in-cheek admission in episode one that cartoons let him do what he can’t.
While Chan didn’t voice his own character, voice double James Sie stepped in, later becoming the iconic Cabbage Merchant in Avatar: The Last Airbender. The show also featured standout turns from Clancy Brown as Section 13 leader Captain Augustus Black, Noah Nelson (Craig T. Nelson’s son) as Tohru, and Adam Baldwin as Finn.
Finn and Tohru started out as henchmen working for Valmont, a crime lord who served the ancient fire demon Shendu, imprisoned within a dragon statue. While Tohru began as the muscle of the group, one of the show’s best arcs was watching him shift from loyal enforcer to unlikely ally, eventually becoming Uncle’s apprentice and a trusted friend to the heroes.
Uncle is a feng shui master who runs an artifact shop and has deep knowledge of magic. He is both wise and hilarious, with several catchphrases that fans still love to repeat, such as “one more thing,” “magic must defeat magic,” and my personal favorite, “Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao,” the incantation he always uses to banish evil forces. Even the obligatory child character, Jade, Jackie’s newly introduced niece, worked perfectly as an audience surrogate. She captured the spirit of the fun rulebreaker that kids of the ‘90s dreamed of being. Not only that, she was capable and instrumental in saving the day nearly every episode.
But Chan was front and center, and he even showed up at the end of every episode to read his fan mail. It was great because you got to learn a lot about him, and he painted himself as an inspirational guy who did all he does on screen and in martial arts to earn the adoration of his fans.
In these segments, Chan often spoke about his favorite exercises, his commitment to doing his own stunts, and his dream of having a cartoon — something he hoped would let future generations remember him. As a kid, I wasn’t old enough to fully know his movies, and Rush Hour was still just out of reach, so this show became my introduction to Jackie Chan. Decades later, the series continues to carry goodwill with the generation that grew up on it.
Jackie Chan Adventures is available to stream on Tubi