Colleen O'Shaughnessy Movies
- 2005
Similar in tone to the Disney Channel's American Dragon: Jake Long, the half-hour animated series The Life and Times of Juniper Lee boasted a strong Asian-American female character in the leading role. A resident of Orchid Bay City, 11-year-old Juniper "June" Lee was typical in every respect save one. Because of her noble heritage and supernatural powers, June was expected to assume the mantle of Te Xuan Ze, and as such was required to protect the world from such paranormal predators as ghosts, demons, mummies, evil gnomes, nasty leprechauns, and other denizens of the Other Realm. Thing of it was, only June was able to see these antagonists, so she had quite a time explaining her periodic absences from her home and from school to those who weren't "in the know." Other characters included June's wise old grandmother Ah Mah, the former Te Xuan Ze; her parents Mr. and Mrs. Lee, who were a bit jealous that June's special skills had skipped a generation and bypassed them; her obnoxious kid brother Ray Ray, who aspired to be a demon fighter just like sis; her older brother Dennis, who, because he hadn't inherited June's magical powers was totally clueless as to her mission in life, and who spent all his waking hours indulging in L.A.R.P. (live action role-playing); June's cynical dog Monroe, who spoke in a Scottish burr; her friend Ophelia, a goth-girl wannabe and magician in training; Jodi, June's best friend; Marcus, the junior-high jock for whom June carried a torch; and Roger, the standard-issue class nerd and computer geek. Created by comic book writer Judd Winick, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee offset its bizarre trappings with down-to-earth sarcastic humor and sly inside jokes. The series made its Cartoon Network bow on May 30, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lara Jill Miller, Kath Soucie, (more)
Originally titled Gash Bell, this half-hour Japanese anime series was based on the manga by Makato Raiku. The premise: Every millennium, 100 Mamodo from outer space were sent to earth to battle for supremacy. Although not children, the Mamodo looked and acted like kids, and thus needed youthful human partners (actually counterparts) to activate their powers, as dictated in their ancient spell books. The winner, of course, would become King of Mamodo--but should one of the spell books be destroyed, the owner of that book would instantly disintegrate. The hero of the piece was Zatch Bell, an amnesiac Mamodo who was discovered and rescued by the archeologist father of junior high student Kiyo. Although Zatch and Kiyo were unaware of the awesome powers at their fingertips, they soon learned--especially when threatened by the series' various villainous Mamodo-King wannabes. For its American debut, Zatch Bell was served up as part of Cartoon Network's "Toonami" manifest on March 1, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debi Derryberry, Jason Spisak, (more)
- 1997
Originally telecast in Japan under the title Hare Tokidoki Buta, this animated series revolved around a nine-year-old boy and his magical pet pig. Whenever the youngster imagined an adventure, the plucky pig would enable him to "act it out," generally in a slapsticky fashion. The boy, known as Kazuko in Japan, was re-christened Spencer when the series was brought to North America under the title Tokyo Pig. First broadcast on TV Tokyo from July 3, 1997, to September 29, 1998, the series debuted in the U.S. over the ABC Family cable channel on September 14, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joshua Seth, Dorothy Fahn, (more)
While some children spend their summer vacation playing ball or going to the beach, seven kids use their free time to help save the world in this feature-length animated adventure adapted from the popular television series. While attending summer camp, a group of kids playing with computers are transported into a digital universe, where they make friends with the Digital Monsters, or Digimon, creatures of the electronic world who can transform themselves into more advanced beings at will. However, while the children have been befriended by good Digimon, there are also evil Digimon, and a ruthless Internet Digimon is ravenously swallowing up communications data from around the world. The Internet Digimon has the potential to take over worldwide communications -- including military weapons-launch technology -- if the good Digimon and their human friends cannot stop its schemes. Digimon: The Movie was adapted from two shorter Japanese films using the Digimon characters, and was prepared for U.S. release by the same team who Americanized the original Japanese anime series Dejimon Adobencha. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lara Jill Miller, Joshua Seth, (more)
