Mill Creek Entertainment; Amazon

I was never an early riser during my childhood, but I would wake up with a smile on face on Saturday mornings with the full intention of eating a full bowl of sugary cereal, sit on the floor directly in front of the TV, and watch my favorite cartoons on network television.

Yes, times have definitely changed thanks to the government setting rules about children's animated programs. Now the networks only show local news and educational programs; though you can still find cartoons airing on cable channel. Plus, you can find tons of cartoons on streaming services. However, it doesn't have the same feeling as it did in the 1980s when you could watch free animated delights on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.

While I do watch the occasional cartoon series on Netflix, I tend to watch old and new cartoons on DVD or Blu-ray; which leads to me to today's review of the Jackie Chan Adventures: The Demon Portals Saga DVD ($24.98; 13 hours 51 minutes) that's being released on June 4th from Mill Creek Entertainment. The 3-disc set contains all 39 episodes from the second season.

I'm pretty sure almost everyone has heard of the great action star Jackie Chan. Well, believe it or not he had his own animated series that aired from 2000 to 2005 on the now defunct Kids' WB for 95 episodes over the course of 5 seasons. Jackie Chan voiced an animated version of himself. The rest of the voice cast consisted of James Sie, Stacie Chan, Sab Shimono, Noah Nelson, Clancy Brown, Adam Baldwin, Miguel Sandoval, Susan Eisenberg, Franco Velez, and John DiMaggio.

In the series, Jackie Chan is an archeologist for a San Francisco university and he's also an excellent martial artist. He lives with his 11-year-old niece, Jade, and their uncle, Uncle Chan, who owns an antique store. Jackie's life is turned upside down when a covert police squad called Section 13 enlists him to locate 12 magical talismans that are scattered across the world.

Sounds like fun, right?

Well, as it turns out, the sinister Valmont wants the talismans and sends his Dark Hand goons to retrieve them.

Jackie, Jade, and Uncle Chan must work together as a team to keep the talisman from falling into the enemy's hands.

The real-life Jackie Chan is featured in a short segment at the end of every episode, where he answers a few questions from his young fans.

 

Final Thoughts

AMAZON

If you've been following my for blog for the past 10 years, then you would know I've been a big of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since 1987. Like many kids growing up in the late 1980s, I watched the original TMNT animated series. While the cartoon has unfortunately aged quite a bit over years, it's still my favorite TMNT series; though, I did enjoy the 2012 computer-animated series.

Last year, Nickelodeon debuted the fourth TMNT animated series, titled Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,which is oddly similar to the first episode of the 2012 series, Rise of the Turtles. The pilot episode, Mystic Mayhem, was also released "free" on YouTube. Since I love anything that is free, I did watch Mystic Mayhem when it debuted. Let's just say the new animation style didn't appeal to me right away, as well as the many unnecessary character changes; so I made no attempt to watch the new series. That being said, after seeing the art cover for the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles DVD, my interest was reignited and I thought it would give the series another chance.

Mill Creek Entertainment; Amazon

If you're getting tired of the kid friendly superhero movies and television series, then look no further as The Awesomes: The Complete Series ($29.98; TV-14; 11 hours 8 minutes) is on available on to own Blu-ray, courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment. A digital code is included which an only be redeemed at: www.millcreekent.com/redeem

Created by Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker, The Awesomes was animated superhero show for adults that aired on Hulu for three seasons (30 episodes). It featured the voice talents of current and past Saturday Night Live stars, including Ike Barinholtz, Bobby Lee, Taran Killam, Paula Pell, Emily Spivey, Kenan Thompson, Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Kate McKinnon, and Andy Samberg.

The Aweseomes is set in a world where Mr. Awesome had lead a group of superheroes to protect the planet against all evils. However, things changed quickly when Mr. Awesome announces his retirement and leaves his son Prock in charge. The public, media, and the government have absolutely no faith in Prock. To make things worse, the other superheroes have all left the Awesomes.

With his best friend Muscleman and their only paid employee, Concierge, at his side, Prock recruits a new team of superheros - Frantic, Gadget Gal, Impresario, Sumo, and Hotwire. Despite the team's amateurish style, these not-so superheroes are determined to save the world against Dr. Giuseppe Malocchio and other supervillains.

Final Thoughts

Disney; TV-Y7; 175 minutes; Amazon

I don't keep up with all the new animated series, so I had no clue that Big Hero 6: The Series even existed until I heard about the recent DVD release "Back In Action!".

Big Hero 6 was a 2014 Walt Disney computer-animated feature film which was based on the Marvel Comics superhero team. The movie centered around fourteen-year-old Hiro Hamada, who puts together a superhero team to stop a villain who stole his microbots. The team includes Fred, Wasabi, Go Go, Honey Lemon, and Baymax, an an inflatable medical robot that was created by Hiro's deceased brother, Tadashi.

The series debuted on the Disney Channel last November with a 43-minute episode Baymax Returns, which takes place directly after the events of film. The entire voice-cast returned, except for Damon Wayans Jr. (Wasabi) and T.J. Miller (Fred). Their voices were placed by Khary Payton (Washabi) and Brooks Wheelan (Fred).

The series recons the ending of the film with the major differences are Fred naming the team "Big Hero 6" instead of Hiro, the teams identities are a secret from the public, and Aunt Cass now knows about Baymax.

Big Hero 6: The Series - Back In Action DVD features the 43-minute pilot and six 22-minute episodes. As an added bonus, the DVD contains six bonus shorts: Baymax and Hiro, Baymax and Wasabi, Baymax and Go Go, Baymax and Fred, Baymax and Honey Lemon, & Baymax and Mochi.

The seven episodes on the DVD are:

• Baymax Returns - Hiro rebuilds Baymax just in time to join Wasabi, Go Go, Fred, and Honey Lemon as Big Hero 6, a team of superheros who fight crime throughout the city.
• Issue 188 - Two female villains calling themselves "High Voltage" terrorizes the city and it's up to Big Hero 6 to stop them.
• Big Roommates 2 - The team faces off with their first super villain - Globby!
• Food Fight - Krei seeks the help of Big Hero 6 in the retrieval of a gravity device that was stolen by Ninja-chef Momakase.
• Muirahara Woods - Hiro, Fred, and Baymax get lost in the woods and encounter a hermit named Ned Ludd.
• Failure Mode - The team tries to stop Globby from stealing the "City Rises" painting.
• Fred's Bro-Tillion - The Big Hero 6 team helps Fred prepare for his upcoming Bro-Tillion.

TV-Y7; 13 hours 37 minutes; Buy Link

When many of us think of Saturday Morning Cartoons, we remember The Real Ghostbusters, Garfield & Friends, Transformers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which are more or less aimed towards boys. Believe it or not, there were several cartoons for girls in the 1980s, such as My Little Pony, Maxie's World, Beverly Hills Teens, Rainbow Bright, She-Ra, and The Care Bears.

Recently, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released Horseland: The Complete Series to DVD with a brand-new cover art. As an added bonus, the set comes with a digital code that can be redeemed at www.millcreekent.com/redeem.

While some of you have probably heard of the series, I wasn't aware of it until I received a review copy. For some reason, I thought the series was from the 1990s, but after a quick internet search, I learned I was completely wrong. The series actually aired from 2006 to 2008 as part of the KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS.  It lasted for three seasons with 39 total episodes. As you probably guess, the cartoon was made for girls who love horses and ponies.

The series centers on a group of kids (Sarah, Zoey, Chloe, Alma, Molly, Bailey, and Will) and their horses (Scarlet, Pepper, Chili, Button, Calypso, Aztec, and Jimber) at an incredible place called Horseland. The kids come to the ranch to practice their horse riding skills, compete with others, and learn from each other. Each episode finds the kids and their horses going on adventures or getting into some sort of trouble that requires them to use teamwork to get through it.