Samurai Jack

Samurai Jack has something sorely lacking in American animated entertainment - greatness. Not since the Batman series, or perhaps ever, has a American cartoon flaunted such daring visual bravado, intelligent cinematic storytelling, intense action, and a revolutionary spirit so confidently - it's a warmly welcomed shake-up to the monotonous humdrum continuum of TV animation in this country. Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Dexter's Laboratory) has captured lightning in a bottle with his latest brainchild, and in doing so has demolished the mold for cartoons both present and future. Indeed, calling this show itself a cartoon seems somehow disrespectful and stereotypical. Here, the freedom allowed by the medium brings the story of Jack and his vendetta against a millenial nemesis named Aku in the far future feverishly to life. Every background, set piece, character, and detail are all strikingly imagined, almost shocking in their originality. The minimalist nature of the animation itself gives the program a unique and powerful vitality, and the abstract and sometimes surreal stylization is unlike anything ever seen in cartoons. Tartakovsky avoids the clunky and often lifeless quagmire of more detailed and lifelike approaches to action animation and instead opts for he intensity and impact of a comic book in motion, and the results are both awesome and beautiful.

More than anything else, Samurai Jack truly feels like a work of art, like something that is crafted rather than produced. It's a testament to the fact that animation in the U.S. can be cutting edge, revolutionary, and mature. Truth be told, I haven't been excited about a new television program in quite a while. Time will tell, but Samurai Jack seems destined for masterpiece status - not only here in America, but quite possibly worldwide.

Samurai Jack is the definition of an action cartoon series.

It shows a magnificent samurai, dubbed the name Jack, on a journey to return to the past after he is sent to a dark and unwelcome future run by his archnemesis, the dark shape-shifting wizard Aku.

Along the way, he helps restore order to the forsaken wasteland run by evil controllers in often incredibly action-packed, or otherwise hilarious, ways (in one episode, Jack is turned into a rooster and is forced to take part in cock fighting--which is actually legal during that time).

Genndy Tartakouvsky is an animation genius, coming out with ideas such as Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and the micro-series Star Wars: Clone Wars, which has a second season coming up. The artwork for Samurai Jack is beautiful and the battle scenes are well-thought and brilliantly drawn. The adventures that Jack goes through can be sometimes funny, but still are always action packed. The ideas for Jack's adventures are brilliant as well.

Overall: solid storyline, brilliant characters, well-thought adventures, beautiful artwork, and even more brilliant action.

Rating: 10 out of 10. This series rocks period.

It seems that Genndy Tartakovsky was only getting warmed up with "Dexter's Laboratory" and "Powerpuff Girls". With those shows he proved he was a comic genius; with "Samurai Jack" he demonstrates that he is a genius, period. Every single aspect of the movie premiere is top-notch. Phil LaMarr is wonderful as Jack. James Venable's score beautifully captures the tone and has just the right mix of traditional Oriental and electronic sounds. I liked the fact that there did not seem to be any unnecessary dialogue (in fact several scenes--most notably the beginning--have almost no dialogue at all). The animation and backgrounds are very stylish and striking, and the filmmakers even allow the art to escape the confines of the square 1.33:1 TV ratio with some split-screen and widescreen shots used to great effect. It is my hope that the series continues to be as good as the premiere is. This will be on you "must-watch" list.

Samurai Jack is definitely a classic cartoon, but it has some serious flaws that I think many people are just turning a blind eye to. The first two seasons especially have some very egregious problems, specifically with the animation.

In the first two seasons, the animation is especially choppy and stilted. The animators decided to go style-over-substance in many of these early episodes, using changing frame rates, slow-mo, and other stylistic choices hoping to mask the long portions of reaction-shots, very choppy and non-fluid motion, and almost uncanny movements (or lack thereof) by the characters. That is to say nothing of the character design. I think many are ascribing the geometric body shapes and odd proportions undeserved artistic merit, not to mention the uninspired designs for a myriad of villains and aliens. Not to say that the show is artistically bankrupt, but sometimes it seems obvious that it's not trying as hard as it could.

The episodic structure is a little grating at times, with some continuity ignored. Some of my least favorite episodes are Jack vs. Mad Jack; Jack, the Woolies, and the Critchellites; Jack Learns to Jump Good; and especially Jack vs. the Five Hunters. They all have some problem that I've mentioned here.

So, how could I give all these gripes about a show and still rate it an 8 out of 10? In the third season, the animation gets a significant upgrade, and that also improves the action. I think it was some of those early season 3 episodes where I could really catch the vision of what the creators were trying to do with the show. As I said before, the show is far from artistically bankrupt, and some of the show's best episodes are also from those first two seasons: Jack and the Three Blind Archers; Jack and the Scotsman; Aku's Fairy Tales, among others. The show also had some great comedy. Mako's voice acting (which was probably around 60% of all the voice acting in the show) was tremendous, and the soundtrack was truly superb. I think the show really does hold up as a classic, but there are some errors that are overlooked. Also, season 5 is a beast unto itself, very different from its original run, but inheriting its predecessor's quality.

Rich in visual design, and with an dark, gritty atmosphere, SAMURAI JACK is a landmark cartoon in the making. It tells the story of a Japanese warrior with the unlikely name of Jack who undergoes some serious training to take on a ruthless wizard named Aku (which means "evil" in Japanese). Filled with hard-edged action (but with no grapic violence, since SAMURAI JACK is a product of the Cartoon Network) and a nifty storyboard that switches from feudal Japan to a BLADE RUNNER-like future, SAMURAI JACK is an animated revevaltion waiting to happen.