Despite what you may think, Legend of the Dragon is not a long-lost Bruce Lee movie nor is it a documentary about the legend. Instead it's actually a cartoon that now appears on Jetix and one that lacks inspiration in just about every category.

With cartoons like Avatar and Xiaolin Showdown leading the airwaves for today's youth it's no surprise that a show like Legend of the Dragon was created. It takes all of the elements that have made children's shows similar to it successful and offers a concept that is not entirely unlike the aforementioned series. Basically you have a bunch of kung fu warriors trekking the globe looking for mystical artifacts that grant them power. It's a collect them all type atmosphere with a dash of Highlander tossed in for good measure. In other words it's nothing we haven't seen before.

The show focuses on a pair of siblings (twins really) who have spend their lives training in the martial arts. Born in the year of the dragon, Ang and Ling represent yin and yang in many ways. Ang is a cool-headed guy in a tank top and is respectful of the world around him while Ling is quick to anger and walks around with a constipated scowl on her face all the time. In the middle of the brother and sister is their master (Chin) who effectively drives a wedge between the two by naming Ang the next Golden Dragon. This naturally ticks Ling off and she "chooses her own destiny" or some such, but basically she's just bitter that she wasn't picked to be a guardian. A lack of development keeps her feelings from being described though, so expect to just scratch your head and go along with the flow.

In the world of Legend of the Dragon things are based off of the Chinese Zodiac. Yes, it's not just a placemat at the restaurant you go to when you want some kung pow and teriyaki wings. There are warriors all over the earth who will find amulets that bestow the power of their zodiac upon them. Since Ang was born in the year of the dragon he naturally gets the powers of a dragon, and so on and so forth. Threatening the cosmic balance of all these placemats is a guy named the Zodiac Master who wants to collect the power bands for himself and rule the universe. I bet you didn't see that one coming.

Well, Mr. Zodiac Master shows up at the dragon temple wielding snakely powers he stole from some lady. The battle that ensues between he and Ang is textbook down to the letter. "He's too powerful!" shouts the Golden Dragon after a mere two seconds of fighting. Luckily for Ang his master is there to spout out fortune cookie garbage and pass wisdom along like a kung fu Yoda reading from a bad script. The conflict ends as predictably as it began and from there on out the rest of the disc (three more episodes) follows suit.

The second episode on this release is the other half of the pilot. Since Ang found his Golden Dragon power in the first episode it's only fitting that Ling gets drawn to the dark side and embraces the Shadow Dragon amulet in the second. So, yeah, yin and yang fight again through the twins to restore equality in the universe, blah, blah, blah. To make matters worse an irritating and terribly acted character joins the side of Ang and Chin. This banana eating freak may be the monkey guardian but he has lost his amulet and wears a silly looking mask to compensate. With his addition to the roster Legend of the Dragon just went from a generic kind of bad to an annoying generic kind of bad.

By the third episode of the show it's pretty clear that Legend of the Dragon is consistent to a fault; it's continually sub-par. "Eye of the Tiger" involves (guess what?) the tiger guardian. Ling and the Zodiac Master show up to steal the tiger power band and after a brief and tacky fight they succeed. Unfortunately for them the do-gooders arrive and promptly kick their butts. A few bits of bad dialogue are exchanged and just like the masked monkey man, this tiger girl adds practically nothing positive to the show.

Finally, the last episode "Hero Worship" involves Ang's favorite movie star Wang and another bumbling plot cooked up by the Zodiac Master. For some reason, since Ang was quoting Wang while fighting Zodiac and that ticked him off to the point where he wanted to kidnap the actor. His motives are kind of foolhardy though because he already knows where the Golden Dragon lives, so why draw him out? It's inconsistencies like this that kill the show. Plot holes are worn like a badge of honor and other silly things in between will leave you scratching your head.

Why would tiger girl put down her power band in a clothing store if it were so precious? Since when did Master Chin learn how to fly? Why don't the heroes just take Zodiac's (or Ling's) power band and be done with him for good? Why is it that in every other scene the power bands appear and disappear? These are the many mysteries of Legend of the Dragon that never really get answered. Instead of losing sleep over things like this I'm just going to walk away with the impression that this show was slapped together over a plate of sweet and sour pork and was given little thought in the process.

I understand that Legend of the Dragon is a show designed with 8-12 year olds in mind and it appears the budget was somewhat lacking but let's face it; there's much better stuff out there for kids to watch. Everything about this show ranks pretty low when compared to other cartoons on television right now. The concept is dry, the episodes are uninspired, details are inconsistent, and the voice acting is pretty awful. To make matters worse the show isn't even good to look at with some bad animation, and an unclean, less than appealing presentation. Unless you have a kid who enjoyed the show, don't bother with it.

Presented with a 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio Legend of the Dragon doesn't feature a lot of flaws related to the DVD. There may be a little bit of aliasing and miniscule amounts of grain but for the most part the picture is pretty clear. The downfall for this show comes purely from its production. For a show that's featured on TV I was pretty surprised to see how poor the quality of animation and artwork was. Coloring is another issue since many times it appears that staying in between the lines was a chore. As a free web-based cartoon put together as a hobby this would be acceptable but for something featured on Jetix and now on DVD it is a look that just doesn't do well.

There are no audio options for this disc whatsoever. Therefore we are stuck with the 2.0 English dub, which like I have already stated isn't very good. From a technical standpoint the audio quality is about as good as you'd expect from a track like this, but then again it wasn't the technical merits that made me want to turn down the volume. The soundtrack may get repetitive but for points in Legend of the Dragon's favor I actually liked the theme song. Kids might not mind the sound of this show as much but that doesn't entirely excuse it.

Nothing is available here.

I am a staunch supporter of indie animation and truly I love all forms of art. I went into Legend of the Dragon with an open mind and no preconceptions regarding the project because frankly; I hadn't heard of it before. After watching the first four episodes of the show that are featured on this DVD I have to say that I'm less than impressed. If you're going to do a show with an unoriginal concept then you have to do it better than those who came before you. In that regard there is little that this show actually does well. Apart from a couple of well executed lines across the span of these episodes I found hardly any enjoyment at all. Like I already said, unless you have a kid who watched this show on Jetix don't bother checking this out.

Check out more of my reviews here. Head on over to my anime blog as well for random musings and reviews of anime, manga, and stuff from Japan!