Tak and the Power of Juju (TV series)

Tak and the Power of Juju
"Making a cartoon this bad has to be bad Juju of some kind, I'd imagine." -Mr. Enter
Genre: Comedy Action Adventure Fantasy Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Release Date: August 31, 2007 - January 24, 2009 Network(s): Nickelodeon Created by: Nick Jennings Jed Springarn Mitch Watson Distributed by: ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks Starring: Hal Sparks Lloyd Sherr Patrick Warburton Kari Wahlgren John DiMaggio Dannah Feinglass Rob Paulsen S. Scott Bullock Maurice LaMarche Seasons: 1 Episodes: 26

Tak and the Power of Juju is an American CGI-based animated series that premiered on Nickelodeon on August 31, 2007. It was based on the video game of the same name.

Summary

Tak, a 14-year-old shaman's assistant, has the magical power of Juju. He can talk to spirits and must save his jungle-tribe from destruction. His powers only get him so farーhe needs his friends to help defend his hometown against the evil Chief of another tribe.

Why It Doesn't Have the Power of Juju

1. Compared to the games, this show isn't even faithful at all.
2. Misleading title: This show has nothing to do with the games. Instead, we see Tak having a staff and gets into hijinks in the Pupununu tribe.
3. The theme song, while catchy and decent, is extremely annoying and forgettable, as its lyrics only consist of the words, "Tak and the Power of Juju", said over, and over, again, similar to The Nutshack, and the Ben 10 reboot.
4. The animation, while good, can be really cheap and ugly at times.
5. Some of the characters from the games have been dumbed down:
   • Tak went from being a kid who is a hero and the chosen one, into a complete jerkass, who is no longer the chosen one, and became a punching bag.
   • Lok went from being a dimwitted jerk with a heart of gold, into being bad, and an ass who acts like a generic bully, to Tak.
6. The characters in this show that are not based on the games are rather pointless, such as the chief, who is a total complete idiot, and Zaria, who is a mean popular girl, as well as the older sister to Jerra.
7. The human characters in this show are either dumb or just complete morons.
8. The Jujus that were from the games, like Moon Juju, Flora, Fauna, don't even appear, or are mentioned, in this show.
9. Some episodes that have an ending were either terrible, or worse.
10. Speaking of this show, it received two tie-in games in 2008, called Tak and the Guardians of Gross, and Tak: Mojo Mistake, although, the latter itself was actually decent, which aren't any better, as well.
11. Development hell: This show had been in development hell, since 2002, because it was announced discreetly in other Nicktoons media, like the video game, Rocket Power: Beach Bandits, even when the first game didn't even exist, back then. To make matters worse, despite it being supposed to be a tie-in with the games, the show was suddenly cancelled, after one season and 26 episodes, with the last episode being completely random, and not giving the series a proper conclusion.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The voice acting is pretty good. Hal Sparks has done a decent job voicing Tak, while Patrick Warburton was the other actor who reprises his role as Lok.
2. Some of the characters from the games did appear in this show, like party Juju, originally named as dead Juju, psychic Juju, originally named as mind reading Juju, and Traloc, originally named as Tlaloc.
3. Despite the animation being really cheap and ugly at times, it's pretty good, and quite fluid, for 2007 standards.
4. Jibolba is the only character from the games who isn't dumbed down, unlike Tak and Lok.
5. Jerra and Keeko are also the only two characters that are likable.
6. The TV movie, called, "Destiny Schmestiny", was excellent.
7. The theme song is still decent, even though it's annoying.
8. As mentioned in WIDHTPOJ #10, Tak: Mojo Mistake was actually a very decent game, and it was better than Guardians of Gross.
9. At least there some faithfulness from the games is present.

Reception

• The series received negative reviews from critics. It currently holds a rating of 3.4/10 on IMDb.

Trivia

• It is Nickelodeon's second all-CGI series, besides The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and the 30th Nicktoon.
• This is the second Nicktoon that premiered on Nickelodeon in 2007, after El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera and followed by Back at the Barnyard.
• The series was added to Paramount+ on September 22, 2021, only to be removed two years later so Paramount Global could expand the "mass appeal" of their streaming service's catalog.

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