Jake Long

"Dragon Up!"

- Jake Long catchphrase

Jacob "Jake" Luke Long is the titular protagonist from Disney's animated television series American Dragon: Jake Long.

He is a 13 (later 14) year old boy who has the ability to turn into a dragon and protect the magic community of New York from evil.

He is voiced by Dante Basco.

Background Info/History
He was born in September 11, 1992 and was officially fourteen years old in the episode "Young at Heart". Jake is a Chinese American teen who lives in New York City with his parents Jonathan and Susan and his eight-year-old sister, Haley Long. His two best friends are feisty Trixie Carter and dimwitted Arthur "Spud" Spudinski. He is a descendant of a family of dragons. On his thirteenth birthday, his magical abilities emerge fully and he was set to protect an underground magical community existing within his city and throughout the world. The emergence of his dragon powers also made him first official magical guardian of America, dubbed "The American Dragon". Under the training of his grandfather Lao Shi and his animal guardian, Fu Dog, Jake would be taught in the methods of his dragon abilities, and his duties as a magical guardian. His "territory" would be restricted to the area of New York (though would extend to other places if he happened to be there, such as the forests of New Jersey in "The Long Weekend"), and he is destined to become the representative dragon of the whole country.

Although Jake Long is still in the early training stages to be the American Dragon, it's his destiny to act as guardian, protector and champion to magical creatures secretly living alongside humans in New York City. Among them are the herd of unicorns in Central Park, the leprechauns on Wall Street, the gargoyle nest atop the Empire State Building, the Triborough Troll Bridge, the mystical city between NOHO and SOHO and the East River mermaids. Greater New York is the American Dragon's territory and if he can make it here, he can make it anywhere. But that means Jake must figure out how to control his fire breathing, flying and shape-shifting so he can perform his duties and Grandpa must figure out how to decipher his hip-hop grandson's colloquial language style.

When Jake comes home to his Westside brownstone, it's to an extended family. Businessman Dad is as American as apple pie and completely unaware that he has married into a family of dragons. Jake's Mom is a professional caterer who also is a dragon but without transforming capacity (dragon powers skip a generation). Jake tries to ignore his brilliant yet pesky younger sister Haley, a nascent dragon, to no avail. Jake's Dragon Master is his wise Grandpa who, upon arrival to the United States, established an electronics shop on Canal Street and took Jake under his wing. Despite the generation gap, Grandpa is patiently training Jake to master the fundamentals of being a dragon, unlock his potential and to be on time for his lessons. Grandpa's sidekick, the not-so-patient Fu-Dog, acts as Jake's animal guardian.

Personality
Jake Long is the cool kid in school—but not too cool. He has a keen awareness of the newest developments and styles, is self-assured, and likes video games, extreme sports, all sorts of music and the occasional comic book. Jake also has a passion for skateboarding to and from class at Fillmore Middle School and around every obstacle, ramp, bowl and bank the city streets offer him and his skateboarding friends, Trixie and Spud. Although Jake can easily overcome obstacles when he transforms into the American Dragon, as his ordinary self he can't conquer his crush on pretty blonde schoolmate Rose who, unbeknownst to Jake, has an amazing secret of her own... she's a dragon slayer. Born into The Huntsclan, a group led by the Huntsman that lead normal lives by day and hunts magical creatures by night, Rose has the covert dual identity of Huntsgirl.

Trivia

 * Jake is similar to Juniper Lee
 * Both are Chinese-American.
 * Both have titles (American Dragon and Te Xuan Ze).
 * Both are the protector of their hometown (New York and Orchid Bay City).
 * Both have a grandparent who was once like them (Jake's grandfather Lao Shi was the dragon guardian of China (before moving to New York to train Jake) whilst Juniper's grandmother Jasmine (Ah-Mah) was the previous Te Xuan Ze).
 * Both have a annoying younger siblings (Haley and Ray Ray).
 * Both have a companion who is a talking dog (Fu Dog and Monroe).
 * In an early draft for the episode "Hong Kong Nights", Jake's maternal grandmother was going to be revealed as Councillor Chang.
 * Jake's catchphrase is Aww Man!!! same as Ben Tennyson from Ben 10 (Franchise).