Tak and the Power of Juju

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 -- 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 flanderized:
 * 6) *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 butt-monkey.
 * 7) *Lok went from being a dimwitted jerk with a heart of gold into being a badass who acts like a generic bully to Tak.
 * 8) 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 an Alpha Bitch as well as the older sister to Jerra).
 * 9) The human characters in this show are either dumb or just complete morons.
 * 10) The Jujus that were from the games (like Moon Juju, Flora, Fauna) don't even appear or are mentioned in this show.
 * 11) Some episodes that have an ending were either terrible or worse.
 * 12) 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.
 * 13) Development hell: This show was in development's hell since 2002 because it was announced discreetly in other mh:besttvshows:Nicktoons media like the videogame, 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 flanderized, 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 really good.
 * 7) The theme song is decent, despite being annoying.
 * 8) As mentioned in WIDHTPOJ #10, Tak: Mojo Mistake was actually a very decent game, and it was better than Guardians of Gross.

Reception

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

Trivia

 * It is Nickelodeon's first all-CGI series (produced in house) and the 30th Nicktoon.
 * This is the second Nicktoon that premiered on Nickelodeon in 2007, after mh:besttvshows:El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera and followed by mh:besttvshows:Back at the Barnyard.
 * The series was added to Paramount+ on September 22, 2021.

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