Considered "lost media" for a very long time, the Legend of Calamity Jane was a short-lived French-American co-production that originally aired during the Kids' WB programming block in the United States. I remember watching a few of the available English dub episodes on YouTube in fuzzy VHS quality years ago, but with a high quality re-release coming out just a few years ago, I thought it would be a good time to give it a proper watch. And honestly, despite its flaws, this show is actually a surprisingly solid kids show. At the very least, it doesn't deserve to be forgotten like it has.
The titular Calamity Jane is a fictionalized version of a real person: Martha Jane Canary. To the surprise of no one, the show isn't really pressed about historical accuracy and such. And personally, it's all the better for it. Jane as a character is what you would expect from your typical Saturday morning cartoon heroine: smart, strong, cunning, and able to get out of any situation she finds herself in. Alongside her bumbling sidekick Joe Presto (voiced by Frank Welker), as well as a rotating cast of characters, she dishes out justice in the 1800s wild west. What immediately stuck out to me while rewatching this series was that Calamity Jane herself is actually a solid character. Sure, it's not always interesting to see a do-gooder do good all the time, but this show does a good job of giving her some balance. We get to see glimpses of her past that show a surprising amount of depth and complexity for a show of this kind. You can really tell that Warner Bros. And the French studios that worked together on this show did what they could on what was likely a very small TV animation budget. The secondary characters are also fun to watch. This show loves to pair Jane with different combinations of characters, and it's nice to see them interact in different ways, whether it be cracking jokes together or arguing about who's the better shot.
Another thing that surprised me was just how much gunplay there was in this show. People online make a stink about censors and the FCC being overbearing, but this show isn't afraid to show some action. Sure, Calamity Jane mainly uses a whip on the show, but she's shown shooting and injuring a lot more people than you would think. They make a point in one episode (Protégé) to show why Jane is so apprehensive to use a gun all the time, and while it's a tad contrived, I think it justifies it well enough. The baddies always come out with guns blazing, so it's not like they're hiding it. Plus, the whip is plenty interesting, allowing for some exciting action that just guns couldn't satisfy. The series also doesn't shy away from death, assassinations, racism, prejudice, misogyny, and other adult themes. Of course it's all made palatable for children, but it's certainly there. And yes, there's also plenty of late-90s silliness, like a baddie doing a very poor Napoleon impression and a group of bandits that happen to be triplets. All this to say that the setup for the Legend of Calamity Jane is very sound, as you could have Jane and her pals in basically any late-1800s setting doing anything period-appropriate and it would work. If the series did get renewed for another season or two, I doubt they would've had to worry about coming up with new dangerous plots to throw this wise-cracking heroine into.
But alas, that didn't happen. For now, and likely forever, all we get is this single 13-episode season. But what we have is a good kids animated show that's well-executed and exciting for a younger audience. It's tough to recommend such a niche show, especially a cartoon that is relatively hard to find, but if you like cowboys, American Indians, gunfights, and lots and lots of out-of-control fires, then give this show a shot.
The titular Calamity Jane is a fictionalized version of a real person: Martha Jane Canary. To the surprise of no one, the show isn't really pressed about historical accuracy and such. And personally, it's all the better for it. Jane as a character is what you would expect from your typical Saturday morning cartoon heroine: smart, strong, cunning, and able to get out of any situation she finds herself in. Alongside her bumbling sidekick Joe Presto (voiced by Frank Welker), as well as a rotating cast of characters, she dishes out justice in the 1800s wild west. What immediately stuck out to me while rewatching this series was that Calamity Jane herself is actually a solid character. Sure, it's not always interesting to see a do-gooder do good all the time, but this show does a good job of giving her some balance. We get to see glimpses of her past that show a surprising amount of depth and complexity for a show of this kind. You can really tell that Warner Bros. And the French studios that worked together on this show did what they could on what was likely a very small TV animation budget. The secondary characters are also fun to watch. This show loves to pair Jane with different combinations of characters, and it's nice to see them interact in different ways, whether it be cracking jokes together or arguing about who's the better shot.
Another thing that surprised me was just how much gunplay there was in this show. People online make a stink about censors and the FCC being overbearing, but this show isn't afraid to show some action. Sure, Calamity Jane mainly uses a whip on the show, but she's shown shooting and injuring a lot more people than you would think. They make a point in one episode (Protégé) to show why Jane is so apprehensive to use a gun all the time, and while it's a tad contrived, I think it justifies it well enough. The baddies always come out with guns blazing, so it's not like they're hiding it. Plus, the whip is plenty interesting, allowing for some exciting action that just guns couldn't satisfy. The series also doesn't shy away from death, assassinations, racism, prejudice, misogyny, and other adult themes. Of course it's all made palatable for children, but it's certainly there. And yes, there's also plenty of late-90s silliness, like a baddie doing a very poor Napoleon impression and a group of bandits that happen to be triplets. All this to say that the setup for the Legend of Calamity Jane is very sound, as you could have Jane and her pals in basically any late-1800s setting doing anything period-appropriate and it would work. If the series did get renewed for another season or two, I doubt they would've had to worry about coming up with new dangerous plots to throw this wise-cracking heroine into.
But alas, that didn't happen. For now, and likely forever, all we get is this single 13-episode season. But what we have is a good kids animated show that's well-executed and exciting for a younger audience. It's tough to recommend such a niche show, especially a cartoon that is relatively hard to find, but if you like cowboys, American Indians, gunfights, and lots and lots of out-of-control fires, then give this show a shot.
