The Legend of Calamity Jane (found English dub of animated series; 1997-1998)

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Calamity Jane title.jpg

Title card.

Status: Found

Date found: 22 Aug 2020

Found by: rotarydialz and SkylarkStarflower

The Legend of Calamity Jane was a 13-episode animated series created by French animation studio Contre Allée from late 1997 to mid-1998, during which time it was aired in several countries.

Plot

The series revolved around a young, fictionalized version of the infamous and historically renowned heroine Martha Jane Canary, commonly known as Calamity Jane. It was set in the Wild West and was a gritty and sometimes explicitly violent series (frequently showcasing gun violence), particularly for a cartoon whose target audience were kids and young adults. Despite its controversial content, the series has garnered somewhat of a cult following in recent years.

English Broadcast

The WB Television Network picked up the series in 1997, though only three episodes were broadcast (during the Kids' WB programming block) before the series was pulled entirely, despite being heavily promoted in the weeks prior to its premiere.[1] This cancellation is assumed to be due to the excessive violence; an official explanation has never been given.

The series had at least one complete English airing; however, in Canada, during the show's production period (i.e. 1997 to 1998); it has also been fully aired in several non-English speaking countries, such as France and Portugal (the latter of which aired the series in 2002).

Resurfacing

For a long time, the show was practically impossible to track down, never having received any form of a home video release.

For a while, the closest thing to accessible media related to the show was the official site: an interactive Shockwave-Flash animated website that showcases the cartoon's universe; the user would play as a journalist looking for Jane and meets many of the show's characters along the way.[2]

Eventually, foreign dubbed versions of the majority of the series began appearing online, and in 2010, VHS rips of all but two episodes ("Dead or Alive" and "Protege") were uploaded to YouTube in their English dubs by user rotarydialz.[3] In August of 2020, YouTuber SkylarkStarflower uploaded the two remaining English dubs of the series, in addition to a few more in higher quality.

Video releases

In 2022, publisher Piko Interactive announced their Kickstarter to release the series on DVD. [4] Between this, independent company Invincible Entertainment released the series on DVD; their release was criticized for having poor image quality on the English dub and the episodes being out of order.[5]

On January 30th, 2023, Discotek Media announced that they would be releasing the series on Blu-ray.[6]

Episodes

# Title Status
1 "Slip of the Whip" Found (Part 1 / 2 / 3)
2 "An Army of Rogues" Found (Part 1 / 2 / 3)
3 "Like Father, Like Daughter" Found (Part 1 / 2 / 3)
4 "As Easy as One, Two, Three..." Found (Part 1 / 2 / 3)
5 "Train Kept a' Rollin'" Found (Part 1 / 2 / 3)
6 "The Final Curtain" Found (Part 1 / 2 / 3)
7 "The Way of the Buffalo" Found
8 "Troubled Waters" Found (Part 1 / 2 / 3)
9 "Waiting for the Cavalry" Found
10 "Dead or Alive" Found
11 "Protege" Found
12 "I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia" Found
13 "Without a Vengeance" Found

Alternate English Dubbing

Originally, actress Jennifer Jason Leigh was cast as Calamity Jane, though, just two weeks before the show's premiere, the part was recast (for reasons unknown) and the role subsequently given to Barbara Scaff. Due to the recasting occurring so late in production, the promotional footage that was used to advertise the then-upcoming show on The WB featured dialogue recorded by Leigh, indicating that at least one episode of the show was recorded with Leigh as Calamity Jane. Aside from a single short piece of dialogue, as heard in the aforementioned promotional clip (which has since shown up online), none of Leigh's recorded dialogue has ever been released to the public.

Gallery

Promotional clip for the show, featuring dialogue recorded by Jennifer Jason Leigh (0:22-0:23).

References