Western Animation: The Life And Times Of Juniper Lee
You can't stop the girl!
A Cartoon Network original series created by Judd Winick, cartoonist (who created the comic strip Frumpy The Clown and the comic book Barry Ween Boy Genius) and alumnus of The Real World. It ran from 2005 to 2007, with a total of three seasons.Juniper Lee (June for short) is a Chinese-American girl who also happens to be heir to the title of Te Xuan Ze. Basically, that means she has the ability to see the members of a society of monsters living invisibly among humans, low-level super-strength and agility, and the responsibility of keeping the peace among said monsters and maintaining the Masquerade when necessary.As is always the case, being the Te Xuan Ze comes with all the other headaches and responsibilities of being a pre-teen girl. Fortunately, she has the help of her kindly grandmother (the former Te Xuan Ze), a snarky talking pug named Monroe, and her plucky kid brother Ray-Ray.
Tropes:
Abusive Parents: Monroe's father Williams, especially during the Easter episode.
Affably Evil: WAY more frequent than you can imagine.
All Part of the Show: In It Takes A Pillage June, Ray Ray and Monroe hijack a tour boat to chase after their viking possessed friends. June manages to convince the tourist that the chase, bombardment and sinking of their ship is part of the tour.
Brick Joke: In the Cold Open of "Not in My Backyard", Ray Ray lets loose some monkeys, who then free an oversized chicken. This is then forgot about until near the end of the episode, when June and Ray Ray fly on said chicken en route to defeating the episode's Big Bad.
Captivity Harmonica: Played by the koala in "The Great Escape". The zookeeper tells him to stop.
The Cast Show Off: This show really put Lara Jill Miller through her paces, in both shouting tone and singing.
Contagious Powers: The main reason Ray Ray can see monsters. During an attack by some monsters just as June was coming into her powers, they try to suck it out of her. However Ray Ray interrupted the transfer and some of June's power got implanted in him.
Cut Short: The final episode ends with Juniper on her way home, happily jumping superhumanly high in the process, unaware that Jody is watching her. The series ends before this can be resolved.
What's more, Jody carrying a book on how to spot magical creatures. So...yeah.
Cute Bruiser: Both Juniper and Lila easily qualify as this.
Emergency Transformation: Ray Ray in one episode when he permanently transforms his original body into a T-Rex. June and Monroe have to make a golem body and transfer his soul into it.
More likely this to the show Kim Possible, as it shares some of the humor and the High School Action Girl motif with it.
In a nice bit of irony though, both show were victims of network meddling (when this show hit its third season, CN didn't bother to promote the new episodes. Not even getting the dignity of ending on TV in the states.) and ran for three seasons.
In the second episodes, one of the gravestones in the cemetery reads "J. Winick".
In "Enter Sandman", each door leading into a person's dreams has that person's name on it. One unentered door is labeled "Judd".
Game Show Appearance: In "New Trickster in Town", the god Loki puts June on a show called Let's Save Humanity. Round 1 has a Calvinball-esque question of "Banana" with an answer of "Richard Nixon"; Round 2 offers her "Multiple choice" or "Molten pit of eternal torment". She picks "Multiple choice", which leads to a Let's Make a Deal-alike. Door #1 has a box full of Wicked Weasels; Door #2, a lifetime supply of deviled ham; and Door #3, a werewolf-like creature. It's then interrupted when Ray-Ray has a moment of competence.
Monster Is a Mommy: The episode "Meet The Parent" has a giant, stone-eating monster terrorizing the town looking for its baby, which, due to June getting sprayed with said baby's scent, it thinks is June.
Multicolored Hair: The pink streak running down June's otherwise raven hair. It originally was a Skunk Stripe, and it's justified because it's the mark of her powers as Te Xuan Ze.
Reluctant Hero: June displayed this trait right from the first episode, and seeing as she's the youngest Te Xuan Ze in history, you can't exactly blame her.
June: I mean, there is no question that Marcus is a ninth-degree babe with the great hair and the cute smile, but that doesn't change the fact that he's standing right behind me, right?
Rock Trio: The band formed by June (guitar), Dennis (bass), and Ray Ray (drums), aka Short Angry Freuds.
Tempting Fate: In "Not in My Backyard", June starts yelling at the Batoot after it eats every item in the basement. Monroe warns her not to upset him, because doing so will bring more bad luck. She, of course, asks how much worse it can get.
The episode with the tarbok weed problem also had her Tempting Fate and Monroe cautioning her against that.
The Unfavourite: Loki is revealed to be this to Thor in "New Trickster in Town".
Vague Age: Averted; she is stated to be 11 in "Enter Sandman".
Valley Girl: Ophelia would occasionally slip into valley girl mode when excited over a girly interest, such as boy bands.
Van Helsing Hate Crime: H.A.M (Humans Against Magic), an organization dedicated to wiping out all and anything monsters and magic related. This includes humans that help them i.e: Juniper.
Your Worst Nightmare: In "Enter Sandman", June's is revealed to be forgetting her lines in the school play. Fortunately, she's Genre Savvy enough not to be fazed by it (her first clue being that Ophelia's playing the Tin Man).
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