Sunday, September 2, 2012

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Xiaolin Showdown (2003)

4 young monks of diverse ethnic backgrounds join forces in a fight against malevolent evil in Kids' WB's Xiaolin Showdown. The series lasted three seasons, stretched out further by reruns to about five, and remains a fan favorite long after the series' cancellation.

Jack Spicer (Danny Cooksey, ex-Diff'rent Strokes) was supposed to be a primary villain in season 1, but was more or less comedy relief because he was a bumbling goof. He'd eventually switch sides twice in the course of the series' run, but I couldn't take him too seriously.

Unfortunately, today, the series languishes in the vaults at WB, due to the internal squabbling between Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network over rights fees, among other petty things.

Here's the intro:


Rating: B.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

This was a likeable show. One of the things that impressed me was that the good guys didn't always win the showdowns (therefore losing their shen gong wu) and how Raimundo went bad for a while, not just for an episode.

Another rarity was Kimiko's hair and wardrobe changes! Cartoons typically keep a regular character's wardrobe the same since its simpler and easier to draw consistently. Kimiko had hair switching back and forth from blonde, to black to pink!

Also impressive was how the villians got worse. From evil idiotic genius Jack Spicer to Chaser Young and the detestable Hannibal Roy Bean.

Trouble is, I don't know how this show could have ended since it was mentioned in the show that there were hundreds of shen gong wu and therefore the battle could have gone on almost indefinitely.

It also appears the show is coming back. It was announced that "Xiaolin Chronicles" will air in 2013. Unfortunatly not all of the original voice cast will return.

hobbyfan said...

At least two of the cast members had sent word that the series would return, and now, as you say, it'll be under a new title, marking the series' 10th anniversary.

Given that Showdown aired on Kids' WB!, where they rotated shows out of the lineup on whims because they had too many and not enough room for them all, well, a case could be made that they sabotaged the show by leaving viewers guessing as to when it'd air.