Xiaolin Showdown
Xiaolin Showdown
TV-Y | 01 November 2003 (USA)

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SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    Helloturia

    I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

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    SanEat

    A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

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    Bessie Smyth

    Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

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    Marva-nova

    Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

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    TheLittleSongbird

    Xiaolin Showdown is not a perfect show, but it is very good. I feared it would not be my thing and that it would be lacklustre, that it would fail at any attempts at humour or that it would have obnoxious characters. It was a really nice surprise that it had neither of those negative traits.The animation is actually pretty good with interesting use of colour and character designs. The music is funky and cool, especially the theme tune, while the story ideas are a lot of fun and have originality and energy. I agree the writing can be a tinsy bit poor and predictable at times, but it does have a good balance of intelligence and humour. The characters are engaging, the title character for example while flawed is brave and loyal while the villain Jack Spicer is more comedic than threatening, but when he is amusing he is amusing. Another strength is the rock-solid voice acting from the likes of Danny Cooksey, Tom Kenny and Wayne Knight.In conclusion, interesting show, and quite clever and fun. 8/10 Bethany Cox

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    gelziabar

    Despite teaming together very stereotyped characters (on purpose), Xiaolin Showdown does offer a very enjoyable viewing experience except during certain times when the humor is disgusting. The animation isn't exactly top of the line but the action sequences are pretty good, meaning that the animation is within sufficient standards. The humor can sometimes be clichéd and lame but is enjoyable most of the time. There are some visible faults as well. Jack Splicer started off as a pretty cool character but the writers made him increasingly stupid and pathetic as the show progressed. What this series really lacks is a good soundtrack.

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    Captain_Marshmallow

    Using cartoons as a link to my passing childhood, I am tending to watch a lot of them. I was surprised, in fact, to find Xiaolin Showdown as such a delightful show, not just for younger children but for teens, and even my dad finds the show's humor amusing. Even though it is animated, it has fantastic battle-like scenes between the good Xiaolin side and the evil Heylin side, jokes and wisecracks that are actually funny, and characters that viewers grow to like despite their human-like flaws. The storyline centers around four Xiaolin warriors that live in the Xiaolin Temple: Omi, a short yellow orphan who appears to be the main protagonist, is the Dragon of Water; Raimundo, a hot-headed Brazillian character, is the Dragon of Wind; Kimiko, the rich, clever, and electronically adept Japanese girl, is the Dragon of Fire; and Clay, a cowboy from Texas, is the Dragon of Earth. Their duty is to retrieve the mystical ancient artifacts known as the Shen Gong Wu before they fall into the hands of the evil Heylin side. The warriors are aided by a wisecracking Chinese dragon by the name of Dojo. As seasons go on, the warriors are confronted with different and increasingly dangerous Heylin villains, but the villains that are most focused on would have to be Jack Spicer, a whiny, red-haired goth wannabe villain who has dubbed himself "Evil Boy Genius"; and Wuya, the 1500 year old evil spirit of a Heylin witch.It is very interesting to watch as the characters grow and develop as they learn to work together to meet their goals. However, I find the characters of Omi and Clay to be most irritating. Omi is sometimes used for comic relief when he uses arrogant comments and claims to be the best of the dragons. Though this is used for entertainment, it feels to me as though it is strained. The show revolves around Omi, and he comes off sometimes as a self-important, arrogant little jerk which takes my admiration away from him.Clay, on the other hand, is arguably the least focused on of the 4 dragons, yet he still succeeds in annoying me. Having being a "cowboy", he possesses all the stereotypical qualities of what one would think a cowboy would have. I think his stereotypical way of speaking, acting, and even fighting takes away from seeing him as an actual character, which also allows him to be considered less interesting. When I look at him, all I see is "cowboy".Now, this show, however, possesses the most interesting, creative, and entertaining line of villains I have ever seen, Jack Spicer being my personal favorite. Though he is a whiny, girly, mama's boy, he succeeds in being the most entertaining villain. He has the best wisecracks, and his constant bickering with Wuya is very funny. He spends the majority of his time creating a vast array of creative and sometimes humorous robots that he calls "Jackbots". As a viewer, I have mixed emotions about Jack. Though he is a villain, he is so likable and you eventually begin to sympathize with him.The character design and animation in this show is, in my personal opinion, stunning. It combines the clean-cut American style of animation with Asian animation techniques including many spirals and curly-q's. I also enjoy Kimiko's ever-changing outfits and hairstyles that define how creative the animators are. The voice acting is also fabulous, and the plot line is very intricate for a cartoon. Also, I rather like the theme song. It's really something you can jam to.

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    rockonaspring

    This show is such a guilty pleasure. It's well-voiced, has smooth animation, and a nice 50/50 split of gross-out jokes for the kids and a more mature sense of humor for the older folks. It reminds me of Animaniacs with less slapstick and a martial arts theme. Omi is a young monk with a yet-unexplained "destiny" who is able to harness the power of water. Early in the series, his teacher Master Fung acquires three friends for him with similar elemental powers: Kimiko (fire) is a hotheaded girl from Tokyo who always has some form of technology on hand. Clay (earth) is from America and is always quick to point out his Texas roots. Raimundo (wind) is from Brazil and enjoys sports, with plenty of hints that he's a lady's man. Most of the earlier episodes were set around a quest to attain a mystical object before the bad guys; the temple dragon Dojo pointed them in the right direction and fighting ensued, usually against a comic-relief bad guy called Jack Spider. The later episodes are less focused on acquisition and show the four monks in fights against Spider (who becomes more and more of a wimp as the series progresses), as well as the evil witch Wuya and assorted bad guys. The show suffers from a serious case of Dragonball Z Syndrome, where each season concludes with the defeat of the "ultimate evil" and the next season begins with the discovery of a brand-new bad guy that makes the last one look about as villainous as a piece of dry toast, but there is a continuous story running through each season that tries to tie this liability together. Last season concluded with the defeat of Chase Young, the world's best warrior; Young could use magic, was almost undefeatable in battle, could transform into a dragon, and had an army of wild cats who are not quite cats at all (spoiler). This season's villain appears to be a talking lima bean. Ridiculous? Sort of, but a lima bean doesn't have much going for it in the way of martial arts skills or upper-body strength, and it looks as though this little bean is a threat only because he is able to outsmart instead of outfight his enemies. Any kid's show where the bad guy doesn't have guns, robots, or a steroid-enhanced body and is still able to give the good guys a run for their money for thirty minutes is well worth watching. Additional bonus points are Master Fung's speeches to the monks, where he discusses things not usually brought up in cartoons – Good and evil are not always absolute; don't believe everything you see; bad guys who pretend to turn over a new leaf are still probably bad; learn from your mistakes or you are doomed to repeat them; etc.

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