Xiaolin Chronicles

Xiaolin Chronicles
"This is how not to revive a great series.
Genre: Action Adventure Martial arts Comedy-drama Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Canada France Release Date: August 26, 2013 – July 1, 2015 Network(s): Canal J Disney XD Netflix Created by: Christy Hui Distributed by: ActionFliks Media Corp Genao Productions Starring: Tara Strong Eric Bauza Jennifer Hale David Kaye Seasons: 1 Episodes: 26 Previous show: Xiaolin Showdown

Xiaolin Chronicles is a American-French Canadian produced animated action television series that is a revival to the 2003 animated series Xiaolin Showdown. It first aired on Disney XD in the United States on August 26, 2013 before airing the rest of the episodes on Netflix on July 1, 2015.

Plot

Set many years after the events of Showdown, the monks are now joined by a new recruit that is similar to Omi named Ping-Pong and they must continue looking for Shen-Gong Wu before the evil Heylin forces do.

Unchronicled Qualities

1. Despite Christy Hui returned as executive producer, The main problem with this series is that Warner Bros. Animation (the same company originally produced Xiaolin Showdown) did not produced this series, instead it was produced by generic companies "ActionFliks Media Corp & Genao Productions" and thanks to them, they changed everything that came with Xiaolin Showdown in terms of the copyright rules and trademark issues with many of the character designs and Shen Gong Wu's names were changed. Such as Dojo the dragon being yellow instead of green.
2. All of the characters’ voice actors (except Omi's and Katnappe's) have been recast with Canadian voice actors due to the show being produced in that country.
   • Michael Donovan replaces Maurice LaMarche as Master Fung, even though LaMarche himself was born in Toronto.
   • Speaking of Donovan, he does a poor job replacing Wayne Knight as Dojo the Dragon.
   • The voice acting is a loophole, as the Canadian actors live in Los Angeles and have dual citizenship (US/Canada).
3. New characters that appear in this show was very pointless to add like Ping-Pong and Shadow.
   • Speaking of Ping Pong, he is annoying and useless character.
   • Also, why couldn't they just bring back Jermaine from Showdown.
4. Lots of continuity errors, like where Raimundo is promoted to Shoku Warrior, the leader of the Xiaolin Dragons by the end of the original series, but here, everyone is promoted to Shoku Warrior, which is now another rank and deprives the possibilities of showing Raimundo struggling with leadership.
5. Some of the characters has been flanderized:
   • Omi went being from a self-centered and yet positive traits such as deep appreciation for his friends into a selfish brat.
   • Chase Young went being from a villain who is just badass into a generic bland villain, especially in the final episode. He even shown in "Chase Lays an Egg", there was an infamous scene, that he was crying, making him a completely out of character for him.
6. Some of gross-out humor, like where Dojo rapidly break out in boils that pop then spew pus all other the place.
7. A lot of the episodes were getting boring to watch and continued to get worse and worse. It was so bad that only 13 of its episodes aired in the US, leaving 6 unaired until July 1, 2015 when they were burned off on Netflix.
8. The Xiaolin Showdowns being animated in 3D is kind of weird, although the 3D animation is good, in terms of low-budget it's looks stiff, awkward, bland and ugly at times.
9. It also has problems on what it really wants to be as a story. It tries too hard to be a revival but at the same time, it also tries too hard to be a reboot.
10. Much like other medias such as "FernGully 2 The Magical", "Rescue and Hoodwink Too!" and "Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom" The series definitely has no connection to the original series, making it feel like more of a poor stand-alone reboot rather then a fourth season of "Xiaolin Showdown".
11. Poor and crappy ending.

Chronicled Qualities

1. Tara Strong and Jennifer Hale came back to reprise their roles as Omi and Katnappe.
2. As mentioned in WIHNC #1 Christy Hui returned as executive producer.
3. Some of the action is still good.
4. The animation and the character designs are decent.
5. This show may be decent and quite surprising for those who are remembering Xiaolin Showdown in the good' ol Kids' WB and Cartoon Network days, despite mentioned in WIHNC #1 & #4.
6. Most of the characters were really likable and hasn't been flanderized, like Kimiko, Raimundo, Clay, Master Fung, Jack Spicer (despite being watered down) and Wuyu.
7. The intro, while short, is decent.

Reception

Xiaolin Chronicles received 6.4 on IMDb.

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