El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera facts for kids

Quick facts for kids El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera
Genre	Superhero fiction Action-adventure Slapstick Comedy
Created by	Jorge R. Gutierrez Sandra Equihua
Directed by	Dave Thomas Gabe Swarr
Voices of	Alanna Ubach Grey DeLisle Eric Bauza Carlos Alazraqui April Stewart
Composer(s)	Shawn Patterson
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	26 (50 segments)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Sandra Equihua Jorge R. Gutierrez
Producer(s)	Dave Thomas (supervising)
Running time	11 minutes (short-length episodes) 22 minutes (long-length specials)
Production company(s)	Mexopolis Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon (2007-2008) Nicktoons Network (2008)
Original release	February 19, 2007 (2007-02-19) – September 13, 2008 (2008-09-13)

El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera (sometimes shortened to El Tigre) is an American flash-animated television series created by Jorge R. Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua for Nickelodeon. The series centers on a 13-year-old boy named Manny Rivera, who is trying the best to choose between being good or evil while dealing with bizarre enemies, as well as a superheroic father and his villainous grandfather. The show is set in Miracle City, a fictional city based on and located at Tijuana, where Jorge grew up.

El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera was the first Nicktoon to be fully animated with Adobe Flash after O'Grady, which was exclusive to The N. The series had two runs on two different networks; Nickelodeon from March 3, 2007, to June 20, 2008, then Nicktoons Network from August 7 to September 13, 2008. 26 episodes were produced.

Premise

Set in the fictional crime-ridden Mexican-American metropolis of Miracle City, El Tigre follows the adventures of Manny Rivera, a 13-year-old boy with superpowers trying to choose between being good or evil. Manny's father is a superhero known as White Pantera and wants Manny to grow up to be good and fight evil. Manny's Grandfather is a supervillain known as Puma Loco who thinks Manny should go to the dark side.

Characters

Protagonists

• Alanna Ubach as Manny Rivera / El Tigre, the main protagonist who is divided of becoming a hero or villain
• Grey DeLisle as Frida Suárez, Manny's troublemaking rockstar friend
• Eric Bauza as Rodolfo Rivera / White Pantera, Manny's heroic father who wields his Bronze Boots of Truth
• Carlos Alazraqui as Jorge "Grandpapi" Rivera / Puma Loco, Manny's villainous grandfather who wields his Golden Sombrero of Chaos
• April Stewart as Maria Rivera, Manny's loving mother and Rodolfo's ex-wife

Antagonists

• Susan Silo as Sartana of the Dead, the skeletal guitarist and most feared villain of Miracle City
• Candi Milo as Zoe Aves / Black Cuervo, Frida's archenemy who holds a vendetta on her and has a crush on Manny
• Richard Steven Horvitz as Diego Jr. / Dr. Chipotle Jr., an evil child prodigy who specializes on exterimenting with guacamole
• Jeff Bennett as Sergio / Señor Siniestro, a exchange student from Italy who pretends to be a robotic cowboy
• John DiMaggio as El Oso, a bear-themed villain that usually robs from banks
• Grey DeLisle as Carmelita Aves / Voltura, Zoe's mother who holds a grudge on Rodolfo for breaking up with her (which she claims that she broke up with him from that day)
• Carlos Alazraqui as Pachita "Grandmami" Aves / Lady Gobbler, Zoe's grandmother who holds a grudge on Grandpapi for leaving her at the altar on their wedding day with another woman named Dora (Rodolfo's mother)
• Richard Steven Horvitz as Diego Sr. / Dr. Chipotle Sr., the father of Dr. Chipotle Jr.
• Danny Cooksey as Django of the Dead, the grandson of Sartana
• John DiMaggio as General Chapuza, the leader of the Calevera Zombies
• Grey DeLisle as Che Chapuza, the grandson of General Chapuza
• Jon Polito as Don Baffi, the mob boss of the Moustache Mafia
• Jack Angel as Comrade Chaos, a Russia-themed villain
• Carlos Alazraqui as El Tarántula, a spider-themed villain
• Charlie Adler as Mano Negra, a villain whose head is attached to a robotic suit
• Danny Trejo as El Mal Verde, a hulking giant who is capable of swallowing heroes whole
• Rene Mujica as Titanium Titan, White Pantera's former partner who turns to a life of crime

Recurring characters

• Daran Norris as Chief Emiliano Suárez, Frida's father who is the chief of police that doesn't trust Manny with her
• Grey DeLisle as Carmela Suárez, Frida's mother who is the Miracle City judge
• Grey DeLisle and April Stewart as Anita & Nikita Suárez, Frida's bossy twin siblings
• Carlos Alazraqui as Vice-Principal Chakal, the disciplinary vice-principal who always gets Manny and Frida into detention
• Jessica DiCicco as Davi Rocco / Albino Burrito, Manny's biggest fan who wants to be his sidekick
• John DiMaggio as Municipal President Rodríguez, the president of the Miracle City municipal council who is arrogant and selfish

Production

El Tigre was created by a husband-and-wife team named Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua along with others who were employed to make the show. The couple made the project from experiences they had when they were younger. Manny Rivera is based on Jorge's young self. Many things known in the show were based on actual events or parts of Jorge's life. His father was an architect (which was viewed as good) and his grandfather was a general in the military (which was viewed as evil). That idea was exaggerated to the idea of superheroes and supervillains. The city Miracle City is likely based on Tijuana, where Jorge grew up.

El Tigre's Decision of Destiny

On January 25, 2008, Nickelodeon allowed viewers to vote on the ending of an episode, deciding whether El Tigre would choose the path of heroism or villainy. "The Good, the Bad, and the Tigre" premiered later that same day with the ending chosen by the voters. Voters ultimately chose the heroic ending, in which El Tigre defeated Django and Sartana. If the villainous ending had been chosen, he would have helped Django and Sartana conquer the world, but turned against them by launching them through space to take the empire for himself and Frida, and ruled over the world into old age. After they remembered to free the now elderly White Pantera and Puma Loco from all their tyrannical fun, their reunion was interrupted when Sartana and Django recruited an army of aliens to retake her throne, in which the Rivera men (along with Frida who rides a mech) leap into action to battle Sartana, which cuts with the title "The End?".

Episodes

Broadcast

El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera had its first screening on January 19, 2007 at the first-ever Nickelodeon Creative Summit held in San Juan, Puerto Rico as a special treat for the 60 exclusive attendees. The series premiered on February 19, 2007 as a sneak peek. The series then premiered regularly on Nickelodeon on March 3, 2007 and it has aired until June 20, 2008. Each half-hour episode consists of a pair od different segments. It would later aired on Nicktoons Network, starting on August 7, 2008. After a total of 26 episodes, the final episode aired on September 13, 2008. Since the series ended, reruns continued to air on Nicktoons until May 5, 2021. It also aired on TeenNick's NickRewind block from March 20 to April 17, 2021. The series had its Canadian debut on YTV on May 4, 2007.

The show is currently available to purchase on iTunes and Amazon Prime Video digitally. It was also available on the PlayStation Network Store. A few clips of the series were available for viewing on the Nickelodeon website. Since July 26, 2023, the entire series was added to Paramount+.

Merchandise

Video games

A videogame based on the series, also titled El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, was released for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2 in 2007. The series also had several internet browser-based games on Nickelodeon's official website, including a fighting game that could be downloaded through the Nick Arcade website, titled Festival De Las Piñatas. El Tigre was also a playable character in several Nickelodeon-crossover browser games, including Nick Arcade's Nicktoons HoverZone.

El Tigre is a playable character in the Nintendo DS version of Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, and he also makes a non-playable cameo appearance in Nicktoons MLB. El Tigre appears as a playable character in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, along with a stage based on the Miracle City volcano arena.

Toys

McDonald's Happy Meal featured El Tigre toys for a limited time in January 2008. They include El Tigre, White Pantera, Puma Loco, and Señor Sinestro.

Home media

The episode "Night of the Living Guacamole" was to be featured on the Nick Picks Vol. 6 DVD, with a release date for August 7, 2007. However, the DVD was cancelled for unknown reasons. The episode "The Grave Escape" was included on a downloadable digital DVD available on iTunes called Nickelodeon Shocktober! Vol. 1, along with select episodes of Zoey 101 and iCarly. The complete series DVD was released as Season 1 on a six-disc set on November 23, 2011, as a manufacture on demand Amazon exclusive. An international version of the Season 1 DVD, titled Día De Los Malos (or O Día Dos Maus in Brazil), was released on the same day. Unlike the season 1 manufacture on demand DVD, this one was sold in Mexico and Brazil. However, not all episodes from Season 1 were released in this DVD.

Print media

Nickelodeon featured comics for El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera in Nickelodeon Magazine. The first comic, "Puma's Paw", was featured in the March 2007 issue.

An upcoming art book, titled "The Art of El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera" is scheduled to be released on July 9, 2024.

Other appearances

The characters Manny, Frida, and Grandpapi/Puma Loco make an appearance during a 2D animated scene in The Book of Life which is Jorge R. Gutierrez' first feature-length film. A wallpaper with El Tigre's design can be seen in a later scene as well as White Pantera in another scene.

El Oso (renamed as Bear Killah) appeared as a recurring character in Maya and the Three (also created by Jorge R. Gutierrez).