Combo Niños

Combo Niños is a French animated series produced by SIP Animation in association with Jetix Europe and TF1 aimed at a 6-10 year old audience and aired on Jetix channels across Europe and Latin America in 2008.

Plot
Four colorful kids, Paco, Serio, Pilar and Azul are juvenile capoeira practitioners with the mission to protect the city of Nova Nizza from attack by mystical creatures from another dimension called "Divinos". The kids have the ability to transform into mystical beings in animal form by touching one of the totems that appear on the creatures. This form gives them unique skills that serve them in the battle against the Divinos and to perform special attacks called Big Blastico, used to return a Divino back to its own dimension.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Like with SIP Animation's other programs, the animation is very unique, with this show having an anime/manga-esque look to it and even having sweat drops. It is surprisingly quite detailed for a Flash-animated series.
 * 2) Likable characters, such as the main four themselves, Seiro, Paco, Pilar and Azul.
 * 3) Interesting concept of having regular kids (well, they're really superheroes as well) turn into animal-like forms.
 * 4) Most of the humor is quite funny.
 * 5) Awesome music from Noam Kaniel and Alain Garcia (especially the opening theme).
 * 6) Above average voice acting and writing.
 * 7) * A fun fact is that one of the voice actors on the series (James Keller) voiced all the male Divinos, and he gave them all unique voices to fit with their personalities. Now that's talent.
 * 8) Captures the spirit of Latin American countries very well, complete with some Spanish words!
 * 9) The Divinos, while being generic Villains of the Week, are quite creative in designs and personality.
 * 10) Good episodes like "Double Niños", "Big Bad Buffbullo", "Dream Divino", "Merry Merry Mariachis", "Kissy Kissy Love Love", and "Attack of the Combo Divinos".

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The episode "El Gaseoso" is exactly what it sounds like (it has a lot of fart jokes).
 * 2) The music, while good, can get repetitive at times.
 * 3) The Niños' transformation sequence can get old at times and never changes.
 * 4) * One example is in the episode "Masks", as in the episode the Niños wear different masks, but when they transform they have their old masks. How this this possible?

Trivia

 * The series was in production for nearly five years, but only a single series of 26 episodes was produced.
 * The Latin American inspiration is evidenced by the clothing, food, and names, as well as the use of the Capoeira style of fighting. Some of the characters play a game called Novanoc that parodies the ancient game of the Mayans, the pok-ta-pok.
 * The show fell into obscurity in many countries (Many of the episodes have been lost in various languages, including English). However, the show was very popular in Latin America, and has gained a cult following over there.
 * The series never aired in the United States, akin to most of Jetix Europe's shows.

Reception
The series has been appraised as part of a well-needed fresh wave of television programming at the time. The concept of introducing young viewers to capoeira via an animated medium has been viewed positively, though some aspects were criticized as not ideal.