Xiao Xiao is a series of Internet cartoons by Chinese animator Zhu Zhiqiang , featuring stick-figure men performing choreographed fight scenes. Some of the cartoons are interactive and game-like. All cartoons are in the Macromedia Flash format, although Xiao Xiao #1 was originally in AVI format. It has now been converted to Flash.

The black stick-figure and purple stick-figure are the regular "good" and "bad" characters, respectively.

Episodes

• Xiao Xiao #1 is a fight between two stick-figure men.
• Xiao Xiao #2 is an interactive game, where your stick-man fights against opponents in three rounds. Each round has a simple skill test for the viewer, triggering one of three outcomes. Two outcomes end in death of the stick-man, one ends in triumph.
• Xiao Xiao #3 is a kung-fu style fight scene in a simple line-drawn house, in the style of an action movie. In particular, it parodies the bullet time effect from The Matrix. This is the best known Xiao Xiao animation, and has been shown on MTV.
• Xiao Xiao #4 is an interactive 3D shooting game, which ends with a scripted fight with the purple stick-figure, and another Matrix scene parody.
• Xiao Xiao #5 features a fight to the death, and beyond.
• Xiao Xiao #6 is another interactive game.
• Xiao Xiao #7 and #8 make a two-part epic battle, where the good stick-figure invades the bad stick-figure's lair and tries to take him out.
• Xiao Xiao #9 is an interactive beat-em-up game in the style of Final Fight.

Copyright infringement

In June 2004, Zhu filed a lawsuit against Nike for plagiarizing his cartoon stickmen in their commercials. Nike representatives denied the accusations, claiming that that the stickman figure lacks originality, and is public domain. Zhu eventually won the lawsuit, and Nike was sentenced to pay $36,000 to the cartoonist. [1]

External links

• The Xiao Xiao collection at Newgrounds.com
• The official Xiao Xiao site