A race between the races.
Alien Racers is a 2005 sci-fi CGI animated series by Mike Young Productions and CGCG Inc that aired on 4Kids TV and Teletoon.
Xenoc, the heart of the universe, holds the valuable energy source known as Xeno-energy. It has the power to create or destroy. For eons, this cosmic energy gathered and destroyed civilizations until the wisest and oldest species, Zenterrans, managed to land containment chambers on the planet surface, which they built with the help of Fyran mechanics. Fearing that every race would be warring over the contained energy, the Zenterran Master Khadan issued a contest. Each alien civilization would choose a champion to race for this great power, and whoever controls the most Xeno-energy will decide the fate of the universe.
The champions who compete for Xeno cells include Ultrox, a cyborg Alpharon scientist, G'rog, a Na'tal athlete, Gnarl, a Kragnan war commander, and Skrash, a skeletal undead creature who is Xenoc's only native resident. The four champions compete fiercely over the chance to acquire the tremendous power of Xeno energy, to use it for good...or for evil.
Alien Racers contain examples of:
- A God Am I: Undermaster Akhil's endgame for the end of the series is amassing enough Xeno Energy to become a god unto himself.
- Alien Hair: Jek has green tendrils instead of hair.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Ultrox has orange skin, while his sidekick Jek is green.
- Amusing Injuries: Skrash is often on the receiving end of this. Given that he's an indestructible undead skeleton, it doesn't faze him much.
- An Arm and a Leg: Ultrox lost all of his limbs to Xeno energy, leading to his reconstruction as a cyborg.
- Ax-Crazy: Skrash. Being a long-undead zombie alone on a radioactive planet doesn't do wonders to your sanity.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The three main antagonists of the series have little connection to one another's motivations: The Kragnan Empress races her champion Gnarl with the goal of acquiring Xeno energy to conquer the galaxy, Skrash races with the intention of driving everyone else off Xenoc which he insists is his planet, and Seadrok is a wealthy gangster who only seeks to make money from gambles and bets off of the races.
- Bizarre Alien Limbs: G'rog has three prehensile tendrils emerging from his head.
- Blood Knight: Gnarl lives for combat, for the glory of the Kragnan empire!
- Brain Food: The Kragnans eat the brains of their victims to assimilate their knowledge, a fate that befell Jek's uncle. They cannot, however, consume Xenterran brains as the overwhelming psychic power is fatal to both them and their victim.
- Captain Ersatz: The Xenterrans, being advanced mouthless, psychic humanoids who are unable to be assimilated by an insectoid race, greatly echo the Protoss from StarCraft. Said insectoids, the Kragnans, are led by a queen, build organic vehicles and conquer large sections of the galaxy, being quite similar to the Zerg.
- Chameleon Camouflage: Kreff and the New-Breed Kragnans can change their color at will, impersonate other Kragnans, and even turn invisible.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Skrash may make temporary allegiances with enemies but betrays them once their allegiance has expired. After all, he's on nobody's side but his own...
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: If someone's in trouble, Ultrox is usually the one who goes to save them, even if it means breaking a rule and being disqualified.
- Cool Car: Most of the vehicles qualify.
- Companion Cube: G'rog treats his vehicle as his "baby".
- Cyborg: Main character Ultrox is one.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Gamekeeper Kytani is cold and stoic at first, though she gradually develops feelings for Ultrox, though she maintains an overall impartial demeanor.
- The Don: Seadrok, a sports promoter and ruthless crime boss. Episodes featuring him usually involve him interfering with the Races to turn a profit.
- Drives Like Crazy: All the racers to some extent, but Skrash takes it up a notch.
- Enemy Mine: G'rog and Gnarl are forced to fight side-by-side when trapped in the Xeno energy reactor core and being assaulted by security droids.
- Evil vs. Evil: Skrash and Gnarl tend to have much tension between each other a lot.
- Expressive Mask: Skrash somehow makes facial expressions despite being a skeleton.
- Eye Scream: Minor villain Okular steals his victims' eyeballs and keeps said eyeballs alive as weapons.
- Fantastic Racism: Undermaster Akhil, one of the Xenterrans, despises the Kragnans for his father's death and deliberately baits them into the Xeno energy chamber to exterminate their whole species.
- To a lesser extent, Ultrox is always wary of the Kragnans, which Kreff exploits to make Ultrox seem unfairly racist in front of Gamekeeper Kytani.
- For Science!: Unlike the other racers who compete for power, Ultrox's main motivation is to study the Xeno energy, being a scientist.
- Genius Bruiser: Ultrox may be a brilliant scientist, but he can also pack quite a punch.
- The Generation Gap: A variant between Gnarl and Kreff, the New-Breed scientist. Kreff believes that the now-extinct generation of Claw Troopers were weak and stupid, much to the anger of Gnarl, who respected them as the ones who built the Kragnan empire.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: The Kragnans are a homicidal evil race bent on using Xeno energy for controlling the entire galaxy. However, given the Xenterrans' neutral stance, they are allowed to compete in the races as fair play.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Skrash often teams up with the rest of the racers but is quick to turn on them once their common problem is solved.
- Hidden Depths: Skrash usually claims to race solely out of hatred to everyone else, but after he is suspended from racing he's clearly upset, showing that he genuinely enjoys racing even not as a means to acquire Xeno energy.
- Interspecies Romance: Hinted at between Ultrox and Gamekeeper Kytani.
- Language Equals Thought: Talanna, a henchman of Seadrok, is a member of a savage and primitive race whose language allegedly has only six words (with five being about brutal murder).
- Large Ham: G'rog is a bit of the arrogant type, being his planet's famous star athlete and all.
- Last of His Kind: Skrash is the last "surviving" member of a long-extinct species that crash-landed onto Xenoc long ago. Not even he remembers just how long ago.
- Lovable Lizard: The reptilian G'rog is a rather jolly and endearing fellow who is Vitriolic Best Buds with Ultrox.
- Made of Iron: Skrash can take absurd amounts of punishment, including being caught in a reactor explosion, being blasted into space, and then reentering the atmosphere. Being undead, of course, helps.
- Mix-and-Match Critter: G'rog resembles a cross between a lizard, a frog and a snake, while Kragnans, like Gnarl, combine features of scorpions, crabs, and anglerfish.
- Monstrous Cannibalism: The Kragnans like treatening to eat the other characters, which given their brain-slurping tendencies isn't all too unfounded.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Gamekeeper Kytani, like the rest of the Xenterrans, has four arms, and is a skilled fighter when need be. G'rog's prehensile tendrils also make good use in a fight.
- Nested Mouths: Kragnans' tongues are tipped with a three-clawed appendage which can fire corrosive volleys of acidic spit.
- No Mouth: Xenterrans lack mouths and instead feed by telepathically dissociating food into its individual molecules, which they then absorb.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Gamekeeper Kytani's strict adherence to the rules oftentimes gets her into conflict with the racers, even if their defiance was due to some justifiable cause.
- Organic Technology: G'rog's vehicle is the gooey squishy variant while Gnarl's vehicle has more of an exo-skeletal look, combined with lava rocks.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Skrash, a skeletal undead being from a long-extinct species. His skeletal body is kept alive by the planet's Xeno energy, granting him invulnerability and immortality, as well as complete insanity.
- Power Floats: Most of the Xenterrans levitate with psychic powers, with Gamekeeper Kytani (an artificially-created Xenterran) being the only one who actually walks.
- Proud Warrior Race: The Kragnans. They find it disgraceful and humiliating to race for other species' entertainment, but reluctantly agree if only to get their hands on the Xeno energy legitimately.
- Running Gag: Gamekeeper Kytani regularly scolding Ultrox for breaking the rules, even if he's saving her life.
- Save the Villain: In "Power Play", Seadrok kidnaps Skrash to learn how his immortality works. Both Kytani and Ultrox launch a rescue because of how bad it would be if that sort of power was harnessed by a crime boss.
- Spikes of Villainy: Skrash and Gnarl, as well as their vehicles.
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien: The Xenterrans, "oldest and wisest of the races", who posses powerful psychic powers and serve as stewards to the Xeno energy's immese power.
- Token Evil Teammate: Skrash may count at times, especially when he shows his Hidden Depths of genuinely enjoying racing.
- The Noseless: Ultrox, who otherwise resembles a bald, orange-skinned human.
- Unscaled Merfolk: Seadrok, a gang boss, resembles an octopus-based variant of this trope.
- Used Future: Ultrox's aesthetic and vehicle design.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Ultrox and G'rog are friendly rivals in racing, with G'rog, being one of Ultrox's biggest fans, dreaming of eventually beating Ultrox in a race.
- Wacky Racing: A race set on a treacherous alien planet bursting with cosmic energy? Hell yeah.
- Worthy Opponent: Gnarl gradually comes to regard his fellow racers with a begrudging respect.
- Xenomorph Xerox: The Kragnans in a way, also incorporating elements of the Zerg.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once Ultrox agrees to participate in the races, Seadrok happily discards his current champion G'rog: literally throwing him out of his ship in low orbit.
- You Killed My Father: Undermaster Akhil's father was eaten by the Kragnans, so he rigs the Xeno Chamber to scan and send out a wave to destroy the Kragnan species when they attempt to steal the command equation that harnesses Xeno Energy.Akhil: Let my father be avenged.
