Animation
According to an interview with Premiere Magazine, Chow stated,
| “ | Actually the 'over the top' CG and kinetic soccer moves were an inspiration that came from a classic Japanese anime (ongoing manga series) called 'Captain Tsubasa'. The animation was very big in Hong Kong over ten years ago when it sweeped kids of all ages and even adults loved it. It has a cult following in Europe as well. But it was only possible with pen and ink back then, now with the advent of CGI, it can really be done....(the idea of combining it with Kung Fu was in my head for many years but we had to wait for the CG technology to mature) | ” |
Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, co-creators of the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated television series, stated in an interview that "Shaolin Soccer is one of our favorite movies. It has tons of fantastic action and lots of funny moments. Some of the effects provided inspiration for how bending might look on the show."
The Chinese website xiaoyouxi.com has eight flash animations devoted to Shaolin Soccer. They range from non-playable 16 bit video games where the characters reenact the soccer games from the film to animations highlighting Sing and Mui’s strained relationship (one of which is accompanied by the song "Hazard" by Richard Marx).
One episode of Keroro Gunso had a soccer theme which parodied this movie.
The music video for the American R&B singer-songwriter and rapper Lumidee song "Dance" launched for the 2006 FIFA World Cup album soundtrack has scenes of the movie.
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