There are two paths Manny must choose between in the show, either to become the son of a legendary hero known as "White Pantera" and the grandson of an evil super villain known as "Puma Loco".

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.

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.

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.

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.

Since the series ended, reruns continued to air on Nicktoons until February 10, 2018, before making a surprise comeback on May 5, 2021 to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

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.

El Tigre appears as a playable character in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, along with a stage based on the Miracle City volcano arena.

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.

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

Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the series three out of five stars; saying that, “Tweens will enjoy the zany characters and exaggerated stories, but parents might take issue with the young characters' penchant for troublemaking, the absence of a strong role model for Manny, and the overall lack of repercussions for his questionable behavior.”[6] The first season received an approval rating of 100% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on six reviews.

[7] Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew wrote that "El Tigre offers hands down the most dynamic implementation of Flash I’ve ever seen in an animated TV series, seamlessly combining the cinematic possibilities more commonly associated with 3D CGI alongside the organic appeal of drawn animation," while also stating that the series has an "annoying tendency to stage too many scenes on slants and diagonals, voice acting performances that I couldn’t understand.