Hello, night owls! Over the past three years as I've delved into films I loved when I was a kid, I've come to learn that some of these "kids" movies/shows we grew up with are actually very good. They have heart and quality that takes you by surprise when you watch them as an older viewer and they make you realize that movies/shows that are "made for kids" can have great entertainment quality.
Now, while this may translate well for me with movies/shows I've seen before, more modern stuff always makes me a little hesitant. From the glimpses I've had of some children's animated shows and movies over the years, it feels like a lot of them use annoying jokes, loud characters, and obnoxiously overused cliches. For me, it's the kind of stuff I think of when other people say, "It's just made for kids" because it doesn't take much to make and it doesn't use much to distract a five year old. I'm not saying this is how all modern childrens shows/movies are...but if none of them were like that, I wouldn't be mentioning it here.
So yeah...after being subjected to various annoying kids shows during afternoons at the dentist's and the doctor's, I didn't develop a fondness for more modern stuff.
However, when I kept seeing two interesting TV show characters appearing while browsing Etsy one day, I decided to check out a newer show. And you know what?
I'm so glad I did!!
The show I'm talking about, of course, is Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir or Miraculous Ladybug, created by Thomas Astruc. Combining a love of anime, comic books, and an encounter with a woman wearing a ladybug shirt, Mr. Astruc brought to life the story of two teenagers fighting crime in Paris in the form of a French-Korean animated series. And it is one of the best things to ever exist. The concept of this show is very straightforward...but there is definitely more going on than you might think.
Their biggest enemy is Hawkmoth, a master manipulator who uses butterflies (yes, butterflies) called the akuma to do his bidding. The akuma latches on to ordinary people - generally people who feel sad or angry - and corrupts them into doing Hawkmoth's bidding. They then become super-villains who seek revenge for the wrongs done to them. In return for super powers, they have to bring back Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses, since Hawkmoth needs them to become even more powerful.
Ladybug and Cat Noir are perfectly capable of handling Hawkmoth's minions, though, with their parkour/acrobatics, stamina, strength, and basic defense skills. While Cat Noir can easily handle a melee in the streets with his telescoping baton, Ladybug can swing through the streets of Paris using her yo-yo to take care of a crisis on the other side of town. On top of that, each has a special power endowed by their Miraculouses. Cat Noir can use his ability, Cataclysm, to destroy anything his paw touches, and Ladybug can use her ability, Lucky Charm, to create an object that will aide in the defeat of a super-villain. However, they must use their special powers carefully, for after five minutes, they will transform into their normal selves again.
In spite of the fact that each episode has a pretty basic formula, it never gets old seeing those two transform and take down bad guys.
The lead characters are refreshingly delightful and easy to connect with. Marinette is a clumsy but lovable girl who does right by her friends and dreams of being a fashion designer. Everyone in school knows her to be a hard-working and nice individual and she means well in everything she does. She also has strong feelings for Adrien, who she doesn't realize is her superhero partner Cat Noir. In the guise of Ladybug, she's a brave and focused hero with a spunky attitude to match.
Adrien, though a model and the son of a fashion leader, wants to have normal connections with other people at school and is kind to everyone. His friends look up to him for advice and encouragement. He despairs at the estrangement between him and his father, and he misses his mother, who is either dead or missing (still not sure about that!).
As Cat Noir, he's an energetic and pun-filled fighter, with a clever grin and a green glint in his eyes. In superhero form, he's in constant pursuit of Ladybug's approval and love...all the while not knowing that she's his fellow schoolmate Marinette.
I'm sure you can see what this is leading up to.
One of the important plot points of this show is that neither of these kids know who each other really is. As with all other superhero stories, neither Marinette nor Adrien can reveal their secret identities for the safety of their friends and family. But in everyday life, Marinette keeps summoning the courage to speak to Adrien while trying to ignore Cat Noir's flirtatious jokes. And at the same time, Adrien constantly wonders who Ladybug is and if he stands a chance with her.
For ardent fans of Miraculous, this is the thing that keeps them up at night!
In any other show, a love square like this might have been handled clumsily or been filled with cliches, but in this show, it works and it's very effective. Marinette and Adrien are both strong characters with established chemistry that translates well whether they're at school or fighting crime. Once you've been with them for a few episodes, they feel like friends and when you see them as superheroes, oblivious to each other's true identity, you're dying to have them find out the truth.
There are a few other interesting aspects of this show to point out. The first is that the show doesn't begin with Marinette and Adrien discovering their superpowers. In episode one, they've already been superheroes for quite a while and it gives you an idea of how they work. It's only until the two part season finale that you see how they discovered the Miraculouses and began fighting crime. This might seem a bit confusing at first, but somehow for this show, it works better that way. By cutting to the chase in the beginning, you get to see them in action and then when you see their origin stories later, they have more of an impact on you.
Something to note is the ingenuity used in figuring out how to defeat super-villains. With Ladybug's Lucky Charm power, it conjures a random object to help end the fight. Often, these objects are things you wouldn't think could help in any way (e.g. a towel, a tire jack, and a compact makeup mirror) and when she takes in her environment to see how to use the object, you wonder, "How on earth can this work?" But every time you see how her plan works and how the object plays into it, it's a clever little a-ha! moment. Considering some of the weird super-villains on this show (including Mr. Pigeon, the one no one talks about), our heroes do have to think outside the box on more than one occasion.
On top of that, the super-villains involved are rather creative. Every time an akuma corrupts a person, it latches itself onto a personal possession like a smartphone, an umbrella, or even a deck of cards. Usually the object plays into the identity of the super-villain and acts as a weapon. In the case of the phone, you get Lady Wifi who travels through Paris via the wi-fi connection and uses icons like lock and pause to trap people. None of these villains are as mysterious or as powerful as Hawkmoth, but they're always entertaining to watch with their imaginative abilities and their over-the-top attacks.
This show really is something else. It has similar aesthetics of other CGI kids shows and it does contain some cliche characters and cliche plots, but there's so much heart in this that I don't think you'd find in other kids shows. The characters are wonderful, the animation is good, and the action is fun - you really can't get much better than that (although hints about Season 2 suggest that it's about to get better!). If you need something to make your day better, I highly recommend this show (especially with the French voice cast).
And with that, I leave you the French trailer for Miraculous Ladybug (here) and a piece of Miraculous/Phantom of the Opera crossover art (thanks, M3!).
Official Night Owl
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