| This article is about the television series, Miraculous Ladybug. You may be looking for another Miraculous or Miraculous Ladybug. |
| “ | As long as you're many to watch the show, there'll be new seasons. | ” |
—Thomas Astruc on his twitter account | ||
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (also called Miraculous,[3], Miraculous Ladybug[4], or rarely Miraculous Ladybug and Cat Noir[5]) is a French CGI animated series created by Thomas Astruc, with a graphic bible by him and Nathanaël Bronn. It is a production of Zagtoon and Mediawan Kids and Family (later their joint venture Miraculous Corp.), with the participation of Toei Animation, SAMG Animation, The Walt Disney Company, TF1, AB Droits Audiovisuels, SK Broadband, EBS, De Agostini, Globo, and Gravity Animation in some of the seasons.
From 2015 to 2023, five seasons have been aired. Season 6 is set to air by the end of 2024, and two more seasons are currently in development.
A series of TV movies called Miraculous World started airing in 2020. Four have been release and a fifth one is in production.
Alongside the main series, there have been four series of webisodes released over the years.
Synopsis
For an episode list, see Episode guide.
- Two high-school students, Marinette and Adrien, are chosen to become Paris' superheroes: Ladybug and Cat Noir. They each have a Miraculous, a jewel linked to their magical creatures (Kwamis) that give them powers. Their mission is to keep Hawk Moth – who wants to steal their Miraculouses – from wreaking havoc on the town by creating increasingly dangerous supervillains – all while living their high school lives and keeping their identities secret. At school, Marinette has a crush on Adrien but cannot tell him, so she acts awkwardly whenever he's around. As a superhero, Cat Noir loves Ladybug, but his ego annoys her: Marinette prefers Adrien anyway! Throughout the school year and their adventures, Ladybug discovers many nice qualities in Cat Noir while Marinette grows ever closer to Adrien, making huge efforts to overcome her shyness.[6]
Cast and crew
- To view a complete list of everyone who has worked on Miraculous related material, see Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir/Credits.
Main cast
Recurring cast
Production
The first drawing of Ladybug by Thomas Astruc.
The original concept for Ladybug was conceived by Thomas Astruc around 2005.[7][8] One day, after meeting a young woman who was wearing a ladybug shirt and working with her, he played around with the idea of a ladybug, soon creating a sticky note with the design of Ladybug. Thinking that the character worked well, Thomas began to develop this character with new drawings (like as seen with the fake comic book covers called 'The Mini Menace Ladybug) and constructed a universe around her, inspired by comic universes like Marvel. He continued to develop his idea until he met Jeremy Zag, a producer at Zagtoon, who allowed Thomas to do what he thought best with it.[9]
There were many changes that Ladybug went through during development. The series was originally meant to be for older audiences like teens and young adults, having political stories and a darker tone. However, as explained by writing director Sébastien Thibaudeau, "Some elements hindered its perception and no one really knew why",[9] so the crew worked on making it lighter for a younger audience. Toei Animation helped to create an animated promotional video showing footage of what the show would be like in order to showcase the show as an anime, but eventually, it was decided to make the series in CGI. There was also a point in time where producers encouraged making Ladybug and Cat Noir a part of a superhero team, but it didn't help sell the show, and the superhero team idea was dropped because of it.[10]
Astruc created the show by drawing ideas and concepts from Franco-Belgian comics, American comics, and Japanese animation. He found inspiration for Ladybug from Amélie Poulain, Spider-Man, and Sailor Moon. He and his team wanted to create a show that reflected the romance and beauty of France, and they aimed for it to have superheroes that appeal to young girls while not falling into the clichés of female characters.[9]
International releases
The series' international premiere was on September 1, 2015 on EBS1 in South Korea. Its French premiere was on October 19 of the same year on TF1. In the USA, it initially premiered on Nickelodeon on December 6, 2015, but by the end of the next year, it lost the rights, so the series moved to Netflix, and later Disney Channel/Disney+. Disney Channel is the main (and oftentimes only) broadcaster in most countries/languages it's available in, although a few other broadcasters have exclusive rights in countries such as France, Switzerland, Brazil and Canada. Depending on the region, some seasons/specials are available to stream on Disney+ and Netflix, as well as many channels' VOD services.
- To view a full worldwide list, see Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir/International Releases.
Trivia
- As of September 2020, the show has been broadcast in over 160 countries.[11]
- Every episode of seasons 1-4 is named after the titular supervillain (or sentimonster, starting with Season 3) with the exception of two episodes, "Ladybug & Cat Noir (Origins - Part 1)" and "Mayura (Heroes' Day - Part 2)", which are named after Miraculous holders.
- Most episodes of Season 5 are named after the concept of a Miraculous being centered around the episode, while nine are named after other concepts ending with "-ion".
- All seasons have 26 episodes, although the fifth season has a 27th extra episode focusing on plastic pollution and not being part of the season's storyline.
- It takes one entire year to finish an episode, and many episodes are usually being worked on at the same time.[12]
- Despite being a primarily French animated series, the show was lip-synced to English audio, so the series would be more marketable in the United States.[13]
- Although the official Tumblr blog stated on one occasion that later seasons would match the French dub, all Miraculous media is matched to the English one.[14]
- After only 10 weeks on air in the United States, it entered the top 10 animated series for all time slots and networks.[15]
- The show also managed to track around three for the top 10 children's television programs.[16]
- Internationally, Miraculous was also met with impressive numbers, becoming the #1 kids' show on both TF1 in France and EBS1 in South Korea.[17] Eventually, it became a child favorite in France, ranking high among the most popular children's shows there.[18] In Brazil, the show even managed to be the top series in the nation.[19]
- During the series's Netflix debut in February 2017, it ranked #4 in popularity among children's shows, managing to drive a 10% share.[20]
- Marinette, Alya, Adrien and Chloé have their own official Instagram accounts: @marinettedesigned, @alya.ladyblogger, @adrienagrestebrand and @theofficialchloebourgeois, which were active in the second half of 2019 and first half of 2020.[21]
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.
External links
- Official website
- Official Toei Animation website
- Official English YouTube channel
- Official French YouTube channel
- Official Twitter/X
- Previous official Instagram
- Current official Instagram
- Official Tumblr
- Official Facebook
- Official TikTok
References
- ↑ For an unknown reason, it is only credited on the French version from the credits of the first season
- ↑ Although it is a co-producer since the second season, it's also mentioned as such in the Italian version of the credits from the first season, both on Super! and Disney Channel
- ↑ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2012-06-06/toei-animation-to-co-produce-french-cartoon-miraculous
- ↑ Official YouTube channel
- ↑ The old, now defunct ZAG website
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/c/miraculousladybug/about
- ↑ http://variety.com/2010/film/news/duo-prep-s3d-superhero-toon-1118025064/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/698235435600977920
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 http://imgur.com/a/iU8ip (English translation)
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoXav4p8zJ4&lc=z124w3x4lnyvxzdrw04chzywfoqvjxsqohw
- ↑ https://twitter.com/MediawanEu/status/1303654365094391808
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/716662476801183744
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/680527063099523072
- ↑ https://officialmiraculousladybug.tumblr.com/post/159427847592/what-would-you-say-is-the-official-language-of
- ↑ http://cdn.bleedingcool.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/12721884_10153580794446359_1304734148_n.jpg
- ↑ http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/03/18/action-lab-announces-two-miraculous-comic-series-based-on-nickelodeon-series-at-c2e2/
- ↑ http://kidscreen.com/2016/04/01/zag-expands-global-licensing-program-for-miraculous/
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BDt7af_SQ38/?taken-by=jeremy_zag
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BG-pcIeyQwQ/?taken-by=jeremy_zag
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Ladybug_Cartoon/status/848595303729164288
- ↑ https://twitter.com/MiraculousMX/status/1152334692370309128