There's really no discernible explanation for how a French cartoon named "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir" came to America and found such a big fan base. But it did. And the cartoon got big enough that it went through a few different broadcast licensees, beginning with Nickelodeon in 2015 and eventually moving to Netflix and Disney+.
After five seasons, the television series has grown big enough to have its own cinematic adaptation, called "Ladybug & Cat Noir: Awakening."
And while the project received a theatrical release in portions of Europe, the United States will receive the movie on Netflix, which already houses several of the episodes.
The basic premise behind the film and TV series is a girl named Marinette (voiced by Cristina Valenzuela) and a boy named Adrien (Bryce Papenbrook) are gifted magic jewels that allow them to become superheroes. And they use their powers to protect Paris from a villain named Hawkmoth (Keith Silverstein).
Hawkmoth typically spends his time trying to capture the magic jewels that give Marinette (who becomes Ladybug) and Adrien (who becomes Cat Noir) their powers, all the while trying to find their secret identities. Hawkmoth transforms unhappy citizens of Paris into monsters to wreak havoc until Ladybug and Cat Noir stop them.
The running tie that binds these three people together is Adrien's father, Gabriel, is secretly Hawkmoth. But neither of them knows each other's alter egos. And Adrien and Marinette both attend high school together. They're also forbidden from trying to discover each other's real names by the man who gave them their magic powers, an old guardian named Wang Fu (Paul St. Peter).
Further complicating matters (and driving much of the plot), Marinette has a crush on Adrien. And Cat Noir is hopelessly in love with Ladybug. But since they don't know each other's complete identities, it gets in the way of their confessions of love.
And that's pretty much what has driven the show across five seasons, constantly keeping fresh a "will they/won't they" storyline that's mixed with magic, wacky high jinks and some surprisingly dark emotional punches.
"Ladybug & Cat Noir: Awakening" rather confusingly, is an origin story, of sorts. It doesn't exactly follow the first few episodes, making some strange changes to the plot. Fans of the series would've been better served with a film that wrapped up the show like "Serenity" did for "Firefly." It would've narrowed the scope of who could enjoy the movie, but disappointingly, this film is an example of what happens when one broadens a project to the point it loses its identity.
The television series doesn't always have the most impressive animation. And the 3D-CG can, at times, appear a little clunky. This is where the film excels, pushing the boundaries of 3D animation and bringing a much smoother and more fluid approach to these characters and their movements. Truly, the art is beautiful.
Unfortunately, that's where the film's positives end.
"Ladybug & Cat Noir" sucks all the fun out of its lead heroes. The movie reduces Marinette to a cowardly girl with zero self-esteem and leaves Adrien as nothing more than an arrogant jerk for the entire film. And while Marinette had problems in the TV series, and Cat Noir could be charmingly arrogant at times, those weren't their only characteristics.
Put simply, the film simplifies the characters to the point they have no soul and no redeeming qualities.
The music is another sore point as "Ladybug & Cat Noir" tries too hard to be a Disney movie. Whether a problem of translation or writing in general, the lyrics are weak and generic. One would have expected the film's creators to learn from the Christmas special that music isn't the selling point of this series.
To make matters worse, Marinette's singing voice doesn't match her speaking voice, and it's distracting. Valenzuela is a talented singer, and she should have been allowed to perform Marinette's songs and her dialogue. French musician, Lou, provides Marinette's singing voice for the English and Français dubs. And while she's a perfectly fine performer, Lou didn't need to sing Marinette's songs in the English dub when Valenzuela was right there. It's a big misstep for this project.
This is a befuddling result considering the series already has a made-for-TV movie called "Miraculous World: New York -- United HeroeZ" that succeeds in expanding the universe from its typical 30-minute episode. Fans would be better off just rewatching it while waiting for more Season Five episodes to be released. Newcomers would be best advised to avoid this movie and just start the television series if anything written above captures their curiosity.
"Ladybug & Cat Noir: Awakening" arrives on Netflix today.