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Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir facts for kids

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Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir
Also known as
  • Miraculous
  • Miraculous Ladybug
  • Ladybug
Genre
Created by Thomas Astruc
Developed by Jeremy Zag
Written by Thomas Astruc
Sébastien Thibaudeau
Directed by
  • Thomas Astruc
  • Christelle Abgrall (Season 2)
  • Jeremy Paoletti (Season 2)
  • Benoît Boucher (Seasons 2–3)
  • Wilifried Pain (Seasons 2–3)
  • Jun Violet (Seasons 2–3)
Voices of
  • English:
  • Cristina Vee
  • Bryce Papenbrook
  • Keith Silverstein
  • Mela Lee
  • Max Mittelman
  • Carrie Keranen
  • Benjamin Diskin
  • Selah Victor
  • Sabrina Weisz
  • French:
  • Anouck Hautbois
  • Benjamin Bollen
  • Antoine Tomé
  • Marie Nonnenmacher
  • Thierry Kazazian
  • Fanny Bloc
  • Alexandre Nguyen
  • Marie Chevalot
  • Nathalie Homs
Theme music composer Jeremy Zag & Noam Kaniel (Noam)
Lyrics: Alain Garcia
Opening theme English: "It's Ladybug!" performed by Wendy Child and Cash Callaway
French: "Une Ladybug", Marily and Noam
Ending theme "Une Ladybug"/"It's Ladybug!" (instrumental)
Composer(s)
  • Jeremy Zag
  • Noam Kaniel (Noam)
  • Alain Garcia
Country of origin
  • France
  • Italy
  • South Korea
  • Japan
Original language(s)
  • French
  • Italian
  • Korean
  • Japanese
  • English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 78
Production
Executive producer(s)
  • Pascal Boutboul
  • Sébastien Thibaudeau
  • Jean-Yves Patay
  • Hiroyuki Kinoshita
  • Ryuji Kochi
  • Pierre Belletante
  • Suhoon Kim
  • Stella Noh
  • Alexandre Lippens (Season 1)
  • Jared Wolfson (Season 1)
  • Cédric Pilot (Season 1)
  • Kevin Marciano (Seasons 2–3)
  • Magali Bion (Seasons 2–3)
  • Camille Oesch (Seasons 2–3)
Producer(s)
  • Jeremy Zag
  • Aton Soumache
Running time 22 minutes
Production company(s)
  • Zagtoon
  • Method Animation
  • Toei Animation
  • SAMG Animation (Season 1-3)
  • AB Droits Audiovisuels
  • SK Broadband
  • PGS Entertainment (Season 1)
  • De Agostini Editor S.p.A. (Seasons 2–3)
  • DQ Entertainment (Seasons 2–5)
  • Assemblage Entertainment (Seasons 3–5)
  • Globosat (Seasons 3–5)
Distributor
  • AB International Distribution
  • Method Animation – Zagtoon
  • SAMG Animation (Seasons 1–2)
  • Toei Company
  • Toei Animation
Release
Original network TF1
First shown in South Korea
Original release 1 September 2015 (2015-09-01) – present (present)

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (French: Miraculous, les aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir; also known as Miraculous Ladybug or Miraculous) is a French computer animated superhero fiction series produced by studios Zagtoon and Method Animation. The studies collaborated with with De Agostini Editore S.p.A. in Italy, Toei Animation in Japan, SAMG Animation in South Korea, DQ Entertainment and Assemblage Entertainment in India, and Globosat in Brazil. The series features two Parisian teenagers, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste, who transform into the superheroes Ladybug and Cat Noir, respectively, to protect the city from supervillains.

Before its debut in France on 19 October 2015 on TF1, the series was first shown in South Korea on 1 September 2015 on EBS1. In the United States, the series originally debuted on Nickelodeon on 6 December 2015. New premieres moved to Netflix on 20 December 2016, and reruns currently air on Disney Channel beginning on 8 April 2019. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the show premiered on 30 January 2016 on Disney Channel.

Plot

Set in modern-day Paris, teenagers Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste transform into superheroes when evil arises. Marinette transforms into her superhero persona Ladybug, while Adrien transforms into his superhero persona Cat Noir, using magical jeweled objects known as the Miraculous. Not knowing each other's true identities, the two work together to protect Paris from the mysterious villain Hawk Moth, who covets and attempts to steal their powers by using his akuma, butterflies infused with negative energy, to transform Paris' everyday citizens into supervillains, through a negative emotion that they have recently felt or are feeling.

The first season ends with Marinette meeting Master Fu, the Guardian of the Miraculous, the man who gave Marinette and Adrien their Miraculous. The second season opens with Hawk Moth's identity being revealed as none other than Gabriel Agreste. This season also sees Marinette under Fu's tutelage, learning about the Miraculous. Circumstance requires Marinette to loan various Miraculous to friends and allies to fight some supervillains for temporary purposes. These 3 allied heroes are called back in at the season's end when Hawk Moth manages to traumatize over two dozen civilians. The heroes are victorious, but Hawk Moth manages to escape with the aid of the Peacock Miraculous holder, Mayura, Gabriel's assistant, Nathalie.

Hawk Moth continues his campaign in season three, aided by Mayura and her sentimonsters, creatures created from charged feathers, amoks. Marinette calls upon even more allies to become Miraculous heroes while her nemesis, Lila, allies herself with Gabriel, unaware of his identity as Hawk Moth. Two plot arcs include Nathalie's failing health from using a damaged Miraculous and Ladybug's refusal to give the Bee Miraculous to Chloe, leading her to betray and turn against Ladybug and join Hawk Moth.

Production

Conception and creation

The series is based on an original concept created by French animator Thomas Astruc, who was inspired by a meeting with a certain lady, Japanese anime, and "decades of comics binge reading". In an interview with Nolife, Astruc said he was working as an animator on the show W.I.T.C.H. when he met a woman wearing a T-shirt with a ladybug on it. They began to share drawings, some of which were ladybug-themed. Astruc also noted that Marinette's hair was styled after the woman. They also worked on the cartoon A.T.O.M. around 2004–05. Astruc first drew Ladybug on sticky notes and remarked about how strong the Ladybug character was, and had a couple memories of seeing ladybug-themed superheroes in comics.

Astruc had intended to make Ladybug a comic book series until he met Jeremy Zag, who loved the project and wanted to produce it as a cartoon; Zag was 25 at the time and not originally from the cartoon industry.

In developing Cat Noir, Astruc said that ladybugs represented good luck, so it was natural to partner her with a black cat character with bad luck powers. Cat Noir was a tribute to comics characters like Catwoman, so it was like having Catwoman and Spider-Man in the same show but reversed genders.

A character named Félix was originally going to have the role of Cat Noir, but he was later scrapped in favor of Adrien Agreste because the creative team felt that Félix was a cliché of a male anime protagonist, and that Adrien would allow them to tell more interesting stories. In September 2015, Astruc indicated that he was open to revisiting the character of Félix, but he abandoned it by February 2016, writing that the character was a poor idea. Years later, in 2019, Félix was re-made as Adrien's cousin and was renamed Félix Graham de Vanily..

Themes, writing and process

The concept for the show originally dealt with political themes, geared towards teens and young adults. However, after failing to gain traction with networks, it was retooled for a younger target audience. Astruc said that he is delighted that the show is able to reach younger and older people.

Each episode takes around 3 months to write, from scratch to final validation of broadcasters. Assistant director Wilfried Pain said that each episode is composed of two parts: a sitcom aspect where the characters have to speak for themselves, and an action element where the camera is always moving.

The music was done by Noam Kaniel (Noam), who had also worked on action superhero shows such as X-Men, Code Lyoko, W.I.T.C.H., Fantastic Four, Power Rangers, Digimon Fusion, and Glitter Force. The theme song was written by Kaniel and Zag. The English lyrics were done by Alain Garcia and performed by Wendy Child and Cash Callaway. The French version was performed by Marily and Noam.

Other media

An endless runner video game was developed by TabTale and released in April 2018 as a mobile app. In April 2019 was announced new mobile game and in May 2019 it was presented by Jeremy Zag.

An animated musical film, titled Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening, is in development and slated for release in 2021. A live-action television series is also in the works.

Note

  • Official Japanese Website: http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/miraculous/

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Miraculous: las aventuras de Ladybug para niños