The Successful Rebirth of A Franchise — Miraculous: Ladybug and Cat Noir – The Movie

I’m not sure who watched the original Miraculous Ladybug TV series and thought to themselves: “Hmm… you know what? Putting the characters in skin-tight costumes isn’t enough. They really ought to be singing too.”

Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir — The Movie (directed by Jeremy Zag) is the latest instalment of the Miraculous franchise. And it aims to reboot the series by delivering a refreshing take on our hero couple’s origin story while serving as a seamless way for newcomers to fall in love with the beautiful mess that is this love square — yes, a love square that only involves two characters.

Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir — The Movie

In all seriousness, this film is about two superheroes who work together to defeat evil. When they’re not swinging through Paris in their elastane suits, our pair are simply two unsuspecting teenagers who grapple with unrequited feelings and struggle through their day-to-day lives. While Marinette (Cristina Vee)’s fear and anxiety seems to be her two greatest enemies standing in the way of her achieving her dreams of becoming a fashion designer and making friends along the way, Adrien (Bryce Papenbrook)’s dealing with a little more than what teens his age should have to go through.

After losing his mother at a young age, Adrien spends his days self-isolating in the library during school hours and mopes alone in his room upstairs after school as his father — Gabriel Agreste (Keith Silverstein) — seems to reject his existence on a daily basis. Fans of the original television series may find the film’s depiction of Adrien’s daily life to be lacking in many ways. For example, his days used to be filled with modelling shoots, fencing, basketball, piano and Mandarin lessons. In a way, the exclusion of all of his other extracurricular activities in addition to his new anti-social behaviour actually worked to showcase just how lonesome our golden-haired boy truly was.

Miraculous: Ladybug & CatNoir — The Movie essentially serves as our pair’s origin story as Gabriel Agreste transforms into the franchise’s foe — Hawkmoth — on his mission to resurrect his deceased spouse. After getting his hands on a strange ancient artefact that possesses the power to feed off strong negative emotions and birth violent monsters, Gabriel becomes obsessed with terrorising all of Paris. Of course, he’s not just taking his frustrations out on everyone in the city. His bigger plan involves forcing both Ladybug and Chat Noir to appear before him as combining our two heroes’ charms, or Miraculouses (?), enables the user to grant one wish.

Upon Gabriel’s decision to moonlight as Paris’s biggest eyesore, Master Fu (the guardian of the Miraculous, voiced by Paul St. Peter) unleashes the kwamis belonging to Ladybug and Chat Noir. This ultimately leads to Tikki (Mela Lee) choosing Marinette for her quick and selfless life-saving act, while Plagg (Max Mittelman) most likely just found his way to Adrien’s dark loft by following the smell of camembert. (Or perhaps he simply knew that the richest boy in Paris could provide him with a lifetime’s supply of the stinky but delicious cheese)

Ladybug, Chat Noir and Hawkmoth

Before we progress any further, it’s important to lay down the basics of who’s who and what’s what.

Ladybug is a superhero who has existed for centuries — almost like the crimson female insect version of Black Panther. While the human counterpart is constantly changing, the little fairy creature known as Tikki essentially never dies. As and when the world births a large enough supervillain, a woman is chosen to partner up with Tikki to defeat the said forces of evil. Of course, fans of the original series will be well aware that there have been several occasions in which Adrien has donned the red suit so we definitely do not discriminate.

The weapon of choice for our lady in red is a magical yo-yo that doubles as a cellphone as well as a purifying chamber for Akumas — the evil butterflies created by Hawkmoth that take over emotionally-unstable Parisians. Ladybug’s main superpowers — apart from insane agility and fearlessness — point to being resourceful and an ability to create mundane inanimate objects to macgyver with.

To juxtapose this, Chat Noir is a sly cat boy that pole vaults around Paris wearing a bell around his neck and a belt that serves as a tail. When he’s not flirting with Ladybug and spitting out cringe-worthy puns, he relies on his hand-to-hand combat skills to immobilise villains. Unfortunately, while Ladybug focuses on creation, Chat Noir is only able to completely destroy things with his signature move: Cataclysm. Essentially, he turns into a one-time King Midas, in which he just completely obliterates anything and anyone he lays his claws on.

But he’s definitely not our villain, Hawkmoth is.

Hawkmoth begins every single one of his villainous acts by muttering the words: “Fly away, my little Akuma, and evilise him/her”. After which, a glowing butterfly makes its way over to an emotionally-vulnerable victim, transforming them into a rage-filled monster that will eventually destroy the Eiffel Tower in one way or another on their mission to secure both Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s miraculous for our purple malefactor.

A Successful Rebirth of the Franchise

I’m not exactly sure if I could be considered an original fan of the show but I did watch at least two seasons of the animated series in 2018. (Blame Shugo Chara for programming my brain to find cat boys alluring.) After stumbling across a few Chat Noir fan-made edits on YouTube, I was completely sold on the series.

That is, until the show kept teasing its audience with the most elusive reveal, Ladybug started handing out Miraculous charms as if she were Oprah, Chat Noir’s suffering grew far too painful to watch and our female lead gradually transitioned from being the protagonist to the adversary — since she was effectively the catalyst for more than half of the Akumas.

While Chloe is painted as the series’ adolescent villain, Marinette’s treatment towards her (as she crossed the line between confidence and conceit) grew too insufferable for me and I just had to drop the series. However, this film definitely caught my eye when it popped up on my Netflix. My initial thought was definitely “Another Miraculous movie?”, after all, I refused to watch Miraculous: Happy Birthday to You, A Christmas Special and New York – United HeroeZ.

I had no idea that this film would completely revamp the series but I was definitely on board for it after my delayed disdain for the show.

Give the Art Division A Raise

If you thought that the original 3D animations for the TV series was pretty then you’re definitely in for a treat with this film. Not only has all of the character designs been updated and softened but so have our superheroes’ suits. Details were certainly a priority for this project and it shows — from the intricate gold detailing on Ladybug’s yo-yo to the tiny sparkles embedded in Chat Noir’s suit. This change served as more than just an aesthetic purpose.

Sure, I can’t really get over how different Marinette’s father — Tom — looks but that doesn’t really add much to the story. What did was Gabriel’s dishevelled, unshaven appearance as his new life’s purpose drove him to madness. That man was a mess and his new down-in-the-dumps look almost convinces the audience to take pity on him. And I’m sure that some actually did!

We Have to Address the Love Square

I will never be okay with the fact that both Marinette and Adrien could not for the life of themselves distinguish who their crime-fighting counterparts were beneath their masks. There is not a single Parisian who wore their hair in those clearly outstanding manners. And we can’t forget that these two teenagers never once attempted to disguise their voices. And that would be fine until you realise that they’re both madly in love with their other halves. After that, it’s pretty difficult to forgive how ridiculously oblivious these two are.

With that being said, I really loved how the film ditched their previous ‘hard-to-get’ tactic and just gave viewers the reveal they’d been waiting years for.

Despite my bewilderment as to how Chat Noir developed any romantic feelings towards Ladybug in the original series — as her character treats him like dirt — I appreciate the fact that Ladybug displays little signs of affection towards our feline friend in this one. I could feel the blossoming of feelings during their duet, I liked the fact that Ladybug did play into his ‘sidekick’ label for her in order for Chat to save a little face, and Marinette is actually shown acknowledging her feelings towards the guy but ultimately remains loyal to her crush on Adrien; as she draws a clear line and decides to leave their little rendezvous.

Adrien’s little “How could I ever think she’d fall for me? Behind this mask, there’s just an empty heart” really got to me. It makes sense that he’d fall for Ladybug in this instance because his life’s so lonesome and she’s the first person to actually make him feel something. It’s also cute because Marinette was probably the first person to breathe a little life into him too as he ends up leaving the library upon her arrival, smiling wryly and murmuring — “She’s so weird”.

Disney’s Bought the Rights So, Of Course, They’re Going to Sing

If you know me then you’d know that I love a good musical. However, I had to admit that the words: “What..the..fu-” actually escaped my being as Marinette delivered her first solo within the first five minutes of the film.

There was never a point in time where I thought that the characters of the show needed to sing but upon viewing the film for a second time for the sake of this review, I think that I’m actually on board with this new musical direction. Hawkmoth is shown dancing through back alleys and the guy seems genuinely happy so I’m happy for him. His flexibility definitely took me by surprise and I didn’t even think that his body could move in such a way.

One thing that I’m still struggling to get on board with is the very large disparity between Marinette’s singing voice and her speaking one. It actually made me feel very uncomfortable. And if you’re confused as to what I’m referring to, please view the Netflix version of Marinette’s musical performance and then watch this video.

However, there is an explanation for this. It was recently revealed to be French singer, Lou Jean, who insisted on singing for the English dub version after lending her voice for French Marinette and the team collectively made that into a reality. Do I agree with it? No, not really. But what’s done is done and the difference in voices ends up dulling down as you listen to the songs over and over again.

Now the question is, are the songs actually worth listening to more than once?

That’s really a personal choice on your part. If I wasn’t writing this review, I would’ve never gone back to listen to the mediocre lyrics and none of the melodies would’ve been imprinted in my mind. The songs written for this movie definitely wouldn’t be labelled as ‘infectious’ but they’re certainly not bad — just not very memorable.

Cut the End Scene, You’re Ruining the Movie

I was not a fan of the ending at all and I’m sure that most can agree with me on this.

Including a scene in which Gabriel orders Natalie to carry out his mission of resurrecting his dead wife from her disturbingly preserved slumber is infinitely messed-up. Especially since the writers had successfully redeemed his character by convincing viewers that he had finally learnt the gravity of his actions upon discovering Chat Noir’s true identity.

Ditch the dirty work and just start loving your son like the man Émilie fell in love with!

I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I was a little curious as to why Emily possessed the peacock pendant. Fans of the original show would know that Natalie’s health was shown to deteriorate with each use of the pendant — could Émilie have been the first victim of the pendant’s powers?

We’ve Just Witnessed the Successful Rebirth of A Series

Never did I think that I’d be rooting for this love square that doesn’t require four separate people to exist — but yes, Miraculous: Ladybug & CatNoir — The Movie is a worthy watch.

I liked how Marinette didn’t really rely on her ‘Lucky Charm’ super power to stop the Akumas, I like how Hawkmoth’s powers weren’t over limited, and I like how Adrien was portrayed as a normal grieving teen instead of the unrealistic cheerful overachiever that he was in the show. The boy’s just lost his mother, he needs time to heal.

Overall, the songs are okay, the art is what you should really be sticking around for and I honestly wouldn’t be mad if the studios decided to drop a sequel anytime soon.