As long-time readers of this blog may know, I am a fan of the French children's animated series Miraculous Ladybug (officially, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir). Heck, it was the reason I signed up for Netflix in the first place. I was originally turned on to it by my youngest back in 2016, but while they've outgrown it, I am still watching it to this day, since I am a fifty-something-year-old with the heart, soul, and mind of a fifteen-year-old er, I mean, who is a kid's fiction writer that needs to keep up with the latest marketplace trends.
In case you're not familiar with it, here's a brief description: it's a superhero show that is like a cross between Sailor Moon and Spider-Man where the two leads, Ladybug and Cat Noir, are high school students by day and secret identity superheroes by...well, still mostly day, and they have huge crushes on each other. Only, she likes him when they're regular kids, he likes her when they're in costume, and neither knows each other's identities even though it's totally obvious to us, the viewers (the show makes some in-universe explanations about how the costume distorts other people's perceptions of you). It mostly follows a monster-of-the-week format and is currently in its fifth season. For some reason that I'm sure has to do with complicated licensing and contractual rigamarole but ends up feeling like the film studio equivalent of a coparenting arrangement, Disney+ has all five seasons plus some bonus material, while Netflix has seasons one through three plus a newly-released full-length movie that is based on the show and is the subject of this post.
WARNING: Spoilers to follow!
Okay, so I watched the movie and...well, I have thoughts. Like:
- Why is it billed as "the long-awaited origin story"? The show has already devoted a lot of time to telling the origin story of its heroes. Also, I'm not sure I care for the movie's version of the origin story. In the show, Marinette (Ladybug) originally dislikes Adrien (Cat Noir), thinking that he's just a snobby rich kid, but ends up falling for him after Adrien proves to instead be a nice guy (if I recall correctly, he lends her his umbrella). In the movie, she basically just seems to be smitten right off the bat by his good looks. I get that you don't have as much time in a movie to flesh these things out, but to me it makes Marinette a shallower version of herself.
- Along those lines, I found Movie Marinette to be much more annoying than Show Marinette. I don't know about you, but I thought she was whiny and insecure (yes, Show Marinette is like that once in a while, but aren't we all? Movie Marinette was kind of the distilled essence of that). And wasn't it weird that Gabriel (Adrien's dad and also the Big Bad, Hawk Moth) was a hippie when he was young? The whole thing was like an alternate universe version of the Ladybug world where people randomly break out into song - oh right, I forgot to mention, it's a musical. Which also threw me off, because Marinette's singing voice sounds so much different from her speaking voice.
- I got the impression that the whole "watermelon" joke (as in, Ladybug's red costume with the black spots makes her look like a watermelon) was derived from some fan comments that the writers decided to incorporate into the script in a meta, self-deprecating kind of way.
- The movie, since it was a self-contained, entire arc, ended up resolving the main conflict of the show, which is basically derived from the fact that Marinette, Adrien, and Gabriel didn't know each other's secret identities. As the credits rolled, I wondered - now that the movie has done the "Big Reveal," how is the show going to top it?
- I did like the use of the Wilhelm Scream.
Anyway, I will say that I was entertained, and am still a fan of the franchise in general. And the fact that I have these thoughts only means that I care. I will simply think of the movie as the aforementioned alternate universe version (the show does have time travel, so it would make sense) while I continue to enjoy catching up with Season Five (Disney+ did not alert me to the fact that it had come out last fall).
On another subject, tomorrow will bring the release of another new track off Second Player Score's new album, 4-D! This one is called "Daily Grind," whose title basically says it all. Here are the lyrics:
The time goes flying by so why am I not having any fun?
'Cause when I get up, I'm so fed up I just want it to be done
Don't wanna die, don't wanna live, I'm sick of giving all I've got but fooling no one
This can't be all there is, it's like I'm free but I'm still in a prison
I'm gonna lose my mind, can't take it any more
Stuck in the daily grind, I'm tired and I'm bored
I've got to find some kind of brand-new line before I break down
I'm like a player in a game that's all the same and much too real
Go through the motions, no emotions, now I'm way too numb to feel
Don't wanna live, don't wanna die, I'm simply trying to survive through this ordeal
I know my place in the rat race is right here on the hamster wheel
I'm gonna lose my mind, can't take it any more
Stuck in the daily grind, I'm tired and I'm bored
I've got to find some kind of brand-new line so I can break out
Check it out on all the usual streaming platforms!
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