''Totally Spies!'' is an

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

spy-fi series created by

Vincent Chalvon-Demersay Vincent Chalvon-Demersay (born 23 February 1965) is a French producer. He was born in Paris and is the creator of the animated series '' Totally Spies'', '' Martin Mystery'', '' Team Galaxy'' and '' The Amazing Spiez!''. He joined Marathon Media ...

and David Michel mainly produced by French animation company Marathon Media and French broadcaster TF1, with seasons 3 to 5 being co-produced with Canadian company Image Entertainment Corporation. It focuses on three teenage girls from

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, who work as undercover agents for the World Organization of Human Protection (WOOHP). This is the first television series to be co-produced by the two production companies, the second being '' Martin Mystery'', and employs an animation style modelled on

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

. ''Totally Spies!'' premiered on 3 November 2001 on ABC Family (now Freeform) in the U.S. before moving to

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

less than two years later. It premiered on TF1 in France on 3 April 2002, and on

Teletoon Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and "cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts an ...

in Canada on 2 September 2002. Since the series' debut, 156 episodes were broadcast, comprising six seasons and several specials. An upcoming seventh season, titled ''Totally Spies! Woohp World'', is currently scheduled for a 2023 release. Several products tied to the series have been released, including various comic books, novels and video games. A

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term ...

feature film, '' Totally Spies! The Movie'', released between the fifth and sixth seasons and co-produced with Italy, was theatrically released in 2009 in France, and later aired in the US on Cartoon Network in 2010.

Premise

The series focuses around the adventures of three teenage girls from

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, USA – Sam,

Clover Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus ...

, and

Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple p ...

– who live a double life as secret agents working for the World Organization of Human Protection (WOOHP). The girls are recruited by the organization's leader, Jerry, to solve worsening crime conditions that arise across the globe. The spies sport colourful latex

jumpsuits A jumpsuit is a one-piece garment with sleeves and legs and typically without integral coverings for feet, hands or head. The original jump suit is the functional one-piece garment used by parachuters. The original skydivers' jumpsuits wer ...

and are provided with various gadgets to aid in their investigations. Their primary missions involve dealing with disgruntled and vengeful criminals who have been inconvenienced in some form in the past. Other missions have the same villains plotting revenge on the spies by ruining their personal lives. Framing each episode is a subplot that focuses on the girls' everyday lives as high school (and later university) students, dealing with relationships and their longtime high school nemesis Mandy.

Cast

* Sam (voiced by

Claire Guyot Claire Guyot (born 28 June 1966) is a French actress and singer, known for her prolific dubbing of foreign productions. She is also artistic director of dubbing. Most notably for the famous American actresses Teri Hatcher, Sarah Michelle Gellar ...

in the French version and by Jennifer Hale in the English version) is the intellectual of the trio. She acts as an elder sister to her friends, being rational, logical, and the most mature of the group. More sensible than Alex and less superficial than Clover, her intelligence and composure allow her to find effective solutions to complicated problems. *

(voiced by Fily Keita in French and by

Andrea Baker Andrea Baker (née Taylor) is an American actress. In film, she is known for her role as Peggy Jane in the 1998 film '' Pleasantville'', as well as her voice roles portraying Clover in the French-Canadian animated television series ''Totally Spie ...

in English) is the fashionable one of the trio. While she is athletic, agile and strong, she is also impulsive and spontaneous, never thinking twice before jumping into the action. She is always ready to teach villains a lesson, even if she has no chance of winning against them. *

(voiced by Céline Mauge in French and by Katie Leigh (seasons 1–2) and Katie Griffin (seasons 3–6) in English) is the heart of the trio. Though somewhat modest in their presence, she admires Sam and Clover and values her friendship with them above all else, and will do anything to keep the trio united and happy. She is very affectionate and unafraid to show her feelings. * Jerry (voiced by Jean-Claude Donda in French and Jess Harnell (seasons 1–2) and Adrian Truss (seasons 3–6) in English) is the founder and president of WOOHP and the trio's superior. He is in charge of sending them on missions, and takes a certain pleasure in summoning them at inopportune moments. Despite his age, he is sufficiently athletic when helping the trio on certain missions. He remains attached to his cultural roots and often plays with his British phlegm with the trio, who do not hesitate to tease him about his cheesy gentlemanly demeanor.

Development and production

The series' conception came from the rise of girl groups and female singers in the music industry. Wanting to capitalize on the niche, David Michel and

put their idea into development, which later shifted into production within a year. According to Michel, the series' animation style was influenced by

. The production company, Marathon Media, intended on building on the series brand by forming a three-piece girl band, utilizing German talk show ''

Arabella ''Arabella'', Op. 79, is a lyric comedy, or opera, in three acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration. Performance history It was first performed on 1 July 1933 at the Dr ...

'' to create it. Using a panel of judges, 20 demo videos were selected and the winners were selected based on the strength of their performance and the series' viewers. The band was selected and released a single in the spring of 2002, through EMI. According to managing director Dirk Fabarius, "The plan is to eventually create an entire album and establish and promote Totally Spies as a real band." While the idea did not materialize, the series was promoted through other merchandising. It was announced in Spring 2001 that the series would air in the fall on

ABC Family The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...

in the United States, and would be distributed to the European countries in the following year. In an interview with WorldScreen.com, Michel explained that prior to the series, there were a lot of boy action-adventure shows and practically nothing for girls, yet in pop culture, there was

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage producti ...

and

Spice Girls The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and ...

. He explained that the characters are heavily inspired by the movie '' Clueless'' and wanted to mix that with a

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

format. When they first pitched the show, it had a moderate response, but when the first season was broadcast, the ''Charlie's Angels'' film came out, and suddenly the market was full of girl show properties. According to an article "Achieving a Global Reach on Children's Cultural Markets" by Valerie-Ines de la Ville and Laurent Durup, the series was originally designed to reach an American audience, but has garnered appeal from its humor "based on a stereotypical European vision of American references" while "appearing to be original and innovative to the U.S. audience". Producer and artistic director Stephane Berry explained that the style "is a melting between the American style, which associates action and comedy, and Japanese design for the aesthetic environment and the emotions expressed through the large eyes of the characters." Some of the common references have included ''

Charlie's Angels ''Charlie's Angels'' is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC from September 22, 1976, to June 24, 1981, producing five seasons and 115 episodes. The series was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and was produced by ...

'',

, '' The Avengers'',

and its gadgets, and '' Cat's Eye''. The head writers for the series were Robert and Michelle Lamoreaux who were based in Los Angeles, and who had worked on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

shows. Demersay and Stephane Berry had both recently worked with Saban entertainment in Europe. In a GeoCities interview, Kate Griffin, who voices Alex, mentioned that the typical session for the three girls is that they would record as an ensemble, but through a phone patch, with Hale and Baker calling from Los Angeles, and herself in Toronto. Following the end of the fifth season, the series's movie, ''Totally Spies! The Movie'', was produced and released to theatres in France on 22 July 2009. The movie received a telecast release in the United States, on 25 April the following year, coinciding with the airing of the series' fifth season there. In August 2011, Marathon Media confirmed that production for the sixth season was underway and set to premiere in 2013. The sixth series would be produced only by Marathon in association with TF1 and The Walt Disney Company France. It was later confirmed that 26 episodes would be produced and that the series would be licensed in Spain and Latin America, with European territories following suit. To coincide with the sixth season's premiere, Zodiak Kids CP Paris, in association with Château de Versailles Spectacles (CVS) and TF1, organized an event at the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

, taking place during Summer 2013. The event would be preceded with activities including a screening of a special featuring the spies on a mission in the palace gardens. On 8 January 2022, Thomas Astruc, the creator of ''

Miraculous Ladybug ''Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir'' (also known as ''Miraculous Ladybug'', ''Miraculous'', or ''Ladybug'') is a computer-animated magical girl superhero television series. The series focuses on two Parisian teenagers, Marinette Dupain-C ...

'', who had previously worked on ''Totally Spies!'', announced on Twitter that a new season of the latter was "in the making". On the 13th, the seventh season of the series was officially announced to be titled ''Totally Spies! Woohp World'', complete with revised character designs for Sam, Alex and Clover. It is set to premiere in 2023. The upcoming series will be produced by Zodiak Kids & Family Studio France, with Ollenom (Production subsidiary of fellow Zodiak Kids & Family subsidiary Monello Productions) as co-producer, and French-broadcaster Gulli and Latin American-broadcaster Discovery Kids as participators.

Episodes

Telecast and home media

In the U.S., ''Totally Spies!'' premiered on 3 November 2001 on Fox Family/ABC Family (now Freeform). It later premiered in Europe on pay-TV and terrestrial channels such as Germany's

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

, France's TF1, United Kingdom's

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

and the localised

Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a jo ...

channels throughout the region during the spring of 2002. The show was moved to

in July 2003 in the United States, where it attracted 1.6 million viewers (aged 4–10) daily and continued airing until 10 September 2010. In 2019, the show aired weeknights on the

Universal Kids Universal Kids is an American children's television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel launched on September 26, 2005, as PBS Kids Sprout, a preschool-oriented channel joint ...

channel, which broadcast the show's sixth season for the first time in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. ''Totally Spies!'' has attracted over one million viewers in France since its debut. It was re-licensed and its sixth season, along with '' Totally Spies! The Movie'' and the show's spin off '' The Amazing Spiez!''. The show aired its sixth season in France and is being aired around Europe. In Canada, season 6 began airing on 7 September 2014 on

, and on 6 September on Télétoon. The show has been aired worldwide on various networks, such as TF1 in France;

in Canada, Fox Family/ABC Family,

in the US;

Jetix Jetix (stylized as JETIX) was a children's entertainment brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The brand was for a slate of action/adventure-related programming blocks and television channels. Jetix programming mainly originated from the ...

, and

Boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning ...

in Latin America and Brazil on pay-TV;

Rede Globo TV Globo (, "Globe TV", or simply Globo), formerly known as Rede Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Grupo Globo. The TV stati ...

in Brazil on terrestrial TV;

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Philippine commercial broadcast network that serves as the flagship property of ABS-CBN Corporation, a company unde ...

in the Philippines on terrestrial TV; ART Teenz,

MBC 3 MBC 3 is a free-to-air children's channel launched on 8 December 2004, and appeals to children under the age of 15. All foreign television animated programs have been dubbed into Arabic. The channel also produces its own original programmes. It ...

in the Middle East;

Dragon Club A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

in China; TVB in Hong Kong;

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...

, and

channels in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. In Australia, it was shown on

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of fiv ...

and later on

10 Peach 10 Peach is an Australian free-to-air television channel operated by Network 10. It was launched on 11 January 2011 as Eleven. It is owned by ElevenCo, which was established as a joint venture between Ten Network Holdings and CBS Studios Inte ...

(formerly Eleven) as part of their Toasted TV block. Seasons 3–4 was aired on

POP Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ( ...

in the United Kingdom from 2013. Season 5 started airing in 2015 and season 6 the following year in 2016. It was also briefly aired on its sister network, Pop Girl. It was aired on

BBC Alba BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day with BBC Radio nan Gàidheal ...

in Scotland. Season 1 aired on Disney Channel and Disney XD. It aired in Ireland on

RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

from 11 September 2002 until 2009. Since 2012, the show has had an official YouTube channel that has uploaded the majority of the episodes and even the film, and normally uploads random clips every Saturday. As of 24 April 2021, all six seasons of ''Totally Spies!'' are also available on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pr ...

, which currently has the exclusive streaming rights in the U.S. In the year of 2004, Goodtimes Entertainment released the first twelve episodes of the show's first season on VHS and DVD in three volumes: ''Totally Spies Volume 1: First Secret Missions'', ''Totally Spies Volume 2: The Getaway'', and ''Totally Spies Volume 3: Spies Attack''. Coinciding with the production and release of the show's sixth season, New Video Group/Flatiron Film Company acquired US DVD rights for the series as well as some digital rights for the first three seasons of the series. They've released the first and second seasons (in two volumes each), as well as a box set containing seasons one through three. The third season was finally released in two volumes on 14 January 2014. As of 2020, these DVD sets are now out of print and very hard to find. Totally Spies DVDs are also released in the United Kingdom by Sanctuary Visual Entertainment in 2005 and 2006, ''Totally Spies – First Secret Missions'' and ''Totally Spies – Spy Gladiators''. This is released on DVD &

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

in the U.S. by

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Video, MCA/Universal Home Video, MCA Home Video, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette, Inc.) is the home video distribution division of Am ...

Reception

Joly Herman of '' Common Sense Media'' gave the series a mixed review, rating the show 3 out of 5 stars and writing that "We think it's a decent show to catch once in a while, but anything more regular might give viewers the like, slightest headache." Joe Corey of ''Inside Pulse'' had a more positive review, calling the show "fun enough for small kids who want a Charlie's Angels undercover action show. The trio does their best to balance the fun of being in the espionage game without it being too risky." Matt Hinrichs of ''DVD Talk'' gave a positive review, calling the action in the first three seasons "decently written enough for adults to enjoy." After four seasons, the show had reached over 130 countries and was met with enthusiasm among ages 6–11 that included both girls and boys, and had a

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of what each of thos ...

-like appeal to a broad range of age and gender. In an interview before season three, David Michel said, "The one thing that surprised us the most is the consistency in the male / female viewership split: from Brazil to Italy, we have a 50% boys 50% girls audience ratio, whereas everybody was predicting the show would score very low on boys." Scott Stoute of ScreenRant listed the show among his "10 Girl Cartoons (That Guys Secretly Love)" list.

Controversy

The

Parents Television Council The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), is an American media advocacy group founded by conservative Christian activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which advocates for what it considers ...

, in their March 2006 report, noted that the show did not contain offensive language but expressed concern about the "nature of the violence of the show" in an episode where rats were released to psychologically torture Jerry and Clover, and the sexual content exampled by a sunblock ad by a bikini-clad woman.

Merchandise

Video games

The ''Totally Spies'' series was initially followed up with two video games titled ''Totally Spies!'' and ''Totally Spies! 2: Undercover''. Both were developed by Mistic Software and published by

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, Ca ...

for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and/or

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...

. IGN rated ''Totally Spies! 2: Undercover'' with a score of 4.0/10 citing poor overall game presentation. ''Totally Spies! 3: Secret Agents'' was released in Europe and Australia for the Nintendo DS. ''Totally Spies! Totally Party'' was released in North America, Europe and Australia for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on ...

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

and PC.

Spin-off and crossover

A spin-off series called '' The Amazing Spiez!'' features new characters as spies, retaining Jerry as a regular character in the show. While the series focuses on four young teenage siblings—Lee, Megan, Marc, and Tony Clark, the three spy girls make an appearance on the crossover episode "Operation: Dude Ranch Disaster" from season 1. The show had its world premiere on 15 March 2009, on Disney Channel Asia; and its US premiere on 26 April 2010, on Cartoon Network. In Canada, the show premiered on 2 September 2010 on

. Only the first season and ten Season 2 episodes aired in the US. ''Totally Spies!'' also had a crossover episode in season 5 titled "Totally Mystery Much?" with '' Martin Mystery'', a Marathon-produced series that aired from 2003 to 2006.

Comics and books

''Totally Spies!'' comics were released monthly in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. Five books with about 90 pages came out in Brazil as well. Each book represents an episode from the series. There is another comic called ''Totally Spies Unleashed''; this opens with "I Hate the 80s!", in which a bad guy, Boogie Gus, has invented a retro ray that de-ages people. The second story, "Attack of the 50 Ft. Mandy", turns their nemesis into a giant in a plot that involves a beauty contest and an escaped evil scientist. Chapter books have also been released.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Disney co-productions 2000s Canadian animated comedy television series 2000s Canadian animated television series 2000s Canadian high school television series 2000s French animated television series 2001 Canadian television series debuts 2001 French television series debuts 2002 Canadian television series debuts 2002 French television series debuts 2010s Canadian high school television series 2010s French animated television series 2013 French television series endings 2015 Canadian television series endings Animated television series about teenagers Anime-influenced Western animated television series Banijay franchises Canadian children's animated action television series Canadian children's animated adventure television series Canadian children's animated comedy television series Canadian television series revived after cancellation English-language television shows Espionage television series Fiction about memory erasure and alteration Fiction about mind control Fictional Muay Thai practitioners French children's animated action television series French children's animated adventure television series French children's animated comedy television series Teen animated television series Teletoon original programming Television controversies in Canada Television controversies in France Television series by Banijay Television series by Image Entertainment Corporation Television series revived after cancellation Television shows adapted into video games Television shows set in Beverly Hills, California Television shows set in Malibu, California TF1 original programming