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Code Lyoko

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Code Lyoko
GenreAdventure
Science fiction Action[1]
Comedy Romance
Created byTania Palumbo
Thomas Romain
Written bySophie Decroisette
Directed byJérôme Mouscadet
StarringSharon Mann
Matthew Géczy
Barbara Scaff
Mirabelle Kirkland
David Gasman
Jodi Forrest
Allan Wenger
Paul Bandey
Christine Flowers
Theme music composerFranck Keller
Ygal Amar
Opening theme"Un monde sans danger" ("A World Without Danger") by Julien Lamassonne (sung in English by Noam)
Ending theme"A World Without Danger" (Instrumental) Season 1
"Break Away" (Instrumental) by Subdigitals Seasons 2–4
ComposersSerge Tavitian
Herman Martin
Country of originFrance
Original languageFrench
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes97[1][a] (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersNicolas Atlan
Christophe di Sabatino
Benoît di Sabatino
ProducerNicolas Altan
Running time26 minutes[1]
Production companiesAntefilms (Season 1)
MoonScoop Group (Seasons 2–3)
Taffy Entertainment (Season 4)
Telegael
Original release
NetworkFrance 3
Release3 September 2003 (2003-09-03) –
10 November 2007 (2007-11-10)

Code Lyoko is a French animated television series created by Thomas Romain and Tania Palumbo and produced by the MoonScoop Group. The series centers on a group of teenagers who travel to the virtual world of Lyoko to battle against a malignant artificial intelligence named XANA who threatens Earth. The scenes in the real world are presented in 2D hand-drawn animation, while the scenes in Lyoko are presented in CGI animation.

The series began its first run with ninety-five episodes on 3 September 2003, on France's France 3, and ended its run on 10 November 2007. It started airing in the United States on 19 April 2004 on Cartoon Network. The show later spawned a live-action/CGI series Code Lyoko: Evolution, which began at the end of 2012. It kept the 3D computer animation style while it focused on Lyoko, the Digital Sea and the Cortex, while live-action for the real world.

Between 2004 and 2007, Code Lyoko aired every day on Cartoon Network, in the Miguzi programming block, at 5:30 P.M. U.S. Eastern Time, sometimes showing two episodes consecutively, in the cases of season finales.

On 31 May 2011, the MoonScoop Group announced on its Facebook page that the show would return for a fifth season; this was partially due to a large dedicated fan base. The season consists of 26 episodes, as well as containing a mixture of live action and CGI. The show was then renamed Code Lyoko: Evolution, and premiered 19 December 2012. It "concluded" in 2013 but has no proper ending, as it ended on a cliffhanger.

Plot

Jeremy Belpois, an 11-year-old boy attending boarding school at Kadic Academy, discovers a quantum supercomputer in an abandoned factory near his school. Upon activating it, he discovers a virtual world called Lyoko with a young girl, Aelita, trapped inside it. A series of bizarre, dangerous events begin to occur at Kadic Academy shortly after the Supercomputer was activated, and Jeremy learns of XANA, a malevolent artificial intelligence/multi-agent system, that also dwells within the Supercomputer, which caused the perilous disturbances. XANA's goal is to destroy Lyoko, and conquer the real world and all human beings.

Throughout Season 1, Jeremy works to materialize Aelita from her virtual form and stop attacks in the real world caused by XANA. Jeremy is aided by his three friends Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, and Yumi Ishiyama (who call themselves the "Lyoko Warriors") as they are virtualized into Lyoko in order to save both worlds from the sinister virtual entity alongside Aelita. In "Code: Earth," Aelita is finally materialized, but the group discovers that XANA had planted a virus inside Aelita, which prevents them from shutting down the Supercomputer, as Aelita "shuts down" along with it.

The second season focuses more on the Lyoko Warriors as Aelita adjusts to life in the real world while Jeremy attempts to develop an anti-virus program for Aelita. In Lyoko, a fifth sector is discovered and the group explores more of Lyoko's secrets and mysteries, especially concerning a mysterious man named Franz Hopper, who went missing ten years ago, supposedly created the Supercomputer, Lyoko, and XANA, and turns out to be Aelita's biological father. The group eventually discovers that Hopper is alive, hiding somewhere in Lyoko to avoid XANA. All the while, XANA attempts to steal Aelita's memory in order to gain the Keys to Lyoko and free itself. At the end of the season, Aelita and Jeremy discover that Aelita does not have a virus, and instead is missing a fragment of hers, which consists of her lost memories. In "The Key," XANA tricks them with a fake fragment and succeeds in stealing Aelita's memory and escaping the Supercomputer into the World Wide Web, which exists in the Digital Sea outside of Lyoko. Aelita appears to die as a result, but is revived when Franz Hopper gives her his Keys to Lyoko, and she has the memories of her former life restored.

In the third season, XANA changes tactics by destroying each of Lyoko's surface sectors one by one, until only Carthage, the fifth sector, is left. The Lyoko Warriors invite William Dunbar as a member, but upon being virtualized, he is possessed by XANA. Shortly after, he destroys the Core of Lyoko, destroying the virtual world and rendering the group helpless against XANA. After what they thought was their defeat, Jeremy receives a coded message from Franz Hopper that allows him to recreate Lyoko and continue the fight against XANA.

At the beginning of the fourth season, the Lyoko Warriors construct a digital submarine, the Skidbladnir (commonly referred to as the "Skid"), to travel across the Digital Sea to destroy XANA's "Replikas," which are copies of Lyoko's sectors that are linked to XANA-controlled supercomputers on Earth, all created for its goal of world domination. XANA uses William as its general throughout the season to defend the Replikas, and sabotage the Lyoko Warriors in any way he can. To prevent suspicion regarding William's disappearance, Jeremy uses a voice synthesizer program in the Supercomputer to pose as William's father in a phone call and inform Kadic's headmaster that William has been brought home with the flu. He also manages to program a spectre to take William's place at Kadic, although the clone has very low-level intelligence and acts very moronic. Near the end of the season, XANA decides to draw energy from all of its Replikas to create the Kolossus, a gigantic, seemingly-invincible monster that later destroys the Skidbladnir. Before it is destroyed, the group saves William from XANA's clutches. After he returned, he had a difficult time gaining the trust of the group. While Ulrich defeats the Kolossus, Franz Hopper sacrifices himself in order to power Jeremy's "anti-XANA program," which destroys XANA upon activation. Shortly after, the group, albeit reluctant due to their nostalgia, decides to shut down the Supercomputer.

Episodes

Main article: List of Code Lyoko episodes
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
126September 3, 2003 (2003-09-03)February 25, 2004 (2004-02-25)
226August 31, 2005 (2005-08-31)December 9, 2005 (2005-12-09)
Prequel2October 2, 2006 (2006-10-02)October 3, 2006 (2006-10-03)
313September 9, 2006 (2006-09-09)October 23, 2006 (2006-10-23)
430May 18, 2007 (2007-05-18)November 10, 2007 (2007-11-10)

Characters

Main article: List of Code Lyoko characters
  • Jeremie Belpois (voiced by Sharon Mann)
  • Aelita Schaeffer (voiced by Sharon Mann)
  • Odd Della Robbia (voiced by Matthew Géczy)
  • Ulrich Stern (voiced by Barbara Weber-Scaff)
  • Yumi Ishiyama (voiced by Mirabelle Kirkland)
  • William Dunbar and X.A.N.A. (voiced by David Gasman)

Development

Original promotional poster for Garage Kids

Origins

Code Lyoko originates from the film short Les enfants font leur cinéma ("The children make their movies"), directed by Thomas Romain and produced by a group of students from Parisian visual arts school Gobelins School of the Image.[2] Romain worked with Tania Palumbo, Stanislas Brunet, and Jerome Cottray to create the film, which was screened at the 2000 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.[3] French animation company Antefilms offered Romain and Palumbo a contract as a result of the film. This led to the development of the pilot, Garage Kids.[2]

Garage Kids was first released in 2001. The project was created by Palumbo, Romain, and Carlo de Boutiny and developed by Anne de Galard. Its producers were Eric Garnet, Nicolas Atlan, Benoît di Sabatino, and Christophe di Sabatino. The project was produced by Antefilms.

Similar to its succeeding show Code Lyoko, Garage Kids was originally intended to be a 26-episode miniseries detailing the lives of four French boarding school students who discover the secret of the virtual world of Xanadu; created by a research group headed by a character known as the "Professor". The pilot featured both traditional animation and CGI.[4]

Garage Kids evolved into Code Lyoko, which began broadcast in 2003, with the virtual world renamed to "Lyoko." Romain, however, left the show to work on the Japanese anime series Ōban Star-Racers.

The factory and boarding school are based on real locations in France. The factory was based on a Renault production plant in Boulogne-Billancourt, which has since been demolished.[5] The school, Kadic Academy, is based on Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux.[6]

Broadcast

In the United States, the series premiered on 19 April 2004 on Cartoon Network. The second season started on 19 September 2005. The two-part XANA Awakens prequel aired on 2–3 October 2006, and the third season started a day later on 4 October 2006. The fourth and final season began on 18 May 2007. The last episode aired on Cartoon Network was "Cousins Once Removed", and the remaining seven episodes were released online. Since 2007, the show began airing on Kabillion until 2015. The show also aired in Latin America and Japan on Jetix.

Since 2015, all of the episodes aired in English (including the prequel XANA Awakens) are currently viewable via YouTube.


In Italy the show was airing on Disney Channel and published on DVD by Delta Pictures Under the label 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Accolades

The series received mostly positive reviews. Code Lyoko was voted as the best show by Canal J viewers in France,[7] and has achieved international fame as well; the show has been rated as one of the best shows on Cartoon Network and Kabillion in the United States, with Cartoon Network having it rated as the #3 best performing show in 2006[8][9] and Kabillion having it as #4 in monthly average views in 2010.[9] The show has reached success in Spain as one of Clan TVE's highest rated shows,[9] on Italy's Rai2 network,[9] and in Finland and the United Kingdom as well. The show also won France's Prix de l'Export 2006 Award for Animation in December 2006.[10]

Merchandise

Several Code Lyoko products have been released, including DVDs, a series of cine-manga by Tokyopop, a series of four novels by Italian publisher Atlantyca Entertainment, apparel and other accessories. In 2006, Marvel Toys released a line of Code Lyoko toys and action figures.

The Game Factory has released three video games based on the show: Code Lyoko and Code Lyoko: Fall of XANA for the Nintendo DS, and Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity for the Wii, PSP, and PlayStation 2. There have been other games released through various mediums, one being Facebook.[9][11]

A series of Clan TVE festivals in Spain included live stage shows based on Code Lyoko among other things.[12] A game show known as Code Lyoko Challenge was planned to be released in late 2012, but fell through.[9]

In January 2011, all four seasons of Code Lyoko were released on iTunes in the US and in France by Moonscoop Holdings, although as of July 2017 only season 4 vol's 1 and 2 are available and other seasons have been removed. In October 2011, all four seasons were released on Amazon Instant Streaming and via DVD in the same countries, however these DVDs are now out of print and extremely difficult to find.[13] On 6 August 2012, all four seasons were made available on Netflix DVD and Instant Watch.

Book series

A series of four chapter books was released by Atlantyca Entertainment and distributed in Italy and other countries. The novels delve deeper into the unanswered questions of the series. Taking place after the end of the series, XANA has miraculously survived and returns, though weakened and initially missing its memories. XANA takes control of Eva Skinner, an American girl, and travels to France in order to infiltrate the gang and kill them off. Unaware of their enemy's presence, the group works to find clues about Aelita's past, left by her father Franz Hopper, and confirm whether or not her mother is still alive somewhere. But at the same time, a terrorist group, the Green Phoenix, has become interested in supercomputer and intend to use both it and the virtual world of Lyoko for evil purposes.

It was confirmed that the series will never be released officially in English, nor the final two books released in French. However, some time later, a fan community came together and sought to not only finish the series but translate it into more languages, including English. They have since completed their work and made it available for free download in September 2014.[14]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Includes the two-part prequel titled "XANA Awakens".
Wikiquote has quotations related to Code Lyoko.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Code Lyoko". Mediatoon Distribution. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Bilan d'apprentissage" [Learning Assessment]. AnimeLand.Com (in French). 1 June 2002. Retrieved 13 June 2011. Aujourd'hui ce projet porte le nom de Garage Kid
  3. ^ "Gobelins - Films d'Annecy 1999/2000/2001 (relativement inédits)". Catsuka (in French). 2 April 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Antefilms presents Garage Kids" (PDF). codelyoko.net. Antefilms. 12 March 2002. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  5. ^ "Sources of inspiration > The factory in real life". CodeLyoko.Fr. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  6. ^ "Sources of inspiration > Lycée Lakanal: Kadic Academy's model". CodeLyoko.Fr. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  7. ^ "Code Lyoko Game Coming to DS". Nintendo World Report. 30 September 2005.
  8. ^ CL Presentation MIPTV 2012 2012-04-19. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
  9. ^ a b c d e f "CL Presentation MIPCOM 09 [Lecture seule]" (PDF). CodeLyoko.Fr. Moonscoop. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  10. ^ "French TV Prix for three". Hollywood Reporter. 13 December 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  11. ^ "Code Lyoko cracks the social gaming space". Kidscreen. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  12. ^ "El Festival del Clan en vídeo [Código Lyoko] (2011)". Código Lyoko España (in Spanish). 26 January 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  13. ^ "Code Lyoko". Facebook. 16 August 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  14. ^ "Chronicles > Chronicle of a translation". CodeLyoko.Fr. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
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