[HanCinema's Film Review] "Miraculous"

Marinette (voiced by Yeo Min-jeong-I) is an unorganized, generally clumsy multiracial high school student living in Paris who can transform into a superhero called Ladybug. Along with her more suave, handsome, and wealthy classmate Adrien (voiced by Nam Doh-hyeong), who transforms into a superhero called Cat Noir, they fight supervillains created by Hawk Moth (voiced by Hong Si-ho). The overall purpose of these battles is kind of vague, as befits the Super Sentai format, although it does help that the villains are just normal people Marinette and Adrien meet who enter into contracts with Hawk Moth upon having a very bad day.

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"Miraculous" is a repackaging of three episodes of the Miraculous cartoon- specifically, the ones featuring the villains Lady Wifi, Santa Claws, and The Puppeteer. If you want to see more character designs than that don't worry. Various other bits of other episodes are included so we also get to see the likes of Stormy Weather, Evilustrator, Rogercop, Gamer, Guitar Villain, and there's probably others I'm forgetting.

The point is, the obvious strength of "Miraculous" is in its character designs, so I'm not terribly surprised that this particular version of the TV show is making a point of showing as many off as possible. As advertising strategies go it's a pretty slick one. Normally these animated compilations never get more than brief bemusement from me but I have to admit, I am somewhat curious as to what convoluted turn of events is necessary to convince a rock star to make a deal with the devil. I mean, aside from the one he made to become a rock star in the first place obviously.

See that? That's a cheesy joke, the kind that director Thomas Astruc loves to tell time and again. Marinette frequently behaves like a total dork, yet this is constantly played up as a crucial part of her charm. The irony of Marinette also secretly being the incredibly graceful Ladybug is just that- simple faintly amusing dramatic irony. Also take note of how Marinette has an obvious crush on Adrian, whereas Cat Noir openly flirts with with Ladybug, working against Adrian's generally aloof personality.

There are also songs- but only in the Santa Claws section, which appears to be a special episode rather than a normal one, hence why it breaks the normal format. They...unfortunately call attention to the fact that music design is not the strong suit of "Miraculous", not that this is necessarily all that important an aspect to a children's cartoon in the first place. I only bring it up because I rather liked the reprise portion of the Santa Claws villain song.

That much credit I have to give to the production team- they clearly have a lot of fun making "Miraculous". It's far more distinctive than any superhero-themed product has a right to be in this day and age. Visually it's pretty much the same as any other SAMG Animation, but as an overall product, it benefits a lot from the combined creative input with Zagtoon and Toei, and ends up coming off as pretty decent.

Review by William Schwartz

"Miraculous" is directed by Thomas Astruc and voiced by Yeo Min-jeong-I, Nam Doh-hyeong, Hong Si-ho and Jang Eun-sook.