Madeline

File:BookCoverMadeline 6523.jpg

In an old house in Paris, that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines. In two straight lines they broke their bread, and brushed their teeth, and went to bed. They smiled at the good, and frowned at the bad, and sometimes they were very sad. They left the house at half past nine, in two straight lines, in rain or shine. The smallest one- was Madeline.

Madeline is a series of children's picture books first published in 1939 by Ludwig Bemelmans. Throughout the series, a little French boarding school student named Madeline, her eleven friends, her teacher Miss Clavel, her Spanish prankster and friend Pepito (first appearing in Madeline and the Bad Hat), and her dog, Genevieve (first appears in Madeline's Rescue), go on many adventures. Madeline is a brave girl, and though she does get into trouble sometimes, she knows how to fix the situation.

The rest of the books were written and published in The Fifties, including Madeline and the Bad Hat, Madeline and the Gypsies, Madeline in London, Madeline's Christmas (although it wasn't published until the `80's), and Caldecot-winner Madeline's Rescue. After the death of Bemelmans, his son, John Bemelmans wrote several others, including Madeline in America, Madeline Says Merci, Madeline and the Cats of Rome, and Madeline at the White House.

Although critically acclaimed animated versions of the original books were produced throughout The Fifties (the first was even nominated for an Academy Award), it wasn't until 1989 that Cinar and Di C created the widely remembered TV special based on the first book for HBO. It gave names to three of Madeline's friends (Nicole, Danielle, and Chloe) who would be present in later TV showings. The special was a success, so Cinar and Di C created more specials based on the rest of the books. The project also saw a soundtrack CD, "Madeline's Favorite Songs", with music from the specials released.

In 1993, after their partnership with Cinar had ended, Di C decided to make a Madeline TV series. Reusing the character designs, some of the talents (Christopher Plummer was held back by Di C as the narrator), and the Title Theme Tune from the old specials, Madeline's other friends were given names, and had various adventures that were not present in the books. Similar to the specials, the show was filled with Ear Worm music. It premiered on The Family Channel. Some notable differences between the Cinar-Di C Partnership version and this version were new voice actors, some girls hair colors were changed, the animation was much better, and various supporting book characters made more appearances as well. In 1995, more episodes premiered on ABC Saturday mornings, under the title The New Adventures of Madeline. Following a second Soundtrack CD release ("Hats Off To Madeline"), the franchise went into a 4-year hiatus.

The silence ended when Di C made a direct-to-video movie, known as Madeline: Lost in Paris. The plot was a man posing as Madeline's uncle came to take her to a finishing school in Vienna, but it was actually a lace factory that put orphan girls to labor. This movie had a slightly different color palette than the 1993 version, and different voice actors. Released by Disney in 1999, the movie was re-released by Shout! Factory recently, but removing all Disney idents.

This was immediately followed by the 3rd series, in 2000, when Di C made more episodes, also under the title The New Adventures of Madeline, with improved animation (to follow up with the direct-to-video movie). Also, the color palette changed again for a few of the girls. Many of the voice talents also changed in this version. This version of the cartoon premiered on Playhouse Disney. A third soundtrack CD was released shortly after, "Sing-A-Long with Madeline", after which the franchise once again fell silent.

The latest and possibly final project involving everyone's favorite redhead is the direct-to-video movie My Fair Madeline (although it did air on Nickelodeon once), which was released silently in 2004, three years after the regular cartoon ended. The plot was Madeline and her friends going to stop a gang of thieves. There have been no new episodes of the show produced since.

Tristar released a live-action feature-length movie based on Madeline, Madeline and the Bad Hat, Madeline and the Gypsies and Madeline's Rescue in 1998. It followed the books, but also expanded the plotline, because...well, it's a picture book series. The expanded plot was for Madeline and her friends to stop Lord "Cu-Cu Face" Covington from selling the boarding school. Madeline was also turned into an orphan in this version.

Basically, it's not a children's book series, it is the children's book series.

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Madeline provides examples of:

• Adult Fear: Why, hello there, Lost In Paris.
• Alpha Bitch: Vicki in The Movie.
• Antagonist Title: Some episodes have the villain's title placed in. Pepito was the main antagonist of his debut episode, "Madeline Vs. the Bad Hat," and his three cousins were the main antagonists of their own debut episode, "Madeline Vs. the Mean, Nasty, Horrible Hats." And in "Madeline's Holiday with Mr. Grump," the titular grumpy man brings the whole orphanage under his wing and the girls are forced to postpone their Christmas decorations under his care. The lattermost undergoes a full Heel Face Turn when he gets lost in the cold, and the others redeem themselves in the end.
• Art Evolution: Went a long way from the original books to the last special, My Fair Madeline. And it's still evolving, but thankfully now at a slower pace.
• Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: The live-action movie, with the word "damn" used a few times.
• Badass Adorable: Madeline is a brave, cute girl who goes on adventures.
• Badass Decay: While it is not her fault, Madeline gets warped into being the victim of various contrived events that are meant to screw her life over. She tries to convince the gang that robbers are attacking (only to somehow fail, causing her to get banished where she is forced to be more feminine, which threatened to exacerbate the problem), and when she does clash directly with them the final time, she gets thrown into jail for something she did NOT do! Fortunately, Madeline manages to avenge her reputation, but sadly, her series was murdered by the damage... for a time.
• Bad Persons Abuse Animals: During their debuts, Pepito and his three cousins did this to some degree: Pepito himself kept animals in cages, while his cousins attacked them with blowguns and lassoed chickens.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Dumbella and Maximo serve as the main threat in My Fair Madeline.
• Bilingual Bonus: Generous doses of it, considering that the girls are speaking untranslated French through half of everything. Lost in Paris springs to mind.
• Black Bead Eyes: The titular protagonist and her species have these à la Hello Kitty characters, but in Madeline and the Spider Lady, when the girls and their pen-pals sing "The Ants are Coming," a guy who saw the ants gets bulging white eyes with black pupils.
• Blind Idiot Translation:
  • When she and the rest of the girls wonder where Madame Marie went in Madeline's Christmas, Chloé uses "estre" ("Oú est Marie?") The correct verb is "ester." ("Oú esta Marie?")
  • Despite his Spanish heritage and the fact that the 14 are familiar, Pepito uses "Ustedes" instead of "vosotros" ("¡Vengan muchachas!" instead of "¡Venid, muchachas!") during the museum scene in "Madeline Vs. the Mean, Nasty, Horrible Hats." Another time, he mistakenly used the third person present subjunctive form of "correr" ("Corran") instead of the first person present subjunctive form ("Corramos"), as he himself is also attempting to flee danger.
• Bragging Theme Tune: "I'm Madeline". Also counts as an "I Am" Song.
• Catch Phrase: Miss Clavel turning on the light and whispering "Something is not right". Usually happens Once Per Book. It was even turned into a song in the 1993 movie.
• Channel Hop: From HBO to ABC Family to ABC to Disney Channel.
  • In Malaysia: RTM-TV2 to Disney Channel to Playhouse Disney Channel.
• Chekhov's Army: At the start of Madeline and the Fourty Thieves, we see a pair of magpies fly briefly across the screen. It turns out that they are the 40 thieves.
• Christmas Episode: A number of them, actually.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Nicole in the cartoon.
  • And Cloe in the first special.
• Creator Cameo: In the animated series episode Madeline at the Louvre, Madeline meets up with an artist named after Ludwig himself.
• Darker and Edgier: Compare Lost in Paris to the rest of the franchise.
  • My Fair Madeline qualifies as well.
• Diabolus Ex Nihilo: Why Dumbella and Maximo from My Fairy Madeline became criminals has never been explained.
• Did Not Do the Research: Happened a few times, but then the series is not to be taken seriously in the first place. For example, Madeline In Egypt had the characters locked in a museum by accident, and they had lunch next with King Tut, implying that they were eating lunch next to the sarcophagus. In this reality we live in, neither the sarcophagus nor King Tut's body has ever left the tomb due to the well-known curse. So it couldn't be in the museum. And outside food and drinks in a museum? Can that even happen?
  • The lunchboxes aren't so unusual. Different museums would have different rules, but a school field trip might well be allowed to bring lunches.
  • Most notably, the main character's name is mispronounced in order to function in the rhyme scheme--the French pronunciation of her name should be something like Mad-LEN.
  • And then there's the girls introducing French fries to the US. Erm, fries/chips weren't even French- they originated from Belgium.
• Disney Acid Sequence: Used in every song, but much, much more in the Di C version (ironic since they used to be with Disney).
  • Unsurprisingly, this show airs on the Disney channel in regions outside the US.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Fifi in Lost in Paris, due to her lack of sunlight, has pale skin. When she escapes and receives proper care, she gets more fair skin.
• Everything Sounds Cuter In French
• Freudian Excuse: Madeline and the Bad Hat shows glimpses as to Pepito's behavior; since his parents are busy ambassadors, he vents out his frustrations on animals.
  • According to Fifi, Madame LaCroque used to dance the Can-can prior to her transformation into a villain. After a series of accidents during one performance, she got ridiculed, causing her to storm off and vow never to perform again. She shaved herself bald to make lace and then things get worse, biting several innocent orphan kids in the butt until Madeline got involved.
• Gaslighting:
  • In Madeline: Lost in Paris, Madame LaCroque forces the orphans in her care to never go out and gets them to believe that escape is impossible just so she can continue treating them like slaves. Madeline gets dumped in but manages to invert the trope herself by getting them to revolt.
  • In My Fair Madeline, the villains successfully gaslight the guards to make them think Madeline is insane, resulting in her banishment to Britain. While she does get herself vindicated, the damage ends up lethal for the series.
• Hair of Gold: Yvette and this curly blond girl in the show (she became a brunette in 2001), and Vicki in the movie.
  • That would be Sugar Dimples, the show's universe's Expy of Sherley Temple.
• Hate Sink: These are few and far between, but Dumbella from My Fair Madeline stands out. She and Maximo are the film's primary threat, as their attempt to rob the Louvre Museum ends with Madeline getting exiled to a British finishing school, which threatens to inflict her with Badass Decay, if not exacerbate it. Later, Dumbella pulls a nasty Taking You with Me that leads to Madeline getting thrown into jail!
• Heartwarming Orphan: Madeline in the second Di C series and The Movie. All other adaptions have her parents alive and well (the old house is a Catholic boarding school, not an orphanage).
  • And the orphans in Lost in Paris.
• Heel Face Turn:
  • Pepito changes his ways for the better in "Madeline and the Bad Hat" when he tries to force some dogs to attack a cat... that jumps on top of his head, resulting in HIM getting mauled instead by his own Deadly Prank.
  • Mr. Grump in "Madeline's Holiday With Mr. Grump"
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Pepito gets attacked by dogs that were meant to attack a cat, leading to his transformation into a protagonist.
• Ill Girl: Fifi in Lost in Paris.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Again, Fifi. Of course, by the end, it goes away.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Vicki in The Movie.
  • And Pepito to some extent.
• Lampshade-Wearing: In Madeline and the Big Cheese. See CMOF page for details.
• Licensed Games / Edutainment Games: Tons of edutainment titles came out for PC/Macs between the 90s and the turn of the century. Chances are if you studied grade school in the US during the 90s, you would've played one of the titles in the classroom.
• Little Miss Badass: If you ever face a tiger, always do what Madeline does. Say this:

Madeline: (to tiger) Pooh-pooh!

• Mama Bear: Miss Clavel.
• Merchandise-Driven: Well, it started with books, and even today, toys are still being produced.
• Meganekko: Chantel in the movie.
• Nice Hat: The girls' all wear yellow hats with black ribbons on them.
• No Antagonist: Played straight most of the time. The only places where antagonists show up are in the two direct-to-DVD movies and in Madeline and the Singing Dog.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Genevieve, the dog.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: When Madeline sings Without You in Madeline And The Science Project. If you're able to refrain yourself from crying, you'll notice that Madeline has suddenly lost her French accent.
• Orphanage of Fear: The orphange gets warped into this during the events of "Madeline's Holiday with Mr. Grump." The titular antagonist takes over and the girls are forced to cancel their Christmas activities. He gets undone after getting bamboozled, but recovers and reforms.
• Orphanage of Love: Madeline and her friends go to this, getting great care from Madamoiselle Clara Clavel.
• Oh Crap: Madeline helped Pepito free all animals and no longer abuse them. It worked a little too well when Pepito starts freeing animals in the zoo!
• The Other Darrin: The cast went through a few changes in the cartoon. In particular, Madeline herself went through 4 different voice actors through the series and specials.
• The Power of Friendship: "We love our bread. We love our butter. But most of all, we love each other."
• Put on a Bus: Pepito left for London in Madeline in London.
  • Di C brought him back.
• Redheaded Hero: Madeline.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Everyone in the books and specials, the narrators of the series and movie.
• Ruptured Appendix: In the first book, Madeline gets crippled when her appendix goes bad and eventually bursts. It is taken out later.
• Talking To Herself: You get that when Miss Clavel talks to Genevieve in the animated series. Although Genevieve could only bark back.
• Taking You with Me: Dumbella does a nasty one after she and Madeline clash for the last time in My Fair Madeline. During her attempts to stop Dumbella's getaway, Madeline receives assistance from her friends, causing the clown to be exposed. She is then given the crown by Dumbella, who gaslights the police into thinking that Madeline is the true thief. This ends up dumping Madeline into jail, but Emma manages to free her following her Jerkass Realisation.
• That Reminds Me of a Song: Every episode.
• The Exile: Madeline is banished to Britain after her attempts to stop the robbers blow up in her face. Later, she gets thrown in jail when Dumbella dupes them into arresting her.
• Title Sequence Replacement:
  • Disney Channel tacked the theme song of The New Adventures of Madeline onto the original specials and Family Channel-era episodes.
  • The post-Lost-in-Paris episodes of the show broadcast Asia had the theme song of Hats off to Madeline, the second series theme song, replacing Oh Madeline, the third series theme song.
• Toy Ship: Pepito develops a crush on Madeline.
• Trail of Bread Crumbs: In "Lost in Paris", Madeline drops beads so that her friends can follow her to wherever her "uncle" is taking her. She probably would have been condemned to wandering the streets of her home city lost if they didn't pick up the trail.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Mr. Grump brings the orphanage under his wing in "Madeline's Holiday With Mr. Grump," leading to trouble.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: "A Bad Bad Hat," describing Pepito's mischievous period during his debut episode.

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It's time to go, au revoir, Though you may shout, "Encore!" That's all there is, There isn't any more!