Totally Spies! The Movie

Last updated

Totally Spies! The Movie
Totally Spies The Movie (Final Poster).jpg
French theatrical release poster
French Totally Spies! Le film
Directed byPascal Jardin
Written by
  • Michelle Lamoreaux
  • Robert Lamoreaux
Based on
Produced by
  • Vincent Chalvon-Demersay
  • David Michel
Starring
Edited byRodolphe Ploquin
Music by
  • Paul-Étienne Côté
  • Maxime Barzel
Production
companies
Distributed byMars Distribution
Release dates
  • 28 June 2009 (2009-06-28)(Grand Rex)
  • 22 July 2009 (2009-07-22)(France)
Running time
84 minutes
Countries
  • France
  • Italy
LanguageFrench
Budget 5 million
Box office $1.3 million [1]

Totally Spies! The Movie (French: Totally Spies! Le film) is a 2009 animated spy-action film directed by Pascal Jardin and written by Robert and Michelle Lamoreaux. A French-Italian co-production, it is an adaptation of the TF1's animated television series Totally Spies! created by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel.

Contents

The film is a prequel to the television series and covers how the girls first met and shows how they became spies for the World Organization of Human Protection (WOOHP). It stars the voices of the original French cast of the television series, and also features the voice of German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld as the main antagonist. It is the first theatrical film based on a TF1's TFOU animated series.

Totally Spies! The Movie premiered at the Grand Rex on 28 June 2009, and was released in France on 22 July 2009 by Mars Distribution. [2] It received mixed reviews from critics. Internationally, it made its debut direct-to-television on Cartoon Network.

Plot

The film begins with three teenage girls named Samantha, Alexandra, and Clover starting their new lives in Beverly Hills, CA. As each of them were about to cross paths outside a sushi restaurant, nearby WOOHP agents purposely cause the giant sushi roll above the entrance to break off and chase after them, setting some nearby animals free in the process. The giant sushi roll, with the three girls log rolling on top of it, chases an American Landrace piglet to the street. The three girls are able to avoid it and Alex saves the life of the piglet (which she later adopts and names "Oinky") and the girls destroy the sushi roll before it causes any damage. After that, Alex, Sam, and Clover introduce themselves and this starts their friendship when they later see each other again at their new school, meet the current principal Miss Skrich and their rivals, Mandy, Dominique and Caitlin. Clover offers her new friends a change of clothes after Mandy sprays them with a chai machine, but they find themselves sucked in through a locker and into one of the offices of WOOHP. Here, they meet Jerry Lewis and fellow WOOHP agent Tad. Jerry reveals that WOOHP had been observing the three of them secretly since childhood, showing videos of each girl, and picking them as prime recruits for the organization. The girls are quick to reject the invitation and refuse to join, but they later are "forced" into training after each having traumatic experiences that seemingly relate to WOOHP. They agree to go through training and in 48 hours, complete their training.

After training, they're thrown into their first mission when famous celebrities, including rock star Rob Hearthrob and animal psychologist Peppy Wolfman, have been mysteriously abducted. This also shows how the girls obtained their differently colored uniforms (thanks to a design suggestion by Clover). They first go to Wolfman's building where Alex has Oinky "go hog wild for mommy" as a distraction, and Oinky deliberately runs around the lobby with the other animals and the receptionist in pursuit. They later find that each went through a makeover by a mysterious machine called the "Fabulizor", discovered thanks to security footage in Wolfman's office. They later see that everyone at school also had gone through the Fabulizor, having the same look the next day, and Oinky ends up going through the Fabulizor, getting the same makeover as well. This is after nearly being blasted by one of the bad guy's minions in a fighter jet while being flown back to school and after nearly avoiding Miss Skritch as they sneak back into school. Tailing Mandy that night, they find that all of those who went through the Fabulizor became hypnotized by a special chip in their cheekbones prior to the makeover and Alex spots Oinky behind the crowd and grabs onto him, with Sam and Clover grabbing onto Alex as they get abducted into a strange space station out in space, after being abducted they disguised themselves as one of them by adding makeup. They then meet the mastermind behind the entire affair, Fabu, a runway model who quickly lost fame in five minutes on the runway and was ashamed of not being a part of the crowd during his childhood. The spies accidentally expose themselves and are captured by Fabu's strongest henchmen. He then relates his entire plan, to abduct everyone who went through the Fabulizor and place them inside a special space station which he calls Fabutopia to live out new lives in the posh surroundings, then uses a missile to destroy all of Earth, before using his Fabulizor in reverse and give the girls each horrible makeovers (Sam gets green skin, Clover grows a unibrow and Alex gets massive pimples). He then sets them to be blasted back to Earth in rockets. But just as he leaves, things get more difficult when Tad meets the girls again while they are still imprisoned and says he will let them fail the mission and stop Fabu himself, taking all the credit and regaining his "favorite agent" status with Jerry.

But after a fight with Fabu, Tad is strapped to the missile bound for Earth. The girls manage to escape and, after fixing the Fabulizor's damage to themselves, go after Fabu. They are unable to stop the missile from taking off but hitch a ride as it is rocketing towards Earth with Tad still attached to it. They are able to turn the missile around to destroy the station, surprising the girls since they had no idea of how to stop it earlier, and Alex whacks at the control panel with the WOOHP manual. They then are picked up by a surprise appearance from Jerry in one of WOOHP's ships and rescue the kidnapped people from aboard the station (freeing them of the hypnotic trance by destroying Fabu's signal beacon in his staff) and evacuate safely, including Oinky, who Alex thought was never going to make it out in time, only to see him run fast to her, finally reunited with Alex before the missile explodes and destroys the station in a firework finale. They then chase after Fabu's ship, manage to destroy it, and catch Fabu and his Sphynx in his escape pod.

After the mission, the girls admit that the mission was difficult at first, but it also made them friends, so they accept their position as spies. But before that, they later return to school to face punishment from the principal for the "damage" they caused when trying to avoid her earlier on in the movie (thanks to Sam using a laser lipstick to cut an escape hole in the wall earlier). But fortunately, it seems that thanks to WOOHP, they have a new principal (who goes off unnamed) who seemingly does not know about the girls' punishment and gives Sam high praise. Miss Skritch had been transferred to another school in Siberia in an igloo (which has biogeographically misplaced penguins) as punishment by the Beverly Hills school district for child abuse, Fabu, Yuri and Tad are later imprisoned and set for punishment by WOOHP, and everyone who was rescued from aboard Fabu's space station have their minds erased (including Mandy). But just after the girls celebrate getting even with Mandy for the last time, courtesy of one of WOOHP's gadgets, they are notified of another mission. The girls are quick to bring up personal appointments but soon find themselves running from a WOOHP jet as it prepares to suck them aboard. But the girls are ready for their next mission as they change into their spy uniforms and exclaim their friendship, ending the film.

Voice cast

Character name (English, if different) [3] Original French voice actor [4] [5] English voice actor [6]
Clover Fily Keita Andrea Baker
Sam Claire Guyot Jennifer Hale
Alex Celine Mauge Katie Griffin
Jerry Lewis Jean-Claude DondaAdrian Truss
Mandy Celine MaugeJennifer Hale
Fabu Karl Lagerfeld Joris Jarsky
TadEmmanuel GarijoJay Schramek [7]
Madame Scritch (Mrs. Scritch)Perrette Pradier Barbara Budd
Peppy Garou (Peppy Wolfman)Thierry Mercier Walker Boone
Groin Groin (Oinky)  
Rob Idole (Rob Hearthrob)Donald ReignouxLyon Smith
YuriAntoine ToméJason Gray

Release

French teaser poster. TotallySpiesTheMoviePoster.jpg
French teaser poster.

Theatrical

The film was released in France on 22 July 2009, in 272 theaters. The world premiere was held on 28 June 2009, at the Grand Rex cinema in Paris.

Television

The film aired on Disney Channel Asia on 27 February 2010, a week later that of the premiere of the season finale adaptation of its spin-off, The Amazing Spiez! . The film premiered on the British children's channel Pop on 29 March 2016. The film was first shown in the US on Cartoon Network on 25 April 2010.

DVD release

A DVD of the movie in its original language, French, was released in France on 3 February 2010 through by Fox Pathé Europa. It topped charts in the French Amazon in the week of its release.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $572,000 on the first weekend and ranked at number #9 at the French box office with approximately $2,100 per theater. [8] The gross for the second, third, and fourth weekends were $191,000, $89,106 and $29,083 respectively. The film grossed $1.3 million internationally. [1]

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryOutcomeRef
2011Kidscreen AwardsBest TV MovieWon [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>Totally Spies!</i> French teen television series

Totally Spies! is a French anime-influenced animated spy-fi series created by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel mainly produced by French company Zodiak Kids & Family France, with seasons three to five being co-produced with Canadian company Image Entertainment Corporation. It focuses on three teenage girls from Beverly Hills, California, who work as undercover agents for the World Organization of Human Protection (WOOHP).

<i>Alex Rider</i> Spy novel series by Anthony Horowitz

Alex Rider is a series of spy novels by the English author Anthony Horowitz. The novels revolve around a teenaged spy named Alex Rider and are primarily aimed towards young adults. The series currently comprises 14 novels, as well as seven graphic novels, seven short stories, and a supplementary book.

<i>Spies Like Us</i> 1985 film by John Landis

Spies Like Us is a 1985 American spy comedy film directed by John Landis, and starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Forrest, and Donna Dixon. The film presents the comic adventures of two novice intelligence agents sent to the Soviet Union. Originally written by Aykroyd and Dave Thomas to star Aykroyd and John Belushi at Universal, the script went into turnaround and was later picked up by Warner Bros., starring Aykroyd and Chase.

<i>Martin Mystery</i> French-Canadian animated television series

Martin Mystery is an animated television series based on the Italian comic book Martin Mystère by Alfredo Castelli. The show was produced by Marathon Animation, and Image Entertainment Corporation. It uses an art style similar to Japanese anime. The series premiered on YTV on 1 October 2003 in its originating country of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Ransom of Red Chief</span> 1907 short story by O. Henry

"The Ransom of Red Chief" is a short story by O. Henry first published in the July 6, 1907 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It follows two men who kidnap and demand a ransom for a wealthy man's son. Eventually, the men are overwhelmed by the boy's spoiled and hyperactive behavior, so they pay his father to take him back.

<i>Team Galaxy</i> (TV series) Animated TV series

Team Galaxy is an animated series co-produced by Marathon Media, Image Entertainment Corporation, France 3, Rai Fiction and Jetix Europe in association with YTV. It blends 2D animation with CG elements, and is set at Galaxy High, where a trio of young students try to balance their teenage lives with their training to become Space Marshals. The concept and animation style is similar to that of Totally Spies! and Martin Mystery, other series created by Marathon Media.

Edward Shearmur is a British film composer. Born in London, England, at age seven he sang in the boys' choir at Westminster Cathedral. Educated at Eton College, he studied at the Royal College of Music and went on to a scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He worked as orchestration and conducting assistant to Michael Kamen on such films as Licence to Kill, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and the acclaimed Don Juan DeMarco) before scoring his first full-length feature film The Cement Garden which won the director's prize at the Berlin Film Festival. His first major feature score was that of The Wings of the Dove (1997). He has since scored a diverse range of popular films, including both Charlie's Angels outings, Cruel Intentions, Species II, and K-PAX.

<i>Transformers: The Game</i> 2007 video game

Transformers: The Game is an action-adventure video game based on the 2007 film Transformers, developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Activision. The game closely follows the story of the film, depicting the Autobots and Decepticons' arrival on Earth following a war between them that has ravaged their home planet of Cybertron. While trying to conceal their existence from humanity, both factions search for a powerful artifact called the AllSpark, which could be used to restore Cybertron to its former glory, or to enslave Earth's population. The game features a split-campaign format, with players choosing to join either the Autobots or the Decepticons, and completing various missions for whichever faction they chose. A sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, was released in June 2009, based on the film of the same name.

<i>Eastern Condors</i> 1987 film directed by Sammo Hung

Eastern Condors is a 1987 Hong Kong action war film starring and directed by Sammo Hung. The film co-stars Yuen Biao, Joyce Godenzi, Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-ying, Yuen Woo-ping, Corey Yuen and Billy Chow. The film was released in Hong Kong on 9 July 1987.

<i>Peranmai</i> 2009 film by S. P. Jananathan

Peranmai (transl. Valour) is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language action adventure film, co-written and directed by S. P. Jananathan for his venture and produced by Ayngaran International Films, it stars Jayam Ravi and Roland Kickinger, with Dhansika, Saranya Nag, Varsha Ashwathi, Liyasree and Vasundhara Kashyap in the female leads, while Urvashi, Vadivelu, and Ponvannan play supporting roles. The music was composed by Vidyasagar.

<i>Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore</i> 2010 film by Brad Peyton

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is a 2010 spy comedy film directed by Brad Peyton in his directorial debut, produced by Andrew Lazar, Polly Johnsen, Greg Michael and Brent O'Connor and written by Ron J. Friedman and Steve Bencich based on the characters by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. The film stars Chris O'Donnell, Jack McBrayer, Fred Armisen and Paul Rodriguez with an ensemble voice cast of James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Christina Applegate, Katt Williams, Bette Midler, Neil Patrick Harris, and Sean Hayes, Joe Pantoliano and Michael Clarke Duncan reprising their roles from previous first film. The film is a stand-alone sequel to the 2001 film Cats & Dogs, with more emphasis on its animal characters than the previous film, and was released on July 30, 2010, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received mostly negative reviews from film critics and grossed $112.5 million on an $85 million budget.

<i>The Amazing Spiez!</i> 2009 multi-national TV series or program

The Amazing Spiez is a Canadian-French animated television series created by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel. It was co-produced by Marathon Media, Image Entertainment Corporation and Canal J. The series is a spin-off of Totally Spies! another series from Marathon Media. In France, the series debuted on TF1 on April 1, 2009. Its final episode was broadcast on May 25, 2012.

<i>La Totale!</i> 1991 French comedy film

La Totale! is a 1991 French spy comedy film directed by Claude Zidi. The film was the basis for director James Cameron's 1994 action comedy True Lies.

<i>Kaboom</i> (film) 2010 film by Gregg Araki

Kaboom is a 2010 science fiction sex comedy mystery film written and directed by Gregg Araki and starring Thomas Dekker, Juno Temple, Haley Bennett, and James Duval. The film centers on the sexual adventures of a group of college students and their investigation of a bizarre cult.

<i>Crayon Shin-chan: Fierceness That Invites Storm! Operation Golden Spy</i> 2011 Japanese film

Crayon Shin-chan: Fierceness That Invites Storm! Operation Golden Spy, also known as Shin Chan, The Spy, is a 2011 anime film. It is the 19th film based on the popular comedy manga and anime series Crayon Shin-chan. The following was produced by Shin-Ei Animation, the studio behind the TV anime. The film was released in theatres on April 16, 2011 in Japan.

<i>Poltergeist</i> (2015 film) 2015 American film by Gil Kenan

Poltergeist is a 2015 American supernatural horror film directed by Gil Kenan, written by David Lindsay-Abaire, and produced by Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Roy Lee. It is a remake of the 1982 film of the same name and is the fourth installment overall in the Poltergeist franchise. The film stars Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jared Harris, and Jane Adams, and follows a family who arrive at their new home and begin experiencing paranormal occurrences.

<i>Regular Show: The Movie</i> 2015 American animated science fiction comedy film

Regular Show: The Movie is a 2015 American animated science fiction comedy film based on the television series of the same name. Produced by Cartoon Network Studios, the film was directed by series creator J. G. Quintel and features the voices of William Salyers, Quintel, Sam Marin, and Mark Hamill reprising their respective roles from the series, with Jason Mantzoukas and David Koechner joining the cast. The film follows Mordecai and Rigby, along with their groundskeeping co-workers Benson, Pops, Muscle Man, Hi-Five Ghost and Skips, as they embark on a mission to save the universe, and their friendship, from a vengeful volleyball coach.

References

  1. 1 2 "Totally Spies (2009)". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  2. "Director Pascal Jardin attending the premiere of 'Totally Spies' at the Grand Rex theater in Paris, France on June 28, 2009". alamy.com (in French). Le Grand Rex. 28 June 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  3. "totallyspies le film". totallyspies-lefilm.com. Archived from the original on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  4. AlloCine. "Casting Totally Spies ! Le film". AlloCiné. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  5. "Le casting de Totally Spies ! Le film". Premiere.fr. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  6. "Behind The Voice Actors - Totally Spies! The Movie". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  7. "Welcome". JayTSchramek.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  8. "France Box Office". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  9. "Totally Spies ! the Movie awarded at the 2011 Kidscreen Awards". marathon-media.fr. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2015.