Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (2015)
Original title: Miraculous, les aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir is a 2015 French-language action & adventure series created by Thomas Astruc and Jeremy Zag. It stars Anouck Hautbois, Benjamin Bollen and Marie Nonnenmacher.
By day Marinette and Adrien are ordinary Parisian classmates, one a shy aspiring fashion designer nursing a hopeless crush, the other a lonely model who barely knows she exists. By other means they are Ladybug and Cat Noir, the masked pair who defend Paris from villains conjured by the mysterious Hawk Moth. The catch runs on dramatic irony: neither hero knows the other's real face, so the romance plays out twice over, in and out of costume. French-made and CGI-animated, it blends magical-girl transformation, monster-of-the-week action and sweet teen comedy.
Where to watch Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
Stream: DirecTV On Demand, Disney+, Netflix, YouTube TV, fuboTV
Watch free: Spectrum On Demand
Official site
Cast
- Anouck Hautbois as Marinette Dupain-Cheng / Ladybug (voice)
- Benjamin Bollen as Adrien Agreste / Chat Noir (voice)
- Marie Nonnenmacher as Tikki (voice)
- Thierry Kazazian as Plagg (voice)
- Antoine Tomé as Gabriel Agreste / Papillon (voice)
- Fanny Bloc as Alya (voice)
- Clara Soares as Lila / Pollen (voice)
- Marie Chevalot as Chloé (voice)
- Jessie Lambotte as Sabine (voice)
- Alexandre Nguyen as Nino (voice)
- Tiffany Hofstetter as Zoé (voice)
- Martial Le Minoux as Max / Roger / Nooroo (voice)
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A few thoughts on Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
Fans of the secret-double-life setup should try Sabrina the Teenage Witch, another teen juggling ordinary school and hidden magic. For the magical-girl roots the show draws on, Sailor Moon is the template: transformation sequences, a masked partner, and a real heart under the sparkle. The team-superhero warmth also lands in Teen Titans.
Teen superheroes whose crush has no idea who they are
Marinette spends half of Miraculous swooning over Adrien without realizing he's Cat Noir, and that irony carries these picks too. Peter Parker keeps missing MJ's texts while suited up in The Spectacular Spider-Man, the young Spider-Team juggles secrecy and homework in Spidey and His Amazing Friends, and Static Shock's Virgil hides his sparks from the girl next door. Same masked-crush setup, same teenage stakes.
Magical-girl shows about keeping your powers secret from your crush
Ladybug and Cat Noir aren't the only ones juggling magic and a crush in secret. Star Butterfly balances interdimensional royal duties with an ordinary crush in Star vs. the Forces of Evil, the W.I.T.C.H. girls transform without their families finding out, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch hides her spellwork from Harvey. My Bride Is a Mermaid flips the joke: the secret is on the other foot.
Cartoons where the hero team fights a different villain every episode
Miraculous resets its threat every episode: Hawk Moth conjures a new akuma, Paris gets wrecked a little, and by the credits it's fixed. That same quick-hit rhythm powers Justice League Action's minisode battles, the Powerpuff Girls' daily villain patrol, Batman: The Brave and the Bold's tag-team fights, and the gleeful camp of Freakazoid! and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron.