The Magnificent Mademoiselles
| The Magnificent Mademoiselles | |
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| No. of episodes | 40 (120 segments) |
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| Original network | Gylias GTV4 Delkora DBS Teletoon |
| Original release | 6 June 1994 – 29 August 1997 |
The Magnificent Mademoiselles is a Gylian–Delkoran animated series which aired on GTV4 and DBS in 1994–1997. It was an international co-production between Studio Fantasia, the Gylian National Film Institute, and Tegneforening.
The show featured three cartoons per episode, with the first featuring Miss Mystery, the second featuring Miss Vavoom, and the third featuring them both together.
It is one of Gylias' most successful animated series, and is regarded as one of the best cartoons of the 1990s. It has been influential on Gylian pop culture, and is credited with sparking a trend of renewed interest in vintage fashion and big band jazz, dubbed the new old hat movement.
Segments
Miss Mystery
The first segment follows the adventures of Miss Mystery (voiced by Valeria Martínez), a private investigator.
Miss Mystery's adventures satirically employ mounoir devices, such as the constant foggy nighttime setting and Miss Mystery's tongue-in-cheek detective narration, only to reveal a modern setting with contemporary technology, slang, and fashion.
Miss Mystery is a strong-willed detective who faces down a variety of foes, ranging from the prosaic to the megalomaniacal. In order to defeat them, she mainly uses her wits and awareness that she's a cartoon character, allowing her to turn cartoon physics and slapstick against foes.
In appearance, she has long black hair and green eyes, and wears one constant outfit consisting of a black dress, a blue trenchcoat and fedora, and blue high heels. One recurring joke is for extras to mistake her for Carmen Silva, followed by her sarcastically remarking they can't tell the difference between blue and red.
Her segments always end with her triumphant and her antagonists arrested, and her playfully reminding the audience that "crime doesn't pay".
Miss Vavoom
The second segment follows the adventures of Miss Vavoom (voiced by Teresa Ganzel).
As implied by her name, Miss Vavoom is a cartoon bombshell who is fully aware of her attractiveness and its effect on others. Her first name and occupation depend on the segment. Among her various appearances, she has portrayed:
- Alscian ace reporter Scoops Vavoom
- race queen Jambalaya Vavoom
- advocate Justine Vavoom
- civil servant Sylvie Vavoom
- Holmesian character Beryl Vavoom (in a parody of The Hound of the Baskervilles)
- conservationist "Alligator" Kate Vavoom
- film star Stardust Vavoom
- chanteuse Melody Vavoom
- showgirl Lolly Vavoom
- science fiction adventurer Tarna Vavoom
Regardless of name and appearance, she is always portrayed as an independent, capable, beautiful, passionate, and self-confident woman.
Miss Vavoom leads a charmed life, which has helped make her an unflappable optimist. She knows she's a cartoon character and jokingly reminds the audience that things work out for her because she's the heroine. If necessary, she is unafraid to step out of the cartoon briefly and seduce the animators or writers to make sure that things go her way.
Her tenacity, resourcefulness, and success are constant across her characters — Justine Vavoom has never lost a case, Stardust Vavoom is an award-winning and highly successful actress, Melody Vavoom is a chart-topping and best-selling singer, Scoops Vavoom is a widely-respected and read journalist who reports momentous news, and so on.
She enjoys attention and has numerous romantic and sexual encounters, but sets clear boundaries and enforces them against those who harass her. When she lacks the skill or knowledge to achieve a goal, she resorts to her sexual allure and seductiveness to get what she wants.
She is portrayed as utterly irresistible, with a distinctive strut that draws anyone's attention regardless of their gender, and her kisses cause exaggerated reactions in her love interests.
She is implied to have a superhuman tolerance for pain even by cartoon standards, being capable of enduring cartoon slapstick without appearing hurt or fazed in any way — a quality not shared by the antagonists. She is depicted as capable in self-defence, using cartoon physics and slapstick to humiliatingly defeat more menacing or skilled foes.
She is often portrayed having various pets, ranging from the typical cats and dogs to the more exotic kangaroos, alligators, tigers, or lions. Her pets serve as her "morality detectors", as they are the first to detect an antagonist's ill intentions and intimidate them.
When confronted with harassers, she is shown calmly ignoring them and nonchalantly beating them with any objects on hand (umbrellas, purses, etc.) before resuming her stride, or letting her pets viciously scare them off.
Miss Vavoom's appearance changes constantly based on segment, with not even her eye colour remaining constant. She is usually depicted with either blonde or red hair, sports a variety of hairstyles, and wears clothes appropriate to the setting and occupation of the episode.
Her segments always end with her triumphant and basking in her victory with the audience. One example from an Alscian-set segment:
Scoops Vavoom: So, I got the scoop (quickly pulls out a paper from her outfit and shows the audience before putting it back), I got the reward (quickly pulls out a wad of banknotes and shows the audience before putting it back), and I got the love! (pulls into view her love interest and kisses him, causing him to be dazed and hop around) Ahh, it's wonderful to be me. All in a day's work for Scoops Vavoom! (adjusts her tie and blows a kiss at the audience before fade out)
Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom
The third segment follows the adventures of Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom together.
In these segments, Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom are depicted as best friends since childhood, and address each other by their respective nicknames "Missy" and "Vav". Miss Vavoom's luck and implied invincibility are shown to complement Miss Mystery's street smarts.
The segments took different approaches to the team-up, with an equal split between Miss Vavoom joining Miss Mystery in her mounoir setting and Miss Mystery joining Miss Vavoom in her setting for a vacation from her work.
During these segments, Miss Vavoom's appearance is somewhat more consistent, with blonde hair and a peek-a-boo hairstyle.
Every episode would end the same way. In the final scene, Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom are shown together, with their faces full of kiss marks. A smirking Miss Mystery asks, "Well, Vav, are you satisfied?", and an overjoyed Miss Vavoom replies, "Oh, Missy, I'm more than satisfied!", followed by an iris out.
Production
Conception
The series originated as a collective Studio Fantasia project, initially based only around Miss Mystery. The studio contacted Delkoran developer Brøderbund to acknowledge the character's similarity to Carmen Silva and ask for their permission to continue the project. Around the same time, Brøderbund was working with Tegneforening on pre-production of Where on Earth Is Carmen Silva?. Brøderbund not only approved Studio Fantasia's idea, they also put the team in contact with Tegneforening, and the project became a Gylian–Delkoran co-production.
The series was produced by Studio Fantasia, the Gylian National Film Institute, and Tegneforening between 1994 and 1997. Production greatly benefited from the recruitment of Maria Bille, the grande dame of Delkoran animation. Maria was the one who suggested the "three shorts" format, and helped develop Miss Vavoom, envisioned as "a tribute to all the cartoon sirens throughout the ages", ranging from Betty Boop and Red Hot Riding Hood to some of Gylias' own representatives like Agent Jane, Suzie, and Aurelia Nyşel.
Casting
Valeria Martínez and Teresa Ganzel were cast as the main characters. Teresa later said Miss Vavoom was her favourite role of her career, praising the character's range:
"I remember one episode in particular where just in the beginning, Miss Vavoom starts as a sweetheart 'good femme fatale', completely seduces the guy in question, starts crying uncontrollably when she's having trouble convincing him to help her, and then once he agrees, she kisses him and then we see her proudly fixing her hair and make-up in a pocket mirror. And that's just one sequence! I loved that she could just change so easily from sweet to seductive to strong-willed and was still recognisably the same character."
Approach
Maria humorously recalled that the Gylian animators "were ruthlessly focused on making a nice, fluffy, and sweet cartoon that would make anyone feel good", and rejected many suggestions and ideas that they felt clashed with the intended tone. She felt this benefited the series:
"The thing you have to understand is, Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom are pampered by the cartoon — they never lose, they always get the upper hand, they always get handsomely rewarded, and the audience loves them for it. The Gylians set the tone and they basically forced our writers to be more clever, more subtle. Nothing got past them — anything they thought nasty or unpleasant was axed on sight. The cartoon had to be funny without being mean. All the writers pushed their minds to the limit, for ways to make Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom loveable."
The Mişeyáke Metro Mail described the tone of the cartoon as "expertly balanced between madcap slapstick, fast-paced screwball comedy banter, and heartwarming sincerity, all tied together by the ever-charming main characters." While comedy was the main focus, each segment included straightforward scenes showing Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom being compassionate and kind-hearted towards others, or showcasing their respective romantic pairings.
Each segment went through many outlines, treatments, drafts, and revisions before arriving at its final version. One writer recalled:
"First you get a draft together. Then you run it by Teresa and Valeria. Then you get another draft. Then you show it to the storyboarders. The storyboarders work out the animation and the gags, and sometimes you have to make another draft to adjust for their timings. Then you get to recording, by which time Teresa's probably come up with some better gags, so you change the draft around again. Then whatever didn't make it to the episode, you scoop up and keep in a big idea folder in case it's handy for another segment — never let an idea go to waste."
Tasa Vyrje, who worked as a script coordinator on the series, described its approach to comedy as follows:
"The first thing The Magnificent Mademoiselles taught me is that you can't just go to 11 all the time, that just makes a mess and nobody'll sit through it. It was always about contrast, playing elements off each other, and it takes a lot of planning to make that look as effortless and casual as it did. The usual approach was to make the world wacky, but Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom poised, which gave a whole grounding to the wackiness. It was a valuable lesson — don't try to clown around, it's funnier if you play it straight. The soundtrack too, that played it straighter than straight, and it worked wonderfully."
Organisation
In order to coordinate the international co-production, Studio Fantasia and Tegneforening extensively used the Internet, particularly ISDN. The scripts were all written directly with screenwriting software and hosted on shared servers, alongside a special folder that hosted drafts, ideas, and outlines. The storyboards and cels were scanned into computers and shared online. Both studios used stringent backup and editing protocols to avoid accidentally losing or deleting important files.
The typical production of a segment began with writing the script, often accompanied by preliminary storyboards. Once the script was finalised, the cast recorded their parts, and storyboards were made to plan out the animation, timing, and division of labour. Next, the episode was animated, followed by audio mixing and inclusion of sound effects. The soundtrack was always the last step of the production process.
Due to the rigorous production process employed, there are no surviving outtakes or alternative versions of scenes from the series.
Animation
The series used digital ink and paint, and Delkoran-style character designs, thus making it a cartoon instead of an anime.
As a supervisor of animation on the show, Maria Bille told Animonthly that her ambition was to steer it towards "the most fluid and detailed character animation you could see on television." The animators thus largely cut corners on backgrounds, which were limited and static, in order to focus on character movement and inbetweening.
The animators amused themselves by drawing in cameo appearances of famous cartoon characters in crowd scenes. The most frequent cameos were Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit, who made an appearance in every episode as a couple, as background characters witnessing Miss Mystery or Miss Vavoom's antics. They were usually drawn from the back because the animators thought it funnier if the viewers imagined their reactions.
Writing
Generally, Miss Mystery's segments were scripted, and Miss Vavoom's segments used a combination of scripting and improv, due to Teresa's extensive experience as a comedian. One writer recalled that they quickly established a routine where after completing the first draft, Teresa was called in to read through it and make suggestions. In later seasons, the writing team simply had Teresa present with them while they were writing scripts, allowing them to directly use Teresa's ad libs and improvisations — and earning Teresa a co-writer credit on many episodes.
During their segments together, Miss Mystery's portrayal as cool and calm but struggling somewhat to keep up with Miss Vavoom's vivacity mirrored the dynamic between Valeria and Teresa during read-throughs and recording. Paolo Giussani, who directed several episodes, elaborated:
"Valeria is a dramatic actress, she comes from that background. Teresa is a comedian, she thinks on her feet. Valeria sadly doesn't have the same knack for improvisation that Teresa has, so she has to stick to the script more closely, while Teresa can ignore it at will because she takes a leap and always lands on her feet."
Style
The Magnificent Mademoiselles deliberately employed a "retro" style of animation and setting. Much of the humour came from creative anachronisms and breaking the fourth wall: Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom are both aware they are cartoon characters, regularly deliver asides and soliloquies directly to the audience, and occasionally escape from danger by rewriting the script on the spot, reaching out of the frame to grab an eraser from the animator's desk, or leaving the frame to seduce the animators or writers in order to ensure their triumph.
The production, particularly on the Gylian side, adhered to the Good Practices Code, and regularly made good-natured allusions to sexuality without showing it explicitly. The most common methods included scenes where Miss Vavoom's love interest bows out of view and the camera remains tightly focused on her as she reacts in a way that makes it clear she's receiving oral sex, or scenes showing a closed door with Miss Vavoom and her love interest making suggestive and happy moans, before they both exit the room fully dressed and complementing each other on their performance.
The show drew on Gylian attitudes towards clothing in constructing its universe. Maria commented that the character designers created a show where every single character, including extras, were drawn sharp-dressed in elaborate outfits, and felt this gave the show a comfortable quality that charmed viewers. One of the Gylian character designers acknowledged: "We definitely wanted it to be a cartoon world where everyone is dashing and elegant, no matter who. Not only did this make it appealing to viewers, but it also gave an air of sophistication to the comedy."
Through a combination of careful design and casting, Miss Vavoom's love interests were often portrayed as androgynous and gender-ambiguous. Her male love interests in particular were often modeled after famed actor Roli Saréy, whose "heartthrob" image and elegant wardrobe was a great inspiration to the artists.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was similarly composed of "old-fashioned" jazz, particularly influenced by big band music, composed by Susan Shelley and Combustible Edison. The opening theme was an upbeat big band number performed by Combustible Edison and The Sweethearts of Rhythm, with boastful lyrics sung by Valeria and Teresa as Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom; it was reprised instrumentally for the end credits.
Many episodes featured musical numbers for Miss Vavoom, with lyrics provided by Evelin Tanli. These were among her last completed works before her death in 1995. She was replaced by several other songwriters for subsequent episodes, including Teresa's brother Edmund Ganzel and Terri "Cupcake" Mason, an old collaborator of Susan's. Paolo Giussani commented that "everybody loved Teresa's singing and they looked for the slightest excuse to feature it. I think by the final series, we'd reached the point where there was a song for Miss Vavoom per episode."
The soundtrack was critically acclaimed, and is emblematic of the post-Jenny Ford transformation of older Gylian jazz styles into "the soundtrack to sex appeal", in Liisa Salmela's words. Due to the abundance of material, it was released as a double album in 1997, shortly after the series' end, which became a best-seller in Gylias.
Several songs from the soundtrack became hits outside of the cartoon. These included "Let's Get You Dolled Up Nicely", the cue that plays when Miss Mystery helps Miss Vavoom pick her wardrobe before going out, and "Hold On To Your Hat", the cue that plays when Miss Vavoom is heavily implied to receive oral sex off-camera. The latter, praised by Sonic Review as "brilliantly sultry and classy", became a beloved jazz standard, and especially popular in Gylian strip clubs. In the documentary Susan Shelley: A Musical Life, Susan expressed pride in this, stating: "A good strip club needs good taste."
Combustible Edison frontwoman Liz Cox described the composing process to Animonthly as follows:
"The soundtrack comes last in the production. The episode is already fully voiced and animated, and it's sent to us. We watch it with Ms. Shelley, take notes on timings and scenes. Usually, we have a mix of already prepared ideas and improvisations that give us useful themes. We record it at the Palace of Sound and then send it to be mixed into the episode, and it's finished.
You notice how in old cartoons, there's never a dull moment? There's always something playing in the background? We agreed with Ms. Shelley from the outset that we'd seek to capture that spirit — wall-to-wall music, richness of sound, pacing changes that would make an orchestra go on strike. Every segment has its own score. We'd make a theme once, and then we'd play it again for new episodes, slower or faster, in different keys, changing the instrumentation, to fit what's on screen. We went to the limit and squeezed as much as possible into 7 minutes. That's really the magic of those old cartoons, they went to the limit and never had to worry about time and money."
Broadcasting
The Magnificent Mademoiselles aired on both GTV4 and DBS. GTV4 aired it daily from Monday to Friday, as was customary, while DBS aired one episode per week, simulcast on Teletoon. Delkoran reruns mainly took place on Teletoon.
The differing broadcast schedules created some confusion regarding the order of episodes, which was only dispelled by its home video release.
While Miss Mystery was initially regarded as a "Carmen Silva ripoff", since even Studio Fantasia acknowledged the similarity in appearance, delays in the production of Where on Earth Is Carmen Silva? ironically caused it to premiere in the same month as The Magnificent Mademoiselles. The two series shared some personnel on both Gylian and Delkoran sides, particularly in the screenwriting and animation department, such as Maria Bille.
Several bumpers and interstitials starring the main characters were also produced for use on GTV4 and Teletoon. These featured crossovers between different cartoons: one had Miss Mystery and Carmen Silva bump into each other, with Miss Mystery remarking "You look familiar…", only for Carmen to laugh and tell the audience, "I get that a lot."
Reception
The Magnificent Mademoiselles was a critical and commercial success upon airing. Reviewers praised its strong characters, clever pop culture references, playful allusions to sexuality, stylish animation, and lively soundtrack. Animonthly described the show as "one of the most gorgeously-animated series to appear on television in decades".
Surface hailed it as "an effortless masterpiece", writing: "It does everything perfectly, and backwards in high heels. Its writing is clever and engaging, its heroines are charming and brilliant, its animation is wonderful, its soundtrack is marvelous, and it does everything so casually like it was no big deal that it makes the whole thing more impressive."
Delkoran reviewers similarly noted the profusion of "big names" of Gylian and Delkoran animation that worked on the show, and regarded it as something of an "all-star" project.
The series began to be uploaded to Proton TV during its run, and was later released on DVD.
Mademoiselles mania
The series experienced huge popularity in Gylias when it aired, a phenomenon nicknamed "Mademoiselles mania". It quickly became one of Gylias' most successful animated series. In one notable achievement, Silhouette put Miss Vavoom on the cover of its September 1996 issue and dedicated an entire feature to the cartoon's fashion. As part of the show's promotion, Valeria and Teresa made several appearances on radio, being interviewed as their respective characters.
GTV4 and Teletoon leaned into "Mademoiselles mania" while promoting the series abroad. Famously, one promo made for international syndication stated: "The greatest cartoon of the 1990s is here."
Merchandise
The popularity of the series led to the release of merchandise, mainly dolls of Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom. Teresa joked that she ended up benefiting more from the merchandising license, as Miss Vavoom had multiple dolls to cover all her styles, whereas Miss Mystery had a single consistent look.
Legacy
The Magnificent Mademoiselles was one of the first cartoon series to achieve widespread success in Gylias, which some analysts see as a precursor to several Delkoran cartoons that achieved the Gylian breakthrough, including Where on Earth Is Carmen Silva? and The New Adventures of Lotte Lang, as well as the emergence of other Gylian-made cartoons.
Surface described it in 2014 as a "beloved gem of the 1990s" and "one of the best cartoons of the decade". It is considered one of Studio Fantasia's most beloved programs, and helped it gain a niche as a studio specialised in cartoons, leading to later productions like Good Time Gals.
Fashion and pop culture
The series was one of the most successful and popular cartoons aired in Gylias, as attested by "Mademoiselles mania". It is credited with fueling a renewed interest in vintage fashion and big band jazz, a trend dubbed the new old hat movement, which reached a peak around 1998, the 40th anniversary of Gylian independence.
Miss Vavoom has been described as one of the foremost fictional style icons of Gylian pop culture, and her popularity inspired both cosplay and vintage fashion trends. Because she was often drawn wearing large saucer hats, cartwheel hats, and halo hats, such extravagant hats are nicknamed "Miss Vavoom hats" in Gylian English.
Retrospective comments
The series proved a star-making role for Teresa Ganzel, who earned recognition as one of Gylias' premier voice actors and expressed a fondness for Miss Vavoom as her favourite role, showing enthusiasm in later years for reprising the role for cameo appearances or comedic sketches. Famously, she once appeared as herself in a sketch parodying Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, showing her living an extremely opulent lifestyle as a result of wealth gained from the show's merchandising. She would later title her memoir More Than Satisfied, after Miss Vavoom's episode-closing catchphrase.
Maria Bille wrote in her memoirs that The Magnificent Mademoiselles was one of her favourite projects, saying that she felt less "pressure" compared to the more ambitious The New Adventures of Lotte Lang, and expressed great satisfaction with the animation, in particular Miss Mystery and Miss Vavoom's voluptuous walks. She also praised the production's camaraderie and close collaboration between Gylians and Delkorans, and stated: "I felt sad the day The Magnificent Mademoiselles ended. I hated to have to part with this dynamic lady duo I've come to love so much."
Influence
Dreamwave Productions drew on the influence of The Magnificent Mademoiselles for their anime The Amazing Inflatable Girl, and specifically hired Teresa Ganzel for the lead role due to her performance as Miss Vavoom.
Đổng Mộng Thanh acknowledged The Magnificent Mademoiselles as an influence on the animated adaptation of the Rainbow Mistress series.
The creators of Castle Bang took inspiration from The Magnificent Mademoiselles' "comfort viewing" quality in creating their similarly rosy portrayal of Alscia, and sought out Susan Shelley to compose the soundtrack due to her successful soundtrack for The Magnificent Mademoiselles.