The Miraculous phenomenon told by its creators
Director Jeremy Zag and producer Aton Soumache talk about the making of the film in Première.
This Sunday, TFX is programming a special evening “Lady Bug” with two TV movies Miraculous broadcast from 9:05 p.m. First an adventure in New York, then another in Shanghai.
The French superheroine hits the big screen at the same time : taking advantage of the 2023 Film Festival, the adaptation of the hit series attracted more than 300,000 spectators in theaters on Wednesday.
A look back at the phenomenon with two of its creators, director Jeremy Zag and producer Aton Soumache, who tell how the film was made in First (n°542, July-August 2023).
Passing on the big screen, the playground phenomenon series wants to be the culmination of a system embodied by a one-man band of animation: Jeremy Zag.
We hear that all the time, everywhere: France is incapable of making superhero films like the Americans. what about Miraculous, SO ? Let’s bet that the most diehard fans of comics are not really likely to include it in their top.
And yet, since 2015, the franchise has captured the imagination of primary school children by distilling all the codes of superheroes in an unstoppable formula. Two schoolboys, Marinette and Adrien, become Ladybug and Cat Noir thanks to ancestral jewels (the miraculous) and are responsible for defending Paris from
akumas – humans transformed by an evil miraculous. Add to that a love dilemma and a postcard Paris, all with a style that is inspired as much by Disney as anime, and here is an unstoppable card. A TV series sold all over the world, musical shows, statues at the Grévin museum, video games, comics… A franchise of superheroes, a real homegrown one.
Behind Miraculousthere are men: Thomas Astruc, creator of the universe, its rules and the characters, and above all Jeremy Zag, who directs Miraculous: The Movieexpected as the Messiah by the fanbase (even if two TV movies Miraculous have already been produced, located in New York and Shanghai). In this case, this true one-man band, karate champion and boss of his animation studio, even composed the ten songs present in the film.
Producer Aton Soumache, who adds Miraculous to his anime CV capitalizing on a French quality (Renaissance, The Little Prince, Le Petit Nicolas: What are we waiting for to be happy?the future Marcel Pagnol by Sylvain Chomet…) is full of praise for Jeremy Zag: “He’s an incredible director, capable of putting on a great show, family entertainment like you rarely see in France. It’s natural for him. There aren’t many French directors who write songs to make musical animated films! »
Zag had such faith in his Ladybug that a live-action film almost saw the light of day in 2017, with Chris Columbus at the helm. “Chris Columbus had fallen in love with the show, but at the time we decided not to cannibalize the universe, we were focused on the show. We had a well-developed treatment, but it was too early. The live action took us towards something more adult, we moved away from our family audience. »
Origin story
Miraculous: The Movie is a strange object: an origin story which condenses the 122 episodes of the TV series into a 90-minute adventure – which does not prepare for season 6, but clearly speaks to a new generation of fans. “We wanted to use all that is strongest in Miraculous to make it a unique film, explains Jeremy Zag. We also wanted to tell a story that most simply speaks to everyone, even those who haven’t seen all five seasons of the show. The cinema was also a good way to bring together the quadrants of grandchildren, children, parents and grandparents. »
Aton Soumanche adds: “We have a large community of extremely sharp fans. And the audience of the series is very varied, 60/40
girls/boys, we are very strong on 4-12 year olds, but also on 15-25 year olds. There is a lot of joint listening, when the parents watch with the children. » But maybe that’s the way it is, speaking “quadrant” And “joint listening” that the Miraculous de Zag was able to conquer the world. And let’s not say anymore that we don’t know how to make superheroes at home.
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