''Braceface'' is an animated television series that aired on

Teletoon Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and "cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts an ...

in Canada and the Fox Family Channel in the U.S. The series was produced by

Nelvana Nelvana Enterprises, Inc. (; previously known as Nelvana Limited, sometimes known as Nelvana Animation and simply Nelvana or Nelvana Communications) is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment company owned by Corus Entertainment. Founded ...

and Jade Animation, the show features actress

Alicia Silverstone Alicia Silverstone ( ; born October 4, 1976) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller '' The Crush'' (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further prominence at age 16 as a ...

from the movie ''

Clueless ''Clueless'' is a 1995 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling. It stars Alicia Silverstone with supporting roles by Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy and Paul Rudd. It was produced by Scott Rudin and Robert ...

'' (who also voiced the titular character for the first two seasons) serving as

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights ...

Summary

The series, set in Elkford,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

, recounts the travails of Sharon Spitz (a

play on words Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phonet ...

, "sharing spit" being a euphemism for kissing), who is a

junior high A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

school student with braces that get in the way of leading a normal teenage life. Her braces are somehow electrically charged at all times, giving her strange abilities such as remotely operating machinery, tapping into wireless communication channels, and even discharging electricity directly into what's in front of her, though much of these abilities are often outside her control. In the first season, she is enrolled at

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

Junior High but later the show progresses Sharon into going to high school.

Cast and characters

(Seasons 1-2)/Stacey DePass (Season 3) as Sharon Esther Spitz: The lead character of the show. *

Dan Petronijevic Daniel Petronijevic (born March 28, 1981 in Scarborough, Ontario), known professionally as Dan Petronijevic, is a Canadian actor who has appeared in various feature films, including the '' American Pie'' franchise, and in TV shows such as '' 19-2 ...

as Adam Spitz: Adam is Sharon and Josh's older brother. *

Michael Cera Michael Austin Cera (; ; born June 7, 1988) is a Canadian actor and musician. He started his career as a child actor, voicing the character of Brother Bear on the children's television show ''The Berenstain Bears'' and portraying a young Chuck B ...

as Josh Spitz: Josh is Adam and Sharon's younger brother. * Tamara Bernier Evans as Helen Spitz: Helen is Adam, Sharon, and Josh's divorced mother. *

Marnie McPhail Marnie McPhail Diamond is an American actress and musician who is well known for playing Maria Wong in '' Braceface'', Annie Edison in ''The Edison Twins'', and Peaches in ''JoJo's Circus''. Personal life McPhail was born and raised in Columbu ...

as Maria Wong: Maria is Sharon's classmate and best friend, who is of mixed Chinese and Italian descent. * Peter Oldring as Connor Mackenzie: Connor is Sharon's another classmate and best friend. * Vince Corazza as Alden Jones: Alden is Sharon's crush at school and boyfriend. They later break up. Sharon and Alden eventually get back together. *

Katie Griffin Katie Griffin (born January 14, 1973) is a Canadian actress and singer. She has had roles in several television movies and feature films. In cartoons, her best-known roles include the voices of Sailor Mars in the original English Canadian dub ...

as Nina Harper: Nina is Sharon's nemesis at school and ex-best friend. *

Tabitha St. Germain Tabitha St. Germain, formerly known as Paulina Gillis Germain and also known as Tabitha or Kitanou St. Germain, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is known for a variety of roles across many different shows. She has been actively doing voi ...

as Christy Lee: Christy is Nina's classmate and best friend. * Linda Ballantyne as Veronique Peters: Veronique is Nina's classmate and another best friend. *

Daniel DeSanto Daniel DeSanto is a Canadian actor. Early life Raised in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, DeSanto made his acting debut at the age of 8 as the lead protagonist in ''Brown Bread Sandwiches'' (a.k.a. ''La famiglia Buonanotte''), a film about Ita ...

as Brock Leighton: Brock is Alden's classmate and best friend, who is of African-Canadian descent. *

Emily Hampshire Emily Hampshire (born 1979) is a Canadian actress. Her best known roles include Angelina in the 1998 romantic comedy '' Boy Meets Girl'', Vivienne in the 2006 film '' Snow Cake'', Jennifer Goines in the Syfy drama series '' 12 Monkeys'' (2015� ...

as Alyson Malitski: Nina's ex-best friend and Sharon's new best friend. Has a relationship with Connor. *Elisa Moolecherry as Hannah Corbett: Elisa is Adam's girlfriend, who appeared in some episodes.

Episodes

Production

The series was produced by the Canadian animation studio

and Jade Animation (Shenzhen) in China, with the additional pre-production work done by Studio B Productions and

Atomic Cartoons Atomic Cartoons is a Canadian animation studio founded in 1999 by Trevor Bentley, Mauro Casalese, Olaf Miller, Adam Ronald, and Rob Davies. Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, it produces service animation for a wide variety of clients, as ...

Reception

Sarah Wenk from ''

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

'' rated the series three out of five stars, stating "ultimately it's rather lightweight and, well, cartoony. There's nothing wrong with that, but it could use a bit more substance and less silliness." Nancy Wellons from ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'' stated "What could be a wonderful premise about the struggle of adolescents to confirm and yet remain individuals instead turns into a half-hour full of inane jokes, cliched characters and bad dialogue." Evan Levine from ''Newspaper Enterprise Assn.'' wrote, "The brace subplot sometimes adds an uneasy note — is it fantasy? — and can be vaguely confusing. But the show holds the possibility of being a clever takeoff of the preteen years, whether you have braces or not." Jeanne Spreier from

Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper bra ...

wrote, "''Braceface'' takes a refreshingly light look at junior high challenges — boys, braces, friends, popularity, parents, school — without giving in to nastiness, violence, ill-will or dejection." In 2004, the episode "Ms. Spitz Goes To Warsch & Stone" won an award at the

Environmental Media Awards The Environmental Media Awards have been awarded by the Environmental Media Association since 1991 to the best television episode or film with an environmental message. The Environmental Media Association (EMA) is a non-profit organization cre ...

Telecast and home media

In the United States, the series originally aired on Fox Family Channel starting on June 2, 2001, with reruns on its successor

ABC Family The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...

until May 26, 2003.

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...

later aired reruns from May 2, 2004 until the summer of 2005, but some episodes were edited for content and time. Four episodes ("The Worst Date Ever. Period", "Miami Vices", "Whose Life Is It, Anyway?" and "Grey Matters") were skipped from Disney Channel airings due to their content. Half of season 2 (episodes 16 through 26) and the entirety of season 3 never aired in the United States. In Canada, it ran on

from June 30, 2001 to September 1, 2004. Internationally, the series aired on

Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a jo ...

, Channel 5 and Pop Girl in the United Kingdom. It also aired on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

in Germany and South Africa. In India, the series aired on

Star One Star One was an Indian pay television network based in Mumbai. It was launched on 1 November 2004 and was it owned by Star TV and distributed worldwide by Fox International Channels. In November 2006, Star One was launched in the UK on Sky. ...

. It aired in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

from 3 September 2001 to 2005. In

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, Braceface was aired on STAR Plus Japan. In the Netherlands, the show aired on Fox Kids/Jetix. In Canada, DVD releases of the series were released by KaBOOM! Entertainment, and in the U.S., DVDs were released by Funimation Entertainment. In the United Kingdom, Maverick Entertainment released a DVD titled "Brace Yourself" in 2006, which contains the first four episodes. Fremantle Home Entertainment later released two more DVDs. Currently, the series is now streaming on both networks, FilmRise Kids and Tubi. The series is also available to stream on Prime Video, iTunes, Google Play and YouTube (thru Nelvana's Keep it Weird! Channel). As of February 28, 2022, reruns can be seen on Nickelodeon Canada weeknights at 4:00 AM.

References

External links

Official site
*
Production website
{{Teletoon, state=expanded 2001 Canadian television series debuts 2001 Chinese television series debuts 2004 Canadian television series endings 2004 Chinese television series endings 2000s Canadian animated television series Canadian children's animated comedy television series Hong Kong animated television series English-language television shows Funimation Middle school television series Teen animated television series Teletoon original programming Fox Family Channel original programming ABC Family original programming Fox Kids Television series by Nelvana Television shows set in British Columbia