''Madeline'' is an

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

preschool television series produced by DIC Entertainment, L.P., as part of the ''

Madeline ''Madeline'' is a media franchise that originated as a series of children's books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series and a live action feature fi ...

'' media franchise. It began as a series of six television specials from 1988 to 1991, and then continued as ''Madeline'' and ''The New Adventures of Madeline'' from 1993 to 2001. The show is narrated by

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage and television. His accolades included an Academy Aw ...

Background

In 1960, the Madeline stories were adapted to a one-hour color episode for the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

series '' The Shirley Temple Show''. Madeline was played by Gina Gillespie, child actor Michel Petit played Pepito, and

Imogene Coca Imogene Coca (born Emogeane Coca; November 18, 1908 – June 2, 2001) was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on ''Your Show of Shows''. Starting out in vaudeville as a child acrobat, she studied ballet and pursu ...

portrayed Miss Clavel. The episode, as Madeline's first appearance on television, has been released to DVD.

Characters

* Madeline (voiced by Tracey Lee Smythe in season 1 and Andrea Libman in seasons 2 & 3) is the central

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

of the show. She is a kind, caring and adventurous redheaded French girl, and the bravest of her group—despite being the shortest. She lives in a girls'

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

with eleven other girls and their instructor, Miss Clavel, in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. * Miss Clavel (voiced by

Louise Vallance Stephanie Louise Vallance, commonly known as Stevie Vallance, also credited as Louise Vallance during the 1970s90s, is a Canadians, Canadian actress and musician who has worked on numerous films and television series, both live-action and animat ...

) is an

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

and headmistress that oversees the boarding school in which the girls live. She and her students say grace before every meal. She is seen as a caring and wise maternal figure to the girls, notably rushing Madeline to hospital in the middle of the night for an emergency

appendectomy An appendectomy (American English) or appendicectomy (British English) is a Surgery, surgical operation in which the vermiform appendix (a portion of the intestine) is removed. Appendectomy is normally performed as an urgent or emergency procedur ...

. * The Eleven Little Girls are Anne, Chloe, Danielle, Ellie, Janine, Lulu, Monique, Nicole, Nona, Sylvie and Yvette, all resident students at the boarding school with Madeline. In addition to their schooling, the girls join Madeline on many adventures and escapades. During the first few seasons and specials, only Chloe, Danielle and Nicole had significant roles; by the third season, all the girls became more vocal, active, and displayed their own respective personalities. ** Chloe (voiced by Vanessa King in seasons 1 & 2 and Veronika Sztopa in season 3) ** Danielle (voiced by

Kelly Sheridan Kelly Sheridan (born May 19, 1977) is a Canadian voice actress best known for being the voice for Barbie in the ''Barbie'' film series from 2001 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2015. She had also voiced in numerous animations and English-language dubs ...

in season 1, Tracey-Lee Smyth in season 2 and

Chantal Strand Chantal Strand (born October 15, 1987) is a Canadian voice and stage actress as well as former stunt performer known for her vocal roles in animation, anime and video games. Her vocal role credits include those for younger girl characters in t ...

in season 3) ** Nicole (voiced by Kristin Fairlie in season 1, Veronika Sztopa in season 2 and

Britt Irvin Brittney Elizabeth Irvin (born November 10, 1984) is a Canadian actress who has also done voiceover work for Ocean Productions. Irvin is best known for playing Katie in '' Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular'' and its sequel '' Scary Godmothe ...

in season 3) * Pepito (voiced by A.J. Bond in season 1, David Morse in season 2, and Michael Heyward/ Kyle Labine in season 3) is the young son of the Spanish ambassador to France whose family lives nextdoor to the girls' boarding school. Initially, he is seen as naughty, mean, and spoiled to Madeline and her friends; they soon become friends, and he develops a secret crush on Madeline. * Genevieve (voiced by

) is the school's pet dog, once a stray. Madeline has the most affection for her, as Genevieve rescued her from drowning in the

river Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres p ...

. * Lord Cucuface (voiced by French Tickner) is the administrator of a chain of institutions that oversees the girls' school. He maintains a close friendship with Miss Clavel. * The Narrator (voiced by

in the specials, seasons 1 & 2 and Christopher Gaze in season 3) is present throughout each episode to describe each scenario, often reading passages from the books.

Additional voices

* Long John Baldry * Kathleen Barr * Nigel Bennett * Susan Blu * Jay Brazeau * Jim Byrnes * Garry Chalk * Caroline Chan * Brent Chapman * Babz Chula *

Joely Collins Joely Collins (née Bertorelli; born August 8, 1972) is a Canadian actress. She is the daughter of Andrea Bertorelli and the adopted daughter of English musician Phil Collins. Early life Born and raised largely in Vancouver, British Columbia, Co ...

* Jennifer Copping * Ian James Corlett * Brenda Crichlow * Deborah Demille * Alex Doduk * Michael Donovan * Justin Escabedo *

Andrew Francis Andrew Michael Scott Francis is a Canadian actor. He has appeared in many television shows and films including '' My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'' as Shining Armor, '' MegaMan NT Warrior'' as MegaMan.EXE, '' Monster Rancher'' as Genki, '' ...

* Merrilyn Gann * Christopher Gaze * MacKenzie Gray * Adam Harrison * Phil Hayes * Kirosha Hemmings * Paige Heuser * Mark Hildreth * Pam Hyatt * Hailey Jenkins * Andrew Kavadas * Peter Kelamis * Corrine Koslo * Marilyn Lightstone * Norma MacMillan * Sam Mancuso * Blu Mankuma * Brenda McDonald * Danny McKinnon *

Don McManus Don McManus (sometimes credited as Don R. McManus) is an American actor. Born in San Diego, California, he is a graduate of Yale University. Career McManus's film credits include ''Vice'', ''Grand Piano'', '' Under the Silver Lake'', '' The Ma ...

Scott McNeil Scott McNeil is an Australian actor based in Canada, known for his live-action work as well as his roles in animation. His voice roles include Ace the Bat-Hound in '' Krypto the Superdog'', Voltar in '' League of Super Evil'', Jetfire, Backstop ...

* Maxine Miller * Chris Molineux * Wezley Morris * Kathy Morse * Jane Mortifee * Richard Newman * Luke Palmer * Jayne Paterson * Taylor-Anne Reid * Robert O. Smith * Tabitha St. Germain * Denis Thatcher * Jane Thompson * Kaitlin Turner * Carolyn Tweedle * Samuel Vincent * Mark Weatherly * Peter Wilds * Alec Willows * Dale Wilson

Television specials (1988–1991)

On November 7, 1988,

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

aired an animated television special titled ''Madeline''. The teleplay was an adaption of the first book written by

Ludwig Bemelmans Ludwig Bemelmans (April 27, 1898 – October 1, 1962) was an Austrian and American writer and illustrator of children's books and adult novels. He is known best for the ''Madeline'' picture books. Six were published, the first in 1939. Early li ...

. The later series was written by Judy Rothman who would become a writer, story editor, and lyricist for nearly all subsequent ''Madeline'' animated projects. The special was produced by DIC Enterprises and Cinar (now part of

WildBrain WildBrain Ltd. is a Canadian media, animation studio, production company, production, and brand licensing company, mostly associated as an entertainment company. The company is known for owning the largest independent library of Children's tel ...

). The special featured

as the narrator, and featured original music and songs by veteran ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'' songwriter and composer Joe Raposo with lyrics by Rothman. The cast for all six specials is as follows: * Marsha Moreau as Madeline * Judith Orban as Miss Clavel * Julian Bailey as Pepito * Anik Matern as Chloe * Liz MacRae as Danielle * Sonja Ball as Nicole The special was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (One Hour or Less). In 1990, the special was released onto VHS by Hi-Tops Video. The success of the special led to CINAR and France Animation producing an additional five specials, all adapted by Rothman from the other five original books, for The Family Channel. The cast of the original special and Plummer all returned for the subsequent specials. These specials featured music by Jeffrey Zahn, who replaced Raposo after his death in 1989. The theme song from the original special, "I'm Madeline", was reprised in each of the subsequent specials. The specials were released on video by Golden Book Video and Cinar/ Sony Wonder in Canada.

Television series (1993–2001)

With the success of the specials, The Family Channel commissioned a television series by DIC, which had been involved in the first of the six specials. The first season aired a total of 20 produced episodes from 1993 to 1994.

reprised his role as the narrator, but most of the voice actors from the specials were replaced. In addition, Jeffrey Zahn was replaced by Andy Street; compared to the previous specials, however, the series featured only one song per episode (a few of them with a reprise/finale) in addition to the opening theme "I'm Madeline". In 1995, an additional 13 episodes were produced by DIC for ABC under the title ''The New Adventures of Madeline''. A new theme song, called "Hats Off to Madeline", was used as the new opening theme, with the music by Andy Street and lyrics by Judy Rothman; some early airings of those episodes featured "I'm Madeline", but sung by the new voice cast. Most of the voices of the children characters were replaced, with Andrea Libman assuming the title role, while Plummer,

and French Tickner returned from the voice cast. Shortly after its airing on ABC, both the network and DIC were acquired by

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

. The 39 produced episodes and specials began to air in reruns on the

Playhouse Disney Playhouse Disney was a brand of programming blocks and international cable and satellite television channels that were owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide unit (now Disney Branded Television) of The Walt Disney Company's Disney–ABC Tele ...

block of

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

. In April 1998, DIC launched a direct-to-video division that produced films for Disney and distributed worldwide through Buena Vista Home Entertainment. The first film produced for this division, '' Madeline: Lost in Paris'', was released in August 1999. Most of the cast members from the 1995 iteration returned with

Lauren Bacall Betty Joan Perske (September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014), professionally known as Lauren Bacall ( ), was an American actress. She was named the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the America ...

and

Jason Alexander Jay Scott Greenspan (born September 23, 1959), known professionally as Jason Alexander, is an American actor and comedian. Over the course of his career he has received an Emmy Award and a Tony Award as well as nominations for four Golden Globe ...

also voicing new roles. DIC afterwards produced 26 new episodes for Playhouse Disney. Christopher Gaze replaced Plummer as the show's narrator for budgetary reasons. The show won a

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...

for Outstanding Children's Animated Program. The two Christmas episodes called ''Madeline at the North Pole'' and ''Madeline at Santa'' showed Lord Cucuface bringing Miss Clavel and the girls to the North Pole when a winter heatwave strikes Paris and is scheduled to last through Christmas this year bring warm, spring like weather to France in December. Two more films followed ahead: ''My Fair Madeline'', which aired on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

in November 2002 as part of the DIC Movie Toons series, and ''Madeline in Tahiti'' in 2005. ''Madeline'' has continued to be shown in syndication. In the 2006-2007 season, the series was shown on CBS' KOL Secret Slumber Party Saturday morning block.

Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...

also aired reruns of the series from October 6, 2018 to February 22, 2021. The series was also included in the On-Demand section of Sprout from 2015 to 2017, when the channel was rebranded to Universal Kids. As of September 2019, all broadcast and home video rights of ''Madeline'' are owned by

Episodes

Season 1 (1993–1994)

Season 2 (1995)

Season 3 (2000–2001)

Films (1999–2005)

''Madeline: Lost in Paris'' (1999)

On August 3, 1999, Buena Vista Home Video through Walt Disney Home Video released the feature-length film '' Madeline: Lost in Paris'', featuring Madeline being drawn into a scam by her supposed "Uncle" Horst and finding the true meaning to the word "family". As with Season 2 and eventually Season 3 of the series, Andrea Libman reprised her role as Madeline. The film was later re-released on DVD on April 3, 2010, by

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

''My Fair Madeline'' (2002)

In 2002, as a part of the '' DIC Movie Toons'' series of television films, DIC produced a film, titled ''My Fair Madeline'', where Madeline is falsely accused of misbehavior on a trip to the Louvre and is sent to a London Finishing School, while attempting to foil the plot of two thieves. The voice cast was almost entirely replaced for the film, with

voicing Madeline and

Whoopi Goldberg Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality.Kuchwara, Michael (AP Drama Writer)"Whoopi Goldberg: A One-Woman Character Parade". ...

as Miss Clavel. Coincidentally, Goldberg played Deloris Van Cartier in '' Sister Act'', who is also a nun character. The film was originally aired on November 17, 2002, on

and was later released onto VHS and DVD by

MGM Home Entertainment MGM Home Entertainment LLC (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment, d/b/a MGM Home Entertainment and formerly known as MGM Home Video, MGM/CBS Home Video and MGM/UA Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of the American med ...

, followed on with international airings on

Toon Disney Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Branded Television, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children aged 7–11, and older children and adolescents aged 8� ...

and

''Madeline in Tahiti'' (2005)

In 2005, DIC produced another film, titled ''Madeline in Tahiti'', which is the final ''Madeline'' production to have been created. The film features Madeline and her friends going on a vacation to

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

to stop Miss Clavel from retiring, with Pepito sneaking along, as well as stopping a villainous plot to erupt the Tahiti-nui volcano. Chantal Strand reprised her role as Madeline while other characters were recast or reprised their roles from ''My Fair Madeline''; most notably, Ashleigh Ball voiced both Danielle and Nona. The film was originally going to be released on DVD in the United States by Walt Disney Home Entertainment in 2006, but this release never saw the light of the day. It was, however, released on DVD in some regions in 2007 through other distributors, and was eventually released in the United States on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

and

Amazon Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

in 2015 and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

in 2019.

Home media releases

The 1993 series was originally released by Golden Book Video on all single VHS volumes, and Sony Wonder on both

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

. The DVD versions contained 2 episodes each, sometimes with the original specials. The 2000 series was released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Trimark Home Video in 2001 and 2002 on all VHS and DVD sets. In these DVD sets, the theme song was changed to a different song titled "Our Madeline" to match the Sing-a-Long versions. In 2008,

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Home Entertainment (previously known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC. and also known as 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment) was a home video distribution arm that distributes films produced by 20th Century Stud ...

released 2 DVDs titled "Next Stop, America" and "Meet Me in Paris", each containing 3 episodes. In 2010,

released 5 single-disc collections of the series. In September 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment released 3 single disc collections featuring content from the animated series as well as the original TV specials. ''The New Adventures of Madeline - Adventures in Paris'' contains 6 episodes from the 2000 series, while ''Madeline's Merry Musical Melodies'' features various musical interludes from the animated series. ''Bonjour Madeline'' contains all 6 original TV specials. Later in May 2014, Mill Creek re-released the three single disc collections together in one three-pack set, followed by ''Madeline: The Complete Collection'' on DVD in Region 1 for the first time in August 2015. This six-disc collection features all six original specials produced by

DIC Entertainment DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions, sometimes stylized as DİC) was a French American film and television production company that ...

and CINAR between 1988 and 1991, as well as all 59 episodes from the ''Madeline'' TV series (1993, 1995, 2000–2001).

Sing-a-Longs

In 2001, DIC produced two

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

releases which featured songs and clips from season 3 of the television series akin to Disney's Sing-Along Songs series, which were titled ''Sing-a-Long with Madeline and her Friends'' and ''Sing-a-Long Around the World with Madeline''. They were originally released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Trimark Home Video on September 25, 2001, and March 25, 2002, respectively,On VHS, both Sing-a-Longs were released separately, while on DVD, ''Sing-a-Long with Madeline with her Friends'' was released on the ''Madeline Manners'' DVD and together with ''Sing-a-Long Around the World with Madeline''. and later reissued together by Mill Creek Entertainment as ''Madeline's Merry Musical Melodies'' on September 10, 2013, as well as being available for digital download.

Notes

References

External links