Code Lyoko

Code Lyoko
The 2003-2008 Code Lyoko logo
Created by	Tania Palumbo Thomas Romain
Voices of	Sharon Mann Matthew Géczy Mirabelle Kirkland Barbara Weber-Scaff Jodi Forrest David Gasman
Theme music composer	Franck Keller and Ygal Amar
Opening theme	"A World Without Danger" by Noam Kaniel (Original Song "Un Monde Sans Danger" by Julien Lamassonne in French.
Ending theme	"Break Away" (Instrumental) by Subdigitals
Country of origin	France
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	97 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	26 minutes approx.
Original release
Network	France 3 and Canal J
Release	September 3, 2003 (2003-09-03) – Present

Code Lyoko is a French animated television series created by Thomas Romain and Tania Palumbo. The series centers on boarding school students Jeremie, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd who travel to the virtual world of Lyoko to fight against multi-agent computer program XANA with Aelita, a being originally trapped in Lyoko. The series features both two-dimensional animation and CGI.

The series began its initial 97-episode run on September 3, 2003 on France's France 3, and ended November 10, 2007. In the United States, the show was first broadcast on April 19, 2004 on Cartoon Network. On May 31, 2011, production company MoonScoop revealed on Facebook that the show is returning with a fifth season, set to air in 2012. The season will be 26 episodes long and contain a mixture of live action and CGI.

Code Lyoko has spawned an array of related merchandise, including three videos games, a tie-in book series, and figurines. The show achieved ratings success in multiple countries.

Origins

Code Lyoko originates from the film short Les enfants font leur cinéma (The children make their movies), directed by Thomas Romain and produced by a group of students from Parisian visual arts school Gobelins School of the Image. Romain worked with Tania Palumbo, Stanislas Brunet and Jerome Cottray to create the film, which was screened at the 2000 Annecy International Animated Film Festival. French animation company Antefilms offered Romain a contract as a result of the film. This led to the development of the pilot, Garage Kids.

Garage Kids was released in 2001. The project was created by Palumbo, Romain, and Carlo de Boutiny and developed by Anne de Galard. Its executive producers were Eric Garnet and Christophe di Sabatino. The project was produced by Antefilms.

Similar to the succeeding Code Lyoko, Garage Kids was intended to be a 26-episode series detailing the lives of four French boarding school students who have discovered the secret of Xanadu, a virtual world created by a research group headed by the Professor. The Professor plunged into madness, and the resulting disturbances within Xanadu threaten the real world. The pilot featured both 2D and 3D animation.

Garage Kids evolved into Code Lyoko, which began broadcast in 2003.

Synopsis

Code Lyoko is about a group of four boarding school students enrolled at Kadic Junior High School: Jeremie Belpois, Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, and Yumi Ishiyama. The students travel to the virtual world of Lyoko — which is found in a supercomputer housed in the basement of an abandoned factory near the school — to fight against a deadly multi-agent system named XANA and aid a virtual friend trapped in Lyoko, Aelita Schaeffer.

Plot

Main article: List of Code Lyoko episodes

The artificial intelligence known as XANA is obsessed with world domination. Towards that end, he has taken over the supercomputer in charge of the virtual world of Lyoko. XANA is also able to attack the real world by activating towers on Lyoko, which act as links to the real world. When these towers are activated, XANA is able to seize control of other computers and electrical systems as well as occasionally possessing organic life-forms or generating copies of them. Aelita must get to the activated tower(s) out of the 41 scattered about Lyoko's five sectors to deactivate them, neutralizing XANA's attack on the real world.

Once the danger is averted, they can use the supercomputer to return to the past, leaving no one except themselves to remember any of the events that transpired. To complicate the situation, they must do this while ensuring their classmates and teachers are not killed, (going back in time cannot bring back the dead), and deal with the many clashes of personality at the same time. Once back in time, they can use their knowledge of the future to alter events in their favor or the favor of others. This usually entails taking steps to keep one of XANA's attacks from taking place, though they do use the knowledge to prevent other unfavorable events that may not be related to XANA. As a downside, returning to the past adds a qubit to the supercomputer, doubling its power and therefore XANA's with each use (in the first two seasons only, as XANA's connection to the supercomputer is lost by season three).

Prequel

In the prequel, Jeremie Belpois discovers an old abandoned factory containing a giant supercomputer. He reboots it and learns that it contains a virtual world called Lyoko and a virtual humanoid named Aelita, who does not remember her name and is thus called "Maya". Strange attacks begin to occur in the real world as a result of re-activating the supercomputer. Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, and Yumi Ishiyama become involved in these attacks, and Jeremie has no choice but to share his secret with them. Odd, Ulrich and Yumi are sent into Lyoko using scanners to stop the force attacking their world. Once the attacks are stopped, the group discovers that they are being chased by XANA, a powerful AI which wants to dominate the world. Aelita remembers her real name when she sees it on the screen in the activated tower and the "Lyoko Warriors" are formed.

In the second part, Jeremie discovers a back in time function in the supercomputer, but nobody knows who or what created Lyoko, Aelita, the supercomputer, and XANA. The prequel aired between seasons 2 and 3.

First season

The first season of the show has very little plot development. The only major plot developments are made in the two-part finale. The rest of the episodes are mostly filler. Until the finale, each episode consists of the group discovering an attack, stopping the attack, and resetting time to cover it up. Other subplots are included, such as their relationships with one another and other students and teachers at the school. Usually the interaction with their classmates and teachers early in each episode contributes to XANA's attack. Throughout these events, Jeremie works on a program to materialize Aelita in order to shut down the supercomputer safely. He eventually completes the program in the two-part finale, but XANA takes measures to keep Aelita linked to the supercomputer, preventing the group from shutting it down without killing her in the process, leaving a cliffhanger opening for the second season.

Second season

The second season, in contrast to the first, is much more plot-focused, though a decent portion of the episodes are still filler. The animation is more realistic and detailed, and Jim and Sissi's personalities have changed significantly, though some traces of their old personalities exist in some form. Aelita lives on Earth in the second season. In the first episode of the second season, she enrolls at Kadic under the name of Aelita Stones. She poses as a cousin of Odd, using a forged birth certificate created by Jeremie. Jeremie's new super scan program also means that Aelita doesn't need to stay on Lyoko to check for XANA's activity; however, due to her links to the supercomputer, Aelita will die if she runs out of Life Points on Lyoko and can only be devirtualized through one of the towers. Aelita also begins having visions of a life she supposedly never lived, and a man named Franz Hopper is shown to have connections to Lyoko. Also adding to the group's troubles is a new student named William Dunbar, who has begun to take an interest in Yumi.

Each member of the group now has vehicles to quickly transport them in Lyoko: Odd gets a hover skateboard called an "Overboard," Ulrich gets a one-wheeled motorcycle called an "Overbike," and Yumi gets a hover scooter called an "Overwing." Aelita can ride any vehicle by herself if necessary, but usually rides with another person. A fifth sector, Carthage, is discovered in Lyoko and turns out to be XANA's home sector, from which all of his data can be accessed, so the group goes on several journeys into this sector to do so. At the same time, XANA begins sending the Scyphozoa after Aelita to steal her memories, and has created three other new monsters, as well. The operations of the supercomputer are also somewhat demystified. Return trips are fewer (though still common) now, because it makes XANA stronger. Eventually, XANA's true purpose is revealed, as are the origins of the supercomputer, Lyoko, and Aelita herself. It is also discovered that the keys to Lyoko are within Aelita's memories, and XANA will be able to escape the supercomputer if it acquires them. In the end, despite the group's best efforts, Aelita's memories are stolen, apparently killing her, but Franz Hopper (revealed to be Aelita's father) revives her and restores her memory. However, XANA escapes the supercomputer, and the group, though unsure of how to do so, vows to continue fighting him.

Third season

In the third season, XANA has been strangely quiet in both the real world and Lyoko, having done nothing during the group's summer vacation. It still needs a computer to exist, but is no longer limited to a specific one, instead being free to roam the Internet at will. Jeremie has developed a new scanning program capable of tracking XANA, which reveals that XANA appears to be residing in the United States, but lacks the means to strike against XANA. Jeremie's current goal at the moment is to find a way to transfer the group into the Internet.

Because Aelita had her memories returned by Franz Hopper, she can be devirtualized normally. She even has a new power to defend herself within Lyoko — energy fields. Also, Yumi has decided against having a relationship with Ulrich, preferring to remain just friends.

In Carthage, the group finds Lyoko's core, which XANA wants destroyed. Being free of the supercomputer, XANA's attacks are far more powerful. Tower activation is still required to initiate them, but XANA can perform attacks on levels far beyond what he could when imprisoned. XANA can possess mass numbers of people at once, making it that much more difficult for the group to make their way from the school to the factory. In the hopes of isolating the group from Carthage, since destroying Lyoko directly would prove difficult, XANA has turned his sights to Lyoko's sectors, hoping to remove their ability to access Carthage by deleting the sectors they use to get there. By using the Scyphozoa to possess Aelita, XANA can use her to enter the code "XANA" in a way tower. This gives XANA full access to the sector, after which he can delete it. Despite their best efforts, XANA eventually succeeds in deleting all four sectors. Luckily, Jeremie finds a way to access Carthage directly.

Seeing that their numbers aren't enough against XANA's increasing power, the group decides to add William Dunbar to the team to balance things out. However, a chain of events lead to only Aelita and William being able to make it to his first trip to Lyoko. Once they arrive, the two are separated, and XANA uses the Scyphozoa to possess William. Using William, XANA is easily able to overpower the other Lyoko warriors and destroy Lyoko's core. The act renders the supercomputer useless. Within the empty supercomputer, William is transformed into a dark version of himself, now possessed by XANA to an even greater degree. Afterwards, Jeremie gets a coded message from the internet from none other than Franz Hopper, who has somehow survived the destruction of Lyoko.

Fourth season

In the fourth season, Lyoko is recreated, allowing the group to continue tracking XANA. Traveling into the digital sea in Jeremie's latest creation, a submersible ship called the Skidbladnir, the group finds a number of "Replikas", which are single-sector recreations of Lyoko. Each of these Replikas is controlled by another supercomputer, which is in turn controlled by XANA. To stop XANA once and for all, Jeremie devises a way to materialize his friends at the site of these supercomputers with their Lyoko abilities intact, giving them the necessary firepower to dismantle or to destroy them, all while continuing to battle the XANA-possessed William. The group has new outfits (in both Lyoko and the real world) and weapons to accompany the new season.

In the final few episodes of the season, the creation of a monster known as the Kolossus (which destroys the Skidbladnir) opens the gang to realize that with hundreds of supercomputers under his control, XANA cannot be defeated with Jeremie's teleportation method. To this end, Jeremie initiates a multi-agent program to destroy XANA and another program to free William. In "Fight to the Finish", Franz Hopper sacrifices himself to give this program enough power to destroy XANA and free William. In the epilogue, "Echoes", having completed their mission, the gang shuts down the supercomputer for good.

Characters

Primary characters

Main article: List of primary characters in Code Lyoko

File:Code lyoko.jpg

The show's main characters- from left to right: Aelita, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd (holding Kiwi), and Jeremie.

The main characters are Aelita Schaeffer (Stones), Jeremie Belpois, Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama, and XANA. There are also several supporting characters that appear in most of the episodes. These two groups make up the primary cast for the show.

Secondary characters

Main article: List of secondary characters in Code Lyoko

There are many characters in Code Lyoko that do not contribute much, if anything, to the overall plot of the show. Several of them have played major roles in single episodes, though. All of the various characters are sorted by their current grade.

Monsters

There are many types of monsters in Lyoko. XANA creates them in order to keep the towers it activates safe. Some are a mere nuisance while others are a major threat. The ones that can be considered a nuisance make up for this fact by travelling in packs. All of them, however, try to impede the group. The monsters remain until they are destroyed or a return trip is activated. XANA has eleven types of monsters so far. Odd, Ulrich and Yumi each have special weapons in Lyoko in order to destroy the monsters. Aelita mostly relies on the protection of the others when it comes to dealing with the monsters in the first two seasons, but gains a weapon in the third season.

Other monsters exist that don't fall into the same category as XANA's monsters. One is a monster Jeremie produced, called the Marabounta, which only appeared in one episode. There is also an entity known as the Transport Orb. It's a giant white sphere with an Eye of XANA printed on it, like all of XANA's monsters. Unlike the other monsters, however, its only purpose is to ferry passengers from the edge of any region to the center of the fifth sector, Carthage, and back again. Both Jeremie and XANA can access it at will. This entity's classification as a monster is arguable, but it is included for the sake of completion.

Also, there are monsters located in the digital sea. These monsters must be destroyed using torpedoes shot from the Skidbladnir or Nav Skids.

Location

The show is set in France (most likely a suburb of Paris), which can be seen in various scenes through the series. The episode "Satellite", for instance, shows a military satellite zooming in on France to target the junior high school. Despite this, the English dub of the series occasionally confuses this fact. For example, in the episode "Attack of the Zombies", Milly asks Sissi what her feelings are about her father starting a language-exchange program with France (despite them already being in France). The English version also tends to use American terms in place of the French equivalents (Washington St. and Franklin Ave., for example), further confusing this fact. In episode 84, the coordinates of Jeremie are those of a nuclear power plant in France.

The factory and boarding school are based on real locations in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, a suburb of Paris. The factory was a Renault production plant, but has since been demolished.

Reused scenes

Many scenes in the program are reused, particularly transitional scenes. The intro sequence changes in the transition from the first season to the second, but not in the third. In the third season, the logo in the final scene is merely recolored green. The fourth season intro is done in the same style as the last two seasons, but using new clips. CGI scenes are also reused occasionally, though with different backgrounds in some cases.

Awards and Recognition

Code Lyoko has been rated as one of the best shows on Cartoon Network, and is a key show in France. It was voted as the best show by Canal J viewers. The show also won France's Prix de l'Export 2006 Award for Animation in December 2006.

Merchandise

Main article: List of Code Lyoko media

Several Code Lyoko products have been or are being planned for release, including DVDs, a series of cine-manga, a set of novels, apparel and other accessories. In 2006, Marvel Toys released a line of Code Lyoko toys and action figures. In July 2007, Carl's Jr. had a kids' meal toy promotion for Code Lyoko, followed by a similar promotion from its sibling restaurant chain, Hardee's.

In 2007, Game Factory released two video games based on the show; Code Lyoko for the Nintendo DS and Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity for the Wii, the PSP , and PlayStation 2. A second DS game, Code Lyoko: Fall of X.A.N.A., was released in June 2008.

As of January 2011, the first season, the second season, the third season, and the fourth season of Code Lyoko have been released on iTunes in the US and in France by MoonScoop Holdings.

External links

• Official website
• Official website of lead background painter Frédéic Perrin
• Entire first season of Code Lyoko - Kabillion.com
• Code Lyoko at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com