Animation has two big market hubs; which are the United States and Japan. The sheer volume of animated projects that have come out are numerous and have been dubbed all around the world. On the other hand, they are not the only regions to produce animation. They just happen to produce the most popular properties to be distributed. For children's animation there was moment in the early 2000s where French productions had made a splash and that was with the Totally Spies! TV show. Taking a modern spin on what seems like Charlies' Angels, James Bond and making the main characters high school students became quite successful over in North America. The show would have five seasons until a film was greenlit for the franchise. That's pretty good considering.
The plot to the feature film is an origin story to how everyday high schoolers Clover (Andrea Baker), Sam (Jennifer Hale) and Alex (Katie Griffin) end up joining WOOHP (World Organization of Human Protection) under the coercion of boss Jerry (Adrian Truss). Apparently he's had his eyes on the ladies for some time making sure they were made of spy material. Once brought on board they are to figure out what is happening to various well known people being snatched up and disappearing. Before that their last known appearance was getting a trendy hairstyle once worn by Fabu (Joris Jarsky), a famous model. At the same time, the three high schoolers have to manage their normal lives after moving to Beverley Hills High and being bullied by Mandy. It seems like a lot for these heroines to take on, but for those following the show, everyone will know they'll handle it.
Written by Michelle and Robert Lamoreaux who worked on the TV show, it's no surprise that the movie more or less feels like an extended episode or three-part pilot episode put together in one. In terms of story, it's really doesn't break away from the standard structure that has been used in the show. This is good, but perhaps the one thing the writers missed out on was actually giving the three main characters a little more internal struggle at the beginning. Essentially how these three meet are joining forces by happenstance. And it was by luck that all three females ended up getting along really well and were able to make each other's quirks fit the strengths of their team efforts. It's true that sometimes people just click instantly but the film establishes this very quickly almost to the point where it feels rushed. It would have been interesting to see if they initially needed to get used to each other's personalities before developing the dynamic fans know them for.
Direction was headed by Pascal Jardin in his first theatrical credit although he did direct episodes of Redwall. Co-directing was Seok-hoon Lee which this seems to be their first English film too. Much of their credits are in the Korean market. In terms of acting the voice cast continue to give the same kind of enthusiastic performances they give in the show. Andrea Baker, Katie Griffin and Jennifer Hale all have great chemistry with each other and their line deliveries along with Adrian Truss. Their characters have been well established at this point since the show but even for those just being introduced, should enjoy the characters' charms too. Truss has voiced characters in Rolie Polie Olie, Griffin has played voices in the Totaldrama series, and Hale has had many roles in video games like Mass Effect.
For visuals the animation looked like it had a better budget than its TV counterpart. There's more detail to the backgrounds and characters which makes them look sharper. It would seem the production took place either fully or partly in Korea with the co-director and Eddie Mehong as the animation supervisor and Wang Yup Kim serving as the animation co-director. Lastly the musical score was composed by Maxime Barzel and Paul-Étienne Côté as their first theatrical credit. For what is heard, the music sounds okay but very stock. There is actually an album release but this time, it's an EU exclusive. Like all of Pokemon's Japan albums. It seems to work for the scenes put on screen but there isn't anything really unique about it. The TV show theme doesn't even pop up anywhere in the run time which is rather disappointing. Oh well.
As an origin story to the three spy girls, it is a fun introduction to the well-known TV show. The actors all remain consistent, the animation looks good along with the action and comedy. Just don't expect any real strong initial development between the main cast or any compelling music.
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