Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?: Difference between revisions

Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? is an American animated television series based on the series of computer games. The show was produced by

History, Development, and Production

The need for the show was facilitated by the

Although Earth took the premise of the series more seriously than the Brøderbund computer games or the zany World game show, most elements of the series, such as giving V.I.L.E. agents gag names ("Buck N. Bronco", "Dee Tritus", etc.) and having Carmen commit spectacularly impossible thefts, were faithfully maintained. However, Earth often showed how V.I.L.E. perpetrated such spectacular thefts, whereas the computer games left this to the user's imagination, and "serious" villains, such as Lee Jordan and Dr. Maelstrom, were not given such funny names. The World game show also explained how such thefts were committed although their explanations were humorously nonsensical.

Originally, episodes of Earth were quite similar to the typical "formula" of the computer games. An outrageous theft would be committed somewhere in the world and Zack and Ivy, guided by the Player, would try to retrieve the loot and capture Carmen Sandiego. Though the loot would typically be recovered, Carmen, who usually had some kind of "master plan", would always escape. Towards the end of the first season, time travel was added into the show when Carmen built her own time machine and travelled back in time to the American Revolution. Time travel would continue to recur throughout the rest of the show's run.

However, this structure began to be abandoned as the writers started to explore the nature of Carmen's character. Early on, it was established that Carmen only stole for the challenge of it and that she had her own ethical code, but, as it progressed, the show began to increasingly focus on her "good" side and on her weaknesses. By the show's fourth and final season, Zack and Ivy were regularly teaming up with their former nemesis to stop considerably less moral criminals from taking over V.I.L.E. and such. Nevertheless, the show never portrayed Carmen returning to ACME or giving up her thieving ways.

Since they obviously continued to approve the scripts, Brøderbund apparently did not have any qualms about this direction, though they did not incorporate it into any of their games. The lead characters of Earth were, however, featured in Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition, released in 1995.

Plot

Like the basic plot of the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? line of video games, Carmen Sandiego and her crooks have stolen items and it is up to the ACME agents and the Chief to put a stop to her.

Cast and characters

• Carmen Sandiego - Rita Moreno
  • Carmen Sandiego is an international thief and the head of V.I.L.E. Despite the name of her organization, she has a strong code of morals and only steals for the challenge of it. She was a former agent of the ACME Detective Agency.
• Chief - Rodger Bumpass
  • The C.H.I.E.F. (short for Computerized Holographic Imaging Educational Facilitator) is the head of ACME. His role consisted of providing
    exposition, information, alerts of Carmen's recent crime and comic relief
    . He had a very intimate professional and personal relationship with Carmen.
• Ivy - Jennifer Hale
  • Ivy has short
    pilot
    . She can get frustrated easily.
• Zack - Scott Menville
  • Zack has blond hair, blue eyes and is fourteen years old. He is a genius; he can speak over 20 languages and has a photographic memory. He takes cases less seriously than his sister Ivy.
• Player - Joanie Tucker (Season 1), Justin Shenkarow (Season 2), Asi Lang (Season 3-4), & Joanie Pleasant (Season 3-4)
  • The only live-action character on the program, always seen from behind as a computer player at the beginning and closing of the show.

Episodes

This is a list of episodes:^[5]

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Theme song

The opening theme song for the show is "Singt dem grossen Bassa Lieder" from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail with new lyrics, pop instrumentation, and a backbeat.

Releases

On June 13, 2006,

Lions Gate Entertainment has released two of the show's three-part episodes ("Retribution" and "Labyrinth") as full-length direct-to-video films entitled "Carmen's Revenge" & "Time Traveler" respectively. A video of the episode "Timing is Everything" is included with some versions of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge.[8]

On July 22, 2011, Mill Creek Entertainment announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and planned on releasing it in its entirety in 2012. They subsequently released Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? - The Complete series on DVD in Region 1 on February 21, 2012. This 4 disc set contains all 40 episodes of the series.^[9] They also released a 10 episode best-of collection the same day.

Critical reception

At TV.com, the show has a user rating 8.5/10 based on 137 votes.^[10] At imdb, the show has a user rating of 7.0/10 from 652 users.^[11] The show was given a rating of 4 stars out of 5 by CommonSenseMedia, noting that "the show’s format -- which includes trivia sessions, vocabulary, and even the characters’ use of foreign language -- is designed to pique kids’ interest in these subjects".^[12]

DVD Talk said: "There's something quite special here, among the action and comedy that feel obligatory for a cartoon, and it's all in how intelligence is respected above all else. The writing staff wisely avoids a dangerous cliché. Often in a series of this sort, we'll get one smart character and one average one, the idea being the smart one will explain everything to the average one, and, in essence, us, too. But in "Carmen Sandiego," both leads are cracking brilliant, the twist being that they're just experts in different things, explaining ideas to each other but never dumbing anything down. At last, a show that feels that instead of talking down to kids, you should treat them as the smart young folks they are."^[13]

References

External links

• Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? at
  IMDb