Totally Spies!


Totally Spies! is a French animated spy fiction television series created by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel mainly produced by French company Zodiak Kids & Family France, with seasons three to five being co-produced with Canadian company Image Entertainment Corporation. It focuses on three teenage girls from Beverly Hills, California, who work as undercover agents for the World Organization of Human Protection.
Prior to its debut in France on April 3, 2002, on TF1's TFOU block, the series was first shown in the United States on November 3, 2001, on ABC Family before moving to Cartoon Network, and later to Universal Kids for the sixth season. It premiered in Canada on Teletoon on September 2, 2002, for the English version, and on Télétoon for the French version. During its original run, the show spanned five seasons, with 130 episodes and several specials. In 2011, the series was moved to Gulli, with the release of the sixth season in 2013. Following a second hiatus that lasted ten years, a seventh season premiered in France via Gulli on May 12, 2024, and internationally through both Cartoon Network and Discovery Kids on January 4, 2025; the series is renewed for an eighth season.
Totally Spies! developed a cult following worldwide. The series also spawned a media franchise with several products tied to it, including various comic books, novels and video games. A film adaptation based on the series and serving as its prequel, Totally Spies! The Movie, was released theatrically in 2009 in France. A spin-off series titled The Amazing Spiez! premiered in 2009 and ran for two seasons.

Premise

The series focuses on the adventures of three teenage girls from Beverly Hills, California – Clover, Sam, and Alex – who live a double life as secret agents working for the World Organization of Human Protection. The girls are recruited by the organization's leader, Jerry, to solve worsening crime conditions that arise across the globe. The spies sport colourful latex jumpsuits and are provided with various gadgets to aid in their investigations. Their primary missions involve dealing with disgruntled and vengeful criminals who have been inconvenienced in some form in the past. Other missions have the same villains plotting revenge on the spies by ruining their personal lives. Framing each episode is a subplot that focuses on the girls' everyday lives as high school students, dealing with relationships and their longtime high school nemesis Mandy.

Main characters

  • Clover and Ali Ryan is the fashionable one of the trio. While she is athletic, agile, and strong, she is also impulsive and spontaneous, never thinking twice before jumping into action. She is always ready to teach villains a lesson, even if she has no chance of winning against them. Her spy suit is red.
  • Sam and Kira Riley, is the intellectual of the trio. She acts as an elder sister to her friends, being rational, logical, and the most mature of the group. More sensible than Alex and less superficial than Clover, her intelligence and composure allow her to find effective solutions to complicated problems. Her spy suit is green.
  • Alex ; Katie Griffin and Lori Felipe-Barkin is the heart of the trio. She values her friendship with Sam and Clover above all else and will do anything to keep the trio united and happy. Although she admires Sam and Clover, she effaces somewhat in their presence. She is very affectionate and unafraid to show her feelings. Her spy suit is yellow.
  • Jerry Lewis ; Adrian Truss and Gary Mack is the founder of WOOHP. From seasons one to six, he is the president of the agency and the trio's superior. He assigns the trio with missions and takes a certain pleasure in summoning them at inopportune moments. Despite his age, he is sufficiently athletic when helping the trio on certain missions. He remains attached to his cultural roots and often plays with his British phlegm with the trio, who do not hesitate to tease him about his cheesy gentlemanly demeanor.
  • Mandy and Sarah Naughton is a classmate and rival to the girls in their lives outside of WOOHP. Rich, popular and charismatic, she is in perpetual conflict with the trio, locking horns with them over boys, contests or clothing they covet.
  • G.L.A.D.I.S. is an artificial intelligence that assists Jerry in distributing gadgets during the third and fourth seasons. G.L.A.D.I.S. was dropped from the series before the fifth season, having been sent by Jerry to WOOHP's recycling facility.
  • Zerlina is Jerry's daughter and the new president of WOOHP following her father's retirement.
  • Toby is a young high-tech genius who assists Zerlina in the creation and distribution of the girls' gadgets.
  • Glitterstar is the manager of Bubble Spy Cafe, run by WOOHP, the World Organization Of Human Protection. Despite this, she does not know of the girls' secret spy life. So her spy suit is orange.

    Episodes

Conception, development and production

Seasons 1–5

The series' conception came from the rise of girl groups and female singers in the music industry. Wanting to capitalize on the niche, David Michel and Vincent Chalvon-Demersay put their idea into development, which later shifted into production within a year. According to Michel, the series' animation style was influenced by anime. The production company, Marathon Media, intended on building on the series brand by forming a three-piece girl band, utilizing German talk show Arabella to create it. Using a panel of judges, 20 demo videos were selected and the winners were selected based on the strength of their performance and the series' viewers. The band was selected and released a single in the spring of 2002, through EMI. According to managing director Dirk Fabarius, "The plan is to eventually create an entire album and establish and promote Totally Spies as a real band." While the idea did not materialize, the series was promoted through other merchandising. It was announced in Spring 2001 that the series would air in the fall on ABC Family in the United States, and would be distributed to the European countries in the following year. Fox Kids Europe acquired European merchandising rights to the series in July 2001, excluding German-speaking territories.
In an interview with WorldScreen.com, Michel explained that prior to the series, there were a lot of boy action-adventure shows and practically nothing for girls, yet in pop culture, there were Britney Spears and the Spice Girls. He explained that the characters are heavily inspired by the movie Clueless and wanted to mix that with a James Bond format. When they first pitched the show, it had a moderate response, but when the first season was broadcast, the Charlie's Angels film came out, and suddenly the market was full of girl show properties.
According to an article "Achieving a Global Reach on Children's Cultural Markets" by Valerie-Ines de la Ville and Laurent Durup, the series was originally designed to reach an American audience, but has garnered appeal from its humor "based on a stereotypical European vision of American references" while "appearing to be original and innovative to the U.S. audience". Producer and artistic director Stephane Berry explained that the style "is a melting between the American style, which associates action and comedy, and Japanese design for the aesthetic environment and the emotions expressed through the large eyes of the characters." Some of the common references have included Charlie's Angels, Beverly Hills, The Avengers, James Bond and its gadgets, and Cat's Eye.
The character design was originally done by Gil Formosa.
The head writers for the series were Robert and Michelle Lamoreaux, who were based in Los Angeles and had worked on Nickelodeon shows. Demersay and Stephane Berry had both recently worked with Saban Entertainment in Europe. In a GeoCities interview, Kate Griffin, who voices Alex, mentioned that the typical session for the three girls is that they would record as an ensemble, but through a phone patch, with Hale and Baker calling from Los Angeles, and herself in Toronto.
Following the end of the fifth season, the series' movie, Totally Spies! The Movie, was produced and released to theatres in France on 22 July 2009. The movie received a telecast release in the United States on 25 April the following year, coinciding with the airing of the series' fifth season there.

Seasons 6–present

In August 2011, Marathon Media confirmed that production for a sixth season was underway and set to premiere in 2013, with Jennifer Hale, Andrea Baker, Katie Griffin and Adrian Truss reprising their roles. The sixth series would be produced only by Marathon in association with TF1 and The Walt Disney Company France. It was later confirmed that 26 episodes would be produced and that the series would be licensed in Spain and Latin America, with European territories following suit. To coincide with the sixth season's premiere, Zodiak Kids CP Paris, in association with Château de Versailles Spectacles and TF1, organized an event at the Palace of Versailles, taking place during Summer 2013. The event would be preceded by activities, including a screening of a special featuring the spies on a mission in the palace gardens.
On 8 January 2022, Thomas Astruc, the creator of Miraculous Ladybug, who had previously worked on Totally Spies!, announced on Twitter that a new season of the latter was "in the making". On the 13th, revised character designs for Sam, Alex and Clover were revealed. It was originally set to premiere in 2023, but was later pushed back to 2024. The upcoming series will be produced by Zodiak Kids & Family Studio France, with Ollenom as co-producer, and French-broadcaster Gulli and Latin American-broadcaster Discovery Kids as participators. On 25 April 2023, it was announced that Warner Bros. Discovery had acquired broadcast rights to the series in the United States and EMEA regions, where the series would air on Cartoon Network in the United States and stream on Max in EMEA regions. In September 2023, Andrea Baker confirmed on her Twitter that she and the rest of the voice cast would not be returning.
On 13 June 2024, it was announced that the show had been renewed for an eighth season.