Miraculous Ladybug Christmas Special mini-review (minimal spoilers) · 4:06pm Dec 15th, 2016
So the French version of the Christmas special premiered this past weekend. I've been sitting on it all week but didn't get around to watching it until today. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the English dub version will be released on the official Miraculous Ladybug Youtube channel on Monday, December 19. Remember not to post links to downloads/streams of this special! It is against site rules. (Unless it's the official channel when it's released on Monday.)
Below the cut are my brief thoughts.
I enjoyed this little Christmas special, but honestly? Storywise, it felt very much like a fanfic. The story, the pacing, the villain, the resolution, it ALL felt very, very much like a dozen or so angsty fanfics I've read since February.
The high point, of course, was the singing. Marinette and Adrien have excellent French actors who sing wonderfully. I am a bit skeptical about the English version of this, however. Not for Cristina Vee as Marinette singing, because Cristina Vee is an AMAZING singer and I can't wait to hear her version of Marinette's Yule Log song.
No, the problem is gonna be Bryce as Adrien. Because I gotta be honest: Bryce's singing is crap. I've heard the extended version of the theme song where Chat Noir has a verse, I've seen the English version of the Princess Fragrance episode...Bryce can't carry a tune in a motorized bucket on wheels. His singing is horrible, and that's gonna damage the special.
I don't really have much else to say about the Christmas special.
I kind of have to agree. Granted, I find Bryce's singing in the intro to be good, his singing in Princess Fragrance is...meh. Bryce is a pretty talented actor, but singer, not so much. Bother Christmas was a pretty good Akuma villain, and add a +1 to people Marinette has gotten Akumatized, especially due to something about Adrien. Though him dabbing is....blegh. Still, kind of nice to see Chloe and Marinette trying to act decent towards one another. Nice to see more evidence of Gabriel actually giving a crap about Adrien and showing he cares for his son, even if he's more than like Hawk Moth.
4340775 The one thing that threw me re: the Christmas special is that they narrowed the timeframe of Mrs. Agreste's disappearance down to less than a year, which throws a LOT of theories out the window AND seems contradictory to established canon.
4340875 True, I mean, maybe Gabriel and whatnot are misremembering it? Like, a relative of mine passed five years ago, but I was surprised to find that out, as I believed it was in 2014. Perhaps she did disappear years ago, but to them it felt like a year ago?
Still, that is quite the problem, as established canon has, if memory serves, stated his mom disappeared when he was much younger. Still, if she IS the holder of the Peacock Miraculous that could explain why she left
I'm going to watch both versions.
4340979 So am I. I'm just dreading Bryce's singing in the English one.
4341078 I have a high tolerance for annoyance so I should be fine.
4340875
Alternatively, this could just be the first time they've tried to celebrate Christmas since her disappearance. Although it being only a year does explain Gabriel's intensity regarding those issues.