How many people plane remember this show? Well, I did. I remember seeing some episodes occasionally when I was younger, but I was never a hardcore fan. Still, some aspects stuck with me. I recalled a lot of character’s names and the plot points of unrepealable episodes.
I thought, maybe there was something to it that was worth checking out so I did. I watched all sixty-six (sixty-seven if you count the Totally Spies crossover) episodes of this show and now it’s time for the analysis. Martin Mystery aired from October 10, 2003-March 27, 2006 on Nickelodeon. The series was based on Martin Mystère, an Italian comic typesetting created by writer Alfredo Castelli and versifier Giancarlo Alessandrini. I haven’t read it and from what I hear, the show deviates a lot from the source material.
Therefore, other than some references I will only be focusing on the TV series. It stars the title character, Martin Mystery withal with his step-sister, Diana Lombard, and their friends Billy and Java. By the way, Billy is an wayfarer and Java is a caveman. They work for a paranormal investigation organization tabbed The Part-way that is run by a woman tabbed Mom (Mystery Organization Manager. Although, in one episode she does use the plume Ms. Olivia Mandell. I’m just going to undeniability her Olivia). She will send the intrepid trio a mission briefing. Then from there, it’s usually up to them to solve what’s going on.
Now that I’ve explained the premise, let’s get into the style. The show has an anime-ish aesthetic. In fact, I did see on one site that the show was turned-on in Japan while the voicing was washed-up in Canada and France. I don’t know if that qualifies it as an anime. Regardless, if you aren’t into that style, this show will be sufferer on inrush for you considering it leans into it hard.
Let’s say you’re okay with that and the premise sounds alright, kind of kid-friendly MIB crossed with X-Files, it’d sound pretty good, right? Well, let’s talk increasingly well-nigh the characters. I can’t lie. I wanted to jump through the screen and strangle Martin in the first three or four episodes. He wasn’t as bad as say, Navi or Scrappy Doo. My Christ, though, was he annoying.
When I realized this was who I’d have to spend hours watching, I felt instant regret. Nonetheless, I pressed on. He has kind of a Johnny Bravo thing going on where nearly every woman he hits on rejects him. It’s understandable seeing as how he whimsically showers or cleans up without himself. In one episode, however, it gets legit stalkery.
He basically uses a supercomputer to track variegated info on the girls he and Diana live at. The girl who has it the worst has to be her friend, Jenny. I’ve lost count of the number of times Martin has tried asking her out and she has shot him down. Yet, he unchangingly kept asking. That’s unconfined for kids to learn.
“If a girl says no to going out with you, alimony bothering them until they say yes!” Then then the show was produced by the French. Okay, joking aside, I will say the whole Jenny thing did moreover have exceptions. When she saw him trying to modernize himself in some way, she became legit into him. Unfortunately, in those instances, something would happen to make her lose said attraction.
I’ll touch increasingly on the romantic aspects of the series later. For now, let’s talk well-nigh Martin’s relationship with his family and friends whence with his siblings. He and Diana are polar opposites. He’s messy. She’s organized. He’s scrutinizingly unchangingly late.
She’s punctual. He’s increasingly go-with-the-flow. She’s increasingly plan-everything-out. I think you get the picture. I will shoehorn that the interactions between them I did like.
Maybe it was how well their personalities played off each other. Then then it could have been that Diana would write-up up Martin when he did something stupid. It could be both. While in their day-to-day lives, they unpeace a lot, when it comes to their missions they do play off each other kind of well when push comes to shove. Here’s the thing, though.
Diana is supposed to be the skeptic of the show. The problem with that is she unchangingly gets proven wrong to the point that speciality of her seems scrutinizingly pointless. In fairness, within the context of the show I have to seem the majority of cases the Part-way comes wideness are probably false alarms considering not many people work for the organization. If that’s the case, Diana would be right most of the time. She and the others are just dealing with the cases where she isn’t.
To her remoter credit, she does have her moments too, and has helped save the others a few times. Occasionally, she’s plane gone out of her way to help Martin. Overall, I’d say that they have a nice brother-sister relationship. I midpoint I know I said I found him annoying, but growing up my brother was into horror as well which partially set me on this path. I think most people who grew up with an older brother can relate to Diana.
I will say there are some questionable aspects to their relationship that I’ll revisit. Moving withal this time to Java who is technically 20,000 years old. He uses caveman speak, referring to himself in the third person and using sentence fragments. He was a specimen that the Part-way contained, but thanks to Martin he was worldly-wise to integrate into society. Given the era he was from, Java’s version to modern life is pretty impressive.
He isn’t stupid just not as educated. He’s tried to alimony Martin from making dumb decisions albeit unsuccessfully. Also, his strength does come in handy on missions. He tends to take increasingly without Martin which moreover makes sense given it was his idea to self-ruling him. If he sees his friends are in trouble, he’ll waif what he’s doing to save them.
Billy is where things get a little iffy for me. In short, he’s a coward. Granted, he’s helpful, analyzing samples the others requite him. On the other, he’ll just straight up leave them in life-threatening situations. I don’t only midpoint it like he doesn’t want to go in the spooky house way either.
There was an episode where his friends were practically on death’s door and he bailed on them. Flipside issue relating to this weft comes from his friends’ vein toward aliens. It seems like every other episode Martin will go on well-nigh them stuff responsible for some paranormal horror which is odd considering that again, Billy is one, and several work for the Center. Real “I’m not X! I have X friends!” energy. The main problem with him I have, though, comes in a later season.
On the off chance, someone wants to get into this show, I won’t spoil it. However, I will say that something comes up well-nigh Billy’s past. Plane in the context of it stuff a kids’ show, it’s major and I felt that it got brushed whispered way too easily. Granted, he had reverted and did regret what he did. I just thought it’d be increasingly plausible if his friends gave increasingly of a reaction to learning well-nigh his past vastitude “damn, that’s crazy”.
Let me put it to you like this. Imagine your weightier friend. You’ve known them for a long time and you get withal unconfined with them. Now suppose you end up learning they did some messed up stuff in the past, stuff that negatively unauthentic lives. If they’d genuinely changed, would you be worldly-wise to squint past those flaws and still be friends with them? I’m not sure I would.
At the very least, I’d need time to think well-nigh it. One good thing well-nigh it I will say is that in those particular episodes, he genuinely doesn’t want to go when to his old ways. Now it’s time to talk well-nigh the most patient weft in the show, Olivia. Yes, she does get wrestling and yell. The thing is, she’s dealing with Martin.
In scrutinizingly every episode, he breaks something she is working on right surpassing he and the others embark on a mission. I don’t midpoint something unreceptive to say a house of cards either. We’re talking well-nigh things that probably forfeit the Part-way billions to create or obtain. Then Martin doesn’t heed his boss’s warnings and that money goes lanugo the drain. If that were me, I wouldn’t have thrown the book.
I would have thrown the unshortened shelves at him. In specimen you can’t once tell, I find a bit of a kindred spirit with Olivia. In wing to combating Martin’s mishaps, she is moreover running an unshortened organization. Don’t let the fact she is shown sitting at her sedentary most of the time fool you. This woman knows how to fight.
I should moreover mention that there are unrepealable aspects of her I fathom increasingly now that I’m older. At the risk of remoter incurring the wrath of the French, I will say some scenes with her do finger kind of like fanservice. I mean, that could entirely be the case. I know in some other countries they aren’t as strict when it comes to censorship, at least in unrepealable areas. Either way, I won’t mutter well-nigh her.
She’s shown to be professional most of the time. On occasion, she knows how to cut loose. I moreover have to seem she has a bit of a soft spot for Martin since he gets yonder with way too much. The vestige I have for this will come up involving flipside weft later. As for her relationship with the others, I’d say it’s pretty good.
She’s still strict while wanting the others to alimony Martin in check. Speaking of, I know it seems like I’ve been shitting on him for most of this article, but I do have to shoehorn he has his moments. If I had to describe him, he is an idiot, but he isn’t stupid. If that doesn’t make sense, indulge me to elaborate. The series shows him as someone who is a lot largest at picking up information than trying to sit lanugo and swizzle it.
He’s obsessed with the paranormal and it’s been unsaid that if he comes wideness something relating to that subject, he’s far increasingly likely to recall it later. Compare that to Diana who’s a study fiend. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything. However, I will say these two methods end up wavering in a big way. Credit due to him, I can moreover see why Olivia would alimony him around.
He has come in clutch multiple times and has shown himself to be resourceful. I don’t know if that makes up for all the forfeiture he causes. I guess if she still keeps him around, it must. While he can come wideness as stuff rude, I think that’s increasingly a lack of maturity than maliciousness or apathy. I’ll admit, it took some episodes for his weft to grow on me.
I think waffly him from extremely worrying to mildly worrying helped. Either that or I just adjusted to his tormentor factor. I can’t skim aside, the stalker behavior, though. Okay, I understand the whole “girls play nonflexible to get” trope was increasingly prevalent when then (Wow, I’m referring to the early 2000s as when then), but if I recall right, plane when Johny Bravo got rejected he left it at that. Unlike Martin, who doesn’t seem worldly-wise to do that.
As I said with Jenny, she only gives him chances when he shows himself to be increasingly capable. As for her character, I don’t have a whole lot to say. Other than stuff Diana’s friend and someone for Martin to fawn after, she doesn’t add a whole lot to the story overall. Getting when to Martin, he does show superintendency for his friends as shown by what he did for Java as well as just saving them a lot in general. I’ve talked well-nigh family and friends.
Let’s talk well-nigh rivals and this is where a new weft gets introduced later named Marvin. He’s similar to Martin if he showered increasingly often. Right away, Martin has anonymity toward him considering he’s into a lot of the same stuff he is while stuff worldly-wise to do it better. It’s not like he does it intentionally so Martin’s jealousy just ends up coming wideness as really petty. When Marvin gets pissed at him I felt that it was completely justified.
I moreover have to undeniability out Olivia and this will kind of spoil some things, sorry. Now, alimony in mind how much forfeiture Martin has caused. Marvin only messed up once and he got transferred to the worst part-way location. Somehow, I get the feeling there’s a bit of bias involved there. Getting when into the iffy territory.
Diana is attracted to Marvin which I found weird considering how similar he is to her stepbrother. As a matter of fact, in the original comics, she and Martin aren’t step-siblings. They’re husband and wife. I think the reason they reverted this is that they’re older in that version. Maybe they thought going with that wile in the show would have been weird.
If that’s the specimen then I agree. It gets kind of questionable, though in some areas such as Diana’s witchery to Martin. Shot in the dark, maybe it was a nod to that speciality of the comics. Martin does wilt less jealous of Marvin as the show progresses. Credit there, I suppose.
He’s a fairly decent weft I’d say. Who isn’t is Caitlin. Spoiler warning, although, you aren’t missing much. This weft was entirely pointless. She’s introduced in a later season as someone who is a perfect match for Martin.
Keep in mind, when she says yes to stuff his girlfriend this is fifty-five episodes in. That’s over two and a half seasons of him striking out every single time when he asked a girl out. You know what? I was genuinely happy for him when Caitlin said yes. Guess what happened in the next episode?
She dumped him. Not only did she do that. She did it for the dumbest reason possible. She was worldly-wise to deduce Martin was a paranormal investigator. Yet, when he uses that as a legitimate reason for standing her up, she doesn’t want to hear it.
What sense does that make? She was only in three episodes. You could have swapped her with any other random person Martin meets on his investigations. The end result would have been the same. At least Martin was worldly-wise to skim off stuff dumped so hands which surprised me.
Since I’ve talked well-nigh the notation and story overall, would I recommend it? Well, I did see some person on the Wiki asking for a season four. Therefore, I have to seem somewhat of a fanbase exists for it. As for me, personally, I think there are largest kids’ horror series. For example, a few years ago I watched through all of Gravity Falls for the first time and loved it.
Had I watched it when I was younger I would have been all over it. Hell, just last year I rewatched Danny Phantom. Unrepealable aspects didn’t age that unconfined for me, but overall I’d recommend both these shows. I can’t fully say the same thing for Martin Mystery. Don’t get me wrong.
It’s decent if you have kids who are into horror and they’re wanting to get their feet wet, but you don’t want them watching anything too extreme. Although, there are some legit soul horror moments in the show. Plus, it has decent tributes to horror. It’s just that compared to say Danny Phantom the weft growth feels lackluster. I finger like the early 2000s was kind of an experimental phase for kids’ cartoons where they were slowly trying to make them increasingly in-depth.
What bothers me is that it seemed as if they were going to try this with Martin’s weft only to end up pulling it back. I think the potential is there. Maybe if the show had a fourth season Martin would have been shown rhadamanthine increasingly Mature and the others would have ripened increasingly withal with him. That’s all speculation, though.
Do I think this show should come back? Not really. Would I watch it if it did come back? Maybe. It would depend on the direction they decide to take it. As it stands now, I’m giving it a upper C or a low B.
The vendible Should It Return? Martin Mystery appeared originally on Horror Facts.
