Smart Planet Advance

**Smart Planet Advance** (French: *Télétoon Advance*) is a Canadian-French CGI animated musical children's television show for kids, produced by Dan Krech Productions, TPS Animation, Télétoon, and SPARX Animation Studios. It aired on Télé-Québec in Canada and on La Cinquième in France from 1999 to 2000.

It was also aired on TFO in Canada and on Disney Channel and Télétoon in France from 2000 to 2001 alongside The Giorgio Show and Around the World with Giorgio that they're both seen after the show.

## Main Characters

* **Alex** (Atô in French; voiced by Paolo Domingo in French and Louis Chirillo/Sam Vincent in English) is a hero and a male protagonist of the show. He has fair skin, navy blue hair, and chocolate eyes. He wears black glasses, a grey t-shirt underneath his black jacket, dark grey pairs of pants, and black shoes.
* **Ilona** (Yûko in French; voiced by Magali Barney in French and Alyson Court/Chiara Zanni in English) is a heroine and a tomboyish female protagonist of the show. She has fair skin, spiky red-orange hair, and kiwi green eyes. She wears scarlet and amber goggles, a white tube top underneath her chocolate vest, chocolate pairs of shorts, and chocolate sandals.
* **Sam** (Sami in French; voiced by Roger Carel in French and Andrew Sabiston/Ian James Corlett in English) is a scarlet male Olympics mascot that resembles as an anthropomorphic bunny rabbit. He is always a fire type of mascot.
* **Ivy** (Yumi in French; voiced by Chantal Macé in French and Maryke Hendrikse/Tabitha St. Germain in English) is a turquoise blue female Olympics mascot that resembles as an anthropomorphic kitty cat. She is always a water type of mascot.
* **Ken** (Kenny in French; voiced by Antoine Tomé in French and Alec Willows/Scott McNeil in English) is a kiwi green male Olympics mascot that resembles as an anthropomorphic bunny rabbit. He is always a grass type of mascot.
* **Mary** (Mimi in French; voiced by Patricia Legrand in French and Athena Karkanis/Tracey Moore in English) is a sunshine yellow female Olympics mascot that resembles as an anthropomorphic kitty cat. She is always an electric type of mascot.

## Secondary Characters

* **Giorgio** (voiced by Emmanuel Curtil in French and Stephen Ouimette/Brian Drummond in English) is a sunshine yellow space alien mascot with a scarlet and kiwi green space outfit that he is always a news reporter on television.
* **Nelly Nut** (simply known as Nelly; voiced by Annabelle Roux in French and Catherine Disher/Chantal Strand in English) is a cute little 6-year-old girl with fair skin, sunshine yellow hair in two pigtails, a magenta tank top with a rose smiling star shape, a violet skirt, and magenta sandals. She also wears two magenta bows on her pigtails and a magenta and rose smiling star-shaped hair clip that she is always a cute little princess.

## Episodes

### Season 1 (1999)

1. *The Start of Smart Planet* (*Le Début de Smart Planet* in French; June 8, 1999)
2. *Giorgio on Ice* (*Giorgio sur la glâce* in French; July 10, 1999)
3. *Off Course!* (*Bien sûr !* in French; July 12, 1999)
4. *Pool Party* (*La Fête de Piscine* in French; August 7, 1999)
5. *Tutorials* (*Les tutoriels* in French; August 21, 1999)
6. *Adventures in Babysitting* (*Aventures en Babysitting* in French; September 9, 1999)
7. *House of 1000 Sweets* (*La maison des 1000 bonbons* in French; September 19, 1999)
8. *Manners* (*Les manières* in French; October 9, 1999)
9. *Fall Day* (*Le Jour d'Automne* in French; October 19, 1999)
10. *Christmas Eve Party: Part 1* (*La Fête de la Veille de Noël: Partie 1* in French; November 2, 1999)
11. *Christmas Eve Party: Part 2* (*La Fête de la Veille de Noël: Partie 2* in French; November 16, 1999)
12. *Size Matters* (*La taille compte* in French; November 30, 1999)
13. *My Little Princess* (*Ma petite princesse* in French; December 11, 1999)

### Season 2 (2000)

1. *Be My Best Friend* (*Sois mon meilleur amie* in French; January 9, 2000)
2. *I Want to Try!* (*Je veux essayer !* in French; January 19, 2000)
3. *Game Over* (*Jeu Terminé* in French; January 29, 2000)
4. *Rainbow Prism* (*Le prisme arc-en-ciel* in French; February 9, 2000)
5. *Fun at the Fair* (*S'amuser à la fête foraine* in French; February 19, 2000)
6. *The Circus Jamboree* (*Le Jamboree de la Cirque* in French; February 29, 2000)
7. *The Start of Smart Planet: Again* (*Le Début de Smart Planet: Encore* in French; March 9, 2000)
8. *Attack of the Giant Monster* (*L'Attaque de la monstre géant* in French; Match 19, 2000)
9. *Arcade Games* (*Jeux d'arcade* in French; March 29, 2000)
10. *The Main Target* (*La cible principale* in French, April 9, 2000)
11. *Let's Go to the Museum!* (*Allons à la Musée !* in French; April 19, 2000)
12. *Second Chance* (*La deuxième chance* in French; April 29, 2000)
13. *Our Memories* (*Nos souvenirs* in French; May 7, 2000)

## Music

**Opening Themes**

1. "Le Monde de Smart Planet (Instrumental Version 1)" (Season 1; eps 1-13)
2. "Le Thème de Télétoon" by Saïan Supa Crew (Season 2; eps 14-26)

**Ending Themes**

1. "Le Monde de Smart Planet (Instrumental Version 2)" (Season 1; eps 1-13)
2. "Le Danse de Télétoon" by Saïan Supa Crew (Season 2; eps 14-26)

## Production

Created in late 1998 and aired in mid-1999 in Quebec and France, it was the Canadian-French CGI animated musical children's TV show for kids.

The show was produced by Dan Krech Productions in Toronto, Canada, TPS Animation Studios in Montreal, Quebec, and SPARX Animation Studios in Paris, France.

The show was created in LightWave 3D, 3D Studio Max, Alias Wavefront Maya, Kaydara MotionBuilder, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, RealFlow, Discreet Logic Flame, Discreet Logic Inferno, Discreet Logic Lustre, Video Toaster, Avid DS, Discreet Logic Smoke, and Butterfly Net Render for CGI animation and visual effects.

It was then dubbed into two English language releases; one for first version in mid-2001, and one for the second version in mid-2003.

## Dubbing

The first Canadian English version was recorded in Toronto. It was first aired on Canadian television on CBC and YTV.

For the second Canadian English version, the script was re-written; characters kept the same names, and different dialogue was used. Segments and references specific to European children's culture were also used.

## Fun Facts

In mid-2001, Disney Store began to have merchandise and to show clips from the television show, mostly products and clips on TV. They were only shown in Europe, Australia, Latin America, and Canada.

## Trivia

* Great LightWave CGI animation, even for 1999 standards, which is very well animated by Sean Maynard.

* Awesome theme songs.

* Stays faithful to the television special it was based on.

* Memorable characters like Alex, Ilona, Sam, Ivy, Ken, and Mary. Again Giorgio, is one of the most forgivable examples of the typical “news reporter” trope, as he is shown to the deep conversation, and the things he does is usually related to the plots of the episodes in question rather than just for running gag jokes. In contrast to other news characters in general who are all abusive or otherwise neglectful towards their characters in their own respective ways.

* Memorable guest appearances like Nelly Nut (even though she's very cute).

* Alex and Ilona's inventions are pretty cool and clever like the Smart Cubes where the Olympics mascots came to life.

* Great voice acting for the Canadian English cast from Canada. It also uses teenage voices for the four Olympics mascots the right way.

* Clever writing.

* Hilarious jokes.

* The show manages to avoid coming off as a Pokémon rip-off despite similar premises.

* It had two made-to-TV movies with the guest stars.

* The World of Discovery and Science segments are awesome.

* The "Come To The Circus" song in the episode "The Circus Jamboree" is funny and awesome.

* The final episode in production order, “Our Memories”, was a good way to end the show despite plans for one more season that sadly got scrapped due to financial issues and failure of the next year's film, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys. This episode would have also been a good way to end the franchise if it didn’t continue past that.

## Goofs/Errors

* Much like Donkey Kong Country, the LightWave CGI animation can either look stiff or creepy.

* It gets pretty mean-spirited at times, mostly towards Alex and Ilona.

* At times, Sam and Ken can be very unlikeable because they tend to take their abuse on Alex and Ilona a bit too far. However, it thankfully starts to gradually decrease during the later seasons when the writers began further developing her relationship with Alex and Ilona in a much more positive light.

* Some of the characters were very underused in this show. Giorgio is the main example because despite supposedly being the main antagonist, he only appeared in some episodes of the show.

* A few episodes are very weird, if not nonsensical, such as an episode from Season 2 called "Game Over", where Ilona puts peanut butter all over her face, but it looks like an amber colored face mask.

* Like the television special, some characters kind of look ugly.

* There were plans for a third season but due to the box office failure of the film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys, the show was cancelled. Many ideas of the third season included but not limited to: the four Mega Olympics mascot would've returned and officially defeated in the season premiere, the guest star humor would be kept to a minimum, Télétoon would've rejoined the main cast, there would've be an overarching story about the new planet for preschoolers called Happy Planet, the four Olympics mascots would've become the quartet, Giorgio and Nelly Nut would've been introduced and Alex and Ilona would've finally stopped pretending to argue with each other.

* There is no reason to buy this on VHS and DVD anymore. As you can find this television show on Dailymotion.