LoliRock

Official logo of the series.

***LoliRock*** (working title known as ***Star Princess***) is a French animated television series produced by and co-produced by Zodiak Kids (formerly as Marathon Media). It was created by Jean Louis-Vandestoc and written by Madellaine Paxson. It first aired in France on October 18, 2014 on France 3, and has expanded to television channels in Europe. It has also been licensed in United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia, with an English dub released to Netflix on May 1, 2016.

## Plot

The action of the show is set in a kingdom called Ephedia, currently controlled by Gramorr. In the past, it was controlled by the king and queen, who are actually the parents of the main character (Iris), and who lost the throne when the evil sorcerer Gramorr took over. However, when he tries seizing the Queen's Crown, he was trapped by magic in the throne room, and the Crown protected itself in a crystal pillar. Worse for Gramorr : the source of the crown's power, the "Oracle Gem", scattered and hit on earth... Now, Gramorr seeks the Gems to break free of his prison and finish his conquest of Ephedia... The rulers have a daughter named Iris (who is the main character), who after her disappearance, she was adopted and being cared for by her aunt, on Earth.

A few years after the conquest, Iris is already a dreamy teenager with a beautiful voice and attends high school. Iris's life changes dramatically when she discovers that girl band LoliRock is auditioning for a new lead singer. She then decided she should participate in the audition. As soon as she starts singing, she is surrounded by the glow of a thousand magical lights! Little did she know that the stars of LoliRock, Talia and Auriana, were searching for the ultimate princess who was missing for the group, which came to be the Iris itself. The girl then joins the group as a vocalist, and discovers that she is princess of a kingdom called Ephedia. Besides busy touring, they also have to save the world from the forces of evil Gramorr, trying to gather the gems that should be placed in the crown of Ephedia, restoring the kingdom to its original rulers.

## Production

### **Conception**

Jean-Louis Vandestoc drew inspiration for LoliRock from watching anime in his childhood that was broadcast on the French channels, including *Sherlock Hound*, *Space Adventure Cobra*, *The Mysterious Cities of Gold* and *Dragon Ball*, but his most influential title he watched was *Magical Princess Minky Momo*. He wrote "I loved the very core of it: a child transforming into an adult, helping people and making good deeds, the nice chara design, and finally the tone of the show: it could be funny and light, but also dramatic and tearful at other times. My soul was marked forever." After working on French cartoons, *Monster Buster Club* and *Rekkit Rabbit* he wanted to make a magical girl show. He chose *Sailor Moon* and *Pretty Cure* as references for the magical girl part, and *Jem and the Holograms* for the music career part.

### **Character Design**

The producers at Marathon Media asked designers to draw Iris for a magical girl project as a teenage alien princess with ice/crystal powers. Character designer Bertrand Todesco drew inspiration from Betty Autier, a French fashion blogger of "le blog de betty". She had dark hair and straight bangs, but Todesco figured the producers wanted a blonde girl for a lead, so he went with the look of Jenny Humphrey of the TV series *Gossip Girl*, portrayed by Taylor Momsen. The producers also wanted the girls' irises to be star-shaped. Autier's appearance as well as her wardrobe was retained for Talia.

Following the initial picture, Todesco needed to design a princess/rockstar outfit, of which he chose a green dress worn by Blake Lively. The colour was changed to pink as green was not suitable for merchandising. Todesco added a magical pet creature in the custom of *Sailor Moon*, which would later become Amaru. He designed in the hair streaks for when the girls were rock stars, and dresses that weren't so frilly that they would be complicated to draw.

In designing Talia and the then-named Aurora, Todesco originally started with a black girl and an Asian girl with typical hairstyles, but later changed his mind. He then found inspirations from other *Gossip Girl* characters as well as actresses Amber Stevens West and Ariana Grande, the latter of whom was how she acted in the teen sitcom Victorious rather than her current pop singer image. He also referenced Keri Hilson and Alicia Keys. Victorious was also the inspiration for some of the key visuals he used in promoting the series to get funding.

Early promotions of the series pictured the antagonist named Gramorr to be an evil uncle of Iris who imprisoned the king and queen, and that he sent his two evil twin nephews to Earth to thwart LoliRock and take the gems. Paxson said that they abandoned the idea as it would have made him more of a stereotype. Todesco originally conceived of antagonists Praxina and Mephisto to have guitar playing sound powers that would counter the girls' singing voice powers but the idea was abandoned. After several iterations, Praxina's final design was approved where she would have a butterfly brooch and motif, while Mephisto's was approved later, after director Jean-Louis had suggested he have a snake motif and a half-covered face. Eventually Gramorr would have the covered face.

The design for the crystal magic circles and related animation was first done in 2D based off some reference pictures. Different colors and symbols were assigned to each character. It was later created in CGI. Animation tools used include Toon Boom Harmony, Adobe After Effects, and Blender.

Lyna and Carissa were created in response to a request from the producers when the writing for season 1 was nearing completion. The request was to add two new princesses to increase the member count to five. However, the LoliRock developers thought they already had too many characters so they made Lyna and Carissa supporting characters that were "outside the main gang but always ready and willing to help when needed". The two girls' transformations resemble Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. The designers considered making one of the two girls look Asian to balance out the overall group's look; they applied the look to both girls, and chose Lyna. There was also a concern that Carissa might be confused with Auriana as the show's redhead, they decided to go with giving her an Irish redhead theme anyway.

### **Themes and writing**

LoliRock head writer Madellaine Paxson, who had worked on children's shows *Making Fiends*, *Power Rangers RPM* as well as the horror film *Blood Punch*, described the themes of the show as: friendship and love, magic, singing / music, and good vs. evil. She said the hardest part in writing an episode is the beginning and also in integrating the themes along with a story with a person that needs help. Her favorite scenes from the show were where the princesses are together doing ordinary teenage girl things as they had opportunities for comedy. She summarized the show as having something for everybody, very girly, but good action too. In the press release, Zodiak Kids describe the show as having a "cast of characters that are aspirational role models for a generation of children for whom justice has become a core value". Jean-Louis Vandestoc chose a band concept for the series as it was different from his other shows which involved characters that went to school and then saved the world. The school part was replaced by the girls training or rehearsing for the concert. The developers later commented in their production blog FAQ that Iris was still attending school and that the episodes aren't all during summer vacation.

According to posts on the production Tumblr, *LoliRock* is classified as somewhere between a script-driven and storyboard-driven show. They started with a full script and then recorded lines with scratch voices or final voices, as re-recording after storyboarding would be costlier. The storyboard is then worked on, and some of the storyboard artists and supervisor adding and changing things they felt were important such as with the kiss scene in the Shanila episode and the Iris becoming a dark princess. Storyboard stage also included fixes for continuity and plot holes.

### **Music and voice-over**

The music score was composed and produced by Norbert "Yellowshark" Gilbert, with about 600 tracks over the course of the 52 26-minute episodes. Five recurring songs (including the theme song) were recorded for each season. Due to limited resources in production, the team posted that Iris would be the only one singing on those songs, so they recorded Yasmin Shah in English and then developed the music videos. After realizing that it would be unnatural for the other girls to not sing, they designed Iris to have a microphone while the others would just sing along. They considered recording singing for Talia and Auriana but were constrained by budget. Cassandre Berger provided the singing on the French dub. The voices were then mixed. As the dialogue was done later, the voice actors only sang on the incidental bits such as rehearsals.

The episodes were written and dubbed in English first and then adapted into French. For season 1, the English voices were recorded at Vida Spark Productions in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, while the French voices were recorded at Lylo studios in Paris, France.

### **Marketing and promotion**

Zodiak Media announced *LoliRock* in April 2013 at the MIPTV event in Cannes, France. Early promotions included the idea of princesses with magical singing voices. The demographic target audience is girls ages 6 to 12, and the group has partnered with France Televisions and Disney Channel France. Marathon Media CEO Vincent Chalvron-Demersay and general manager David Michel said that "LoliRock is a fresh, contemporary take on what it is to be a girl today, infused with music and magical adventures and the all-important notion of justice in today's teenage world. It's a perfect companion piece to *Totally Spies!*, which has been so successful in this same space." In comparing the promotion of the show to that of Totally Spies!, Zodiak senior vice-president Patricia de Wilde said that Zodiak made sure the premise was made clear for the new show.

The five songs were publicized as music videos on YouTube. Plans were also made to create live-action *LoliRock* bands in various markets, such as Super TV's contest held online and among major cities in Italy. A website was launched with videos, games, and message boards. Promotional toys were also offered at Quick restaurants as well as McDonald's. An app was developed for the music which Zodiak senior vice-president Patricia de Wilde said was a "sort of cross between K-Pop and Katy Perry."

### **Episodes**

*Main article: List of LoliRock episodes*
## Reception

Ella Anders of BSC Kids wrote that *LoliRock* "plays it clear as a magical girl series and even nods other iconic shows in the genera" such as *Pretty Cure* and *Sailor Moon*, but that it is "grand in its own right and should be held up as a great magical girl series". She liked the diverse cast, plot, humor and background story, the last of which she had not seen since *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*, and that it was a type of show she would have loved growing up.

Heather Newman of *Forbes* magazine described the series as "A French animated series about an impossibly thin, stylish, magical girl who sings."

When asked whether *LoliRock* would have a cross-over episode with French superhero show *Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir* from Zagtoon, Thomas Astruc, who was the creator and director on *Miraculous* and a storyboarder on *LoliRock*, said it was unlikely given they are from two different production companies, but that the animation community is small and that both companies share the same love of animation. He has posted about the two being cousin shows.

## Other media

A *LoliRock* video game, available on iOS and Android, was released by Bulkypix in 2014. The game lets players sing to the songs featured on the show, record performances, and customize a sound studio and pick the girls' outfits.

Zodiak has also worked a deal with publishing company Hachette Jeunesse to create novels, activity books, stationery, and e-books.

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