Code Lyoko: Evolution

Code Lyoko: Evolution
The only "Evolution" it gave us was an evolution of massive production failure and the death of a great franchise.
Running Time: 24 minutes Country: France Release Date: January 5 – December 19, 2013 Created by: Tania Palumbo Thomas Romain Distributed by: Mediatoon Starring: Léonie Berthonnaud Marin Lafitte Gulliver Bevernage Seasons: 1 Episodes: 26 Previous show: Code Lyoko

Code Lyoko: Evolution is a Live-Action/CGI, Action show that serves as the sequel to the French animated television series Code Lyoko. It premiered on December 19, 2012, on France 4 and repeated on October 9, 2016, on Boing. It blends live-action with CGI, picking up where the original series left off. In addition to improving upon the CGI animation in the original series, the soundtrack has been overhauled as well. Even though the show was never dubbed in English, with the exception of the trailer, the episodes are being uploaded with French audio and English subtitles on the official Code lyoko channel on Youtube, as of October 29, 2019.

Bad Qualities

1. Elephant-In-The-Room: Most(if not all) of the fans were turned off by the transition in art styles. For example, for whatever purpose, the usual animation segments were replaced with live-action sequences.
2. There were several examples of poor casting selections, such as this:
   • The Lyoko Warriors actors (with the exception of Odd) are all between the ages of 21 and 24, making them look they graduated from high school.
   • Odd's actor in this show is suddenly a child for whatever reason, despite the fact that he was 11-13 in the original series, and it's as if they can't cast tweens in this program.
3. The performances are wooden and soulless.
4. Some of the characters were flanderized, including:
   • Jim Morales turned into a typical Physical Education instructor, losing nearly all of his charm from the original series We'd rather not talk about his personality here.
   • The school principal's daughter, Elisabeth "Sissi" Delmas, was flanderized into a stereotypical cruel popular girl, while in the original series, she was a good friend of Lyoko Warriors and she is not always mean.
   • Some of the Lyoko Warriors (albeit lovable) were not immune to flanderization.
     • Odd became an even greater juvenile delinquent for most of the first half of the series, seldom listening to Jeremie's and Aelita's demands. Though he didn't see too much decline in his character and redeemed himself in the second half of the series.
     • Ulrich became a timid and stubborn freak who can get too obsessed with Yumi, whom he has accepted that he has feelings for. Though similar to Odd, he didn't see too much decline in his character and is arguably the least flanderzied.
5. Laura Gauthier's character is dreadful. Her intentions for joining the Lyoko warriors come out as conceited and self-centered. She also frequently endangers the squad, which eventually leads to her expulsion. In fact, she would have been better had she been portrayed as a villian.
6. The live-action acting is unsettling, particularly if you're used to the original's 2D animation.
7. The writing is atrocious. The most perplexing decision was resurrecting XANA, the main antagonist of the series which invalidated the previous show's finale and rendered Franz Hopper's sacrifice completely meaningless. It also brought the show closer to a terrible reboot than to a legitimate continuation of the original series.
8. The show was terminated due to weak ratings, and it ended on a cliffhanger.
9. The failure of this installment effectively killed off the Code Lyoko franchise, as there has been no second season or even any announcements of new shows since it ended, leaving the show on a cliffhanger (mentioned above), and Média-Participations (via Dargaud), who owns the rights to the show, now completely ignores the franchise.
10. Aside from that, the series' failure harmed Moonscoop, which declared bankruptcy in 2014.

Good Qualities

1. When compared to its predecessor, the CGI is a significant advancement and a step up. Not to mention the CGI designs and other visuals are pretty nice and CGI itself looks more anime-ish than original.
2. The Lyoko Warriors remain endearing.
3. Speaking of which, William finally gets to kick some ass on the side of the good guys, atoning for his deeds while under XANA's control in the original show.
4. The Cortex was an intriguing concept that might have taken the show in a far better path without the writers having to resort to reintroducing XANA.
5. At least the show kept the old characters from the original series unlike Foot 2 Rue Extrême.

Reception

Whereas Code Lyoko was well-received and created a strong fanbase that still exists today, Code Lyoko: Evolution was widely panned by critics and audiences, and the fans of the original show, with the latter denouncing its many changes including switching from traditional animation to live-action, questionable writing, the main cast acting totally out-of-character, unfaithfulness to the source material, as well as the fact that none of the original series' writers even worked on it.

The show holds a 5.9/10 on IMDb.

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