{"id":26997,"date":"2024-03-01T08:50:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T13:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2024-03-04T10:39:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T15:39:58","slug":"totally-spies-creatives-on-bringing-back-a-beloved-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/totally-spies-creatives-on-bringing-back-a-beloved-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Totally Spies!\u00a0Creatives on Bringing Back a Beloved Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Totally Spies!<\/em>\u00a0debuted in 2001, it captured children\u2019s attention as they watched teenagers Sam, Clover and Alex navigate their lives as regular high schoolers in Beverly Hills and as global secret agents. After running for six seasons, with the last episode airing in 2014, the series came to a halt. Now, ten years later, Banijay Kids & Family is continuing the three young spies\u2019 story with a seventh season debuting later this year for today\u2019s children and the millennial and Gen Z audience of yore.<\/p>\n

Now was the perfect time to bring the beloved brand back, according to Gary Milne, executive producer of the new season. \u201cWe are looking, as many producers do, for brands that will cut through a noisy and quite fragmented market,\u201d he says. \u201cThat love was there [for\u00a0Totally Spies!<\/em>]. It has three really aspirational women at the heart of the show. It has kick-butt action. It\u2019s funny. It really fits what\u2019s needed out in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the world has changed a bit since the last season launched, it was important to the series\u2019 creatives to retain the universal themes of friendship, sisterhood and navigating high school. \u201cBut our new audience is Gen Alphas,\u201d Milne notes. \u201cThey\u2019re probably the most socially aware audience we\u2019ve ever had. So, [we\u2019re incorporating] themes about the environment, the online world that they are in [and] really rich and deep characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were careful not to alter too much in\u00a0Totally Spies!<\/em>, though, he emphasizes. \u201cIt was just about bringing out other elements that we could explore. That was a huge reason for taking [the girls] out of Beverly Hills and transplanting them in Singapore as the new city. In essence, that was taking them out of their comfort zone, and we then get to see a different type of story with characters we already love.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the newest season, \u201cwe\u2019ve had an opportunity to go in deeper with them as individuals,\u201d Milne continues. \u201cYou\u2019ve got these three women at the heart, and I think it\u2019s super important to show that there\u2019s a spectrum to being a female. They are unique and different. We just elevated those differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the spies\u2019 iconic looks, it was important to keep those mostly the same so that little girls watching could still easily identify with them. \u201cThe most important thing for me is that every girl in the world should continue to feel like one of the girls, like Sam, Alex or Clover,\u201d explains St\u00e9phane Berry, director, executive producer and art director. \u201cBecause each time I talk with young girls or older girls, the first question I ask is, which one do you prefer to be? There are some Clovers, some Sams, some Alexes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the girls\u2019 looks, the\u00a0Totally Spies!<\/em>\u00a0world is known for the fun gadgets the spies use on their missions, from exploding barrettes to laser lipsticks. And while technology in the real world has changed a bit in the last ten years, the tech in the show didn\u2019t need to. \u201cWhat\u2019s brilliant about\u00a0Totally Spies!<\/em>\u00a0is the gadgets are unique to the show itself,\u201d Milne says. \u201cThey\u2019re always based on a twist on something that you might know, but it\u2019s unexpected. So, in essence, it doesn\u2019t really lock it into a time period in terms of tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

That being said, the creative team does recognize that the young audience is involved in a more online world than ever before. So, \u201cwe\u2019re exploring things around that,\u201d Milne says. \u201cClover does do sort of video blogs of her time in Singapore as a way of talking to the audience but also acknowledging that there\u2019s that technology out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as in the original six seasons, the gadgets and tech remain a focal point. With the principle of Chekhov\u2019s gun in mind, if a gadget is shown at the beginning of an episode, it will be used by the end. The audience then starts to realize that when they catch a glimpse of a gadget, they\u2019ll get to see it used at a later time, Milne explains. It creates a sense of anticipation, as \u201cyou\u2019re kind of waiting to see how and why\u201d the girls use their unique tools.<\/p>\n

Many reboots of older shows often move from one animation method to another. It\u2019s been seen time and time again: a 2D show from the early 2000s is brought back and rendered into 3D\/CGI for today\u2019s generation. Such is not the case for the new season of\u00a0Totally Spies!<\/em>, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to my producers at the beginning that, for me, it\u2019s absolutely impossible to make\u00a0Totally Spies!<\/em>\u00a0in CGI,\u201d Berry says. The girls travel all around the world, and making the background shots in 3D would be creatively demanding and costly, he explains. Not only that, but the three spies frequently change outfits in the episodes, which would be another costly change to incorporate with CGI. \u201cSo, the important thing for me was to keep them in 2D because it gives me the freedom to make them go through the world without any restriction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another reason it was important? The new season isn\u2019t a full reboot\u2014it\u2019s a continuation. \u201cTotally Spies!\u00a0<\/em>is still available in all major markets,\u201d Milne points out. As such, the new season will air alongside the others. \u201cIt needed to feel like it was sitting next to previous seasons. [It had] to feel like it\u2019s had a glow up but still have that connection that feels right. Shifting to CGI may have been a bit jarring in that sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

As many brand owners have stated by now, a 360-degree strategy is important these days, and Milne notes that brand extensions will be coming along with the new season to allow fans to forge an even deeper connection with the series and characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got our primary TV audience, which is 6 to 9, 6 to 11, but we also have our heritage audience of millennials and Gen Z,\u201d Milne says. \u201cWith our licensing program, we\u2019re really building in those brand extensions that have activations for existing fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it gets closer to the launch of the new season, the brand extensions will incorporate the new episodes more and look to draw in the new Gen Alpha audience, he says. Until then, the heritage audience that is familiar with the show from their own childhoods will be fed well.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, \u201cI\u2019m hoping people will be excited by the new elements and then be really pulled in by the stuff that they know and love,\u201d Milne says. And as someone who watched the original series himself, \u201cI felt very honored to be put in charge of developing the editorial for this season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Milne and St\u00e9phane Berry on continuing the Totally Spies! story after ten years since the last episode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":26998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,21],"tags":[6621,9174,9175,3198],"class_list":["post-26997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-features","category-top-stories","tag-banijay-kids-family","tag-gary-milne","tag-stephane-berry","tag-totally-spies","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nTotally Spies!\u00a0Creatives on Bringing Back a Beloved Brand - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/totally-spies-creatives-on-bringing-back-a-beloved-brand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Totally Spies!\u00a0Creatives on Bringing Back a Beloved Brand - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gary Milne and St\u00e9phane Berry on continuing the Totally Spies! story after ten years since the last episode.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/totally-spies-creatives-on-bringing-back-a-beloved-brand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-01T13:50:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-04T15:39:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2017\/07\/BanijayKidsandFamily-TotallySpies-0224.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/totally-spies-creatives-on-bringing-back-a-beloved-brand\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/totally-spies-creatives-on-bringing-back-a-beloved-brand\/\",\"name\":\"Totally Spies!\u00a0Creatives on Bringing Back a Beloved Brand - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-01T13:50:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-04T15:39:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/totally-spies-creatives-on-bringing-back-a-beloved-brand\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/totally-spies-creatives-on-bringing-back-a-beloved-brand\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/totally-spies-creatives-on-bringing-back-a-beloved-brand\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Totally Spies!\u00a0Creatives on Bringing Back a Beloved Brand\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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