Madeline is a media franchise that originated as a series of children's
books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans, an Austrian author. The books
have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series
and a live action feature film. The adaptations are famous for the closing
line, first uttered by actress Ethel Barrymore in a play, "That's all there
is; there isn't any more." The stories take place in a Catholic boarding school
in Paris. Much of the media start with the line "In an old house in Paris that
was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines ..."
The stories often are written entirely in rhyme, and include simple themes of
daily life which appeal to children. Book series
Madeline was written by Ludwig Bemelmans and published in 1939. Bemelmans wrote
five sequels between 1953 and 1961. Later books in the series were written
by Bemelmans' grandson John Bemelmans Marciano. The books focus on a group of
girls in a Catholic boarding school in Paris. Madeline is the smallest of the
girls. She is seven years old, and the only redhead. She is the bravest and
most outgoing of the girls. In film
The earliest appearance in the cinema was in the 1952 animated short Madeline,
produced by United Productions of America and directed by Bob Cannon. It
was nominated for the 1952 Academy Award for Best Short Subject, but lost to Tom
and Jerry's seventh cartoon Johann Mouse.
In 1959, William L. Snyder's Rembrandt Films produced animated adaptations of
Madeline's Rescue, Madeline and the Bad Hat, and Madeline and the Gypsies for
the educational film market. The latter two were featured, along with other
similar adaptations of children's books, in Snyder and Gene Deitch's 1966
theatrical feature Alice of Wonderland in Paris.
A live-action feature adaptation of Madeline, produced in France by Jaffilms
but shot in English with predominantly British accents, was released in 1998 by
TriStar Pictures. It starred Hatty Jones as the title character, Frances
McDormand as Miss Clavel, and a supporting cast with British actors Ben
Daniels and Nigel Hawthorne. Its script encompassed the plots of four of the
books. Original music was composed by Michel Legrand and Carly Simon sang the
theme song "In Two Straight Lines". It was directed by Daisy Mayer. The 1998
live action version significantly differed from the TV series.
In television In 1960, the Madeline stories were
adapted to a one-hour color episode for the NBC series The Shirley Temple Show.
In 1988, DIC Entertainment adapted the first book into an animated television
special for HBO. Between 1991 and 1992, Cinar and France animation produced
animated adaptations of the other five original books for The Family Channel,
In 1993, DIC produced a Madeline television series of twenty episodes,
which also aired on the Family Channel, and in 1995, an additional 14 episodes
were produced by DIC for ABC, under the title The New Adventures of Madeline. In
2000, DIC produced 26 episodes for the Disney Channel.
Animation The animation for the first Madeline
special came from the famous Peanuts cartoon team of Bill Melendez and Lee
Mendelson, giving them a look similar to the Peanuts cartoons. and it was
directed by Phil Roman. All future specials and the popular Madeline TV
specials and TV shows were animated by Film Roman studios.
Audiobooks Madeline audiobooks have been appearing
since the early 1970s as vinyl records. The record typically consists of a
mixture of stories and songs. The first soundtrack for the TV series
was Madeline's Favorite Songs, released in 1995. It contains 16 tracks of music
composed by Joe Raposo or Jeffrey Zahn with lyrics by Judy Rothman and Howard
Ashman from the DIC and Cinar specials. The second soundtrack, Hats off to
Madeline, was released in 1996. It contained 17 tracks of music from the
1993 and 1995 episodes with music by Andy Street and lyrics by Judy Rothman.
In 2002, the latest Madeline soundtrack to date, Sing-A-Long With Madeline, was
released, featuring 27 tracks of music from the 2001 episodes and they were
also written by Andy Street and Judy Rothman.
Video games Madeline CD-ROMs started appearing in
the early 1990s, in time with the TV show. The CDs were compatible with both
Microsoft Windows-based PCs and Macs. They were published by Creative Wonders.
Toys Madeline toys were initially produced by
Eden Toys LLC, since acquired by Learning Curve. Most popular during the
1990s was a Madeline rag doll, with a signature half-smile and scar from the
appendectomy that corresponds with the story from the book.
DVD releases = Films=
= Television series= See also
References External links
Official website Madeline at the Internet Movie Database