Martin Mystery

Martin Mystery (French: Martin Mystère) is an animated television series based on the Italian Martin Mystère comic. The show was produced by Marathon Media Group, a French television production company based in Paris, and Image Entertainment Corporation, a Canadian production and animation company based in Montreal, with principal animation produced in Japan by Tatsunoko Production.

Plot

The series reimagines the comic books' main characters (the title character, Martin Mystery and Diana Lombard) as 16-year-old step-siblings attending Torrington Academy, a high school in Sherbrooke, Quebec. (According to the storyline, Martin's father married Diana's widowed mother after Martin's mother died.) They work for a clandestine organization referred to as "The Center", which covertly protects the people of Earth from supernatural threats. As a covert organization, their work must be kept secret. For this reason, anyone who comes too close to their missions will have their memories of the event erased. Not everyone who works for the organization is human. The short and green-skinned alien, Billy, is one of Martin's best friends. Java, a caveman from 200,000 years ago, works as a janitor at Diana and Martin's school. He also aids Martin and Diana on their missions. As far as "The Center" is concerned, Martin's vast knowledge of the supernatural and his remarkable intuition compensate for his poor personal hygiene and huge ego. Diana resents these flaws at times, as Martin often does not seem to understand the seriousness of his missions, but generally loves him like any sister. In the original comic book version, Martin's mission was actually to unveil the world's ancient mysteries in a never-ending struggle with his nemesis, the secret organization of the man in black, who was devoted to keeping them hidden.

Characters

Main cast of Martin Mystery. From left to right: Java, Martin, and Diana.

Martin Mystery

Martin is a 16-year-old boy, with a passion for monsters and the paranormal, who works as a paranormal investigator for "The Center". Whether at school or on a mission, he always remains the same: an immature and hyperactive nerd, constantly bursting with energy. He seldom thinks before leaping into danger, often to help someone in peril. Whenever they are on a mission, Martin always jumps to conclusions, coming up with every unlikely theory he can think of, usually from some movie he saw or from his subscription to "Paranormal Monthly". As the leader of the trio, Martin is also the only one who wears a U-Watch. He is an underachiever at school, once getting 106 out of 902 in his report card results. Martin has a peculiar love for everything slimy, sloppy, and gooey - things that make Diana gag. Martin's favorite hobby is teasing Diana by playing pranks and creeping her out, even though she often retaliates with physical abuse. He is also seen in a cross-over episode of Totally Spies!. In the episode, he is smitten with Clover, although she is uninterested. Towards the end of the same episode, Clover tries to get his attention, but Martin and Alex have hit it off due to a shared love of comics and video games. Martin continuously describes Sam as a "really lame buzz-kill" just like his sister, which causes her to lash out at him as Diana normally does. A running gag in the series is Martin's constant flirting with every beautiful girl he meets, who usually reject him with verbal or (in Jenni's case) physical abuse. Martin is voiced by Samuel Vincent.

Diana Lombard

Diana is a 16-year-old girl who has nothing in common with her step-brother Martin. As a fellow agent for "The Center," she strives to bring more seriousness into Martin's life and is Martin's female counterpart during investigations. She is the complete opposite of her brother and is normally seen as the clean-freak, goody-two-shoes, overachiever, and brainiac of the group. Diana is quite jumpy and squeamish at times and is even described by Martin as a "wimp," but shows great courage when called on and is very smart, which proves to be extremely useful in their missions. Not sharing Martin's love of the paranormal, she often tries to explain strange occurrences with logic before jumping to conclusions. Diana has the hardest time keeping her cool with her irresponsible step-brother and will generally slap, kick, beat on, or scream at him quite often. Regardless of Martin's goofy behavior, she loves him like her own brother. She is usually seen with her two signature hair clips and her small purple shoulder bag. She also seems to be the bait on the majority of the missions. Her arguments with Martin tend to normally rise to some sort of bet, which she usually loses. She is often one of the earliest victims in the episodes, including being cocooned by an acid-spewing insect queen, turned into a frog by a warlock Martin unleashed, and being possessed by a vengeful spirit at a mountain lodge. When Martin is transformed by other monsters, Diana uses her own skills to save him. In a few episodes, Diana even wears Martin's U-Watch and uses it when he is transformed. Her best friend is Jenni Anderson. Diana is voiced by Kelly Sheridan.

Java the Caveman

Java, the 200,000-year-old caveman, is a friend and aide-de-camp to Martin and Diana. He also works at Torrington as a cook and a janitor. Java assists them in their investigations, serving as the team's tracker. His brute strength proves useful when battling monstrous foes or breaking through barriers. Even though he is a lover of lizards and spiders, Java fears cats, heights, and technology (his fear of technology being a running joke in the show). The member in the trio who speaks the least, his English is on a fairly simplistic level (e.g. "What that?", "Diana bald", and "Java no like this place"). Also, Java has a knack for thinking "outside the box", which greatly helps in the team's adventures. Java is a significant source of comedy in the show due to his reactions to various scenarios and his poor hygiene as a caveman (e.g. his offensive foot odor, stinky armpits, and filthy breath). Java is sometimes the victim of the paranormal, being transformed into a monster, such as when he inhales the Chaos Beast in its gas form, or brainwashed by a pirate-controlled Martin. Java is voiced by Dale Wilson.

M.O.M.

As the multi-tasking director of "The Center", M.O.M. oversees the investigation of paranormal activities throughout the world. Martin's capabilities make him one of her favorite agents - if "favorite" is meant by "the agent that she would rather spend the most time with in the field and out of her office". Her real name is unknown, though she used the alias Ms. Olivia Mandell (derived from the initials M.O.M.) in the episode "Web Of The Spider Creature". Before working at the center, she used to drive an ice cream truck. Serious, uncompromising, and an expert at hand-to-hand combat, she usually has to deal with Martin blowing up nearly every piece of gadgetry she is working on whenever he appears for a debriefing in her office (a running gag until season 3). Despite her typically dry sense of humor, M.O.M. is actually- as Billy says- "a real party animal when she gets going". Proof is seen by the team in some pictures she accidentally shows them in the episode, "The Amazon Vapor", while trying to debrief them on their next mission due to some malfunctions at the Center. When she was an agent, the first creature she captured was Gastromo, a parasitic, iron-eating monster who infects and controls those he touches. It appears her favorite holiday is Christmas when she is always in a rather happy and festive mood and, as Martin says in disbelief, it looks like "M.O.M. is actually having fun." In the crossover episode of Totally Spies! titled "Totally Mystery Much?", M.O.M. is shown to have a possibly romantic history with the spies' boss Jerry, much to the spies and Martin's displeasure, as she and Jerry spy-flirt between holograms. The initials M.O.M. are said to actually stand for "Mystery Organization Manager", as explained by Martin in that episode. M.O.M. is voiced by Teryl Rothery.

Billy

A tiny green alien who works for "The Center" as M.O.M.'s personal secretary, often seen flying on his mini hovercraft. He is a powerful idolizer of Martin and in one episode, it was revealed that in his room, he even had a picture of Martin, making him the "crazed fan of the show" archetype. He is first usually seen greeting the gang once they are signed in then often does his signature high five with Martin. His role is generally a supportive one; he pops up anytime during a mission to give Martin, Diana, and Java valuable information, usually startling them in the process. He also does analysis on slime or fabric samples sent by Martin during a mission. He won't help Martin and the gang on a mission directly unless forced. In the second season, Billy was revealed to have once been a great alien warrior, known as Ganthar, on another planet, but gave up violence for good. When Martin asked why a planet on Billy's list of hologram worlds was blue, it was revealed by M.O.M. to be the world which changed Ganthar into Billy, the reason he doesn't go on missions with the other three agents. He arrived on Earth in the Roswell UFO Incident in 1947. Billy adopted a human disguise — the "B.S. 1000" — to be with Martin and Diana at their school. A few episodes in season 3 hinted that he liked Diana, such as one of the Christmas specials where he invited her under the mistletoe and actually went on a friendly date with her. It is revealed in the episode "Revenge of the Doppelganger" that Billy was once a super model on his home planet. This might be true, since he was fearsome and powerful, and might have been popular with his people. Billy is also voiced by Samuel Vincent.

Jenni Anderson

Jenni is Martin's constant love interest, although she does not return the affection. Her view of Martin is generally not very flattering: this includes "immature", "freak", or "loser". Jenni is also one of the prettiest and most popular girls attending Torrington. She has blue eyes and flared auburn-colored hair, usually seen wearing a black blouse and skirt with knee-high boots. She is also Diana's best friend. Though Jenni usually sees Martin as a "brat", there have been times where she actually seems interested in pursuing a relationship with him (when Martin acts like a gentleman). Unfortunately for Martin, though, it never lasts because her memory of whatever happened is erased, Martin does something stupid, or some other incident (like when Jenni moves for a semester) interferes. Jenni voiced by Tabitha St. Germain

Marvin

Marvin is Martin's rival, and evidently enjoys the extreme, such as snowboarding down K2. He does virtually everything that Martin himself can do, but better of course, and even dresses in a similar style. His father is a pilot, allowing Marvin to travel around the world on a frequent basis. Marvin first appeared in the episode "Attack of the Mothman" where he shows off his skateboarding skills and his very own comic book. His talents and popularity make Martin jealous as Diana, Java, Jenni, Billy, and even Torrington fawn over him. He reappears in "The Amazon Vapor" where he discovers Martin and Diana's secret and helps on their mission with his talents and quick thinking. Diana fears and Martin hopes that they will erase his memory of the event. However, in "The Third Eye", it is revealed that he works for the Center and has acquired his own U-Watch because M.O.M. recognized his amazing potential. Unfortunately, because of his negligence in the previous mission, he ends up being deported to the Center's South Pole facility and blames his unfortunate circumstances on Martin. Martin remarks that it is not really that bad because he has a beautiful team mate, whom Martin has a crush on in the episode. He and Martin continue in their mutual dislike throughout the episode "Body-Swappers", until Martin gives him the majority of the credit for getting rid of the parasite and M.O.M. decided to relocate Marvin to Hawaii. In a subsequent episode, "Rage of the Leprechaun", Marvin contacts Martin and Diana for help after being stalked by a leprechaun that wanted to get back the magically lucky, four-leafed clover Marvin had stolen from him. After the incident, Marvin is punished by M.O.M. for keeping the clover instead of getting rid of it, which Martin calls a "rookie mistake", but leaves M.O.M. equally disappointed in him for letting greed get the best of him as well. What happens to him after that is unknown, as he is not mentioned in the remainder of the series. Marvin is voiced by Matt Hill.

Gerard Mystery

Gerard Mystery is Martin's father and Diana's step-father. Unlike his immature son, Gerard is a very rational, logical person like Diana and considers anything related to the paranormal to be "balderdash". As a scientist, he spends much of his time doing field work in the forest. In the third season, he finds out about "The Center" and that Diana and Martin work for it. Diana's mother is never mentioned in the series and Gerard spoke about Martin's mother once in season 3, when he thought Martin was going to tell his mom about what happened when Martin was actually speaking about M.O.M. Gerard is voiced by Michael Donovan.

Media

Broadcast

Martin Mystery aired in Canada on YTV, on Discovery Kids in English, and on Vrak in French from 2003 until the series finale in 2006. In the United States, Nickelodeon showed Martin Mystery from May through August 2005. Nickelodeon's sister channel, Nicktoons Network aired reruns of the show from September 2005 until July 2009.

In other markets

MBC 3 and ART 3 broadcast this show in Arabic (with the voice talents of Mo'awad Ismail as Martin and Mariam El Khesht as Diana. Martin Mystery began airing on Disney Channel in 2004 during its weekday afternoon line-up.

Crossovers in other series

Marathon and Image also produced Team Galaxy, Totally Spies!, and Amazing Spiez!. Male characters resembling Martin, Diana, and Martin's rival Marvin have appeared in Totally Spies!, such as in the episode "Super Agent Much?", and many others. Martin's character guest starred in the 2007 Totally Spies! episode "Totally Mystery Much?" which had him team up with the spies to investigate Yeti sightings. The only other Martin Mystery character to appear in a Totally Spies! episode was M.O.M., in the same episode that Martin appeared in.

Cancellation

In March 2006, the show ended production after 3 years on the air, due to low ratings. The last episode was aired on March 27, 2006.

References

External links

• Martin Mystery at epguides.com
• The Official Martin Mystery Site
• Martin Mystery at TV.com
• Martin Mystery at the Internet Movie Database