Carmen Sandiego
Director(s): Kevin Dart, Jos Humphrey, Kenny Park
Writer(s): Duane Capizzi, May Chan, Greg Ernstrom, Becky Tinker
Starring: Gina Rodriguez, Finn Wolfhard, Liam O’Brien, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
Music: Steve D’Angelo, Lorenzo Castelli
Production: HMH Production
Distributor: Netflix
It’s been 30+ years since the “‘gentleman’ thief” in red Carmen Sandiego exploded onto the scene. Being the titular character in one of history’s longest running educational video game series, Carmen Sandiego’s exploits throughout the world, time and space massaged young impressionable minds with information all under the guise of gaming. Additionally, Carmen Sandiego managed to steal her way onto daytime television with a game show and two cartoons before practically fading out of sight. Now, in 2019 Netflix has decided to revive the iconic “Lady in Red” in glorious fashion with “Carmen Sandiego”.
Carmen may have a history as the Queen of V.I.L.E. (Villain’s International League of Evil), but in 30 years fans have had very little to no information about her as a character. Netflix seems to have big plans for Ms. Sandiego and it starts by giving fans the thing they’ve had to piece together and theorise about for decades; her backstory. Even if it is a complete retcon of what little we already knew about her.
Gina Rodriguez plays the voice of a younger Carmen Sandiego (and will also play the Netflix live action version of the character). An orphan in her teens, adopted and trained by the organization V.I.L.E. to be a master thief, this version of Carmen has turned from the side evil and has a much nobler agenda in that her motivation to steal is solely influenced by her desire to thwart V.I.L.E. any way she can. Netflix starts immediately on Carmen’s story with a two part episode that introduces both the new and old audiences to this new Carmen. We learn about her friends and rivals, her personality and moral compass as well as the true evil behind V.I.L.E and the super secret crime fighting organization A.C.M.E.
I have to say this cartoon is gorgeous. DHX Media, the company responsible for animation duties, have rendered Carmen and the cast in a somewhat matted cell shaded style that sometimes reminds me of the artistically groundbreaking Samurai Jack but somehow not. I think this style of animation lends itself pretty well to both the sequences of action and chase as well as the artistic recreations of the locales in which each heist takes place.
There have been some significant changes in scope for this iteration of Carmen Sandiego. Most notable is that the education has taken a bit of a backseat to the entertainment. However, the new blended “edutainment” format sees Carmen and her pals dish out world trivia through conversation in ways that you may not even realize you’re being schooled. There are still pockets of dialogue that come off as classroom exposition but these, for better or for worse, are few and far between.
Personally, I have about as long a history with Carmen Sandiego as she has been a character. Having been in the shoes of “Player” i’ve chased Carmen and her gang through numerous Broderbund games as a young kid, shouted trivia answers at the game show on PBS after school and sang along to the theme song of the Saturday morning cartoon, I was pretty excited to hear Carmen was coming back. So I have to admit that I was a little disappointed initially with the change of Carmen from villainess to good guy. However, it was short lived as the show is so incredibly well done. Watching my eleven year old randomly share trivia he heard on the show, as if it was something he discovered hidden in the back of his brain, cemented to me that Netflix was doing something right with the legacy of Carmen Sandiego.
Eric Snell
esnell@comicattack.net
