How did CL get started?

[MY85 offline]

AMAZING NEWS courtesy of LyokoCode and regarding the much talked about OAV prequel!

It has finally been made official that this project is a "go" and should be seeing a release sometime in 2006. This info comes courtesy of LyokoCode, who found it at MoonScoop.

I'm off to look for direct links for this info, but this is great news!! We'll finally get to see how the group met and how they found Aelita!

Awesome!!

[Cassius335 offline]

Hahaha, xana.exe. I can see it.

Just pray XANA never gets his hands on Rockman.EXE (Magaman NT Warrior). Can you imagine something like Gospel loose on Lyoko (or worse, the real world)?

[Mewberries151]

Ha! Indeed! I can't wait for the prequel now! Let's just hope they don't mean September 2006.

[Mewberries151]

First off I have to say that this is the most impressive critical analysis of GK, I believe I've ever seen. Bravo on a very well thought out review.

There's also a bit of a cinematic slant, and the twenty second scene from Yumi asking Odd if he can keep a secret to Ulrich entering XANADU is a masterpiece. Two shots come to mind - opening the factory doors, seen from the inside as our heroes stand silouetted and gold light plays on mysterious machinery - and Odd staring up as the camera tracks around him, revealing the factory interior to both him and us. Both of these seem drawn with love and effort, and the result is very powerful, especially with the score thrumming and throbbing and then trumpeting throughout both - dark, mysterious, enticing.

I have an insanely high appreciation for those same two scenes. Particulary the camera track of Odd as he takes in the Factory for the first time. If they do a similar shot like that in the CL OAV preview that's coming out, I will be most pleased.

Everything on the inside is grimy and industrial, but in a nice touch the kids have personalised the area with a couch and small carpet/rug.

In all the times I've watched GK, I've failed to notice that couch and throw rug. That is a fantastically cute and creative detail. If that's a place the kids crash at from time to time, of course they'd put in a couch to sit on. Genius!

Jeremie is your obsessive computer type and although this is only a short film, it's surprising how shallow his character feels without Aelita to bounce off. He's there basically to run the computer and get in trouble. No offence Jeremie.

Supposedly, Aelita was not a character in GK. In her absence, rumor has it that Jeremie was supposedly going to have a thing for Millie in GK (and there is proof of her actually being a character in GK). He likely would have gained more depth had she been included in this short, but there is only so much one can put into a 10 minute pilot.

Yumi seems to be the leader here - she is obviously more agressive, training vigorously with Ulrich in martial arts and barking orders later on. There's also a touch of sardonic humour in in, as well as the revelation of a soft-spot when she tackles Ulrich and then blushes. Her telekinesis alos presents interesting possibilities.

I'm beginning to wonder if Yumi was supposedly going to be the "focused" character of GK. Her character is the most developed in this whole short, and by the end of the pilot, she's the one the audience knows the best, all possible signs that she was slated to be a definitive "main character".

Aelita does not appear once in Garage Kids and whether it's better or worse than CL as a result is debateable. In CL she's a good source of dry humor as well as being the motivator for fighting XANA - in fact it's entirely possible that Aelita was developed solely as a reason for not shutting the computer down, after GK was finished when this plot-hole was realised. Without her however the short seems a lot more serious.

Yeah, Aelita was a creation made solely for Code Lyoko. She was not a planned character for GK. I agree with you on the idea that she was created as one of the reasons for the kids not to shut down the computer. That's likely the only plothole GK has...why wouldn't they shut off the computer...unless of course, they can't or don't know how...

The fact that Yumi has her telekinesis suggests the others might as well, a pity we never got to see an example of this.

You're 100% right in your guess. Ulrich, at the very least, was planned to have his powers outside of the virtual world. Whether or not Odd was to eventually gain a power was never mentioned but Yumi and Ulrich were to share the same character quirk of powers in the real world.

Yumi would also appear to be a boarding student, based on an image in the end credits showing all of them in bed-clothes, with Yumi and Ulrich pillow-fighting while Jeremie types on a laptop and Odd snores in bed, Kiwi lying down by his head.

That and the "Y/U push" pic, are my two favorite credit pics. I really like the pillow fight idea. It would be a neat scene to see the four of them, or at least Ulrich and Yumi, acting like real kids. Plus who wouldn't want to see Yumi totally cream Ulrich with a pillow.

ANIMATION: Animation quality also seems higher, with fluider and more varied body movements, independant hair and clothing motion and more varied weather (perfect day, cloudy, sunset, and a fantastically drawn rainstorm at the beginning). A nice touch is that when we see the factory from outside and in the end credits, it's reflection in the water ripples constantly. Of course, given that this short was made to sell the concept, you'd want to dazzle audiences.

3D Animation however needs work. While the settings and backgrounds look great, Ulrich looks pretty bad. Unlike the textured look he has in CL, his costume seems painted onto his body, and his face is much more angular and consequently looks quite inhuman. His costume is also far more elaborate, including a Samurai ribbon and billowing armour around the upper legs. His motions also look a bit wooden and when he jumps, he leaps several hundred yards in a bound, like a manic rabbit. His feet also don't seem to make contact with the ground he walks on. Clearly much effort went into developing the CGI for CL, with better characters at the expense of background detail.

CONCLUSION: Overall Garage Kids is a nice look at Code: Lyoko boiled down to the four kids with no-other distractions. As it is however I doubt it could be stretched into a full series. However the concept is present in both, and the potential is fully realised, though there is something about it's grittier, more adult, more washed-out look and feel and gorgeously styled images that I long for in the otherwise excellent Code: Lyoko. In those small changes lies possibly the difference between a fad and a classic.

END

I agree with you absolutely on the quality of the 2D and 3D animation. I hope the CL prequel has the type of 2D animation quality GK had, and I can't imagine why it wouldn't considering it's a movie, and those tend to have better, more fluid animation.

GK actually would have made a really interesting movie. While the storyline as it is could have been stretched over 26 episodes with the plot being something along the lines of the kids trying to figure out why Xanadu was there, and what to do about it, it would have made a pretty sweet animated action movie. Perhaps that's why they're making the CL prequel 45 minutes instead of the typical 25 for an episode. That kind of story needs enough time to lay everything out.

Once more, I applaud oyu on your excellent analysis of GK!

[McTrooper offline]

. .
Supposedly, Aelita was not a character in GK. In her absence, rumor has it that Jeremie was supposedly going to have a thing for Millie in GK (and there is proof of her actually being a character in GK). He likely would have gained more depth had she been included in this short, but there is only so much one can put into a 10 minute pilot.
. .

Okay, the PDF file I mentioned earlier did show that Millie's character design was made, but I'm curious where you heard the rumor that she'd be a love interest?

Ironically . . I find it interesting that Aelita's new outfit (Season 2) makes her look as young as Millie.

Oh! That same PDF file shows a freaky looking thing (Short, Yellow hardhat, with a star on it's shirt) that would probably have become a part of the show as originally planned.



Good analysis TB3 it was fun to read.

One minor, but important detail . .
>. . when a shadow-monster strikes a tree in XANADU . .

I think you mean when the monster hit the tower.
In GK's Factory the thing below the Scanner (if you took the stairs away) looks sort of like a tower in Xanadu. And when they showed the tower being rammed they cut that with a scene of the factory.

[Mewberries151]

. .
Supposedly, Aelita was not a character in GK. In her absence, rumor has it that Jeremie was supposedly going to have a thing for Millie in GK (and there is proof of her actually being a character in GK). He likely would have gained more depth had she been included in this short, but there is only so much one can put into a 10 minute pilot.
. .

Okay, the PDF file I mentioned earlier did show that Millie's character design was made, but I'm curious where you heard the rumor that she'd be a love interest?

Ironically . . I find it interesting that Aelita's new outfit (Season 2) makes her look as young as Millie.

Oh! That same PDF file shows a freaky looking thing (Short, Yellow hardhat, with a star on it's shirt) that would probably have become a part of the show as originally planned.

^^; Well the Millie/Jeremie thing is the common GK rumor on the MSN fan pages. I've never seen it mentioned on a terribly reliable source...but the idea had to come from somewhere...ah well, that's why I put "rumor has it". It's not official GK info at any rate.

And as for that "groundhog/midget" thing...I think it might be someones pet pulling a human disguise. Kind of like in Scooby-Doo, or even Peanuts to an extent. It's still creepy though... ^^

[Ulrich Stern offline]

So this is were you have all been posting lately!!! I CAUGHT YOU!!!

Intense Analysis!

What PDF McT?

[McTrooper offline]

So this is were you have all been posting lately!!! I CAUGHT YOU!!!

Intense Analysis!

What PDF McT?

There is a PDF file about the Garage Kids.
I'm don't think it's still on line, but I downloaded it from one of the official sites.

As posted before the text is:

Quote
________________________________________________
GARAGE KIDS - 26 half hours (NOTE: only the 5 minute pilot was made)

A group of kids whose adventures take place in the real world but also in a parallel and virtual world, Xanadu. The story? A boy of about twelve, Odd, arrives one day in his new neighbourhood and quickly understands at school that certain of his friends are gifted with extraordinary powers. Yumi, for example, is telepathic while Ulrick has the gift of displacing himself at the speed of light. These kids have in fact penetrated the secret of Xanadu, the fruit of the labours of a research group whose laboratory, set in an environment inspired by the old Renault automobile factory on the ÃŽle Seguin at Boulogne-Billancourt, is now abandoned. Created by the Professor, a learned eccentric who sunk into madness, Xanadu and its multiple disturbances threaten the destruction of the real world.

Built on the model of a soap opera which unfolds through the series, “Garage Kidsâ€

[YDV offline]

. Created by the Professor, a learned eccentric who sunk into madness, Xanadu and its multiple disturbances threaten the destruction of the real world.

Woah, woah woah. Would that happen to be Franz Hopper? They had the idea for him way back then?! o.O

btw, hey McTrooper! Haven't seen you around lately. How've you been?

[bduddy offline]

It's always better to patch plot-holes before you run over them...

Oh, and I never thought someone could write so much about a 5/10 (which is it?) minute pilot...