Madeline: Lost in Paris

Madeline: Lost in Paris is a 1999 American direct-to-video animated musical adventure comedy-drama film produced by DIC Entertainment, L.P. It was released on August 3, 1999 to VHS by Buena Vista Home Video under the Walt Disney Home Video imprint. In 2009, the film was released on iTunes for the film's 10th anniversary.

Plot[]

During winter, the twelve girls are preparing to walk outside as always: at half-past nine in two straight lines. Before they head out on their daily outing, they soon find out that their instructor Miss Clavel (Stevie Vallance) is sick with a bad fever. Dr. Cohn tells her to stay in bed until she fully recovers, and then tells the girls to give her warmth and love while she recovers. Suddenly, the girls are interrupted by Pepito () who was playing his violin from next-door; he promises Madeline (Andrea Libman) that he'll stop playing until Miss Clavel feels better again. That night while getting ready for bed, the children lament that Miss Clavel being sick, and begin to reminisce about the good times that they've had with each of their families back at home especially the times when they have been sick as well. Madeline also tells her friends about the good times that she's had with her own family; she also shows them a special gold necklace with animal printings on them that her mother had given her, unfortunately since both of her parents died many years ago she has no other family members to return to. Saddened by Madeline's story, the girls express their condolences and reunite in an outpouring of grief, but are soon comforted by Miss Clavel, who was awoken by the commotion. She reminds the girls that they all love and look out for each other, and that they are all are just as much a family as anybody else, comforting all of the girls.

Sometime later, Madeline receives a mysterious letter in the mail from her long-lost Uncle Horst (Jason Alexander) from Vienna, Austria, who is planning on a visit. He arrives at the school later that week where is invited for a gala with the girls including Lord Cucuface (French Tickner) and Pepito's family, he then announces that he has been designated Madeline's new legal guardian and shows the court papers to Miss Clavel. Horst plans on taking her to his hometown Vienna, to attend a fine finishing school and obtain a master’s degree, and plan on leaving the following day via the Orient Express. Madeline, Pepito and her classmates react with shock, elation, and sorrow. The children, wanting to prove that their school is just as good, puts on a musical to display their talents to Uncle Horst; however this does not impress him enough and he decides to take Madeline with him the next day.

That morning when Uncle Horst leaves with his niece the next morning, he takes Madeline on the Paris Métro instead of the Orient Express, to a distant and unfamiliar slum that's ravaged with poverty and crime. Presuming that she is being kidnapped for trafficking or selling purposes, Madeline throws beads of her mother's treasured necklace to make a trail to where she is taken to, however she keeps one of the beads which has a lion on it as a memento. It is then revealed that Uncle Horst is not Madeline's uncle nor is he related to her, but a Frenchman and a failed actor named Henri (who can only do accents), who serves as a henchman for Madame LaCroque (Lauren Bacall), the head of a slavery mafia and the owner of a bobbin lace shop/factory. Henri takes Madeline to the lace shop's basement, which is full of kidnapped orphan girls who are slaves to make laces to sell. One of the girls, Fifi, a girl working as a slave under harsh conditions, befriends Madeline. It is then revealed that Madame LaCroque forged Madeline's court custody papers, and that the two crime lords plan to steal her family inheritance as she works in the factory.

Shortly after Madeline left, Miss Clavel, the girls, and Pepito tried to stop her and Horst so that Pepito could give her his Halloween parting gift: a shrunken head from Brazil. They arrive at the train station, only to learn that the two had taken the Métro, not the Orient Express, and that they weren’t in the listing. They also find Genevieve abandoned at the station (Henri tossed her out of the subway they were boarding earlier due to the Métro not allowing dogs) Fearing the worst, Miss Clavel summons the police to find intel about Madeline’s location.

At the lace shop, the child workers endure enormous amounts of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of LaCroque; especially when Fifi accidentally causes her whooping cough to turn one of the laces yellow. As a punishment, LaCroque decides to have her make only black lace in the dark, which could potentially render her blind, as one of the girls, Claire, explains that her grandmother lost her sight that way; Madeline defends Fifi and the other children in the process, but LaCroque retaliates and punishes Madeline for her backtalk by throwing her into a prison cell. Madeline repents for thinking that Henri was her uncle, and reflects on if she’ll be free someday, later joined by the other girls. After breaking off a loose brick, Madeline tells Fifi and the children that they should escape from the factory; however Fifi said that she tried once but was caught in the process, and consequently LaCroque cut off her once-long hair to make lace, making her look like a boy. When Madeline asks how LaCroque's cruelty originated, Fifi explains through a flashback sequence that LaCroque was once a famous cabaret dancer who experienced a performance disaster, by accidentally ripping her dress. Totally humiliated, she stopped performing altogether and sold all of her long blond hair to make lace. She and Henri then formed a slavery duo, gained legal custody of all of the orphan girls and repossessed them for child labor. Rather than taking care of them (as they promised to the government), they treat them as their miserable servants.

Through following the trail of Madeline's necklace beads, Madeline's classmates, along with Pepito, Genevieve, and the Police, find their way to the factory; back at the lace store, a customer tells LaCroque she wants red lace, which gives her the idea to shave off Madeline's hair. LaCroque then orders Henri to sell of Madeline’s belongings. As they attempt to flee via a hidden trapdoor, LaCroque interrupts their escape attempt and ambushes them, cutting off a few locks of Madeline's hair in the process, and prepares to torture her and the other orphans by deciding to give all of them haircuts only to make laces. Back at the factory, Pepito uses his shrunken skull head to knock off LaCroque's wig from outside the window (revealing her bald head), and then frighten her to the ground. Meanwhile, Miss Clavel and the police search around the slum for Henri, and is finally detected walking through the streets, carrying Madeline’s briefcase to be later sold. After being pursued and through a plea bargain deal, Henri agrees to lead them to the lace factory, in exchange for reducing his sentence. Madeline and the lace shop slaves are able to knock down LaCroque and manage to trap her in endless rolls of lace just as the 11 little girls and Pepito forge a path toward the factory and as the cops arrive with Henri and Miss Clavel. After a final negotiation with LaCroque, she pleads innocent, and tells the law enforcement that Henri planned her apprehension. Henri, after hearing this, makes one last attempt to escape, only to be kicked by LaCroque herself in temper, and then tripped by Pepito's spool trick, allowing the girls to tangle him up as well. Finally, the law enforcement rewards Miss Clavel and the girls with a large fine of francs for their capture, and apprehend both crime lords, thus, ending their crimes, and being charged.

As everyone rejoice, the 11 school girls give Madeline her mother's beads that they had found earlier. The factory girls, however, still have nowhere to go. During bedtime, Madeline's friends talk about what they would do with the reward money that they had received for LaCroque and Henri's capture. Despite that the other girls came up with useless or non-necessary ideas, Madeline decides to use the money for charity.

Much time later, Madeline (wearing her repaired mother’s necklace as a symbol of solidarity), uses the reward money to open up an orphanage for those who were once LaCroque and Henri’s subservient puppets. Fifi, (now healthy and with fully-grown hair thanks to Dr. Cohn), thanks Madeline for sacrificing all the money for her and her friends. Miss Clavel appreciates Madeline’s selflessness, courage and empathy to end misery in the city and making it a more safer place, and also congratulates her for donating the money for a good cause. Fifi finally asks Madeline if she is going to visit, thus replying that they are sister schools, so they could visit sometime. As the girls from both orphanages learn that they are a whole family, all of Paris finally rejoices.

Production[]

In March 1998, the film was announced as the first project from DIC’s new “video premieres” division ^[2]

DVD releases[]

Shout! Factory released Madeline: Lost in Paris on DVD on April 3, 2010.^[3] It was released in Australia in 2013 by Umbrella Entertainment.^[4][5]

Voice cast[]

• Andrea Libman as Madeline
• Christopher Plummer as the Narrator
• Lauren Bacall as Madame LaCroque
• Jason Alexander as Uncle Horst / Henri
• Stephanie Louise Vallance as Miss Clavel, Genevieve
• Michael Heyward as Pepito
• Brittney Irvin as Chloe
• Veronika Sztopa as Nicole
• Additional voices include Alex Hood, Jennifer Copping, Tabitha St. Germain, Rochelle Greenwood, French Tickner, Michael Heyward, Garry Chalk, Dale Wilson, Jane Mortifee

Songs[]

• Family - Madeline & 11 Little Girls
• We Can Sing, We Can Dance - 11 Little Girls, Uncle Horst, Mrs. Clavel, Pepito's Mother, Lord Cucuface, Others
• Oh Dear, Oh Dear - Miss Clavel, 11 Little Girls, Pepito, Madeline and Uncle Horst
• Where is the Hope That I Once Knew? - Madeline & Laceshop Girls
• Together - Madeline & Laceshop Girls
• Family (reprise) - Madeline, 11 Little Girls, Pepito & Laceshop Girls

Reception[]

William David Lee of DVD Town, criticizing the special, panned the "not very memorable" songs and "simplistic and predictable" story, but recommended the film for young audiences.^[6]

References[]

External links[]

• Madeline: Lost in Paris at IMDb
• Madeline: Lost In Paris at The Big Cartoon DataBase