Martin Mystery


Martin Mystery is a 2003-2006 French-Italian-Canadian animated television series based on the Italian comic book Martin Mystère by Alfredo Castelli. The show was produced by Marathon Media Group, Rai Fiction, and Image Entertainment Corporation. It uses an art style similar to Japanese anime.

Plot

The series re-imagines the comic books' main characters as 16-year-old step-siblings attending Torrington Academy, a high school located in the city of Sherbrooke, Quebec. They work for a covert organization known as "The Center," which covertly protects the people of Earth from supernatural threats. Their allies at The Center include Billy, who is one of Martin's best friends, and Java, who works as a janitor at Torrington Academy. Martin's vast knowledge of the supernatural and his remarkable intuition make him a valued agent of The Center, and compensate for his huge ego and poor personal hygiene. 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.

Characters

;Martin Mystery
;Diana Lombard
;Java the Caveman
;M.O.M.
;Billy
;Jenni Anderson
;Marvin
;Gerard Mystery

Episode list

Broadcast

Martin Mystery aired in Canada on YTV and Discovery Kids in English, and on Vrak in French, from 2003 until the series finale in 2006. In the United States, the first 7 episodes were originally shown on FoxBox in May and June 2004. Martin Mystery began airing on Disney Channel in 2004 during its weekday afternoon line-up. Later, Nickelodeon showed Martin Mystery from May through July 2005. Nickelodeon's sister channel, Nicktoons Network, aired reruns of the show from July 4, 2005 until April 27, 2008.
There are plans for when other reruns of this show will be released soon in widescreen, and become digitally remastered in 1080p High Definition, aired on both Amazon Prime and Netflix.

In other markets

Other channels that aired the show included M6 in France, Rai 2 in Italy, and Jetix throughout Europe. Additional channels in Europe included SVT1 and SVT Barnkanalen in Sweden, NRK Super in Norway, Yle TV2 in Finland, VT4 in Belgium and ZigZap in Poland.
MBC 3 and ART 3 broadcast this show in Arabic throughout the Middle East, with the voice talents of Mo'awad Ismail as Martin and Mariam El Khesht as Diana.

Home video

Home video of Martin Mystery was distributed in France by Polygram and MK2. In Italy, home video was distributed by 01 Distribution.

Crossovers in other series

Marathon and Image also produced Team Galaxy, Totally Spies!, and The 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. M.O.M. also appeared in this episode and it was implied that she and Jerry had been an item in the past. None of the other Martin Mystery characters appeared in a Totally Spies! episode.

Cancellation and Future

In March 2006, the show ended production after 3 years on the air, presumably due to low ratings. The last episode was aired on March 27, 2006.
In December 2013, a possible "new season project" was announced on the official Martin Mystery Facebook page. As of 2020, there has been no further announcement or plans of a fourth season.

Reception and Ratings

Martin Mystery has received generally positive reviews; it currently holds a 8.6/10 rating on TV.com, a 7.72/10 score on TV Time, a 7.4/10 on IMDb.com based on 1,623 reviews and a 97% rating from Google users. Common Sense Media a non-profit organization providing independent reviews, age ratings, and other information about all types of media wrote "Scooby-Doo meets X-Files; tweens OK."