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mask131 · 16 days

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Other Odysseys: Mission Odyssey

This one is sort-of a follow-up to the "Ulysse 31" cartoon. You'll see what I mean...

Do you know Totally Spies, or Martin Mystery, or Team Galaxy? Those quite specific cartoons coming from a specific set of studios and a quite specific era, with their very distinctive style? Well, there was a fourth cartoon part of this set, so to speak... one adapting the Odyssey. A Franco-German cartoon first aired in 2002. In France we just call it "L'odyssée", The Odyssey, but in English the titled got changed to "Mission Odyssey" (probably to be more appealing to kids?).

This cartoon is another production of the company Marathon Média of the early 2000s pushing forward what has been called the "franime" - a French animation style trying to imitate Japanese anime, or rather marrying some manga visual elements with a more European animation tradition. Where Totally Spies was dealing with the "spy" genre, Martin Mystery with the "horror for kids" and Team Galaxy with "sci-fi space-travel", "Mission Odyssey" actually is meant to tackle a more "traditional" fantasy. And... that's kind of the main problem of this cartoon.

Because when you look at this cartoon... You will see how it clearly was meant to be a D&D-like fantasy show X)

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy this cartoon and I have positive stuff to say about it... But let's get the bad things out of the way. And the first bad thing is that, if you are looking for a faithful adaptation of Greek mythology, turn away because its handling of the Greek myths is very very loose.

The core story is still the same as the Odyssey: Odysseus tries to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, but is pursued by the wrath of Poseidon, and must wander from island to island, monster to monster, encounter after encounter, with the final episode seeing him defeat the suitors harassing Penelope (the show is 26 episodes of 24 minutes). And don't get me wrong: unlike "Ulysses 31" which invented out of blue entire episodes completely unrelated to Greek mythology whatsoever, Mission Odyssey ALWAYS takes its elements from Greek mythology, always. But A) In order to provide some padding and extend the story, Odysseus encounters a LOT of monsters and characters NOT part of the Odyssey - Pegasus, the Minotaur, the Amazons, the Gorgons, centaurs, harpies , Lycaon and the Golden Fleece are all at the program. B) The show has an habit of... reimagining the monster and entities of Greek mythology in WILD and bizarre ways.

The Minotaur? He is actually the king of his island and much more human than planned. The Gorgons? They are now two witch-sisters instead of a trio of monsters. Charybdis and Scylla? They are cursed lovers who must be set free from the spell that trap them. The sirens? They're your typical fish-mermaid kingdom. The harpies? They are now an entire kingdom and matriarchy of bird-women, instead of random evil spirits. The Titans? Oh they're just horned-bluish humanoids living in a Norse-inspired frozen land, but very much regular mortal folks. Zephyrus? The human son of Aeolus who ran away from his father's celestial palace to live with other mortals. Etc, etc etc... This show has some of the most unfaithful and misinformative and just plain weird takes on Greek mythology I have seen in kids' cartoons.

The very crew of Odysseus' ship was entirely reinvented. Of course, it is to limit the number of protagonist and make it easier for kids to follow, but outside Odysseus, all of his companions are original characters to the show, and that's where I talked about the D&D vibe: these characters feel like a D&D party the more your think about it. Putting this under this perspective, it starts of make sense why some of the reimaginations are so strange and so unlike Greek mythology: it seems the show's project had some sort of past as a more "fantasy" show before settling for Greek mythology.

Anyway, enough of the bad stuff! What about the good? Why do I enjoy this cartoon and still advise people to go check it out despite its unfaithfulness?

Because - on the one side, it is VERY imaginative and creative in its reimagination. Sure it is not at all like the legends to have Charybdis and Scylla be doomed lover cursed into monstrous shapes to never be together... But you can't deny it still feels like something out of Ovid's Metamorphosis. Yes it is bizarre to have the Minotaur be the king who built the labyrinth instead of the monster trapped in it, but you see how they play with the legend around. And there's a lot of VERY striking visuals and concepts (like the Moirai spinning their web like creepy old-spider-ladies, or Lycaon trapped at the bottom of a well and sweet-talking people nto letting him out). And it does lead to some crazy scenarios that I quite enjoy: there's an episode about the group GOING DOWN INTO TARTARUS TO FREE POSEIDON OUT OF KRONOS CLUTCHES! How wild is that?

But here's the actual "good" point: while it is takes the "creative freedom" to the max in certain areas, when it decides to stick to the Greek myths, it sticks to it in a wonderful way. It's little details here and there, but they are very much appreciated. For example: the entire story of the Odyssey is here framed as actually some sort of contest or bet between Poseidon and Athena, who are the two main gods dealing with the story, and while the cartoon doesn't linger on the concept of the Trojan War (it's for kids after all), they do replace Odysseus' torment in the line of the Athena-Poseidon competitions, with Odysseus as Athena's champion opposed by Poseidon's own minions, monsters and servants.

There is an episode where the crew of Odysseus gets to the Underworld, and here Hades is not the bad guy, which is VERY interesting for an early 2000s cartoon: he is depicted, like in the myths, as a neutral though frightening entity who honestly will be a pleasant host to visitors as long as they don't stay, and follow his rules, but will become an absolute merciless terror if anyone break his law or tries to commit a crime in his domain. In fact, they do juxtapose him with Poseidon precisely to show how unlike Poseidon who is the bad guy here, Hades is much more benevolent than his brother.

Another little detail I particularly enjoy: Penelope and Telemachus are not forgotten, and every episode begins with a scene about them. Most beautifully: each episode's main theme, monster or MacGuffin is foreshadowed by the motif of Penelope's tapestry. Each day a new tapestry, echoing the adventures her husband will have to face...

But my favorite of this cartoon is, of course, Poseidon.

I like to say that if you want a complete idea of Poseidon in Greek mythology, through modern kid fiction, you need to look at both the Percy Jackson books and this cartoon. The Percy Jackson books did a great job at showing the good and benevolent side of Poseidon, but they lacked his evil and dangerous side - which is what this cartoon is all about.

It might just be me, as I am a big Poseidon fan, but Poseidon is here an excellent traditional villain. Of course, it is all the codes we know today - he is this over-arching villain who works only through minions, underlings and indirect attacks (because, as per the rule of the gods' games in this show, deities cannot directly attack or influence or protect the humans and have to work through side-ways), he always comes up with a new evil plot each episode, and at the end of it he goes all "I'll catch you next time!". But it works with the character and material, and its a delightful classic move.

You clearly see here Poseidon as the father and ruler of the monsters and dangers of the sea, and I adore his design which is literaly a mix of Disney's Hades and Ursula with some elements from Bai Tza from the Jackie Chan Adventures. He is this blue-skinned, blond, octopus-man whose size constantly shifts and changes from a tiny thing to a giant because he keeps manifesting himself through various bodies of water and so can appear as much out of the ocean as within a cup of water you try to drink. He is clearly shown as cruel and petty, vengeful and destructive, cunning and filled with dark magic... In fact he is even seen trying to cheat repeatedly throughout the series, only for Athena to step in and be like "Nah, not on my watch".

However there's a bonus point: we have a nuanced Poseidon here. The very episode with the Cyclop is quite interesting, as it actually explores Poseidon's relationship with his son Polyphemus - Polyphemus who is here actually more of a dumb idiot and honestly a bit goofy at times (he is still a man-eating giant, but at least he is polite and timid about it), and while Poseidon is short-tempered and get VERY annoyed by his son's idiocy... He doesn't actually lash out at him, he tries to cajole him, and he even conforts him at the end by promising him to create a new eye (in this version, kid-friendly, Polyphemus' eye is a glass-device). Which is a great contrast with how Poseidon threatens and terrifies his other underlings. In fact, many times in the show we see people who are genuinely pleased and happy to see Poseidon, see him as a benevolent and friendly guy and are more than willing to help him - only to realize too late what he asks from them is actually nefarious. It is made VERY clear that, if it wasn't for Odysseus, we could get to see more of Poseidon's good side, but since he is Poseidon's unwilling enemy, all turns against him.

Even more so: this cartoon had the genius idea of analyzing how Poseidon becoming the main villain and the persecutor of Odysseus in this story ends up ruining him. Because as the episodes pile up and Poseidon is more and more foiled by Odysseus, we see him get increasingly frustrated and mad and vengeful, becoming obsessed with this guy. He keeps telling those who think of him as a benevolent god and nice patron to go kill this guy who turns out to be just an innocent traveller or a nice person (oh yeah, Odysseus in this version is your ur-good guy, no blame whatsoever, he is just Superman without the powers, you know), and as a result he loses all the support he had gathered. It is very interesting how it works by the gods: because a few times Poseidon will use the trust and respect other gods put in him to try to turn them against Odysseus, or trick them into attacking him. It happened with Hades, and with Aeolus, and with Hephaistos, and each time, Poseidon's treachery was revealed, leading him to be banished from their realm and earning their enemity. The result is that... As the show progresses we realize how Poseidon's obsession with Odysseus, destructive grudge and desire to cheat to finally beat Athena lead him to become a hated and humiliated god among mortals and immortals, and I think it is a quite a nice twist.

They do enjoy analyzing the ambiguity and ambivalence of Poseidon - for example the Pegasus episode has Odysseus meet Bellerophon, and the hunt for the Chimera is actually put aside in favor of Odysseus trying to give therapy to poor Bellerophon who is in a sort of passive-abusive relationship with his father. In a similar way, the Cronos episode is all about how Odysseus and crew have to rescue Poseidon because, even though he is their enemy, hates them and will see them dead, he is a needed part of the world and removing him literaly kills the sea (all the sea-waters turn into a strange sand-colored crystal), for ultimately he is the sea, violent and stormy, and cunning and filled with monsters, and never making it easy on sailors.

Though my favorite part is definitively how by the end, once Odysseus gets his happy ending, we cut back to Athena and Poseidon concluding their bet... Only for Poseidon to try to convince Athena to take another bet and begin another "game", begging her like some sort of friend with dares like "Okay but what about him not returnign to the sea, not leaving Ithaca? Don't you want to bet on that, on him not resisting the call of the adventure? Please, Athena, let's just have another game. Let's just bet on anything, pleeeaasse". And... it leaves you with this very strange and still kind of happy note that ultimately Poseidon is indeed, not really a bad guy, but just a short-tempered gambling addict doubled with a very sore loser X)

#other odysseys #the odyssey #odyssey #odyssey adaptations #mission odyssey #poseidon #greek mythology #french cartoons #2000s cartoons

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