The Magician (French TV series)

The Magician
File:The Magician cartoon.jpg
Genre	Animated series
Created by	Florian Ferrier Gilles Adrien Savin Yeatman-Eiffel
Voices of	Michael Donovan Charles Napier Rob Paulsen Kath Soucie Billy West
Country of origin	France
Original language(s)	French English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	39
Production
Producer(s)	Marc du Pontavice
Running time	20 minutes
Production company(s)	Xilam Gaumont Multimedia
Distributor	20th Century Fox Television Distribution
Release
Original network	France 2
Original release	1997 – 1999
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

The Magician (French: Le Magicien) is a French animated television series created by Florian Ferrier, Gilles Adrien, and Savin Yeatman-Eiffel, the latter of whom also served as the series' story editor. It was produced by Xilam in 1997, and distributed by Gaumont. It aired on Fox in 1999, one of the very rare European shows to succeed in the US at the time.

Synopsis

A series of scientific discoveries and radical advances in technology have re-organized society. Taking advantage of widespread hope and optimism, the crime syndicates (chiefly under the mobster 'Black Jack' Malone) have discreetly taken control of all important positions; but they are repeatedly defeated by protagonist Ace Cooper, a famous stage-magician and superhero, and his assistant Cosmo.

Episodes

No.	Episode	Written by	Original airdate
1	"Race For Your Life"	Savin Yeatman-Eiffel	1997 (1997)
Ace is framed for a crime by doctored videos, and learns that the criminals intend to murder Jim Speed, a professional racer. Accordingly, Ace saves Speed, while Cosmo exposes the false accusation.
2	"Black Cat"	Herve Renoh	1997 (1997)
A circus' black Panther is forced to attack two scientists by a former colleague of theirs, on behalf of the corporation for which all three had worked, and Ace's own panther 'Zina' is blamed by the police. Ace, Cosmo, Inspector Vega, and the circus' trainer 'Yokiko' jointly recover the two panthers, and exonerate Zina.
3	"Mad Train"	Laurent Turner	1997 (1997)
An attempt is made on the Senator Dobb's life by an ex-employee, Bill Peach. Cooper then saves Cosmo and a circus from a train (originally belonging to Ace himself) sent by Peach to destroy both.
4	"Cyber"	Herve Renoh	1997 (1997)
When robots are sent to join the police force, Ace, Cosmo, and Inspector Vega terminate plans to use the robots against the city.
5	"Masters of Magic"	Jean-Luc Ayach	1997 (1997)
A rival magician called 'Iago' loses his assistant 'Zeline' to Ace, and thereupon assists a bank-robbery and challenges Ace to a contest of magic. When Ace wins, Iago is required to return the stolen money and surrender to the police.
6	"Vega Gate"	Silvan Boris Schmid	1997 (1997)
Inspector Vega is accused of taking bribes; but Ace and Cosmo clear his name.
7	"A Model Top Model"	Jean-Luc Ayach	1997 (1997)
Beauty queen 'Zelda' uses Ace and Cosmo to escape her employers, who create clones of her to justify their copyright of her likeness; but Ace and Cosmo interrupt the scheme, and Zelda exposes it on live broadcast, which incriminates the culprits.
8	"Croesus Crisis"	Frederic Lenoir	1997 (1997)
Mobster 'Sonny Boy' Surge opens a casino to spite his rival 'Black Jack' Malone, and Ace and Cosmo intervene, to foreshorten a gang war; but the story is complicated when Sonny Boy hires a Vodun practitioner to poison Black Jack. Ultimately, Ace and Cosmo terrify both mobsters into submission with an illusory god-monster.
9	"The Prophecy"	Gilles Adrien	1997 (1997)
A Gypsy Fortune-teller named Nausica clues in on a dangerous strongbox; but Ace recovers the strongbox before it can pollute the city's water supply.
10	"Behind the Orb-Ball"	Jeffrey P. Kearney	1997 (1997)
Sports champion 'Skip' Ramsdale is the latest of many to be drugged illegally, and injured; Ace infiltrates the competition to expose the crime.
11	"What Were You Doing in Electro City When the Lights Went Off?"	Raphael Thomas	1997 (1997)
The cold fusion batteries that empower Electro City are all simultaneously de-activated, after an attempt on their inventor's life by his estranged son, the mobster 'Sonny Boy'. Ace and Cosmo foil Sonny's plan, and his father Prof. Jonathan Surge re-activates the power.
12	"Best Wishes and Happiness"	Laurent Turner	1997 (1997)
Black Jack's daughter Mona agrees to marry a scientist in exchange for his restoration of her father's long-crippled legs; but Ace exposes the cure as a fraud.
13	"The Challenge"	Frederic Lenoir	1997 (1997)
Patrick Schumacher, the host of a defunct game-show, attempts revenge on Ace for the latter's greater popularity; but Ace and Cosmo survive his obstacle-course and expose the network's Director of Programming as the mastermind behind the crime.
14	"Golden Voice"	Herve Renoh	1997 (1997)
Contenders for the episode's eponymous Award are threatened, and in some cases injured, by unknown assailants; but Ace and Cosmo rescue the last two, and one of these (Mona Malone) wins the Award.
15	"Planet Electric"	Laurent Turner	1997 (1997)
Ace is framed for food poisoning at the restaurant 'Planet Electric', and Cosmo, in the attempt to clear his name, is captured by Black Jack's thugs; whereafter Ace, D.J. Mikkas, and 'Skip' Ramsdale rescue him, but fail to expose Black Jack's connection to the crime, and incriminate only its immediate culprit: the restaurateur 'Mr. Banks'.
16	"Stop Clowning Around"	Herve Renoh	1997 (1997)
A circus act is sabotaged on behalf of mobster 'Black Jack' Malone, until Ace and Cosmo expose his agent among the performers.
17	"Stars of the Silver Screen"	Herve Renoh	1997 (1997)
A film based on a presumed-deceased journalist's career is plagued by sabotage, to prevent its exposure of Black Jack's past crimes. Ace discovers that the leading actress is the journalist herself, and protects her.
18	"Cold Sweat, Part 1"	Olivier Montegut	1997 (1997)
A former friend of Ace's (Gus Morland) is revived from a cryonic state in the form of a cryogenic mutant, and pursues Ace.
19	"Cold Sweat, Part 2"	Olivier Montegut	1997 (1997)
Gus attacks Black Jack, whom he blames for his mutation; but both are saved by Ace, and Gus is restored to his human state.
20	"And They Lived Happily Ever After"	Taro Ochiai	1997 (1997)
Black Jack's strategist 'Clockwise' sends thieves to discover all the city's important secrets, in the guise of a matchmaking agency; Ace infiltrates the agency to spoil the plan, and discovers that all the spies are androids. When Black Jack abandons the plan, the androids' creator 'Dr. Cabaliye' sends his remaining creations to kill Black Jack's daughter; but they are defeated by Ace and Cosmo.
21	"Twin Brothers"	Silvan Boris Schmid	1997 (1997)
An impostor impersonates Ace, and persuades both Cosmo and Ace's supercomputer 'Angel'; but is vanquished by Ace in a contest of magic.
22	"Faceless"	Silvan Boris Schmid	1997 (1997)
Introduces a Catwoman-like sneak-thief, whom Ace pursues but fails to capture.
23	"Truth or Consequence"	Laurent Turner	1997 (1997)
Ace's friend 'Skip' Ramsdale is accused of bribery; but Ace exposes the accusation as false at Skip's trial, and incriminates Skip's manager, Bob Redd.
24	"Bad Program"	Gilles Adrien	1997 (1997)
Rex-1, the leading character of a video game, is accidentally converted into a real being, and holds a civic administrator hostage, until defeated by Ace and Cosmo.
25	"X-Oshi"	Frederic Lenoir, Savin Yeatman-Eiffel	1997 (1997)
X-Oshi (a species of robotic pet), having become ubiquitous in the city, unexpectedly turn criminal; whereupon Ace and Cosmo vanquish their prototype, who commands the others.
26	"Stealth Robber"	Silvan Boris Schmid	1997 (1997)
Ace discovers the Supervillain 'Faceless' smuggling money in an invisible helicopter, and is ordered by the Police Department to recover the money and cripple her operation.
27	"The Paparazzo Affair"	Laurent Turner	1997 (1997)
Newscaster Duc Paparazzo is attacked by gunmen after he threatens to expose a pharmaceutical businessman's criminal past; but he is rescued by Ace, and the businessman is later imprisoned for the attempt to kill both.
28	"Multi-Flames"	Herve Renoh	1997 (1997)
Ace investigates mysterious fires caused by a pyromaniac later revealed to be Lieutenant Atika with a vendetta against Sonny Boy.
29	"Hardbeat"	Frederic Lenoir	1997 (1997)
Cosmo, and other youths of the city, are driven to violence by a strain of music concealed in their favorite records, to justify martial law in Electro City. Ace, and composer 'D.J.' Mikkas, expose the deception in public, and humiliate its masterminds.
30	"Bad Weather for the Magician"	Savin Yeatman-Eiffel, Laurent Turner	1997 (1997)
Ace and Cosmo trace a series of meteorological disruptions to weather-reporter 'Zoran Spring', and eventually destroy his weather-control apparatus.
31	"Junior"	Herve Renoh	1997 (1997)
The scientist 'Nataschia', to prevent her employer's transference of his own mind into the brain of an especially-bred child, leaves the child in the care of Ace, Cosmo, and Mona; whereafter her employer contends with these for possession of the child, until his defeat.
32	"The Cruise"	Jeffrey P. Kearney, Savin Yeatman-Eiffel	1997 (1997)
The Nova celebrity cruise liner is sunk. Ace and Cosmo find a pirate captain called Glam scheming to plunder the ancient artifacts it carried, and lead the police to destroy his base and recover the artifacts.
33	"A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing"	Frederic Lenoir, Savin Yeatman-Eiffel	1997 (1997)
Some of Cosmo's friends are tricked by Sonny Boy into kidnapping his father, and thus into a gun-fight with the Police and Sonny's followers; but Ace rescues the elder Surge, and Cosmo conceals the evidence of his friends' participation in the crime.
34	"No Dice"	Laurent Turner	1997 (1997)
Gambler 'Joe Tucker' plants explosives in two famous gambling-casinos, and threatens a third; but Ace defeats him in single combat, and causes the third explosive to explode harmlessly in the air.
35	"Virtual Fatality"	Laurent Turner	1997 (1997)
Jimmy Hagen, a descendant of the city's founders, kidnaps Ace to copy his magic through a telepathic virtual reality apparatus; but Ace is rescued by Cosmo, and humiliates Hagen in public.
36	"The Flight of Prosperity"	Frederic Lenoir	1997 (1997)
Two escaped convicts, Sally Blade and her sister 'Body-count', force the singer Mona Malone to assist the hijacking of a luxury dirigible and its passengers; but Ace and Police Lieutenant Vega defeat the convicts in mid-flight, and Ace returns the passengers safely to the ground.
37	"The Chase"	Jeffrey P. Kearney, Savin Yeatman-Eiffel	1997 (1997)
Derailed in the desert, Ace and Cosmo are captured by the eccentric Count Hebon, and forced through an obstacle-course with him in pursuit; but they later out-wit him, and Lieutenant Vega takes Hebon prisoner.
38	"Professor Cosmo"	Frederic Lenoir	1997 (1997)
At a science-fair, and later through the city, Cosmo and Black Jack compete for control of a nearly-indestructible robot, until Jack attaches his own motorized chair to the robot, and thus establishes an impenetrable neural interface; whereupon Ace, having originally come to rescue Cosmo, defeats Jack in single combat. Thereafter, Jack claims to have subdued the robot himself, and thus escapes punishment.
39	"All Against One"	Savin Yeatman-Eiffel	1997 (1997)
Ace's enemies unite against him, and Ace is presumed dead, but recovered by Cosmo and Vega; whereupon Mona assists Ace and Cosmo to arouse the criminal masterminds against each other. Ultimately, most of the criminals are imprisoned, with the exceptions of Faceless, Black Jack, and the latter's strategist 'Clockwise'.

Cast

• Michael Donovan - Ace Cooper/The Magician, D.J. Mikkas
• Charles Napier - Black Jack, Vega
• Rob Paulsen - Cosmo, Sonny Boy
• Kath Soucie - Mona, Angel
• Billy West - Duc Paparazzo

Crew

• Jim Gomez - Voice Director

External links

• The Magician at the official website of Xilam
• The Magician at IMDb
• The Magician at TV.com