Fantômette (partially lost French children's superhero TV series; 1993)

A picture of one of the very rare VHS tapes.

Status: Partially Lost

Fantômette is a French children's superhero TV series that originally aired in 1993. It was made of 21 episodes (though 26 were originally planned).

The show was based on a famous series of children's novels of the same name by Georges Chaulet, that has been running from 1961 until 2011.

Premise

12-year-old Françoise Dupont fights crime and solves cases while dressed as a masked vigilante: Fantômette (which basically means "little ghost"). She uses her skills to fight supervillains such as the evil mad scientist Silver Mask.

Her best friends are Boule ("ball") and Ficelle ("string"), a fat and a thin girl respectively, who help her in her cases and also serve as comic reliefs.

Loss

For a long time, no episodes could be found anywhere. The only footage that was remaining was of the opening. Other available visual media were some production photographs.

At the time of its airing, the TV series was apparently not that popular - hence the lack of episodes made - although it kept airing on French TV until the late 1990s.

Some episodes were sold on VHS, but because production was cut short, those tapes are extremely rare.

An animated series based on the books was also made in 1999, setting the story in a more modern "futuristic" setting. This show, in contrast to its predecessor, is much more accessible to this day (and thus can confuse searches).