Skyland

Plot

Prior to the beginning of the story, in the 23rd century, the Earth has shattered into billions of pieces which orbit around a central core. In this new world, named Skyland, an evolved form of human has appeared: Seijins, who absorb energy from sunlight and use it to fuel special abilities such as telekinesis, telepathy, mental control, astral projection, energy balls or blasts, and electric rays.

The Skyland is ruled by the Sphere: an organization which controls the water supplies, and maintains its power by Guardians, Seijins indoctrinated and trained from childhood. This dictatorship is fought by pirates. After the capture of their mother by the Sphere, protagonists Mahad and Lena, a young Seijin still learning to control her powers, are rescued by a group of pirates, and join the pirate rebellion.

Characters

Main

Mahad (voice: Tim Hamaguchi, performer: Julien Girbig) – Age 17. Mahad is full of life, a show off, likable, charming, full of himself and adventurous. When he was younger, he was always unhappy because he did not have a father and his mother was a lot like Lena. In pilot school, he was always in detention due to making extreme moves on the simulator. Though not a Seijin, his goal is to free his mother. Until that time, he will slug it out with the Sphere. Though young, Mahad is unequalled as a pilot of his father's ship the Hyperion and after him, he is the best pilot in all of Skyland. Though his younger sister, Lena, always insists Dahlia is "too old for him", Mahad keeps trying to convince Dahlia he's the guy for her. He has enormous, often misplaced, self-confidence. His weapon of choice is his boomerang.

Lena (voice: Phoebe McAuley, performer: Christelle Ouvrard) – Age 12. Intelligent, reasonable, calm but determined, impetuous. When someone she loves is in danger, Lena is a very mature, and formidable, 12-year-old girl. She alternates between carefree playing and grim determination. Adventure is not an end in itself, only a necessary step along the way. Lena is a powerful Seijin, believed by Oslo to be the 'Lady of Light' from the prophecy. She has the powers of telekinesis and telepathy, as well as other abilities such as powering energy and creating energy bolts and balls, projecting memories, and remotely sensing the presence of things and people. She can even levitate herself to great heights, as seen during an aerial battle with Diwan in the episode Heart of the Arena. She is beginning to control her telekinesis, but it tires her quickly. She has still very little control over her telepathy.

Aran Cortes (voice: Jack Langedijk, performer: Dominic Gould) – Age 37. Gruff, moody, severe and just, with a tendency to be blasé (but still a rebel deep down). He's aware of his responsibilities as "father figure" and protector of Puerto Angel. Often complains that he has no idea why he listens to "kids" (particularly Mahad and Lena). He tends to show his anger physically, often punching a wall or banging his fist on a console when frustrated. Cortes was part of the original Pirate Rebellion and knew Marcus Farrell "by reputation." His weapon of choice is a shotgun. In the English dub, he has a dubious Scottish accent. Despite wearing his uniform with the Pirate crest even when "off duty" in Puerto Angel, Cortes "personalizes" it with a Tartan instead of a belt. He knew Cheng's mother before she was supposedly killed, and seemed to have had a soft spot for her.

Cheng (voice: Cameron Ansell, performer: Max Gruber and Emile Kaczorowski) – Age 12. Cheng, despite his incredible intellect, is really still a child. He loves to fool around: missions are like video games in the great outdoors and he loves to play practical jokes on people. He is a very good hacker. He'll do anything for attention, like speaking in rhymes. He also has a crush on Celia. Cortes is his foster father. His parents were Pirate scientists that he believes are deceased. He thinks his only living relative is his grandfather, Tybald Ye, a scientist who is truly on the Pirates' side but pretends to be a Sphere supporter. His weapon of choice is a laser bazooka.

Supporting

Alice is a recently graduated Guardian who crash-landed on Puerto Angel and was captured. She believed that the Sphere were the "good guys" and the pirates the "bad guys." She managed to escape by tricking Mahad — who was on guard duty — and hid in the Mosquito bay. When Mahad captured her, she promised not to tell the Sphere about their location but he did not trust her. Alice threw Mahad out an open door but used her powers to save him. Out of pity, he hid her in his closet. However, Lena discovered her during a block-wide search and, through a telepathic communion, Alice learned from Lena that she was wrong about the Sphere. With the help of Cheng who fixed her Patroller, they planned to have Alice find their mother. Suddenly, they were intercepted by Diwan, whom Alice tricked into allowing them to escape. Now a supporter of the pirates, Alice plans to tell the other Guardians the truth, wherever she is reassigned.

Astrid – Astrid is the daughter of Max. She seems to be very close to her father, as she always calls him 'Daddy.' She seems to be close in age to Mahad, towards whom she displayed requited interest. When she learned that her Dad was not the famous Sean of Aragon, she went to the Sphere but ended up hostage.

Celia is a young Seijin girl who was taken in by the Pirates. When the crew was captured, Lena helped Celia discover her powers to defeat Jelola and Artemis. On Puerto Angel, Lena was her teacher in her quest to unlock the full potential of her powers. Celia could not talk while captive. She may have a crush on Cheng, calling him cute.

Christophe Cortes – Full name "Christophe Mendias Theodore Cortes". Cortes' older brother. He refuses to call him Cortes and calls him by his first name: Aran. He arrives at Puerto Angel in a Mosquito asking a favour from Cortes to help him get his damaged ship that's stuck in ice barriers in a Sphere zone. Christophe's ship is the Callisto, a 'sister' to the Saint Nazaire. After Cortes helps Christophe free the Callisto from the icebarriers, Lena reveals him in possession of exalarium which is only useful to the Sphere in anti-Seijen containment technology. Christophe claims that he was only to going to deliver the supposedly worthless metal to maintain the Sphere's confidence. Unfortunately, when the Sphere left by Diwan assaulted both frigates and the Saint Nazaire being low on power, Christophe pretended to meet with Diwan to discuss their surrender before self-destructing the Callisto. Afterwards, he managed to escape Sphere custody with the promise to reunite with his brother soon.

Production

Emmanuel Gorinstein conceived the series in 2000, initially as an adult animation project.

The show was announced in September 2002 when French animation studio Method Films commissioned a hybrid animated series that combines CGI and traditional animation with stop-motion techniques. Method Films' partner Millimages would handling worldwide distribution for the hybrid series. By then, the series was repositioned to cater to a 9-14 demographic.

Two years later in May 2004, Canadian animation studio 9 Story Entertainment which was launched two years prior in September 2002 joined the upcoming hybrid animated series as a co-producer turning the series as a French/Canadian co-production as Method Films and the Canadian animation studio signed a deal with Nickelodeon's digital channel Nicktoons to broadcast the series in the US.

Animation

The first part of the animation was produced by Attitude Studios of Paris, France, with large amounts of facial animation work and rendering outsourced to DQ Entertainment in India. Subsequently, the later part of the season has been completely animated and finalized in DQ Entertainment of Hyderabad, India, using a completed motion capture shot in Attitude Studios. It appears to make extensive use of motion capture technology (i.e. animation modeled upon data from live actors) for a next-generation animation look.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Paul Intson, of Canada. The extensive sound design and 5.1 surround mix was done by Jim Longo of Rhythm Division in Toronto, Canada. Music editing was performed at Rhythm Division by Rob Kirkpatrick on season 1 and Kevan Staples for season 2. Additional editing by Bojan Risojevic.

Episodes

Home releases

The full first season has been released on two DVD volumes by Madman Entertainment in Australia.

Novel adaptations

Between 2010 and 2011 three books inspired by the show have been published by Italian writer Davide Morosinotto under the pseudonym David Carlyle. They were originally solely published in Spain as a trilogy with the name "Skyland" followed by their novel names. Atlantyca sold the rights in Brazilian, Catalan, Spanish, Polish, Turkish, Macedonian, Russian, Hungarian and Chinese. Book three was never released in the Netherlands due to criticism on the two previous released book's grammatical mistakes and lack of interest. "Skyland: Islas en el cielo" was translated to "Skyland: islands in the wind", "Skyland: La Nave de las Tempestades" was translated to "Skyland: The Storm Ship" and "Skyland: La guerra dell'acqua" was translated to "Skyland: The Water War".