Comic Book / Le Petit Spirou

Le Petit Spirou is a Belgian Comic series that started off as a spin-off to the iconic Spirou & Fantasio comic book series. It is drawn by Tome and Janry, the same duo who drew Spirou & Fantasio around that time.

At first glance Le Petit Spirou appears to a typical baby knock-off of a franchise built around adult characters. Spirou in this series is a little boy in elementary school and all the stuff that happens to him is typical everyday pre-highschool kids' stuff: doing homework, suffering through class, playing on the playground or outside. The difference, however, is that, apart from Little Spirou himself, no other characters from Spirou & Fantasio appear here in child versions. It's not even entirely clear whether Spirou is actually the younger version of the adult Spirou, or really his son. Most stories seem to imply the former, since Spirou's adventures have some very outdated elements, such as a Catholic priest trying to teach them morals. On the other hand modern facilities such as television and video games do seem to exist, so it keeps people wondering...

Another huge difference is that the series is not an adventure comic series. It's a Gag Comic with one gag per page. But most of all, and this is the reason for the series' popularity, many jokes revolve around Bawdy Comedy and sexual innuendos; stuff that would outright not be child-friendly. Though never obscene, it's still far more naughty and subversive than the original Spirou and Fantasio. To give another example, the aforementioned Catholic priest is often depicted as being a hypocrite who doesn't really shy away from looking at sexy women on the sly (and is even implied to have an illegitimate son), all the while attempting to catch the kids in what he considers heinous acts (some of which, he's right on the money on).

The comic was adapted into a 78 episode animated series. There is also a live-action movie adaptation that was released in the fall of 2017, starring Sacha Pinault as Spirou and Pierre Richard as his grandpa.

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Le Petit Spirou provides examples of:

The Comic Book

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • The school librarian is head-over-heels in love with Mr. Mégot, but he's completely oblivious to it.
  • One strip shows that he can apparently attract all sorts of hideous women (a Brawn Hilda biker, a dessicated old huntress...) by belching loudly.
• Adults Dressed as Children:
  • One strip has Spirou's grandfather dressed in Spirou's clothes acting like a kid with a bad report card while Spirou chews him out. Then it turns out it was to help Spirou rehearse for the same experience.
  • Another had a bunch of cops in clothes fifteen sizes too small at a birthday party to ambush Vertignasse's father (a burglar).
• Age-Inappropriate Dress: One strip has Suzette show up in a midriff-baring top. Father Langelusse immediately shuts it down, demanding to know who let her think it was in any way appropriate. Cue every kid pointing at Mégot's exposed beer belly sagging from his sweatpants.
• All Love Is Unrequited: The woodshop teacher, a hunky blond Adonis, is desperately in love with the hideous school librarian. Who rejects his advances, being herself in love with the utterly repulsive gym teacher who's unaware of her affections, and is, somehow, in an occasional relationship with an incredibly attractive woman.
• All Men Are Perverts: One strip has the school staff have an "innocent hand" decide on the school's next sexual education teacher, a bombshell or a frumpy Moral Guardian. Spirou chooses the former, and when the teacher asks the class if there are any questions, the principal, sports teacher and the priest are all outside raising their hand.
• All Women Are Lustful: The comic swings between this an All Women Are Prudes, depending on what's funnier at the moment. It's most obvious with Suzette, who sometimes finds Spirou's dirty mind appalling and sometimes is even more dirty-minded than he is.
• Apathetic Teacher: Mr. Mégot the gym teacher does try to have the class play sports, but he's hopelessly bad at it.
  The intelligent sportsman avoids pointless exertion.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Cassius' (the black kid) father is the school cook, and once shows up in Savage Piercings, a banana-leaf-belt and a huge cast-iron pot, asking who wants more missionary stew.
• Arch-Enemy: Spirou's gym teacher, who is a sleazy, cynical, unhealthy asshole. He himself has one in the form of school inspector Deltoid whose job it is to note all of Mégot's failings as an educator.
• The Artifact: Spirou, his parents and grandfather all wear a hotel groom costume, even though there doesn't seem to be a hotel near them. One strip shows that a family ancestor wore it before he became a groom, and in fact inspired the uniform. In one comic, we see Spirou's birth, and not only did his mother wear the uniform while giving birth, Spirou was born with a hotel groom hat. (Of course, this scene turns out to have been narrated by Spirou's grandfather, who was probably just messing with Spiriou).
• Badass Biker: Completely averted by Mégot, who always seems to run into these.
• Been There, Shaped History: Apparently, one of Spirou's ancestors is the person who popularised the real life red bellboy outfit serving as Spirou's iconic clothing. It was just a normal outfit Spirou's ancestor wore which was later adopted as a uniform.
• Big Friendly Dog: Spirou has one, which occasionally leads to trouble.
• Bleak Abyss Retirement Home: Mr. Mégot the gym teacher is shown living in one in a dream sequence. Little is shown of the home itself (but it's literally called "The Last Gasp") as the focus is on the hugely muscular adult Spirou and Vertignasse, come to extract vengeance from their old gym teacher. This causes Mégot to wake up and cancel the day's exhausting workout.
• The Cameo: Apart from Spirou himself, three Spirou & Fantasio have made brief cameos. Zorglub and Zantafio appeared (though we only saw Zorglub's shadow) in a Flash Forward sequence when Spirou visits a fortune-teller, and Spip (or squirrels that look like him) appears a few times, including once as a stuffed toy squirrel.
• Casanova Wannabe: Mr Mégot tries to flirt with every attractive women he meets, but it rarely works out due to his looks and personality being anything but attractive.
• Childhood Brain Damage: Several strips have Spirou as a baby smashing his head into various objects, but showing no real trauma. In one case, he knocked skulls with a dog in an oncoming car. Spirou has a Cranial Eruption, the dog now thinks it's a chicken.
• Comic-Book Time: A variation: when the Spirou series started out, Le Petit Spirou was supposed to be about Spirou's youth, thus the nostalgic atmosphere (Spirou's grandfather having fought in World War I, for starters), but as the series went on, modern elements (one strip features cellphones that were decades ahead of what the early series could have dreamed of but laughably outdated by today's standards) kept finding their way in.
• Comic Sutra: Spirou's parents are once seen in a very agitated bed playing some variant of "hide the banana", with his mother implying there were several that time.
• Delusions of Beauty: Mr Mégot is convinced he has a dreamy body, but he's actually quite ugly.
• Demoted to Extra: Spirou's "second best friend" Nicolas Ponchelot (the resident Big Eater and mostly the butt of a lot of fat jokes) was a lot more prominent in the comic's early years, but later on he has a drastically reduced role, and when he appears it's most often just as one in the crowd. His role as "third friend" seems to have been taken over by Cassius.
• Dirty Kid:
  • All the children are very interested in sex and nudity for kids their age. Spirou in particular goes to a magazine store to buy adult magazines and is in love with his math teacher. Hell, even just looking at the front art gives you a brief indication that he's sexually attracted to older women.
  • A repeated gag is the kids trying to ogle naked women, from buying porn mags to Vertignasse's older sister in the shower or the teacher skinny-dipping.
• Dirty Old Man: Spirou's grandfather has quite the Porn Stash, though his current paramour is his age and jealously guarded by her own children. Several strips feature both Spirou and his grandfather trying to get at the Porn Stash without being found out by the parents.
• Disappeared Dad: Vertignasse's father is a burglar, and rarely has time to see his kid, though he seems friendly enough.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • At the beginning of the first book, the narrator, adult Spirou, says that he doesn't remember his clothes from when he was a child, which is why the young Spirou is depicted with the same bellboy outfit as his adult self. Later books establish that Spirou really did wear his trademark bellboy outfit as a child, since some strips rely on this for a joke.
  • In early books, Vessie was Susette's dog rather than Spirou's.
• Epic Fail: Mr Mégot somehow manages to shoot an arrow into his own ear.
• Everyone Went to School Together: Averted. Spirou is the only regular character from the original series.
  • Played straight, however, in an early version by the same authors, a 1983 short story named "La jeunesse de Spirou" ("The youth of Spirou"). Spirou's best friend was already Fantasio, Seccotine and Zantafio were in the same classroom than them, Count of Champignac was the teacher, Poildur the local bully. Spip was found in the same story by Spirou up a tree. In fact, it even includes people from the real world such as Mr Dupuis (the editor) as the main monitor, and previous Spirou's authors such as Rob-Vel, Jijé, Franquin and Fournier as Spirou's others teachers. Plus Spirou was here a Doorstop Baby, found and adopted by a couple of bellboys (hence his costume). The differences with the current version are explained by the fact that this story is told by Uncle Paul (another "Journal of Spirou" character), hinted to be an Unreliable Narrator.
• Expanded Universe: Le Petit Spirou could also arguably be considered a prequel to Spirou, with some gags acknowledging his heroic destiny, but other than that, there are no references nor even cameos between the two comics.
• The Faceless: We never see Spirou's father's face, it's always just out of frame or hidden by scenery. Though one strip indicates he has a gigantic mustache.
• Fake Boobs: Little Suzette is once seen fitting tangerines in her tank top in a ladies' bathroom to see how she'll look when she's all grown up.
• Flowery Insult: Mr Mégot's favorite insult is "You bunch of mussels".
• Foil: Mr. Mégot the inept gym teacher has Mr. Deltoïde, the bodybuilder-esque gym school inspector.
• Future Badass:
  • One strip has a sequence where Spirou imagines himself growing up to be an absolute monster so he can beat up a childhood bully.
  • Another has Mégot fall asleep while "supervising" the class weightlifting, dreaming of himself as a wheelchair-confined old wreck approached by Spirou and Vertignasse, now enormously muscled and scarred and looking for revenge. He wakes up and reschedules the day's activity to naptime.
  • Combined with Future Me Scares Me and Freudian Excuse when one kid imagines himself as a General Ripper, dictator or even Sith Lord... before Spirou gives him back his teddy bear, stolen by the local bully.
• Gag Nose: In an effort to get Spirou to come quietly to get a wart removed, his grandfather tells him he has a wart so big everyone thinks it's his nose. In retaliation, Spirou loudly asks if the doctor can cure "the two giant warts on that lady".
• Gag Penis: We don't actually get to see it, but Masseur apparently has one.
• Generation Xerox:
  • It turns out Spirou's family have always worn the same clothing, until one had the fateful idea to work as a hotel groom.
  • The school inspector's kid dresses exactly like his father.
  • Vertignasse's biological father tends to wear pink sweaters, just like his son.
• Glamorous Wartime Singer: Spirou's grandmother apparently was one of these, and performed in Stripperific gear.
• Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: One short has the girls stealing Spirou and Vertignasse's clothes as they are bathing in the river. They are able to escape some time later by stealing Abbott Langelusse's clothes (which they thought belonged to a scarecrow) while he was swimming elsewhere.
• Grandfather Clause: We find out that Spirou already wore a bellhop uniform when he was a small child, and his mom, dad, and grandpa wear it too, and even his teddy bear and fish, though the reason for this family tradition is never really explained.
• Gym Class Hell: The comic has a lot of gags about this. The main cast is a bunch of 6-year-old kids, and gym classes are held by a miserable, alcoholic, chain-smoking wreck of a man who sports a blossoming drinker's mound, hates children, and likes to think of himself as an irresistible ladies' man. A variety of sound effects follows him where ever he goes and whatever he does to illustrate how his physique is practically breaking apart. A typical gym class by him is something completely age-inappropriate (chin-pulls, marathons, assault course), or are tricks to allow him beer and checking out women (any "theory" class about equestrianism, beach volleyball, tennis...).
• Handsome Lech: The attractive woodshop teacher is called one by the (incredibly ugly) recipient of his Single-Target Sexuality, the school librarian.
  Cease harassing me, libidinous dandy! My heart is set on another!
• Hot for Teacher:
  • All the male students (and some of the teachers), especially Spirou, are in love with Miss Claudia.
  • Whereas the woodshop teacher's class consists exclusively of enamored girls, to the boys' disgust... as they head for their Hot Teacher-taught class: sewing.
• Hot Teacher:
  • Miss Claudia Chiffre, a buxom woman with a tendency to wear miniskirts.
  • One strip shows that nearly every teacher in the school is one of these, with Spirou getting excellent grades in every subject taught by one of them (except gym class, obviously). And even he gets replaced once by a Hot Teacher.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every book is titled after a different Stock Phrase of parents everywhere ("You'll understand when you're older", "Can't you act your age", "It's for your own good", etc.).
• Implausible Deniability: Spirou is bad at thinking up spur-of-the-moment explanations. He once entered the women's restroom with shades and a cane claiming he was looking for the subway.
• In Name Only: Aside from the protagonist's name and appearance, this comic series has nothing in common with the original Spirou comics. No Spirou character appears aside from Spirou himself, and his personality is completely different from his adult self. There are only a few Call Forwards to the originals Spirou series, but they are scarce.
• The Inspector Is Coming: One strip has the school inspector quiz the students on incredibly obscure facts, but they answer with ease. The final panel reveals the inspector's son gave the kids the answers to the questions in exchange for a piece of the take (a large amount of candy given by the teacher).
• Laser-Guided Karma: A racist bully gets covered in soot, making him look black. Then a bunch of other racist bullies are about to beat him up.
• Last-Name Basis: For some reason, most people calls Antoine Vertignasse by his last name, even though the main characters are kids.
• Male Restroom Etiquette: One one-page gag was dedicated to this and its violation by Masseur.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Monsieur Mégot (cigarette butt) is a heavy smoker.
  • Miss Claudia Chiffre (number) is a math teacher (and a pun on Claudia Schiffer).
  • Langelusse (a church bell) is the local priest.
  • Vessie the dog's name means "bladder'', and he has a bad habit of urinating everywhere.
• My Beloved Smother: The school principal has one who treats him like a small child.
• Naked People Are Funny: Many strips feature nudity, with strategic censoring.
• No Accounting for Taste: Miss Chiffre's fiancé is a tiny accountant-looking man, while the ridiculously handsome woodshop teacher has the hots for an incredibly ugly librarian (herself Mégot's Abhorrent Admirer). Mégot himself occasionally goes on dates with a supermodel-esque lady only to screw it up somehow, yet she keeps going out with him.
• Non-Indicative Name: Mr Mégot shows his students a video of a man nicknamed "Spidermane (sic) the grasshopper man".
• Nostalgia Filter: The film has a very enjoyable nostalgic feel to it, down to the local Catholic priest (the vestments he wears haven't been generally used since the 60's) and Spirou's grandfather who actually is a veteran of the First World War.
• Not So Above It All: Abbot Langélusse tries to look like a prude and respectable priest, but several strips show that he's as perverted as the other men.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Suzette's real name is Suzanne, but nobody calls her that.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Masseur buys a coded lock with the combination 0000 for his bicycle. The password is already bad on its own, but he's dumb enough to say it to Spirou, who tells it to the rest of the class.
• The Peeping Tom: A repeated gag is about Spirou and his friends trying ogle naked women.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: One of Spirou's bullies is racist. At one point, Spirou and his friends trick the bully into being covered in soot. Then the bully's friends, who are also racists, decide to beat him up because they do not recognize him.
• Porn Stash: Spirou's grandfather keeps one, which Spirou keeps trying to get access to, by thievery or blackmail.
• Primal Scene: Subverted: One strip has Spirou under his parents' bed as they're playing "hide the banana", but he isn't affected (if anything his mother screams like she's witnessing a murder on seeing him).
• Punny Name:
  • Masseur. In French "Masseur" sounds like "ma soeur", "My sister". This allows Suzette to trade photos of the naked Masseur for treats, as people understand "Je te donnerai une photo de masseur nue" ("I'll give you a nude photo of Masseur") as "I'll give you a nude photo of my sister".
  • Abbot Langelusse. His name is a pun on "angelus".
• Puppy Love: Spirou and Suzette have a bit of a Slap-Slap-Kiss variant of this going on. They swing between flirting and fighting, trying to reenact what they've seen adults in relationships do, and attempt (usually unsuccessfully) to see each other naked.
• Running Gag: Spirou tells a story about something traumatic that happened to him while he was a baby, treating it more like an old war story (sometimes with an "and I still have the scars" comment at the end).
• Shout-Out: One strip has Spirou and Vertignasse trying to watch an adult movie while disguised as an adult with a trenchcoat, which is a Running Gag in Kid Paddle. Spirou even says that he saw this technique in a comic book.
• Silence Is Golden: Many gags (notably those that involve the characters as babies) are without dialogues, or with just drawings instead of words in speech bubbles.
• Sinister Schnoz: Monsieur Mégot, the sports teacher has a large nose due to his drinking.
• Spaghetti Kiss: One strip has Spirou and Suzette kissing each other after sharing spaghetti. Spirou's grandfather then tries to do the same thing with his girlfriend, but she loses her dentures before the kiss happens.
• Spinoff Babies:
  • Apart from Spirou there are no younger versions of the other characters from the original to see.
  • Several strips are of the kids as babies, usually to explain why they no longer do some activity.
• Stop Copying Me: On several occasions: once when Spirou does it to get his grandfather to buy him ice cream, only for the grandfather to start copying him. In another he does the "copy voice and movements" to one of his friends, until said friend punches himself in the jaw. Spirou declares that the curse that forced him to copy other people has been lifted thanks to his friend's sacrifice.
• Stripping the Scarecrow: Invoked in one short that has the girls stealing Spirou and Vertignasse's clothes as they are bathing in the river. They are able to escape some time later by stealing Abbott Langelusse's clothes (which they thought belonged to a scarecrow) while he was swimming elsewhere.
• Strip Poker: In one strip, Spirou is running around the house wearing around fifteen layers of clothing, looking for a deck of cards. His grandfather asks him what the hell he's doing, to which Spirou answers he's going to play the game Gramps taught him. Gramps gets angry and forbids him to play for money, at which point Spirou asks why he'd want to play for money, and we cut to Spirou's similarly attired friends and Suzette in a bathing suit.
• The Talk: One strip has the kids go around asking how babies are made. Unfortunately, they ask the teachers. Miss Chiffre gives a hopelessly romantic version involving her fiancé, the math teacher puts a pencil in a cup, and Mégot turns it into a sports metaphor.
• Tap on the Head: While on a car trip, Spirou holds his head out the window, while a dog does the same thing in an oncoming car. Spirou recovers from the hit, the dog now thinks it's a chicken.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Ms. Chiffre is in a relationship with a man much shorter than her.
• Totem Pole Trench: Occasionally used by the kids for a prank, sometimes disguised as women.
• Tragic Dream: One strip shows the dreams of various characters, Inspector Deltoïde in particular sees himself as an award-winning sportsman instead of, well, an athletic school inspector.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife:
  • Mr. Mégot is occasionally seen with a stunning South American woman.
  • Ms. Chiffre is in love with a tiny, balding, cripplingly shy teacher.
• Unreliable Narrator: Implied in the intro story to the first album, which is narrated by an unseen adult Spirou. He confesses to the reader that this probably wasn't exactly what his childhood was like and that he's forgotten some details over the years. He's not even sure if he really did wear the bellhop uniform as a child or not, but whenever he imagines his younger self he thinks of himself as wearing that classic red uniform. If we assume that the entire comic is mainly Spirou's somewhat faulty memories of what happened in his childhood, and not the actual events, this could neatly explain away the vague time period and many anachronisms of the series.
• War Is Hell: One strip has Spirou going for a walk with his grandfather with a toy gun, asking him about the war. His grandfather starts telling him about his buddies in the trenches. By the end of the strip the gun is lying forgotten on the ground.
  So did you win?
  Those across lost the war. We lost [lists all the buddies he was talking about].
• Wholesome Crossdresser: The kids have occasionally dressed as women for get-rich-quick schemes or pranks.

The Animated Series

• Bowdlerise: Unlike the comic strips (which looks like it's made for kids, but isn't as it contains nudity and adult humor), this show is for kids, and has very little of the comics' trademark adult humor, relying instead of the misadventures of Spirou and his friends.
• Censor Suds: It's initially used in "How to survive when you're totally naked" when Spirou locks himself outside after trying to shut the bathroom window. Then he sneezes... and it all falls off of him.
• Cool Old Guy: Spirou's grandfather, who, among other things, plays Tennis and Wii-Tennis, apparently having agility for someone probably 50 years younger than him.
• Compete for the Maiden's Hand: The premise of "How to survive a love interest", which has Spirou try to woo Suzette away from Leopold. After both failing initially, the thing that wins Suzette over is Spirou giving him his hat (something he never takes off).
• Does Not Like Spam:
  • In "How to survive rice pudding", It is revealed Mancholat eats anything... except rice pudding. Similarly, Spirou's mum doesn't like Chestnut pie.
  • None of Spirou's or his friends like Brussel Sprouts in "How to survive Brussel Sprouts".
• Enfant Terrible: "How to survive a terrible little brother" is all about this. Leads onto Badly Battered Babysitter near the end of the episode.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: The gym teacher. He actively enjoys his students' pain when they throw a volleyball at each other, until he gets hit himself that is.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Spirou's mum tries making both Spirou and his grandfather eat rice pudding, a pudding that everyone in the episode, except her, hates. When Spirou get's splatted in the face with the stuff at the end of the episode, he turns out to like it.
• Extreme Omnivore: Mancholat is apparently known for eating pretty much anything, but even he draws the line at rice pudding. When Spirou gets splatted in the face with Rice pudding, he licks some, and likes it.
• First Kiss: The end of "How to survive a love interest" has Suzette kissing Spirou. His second kiss from her is not even ten seconds later when it Gilligan Cuts to the two in the cinema.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: Happens to Spirou after being locked out of the house in "How to survive when you're totally naked". A portion of the episode has Spirou trying to cover his privates with various items found in the shed. This includes an ant-infested hat, some windchimes, and a flower in a flower pot.
• Homemade Sweater from Hell: The premise of "How to survive the pullover Mamy knitted" is Spirou trying to avoid wearing the pullover while Mamy is visiting. He tries getting it dirty (It cleans out immediately), leaving it in the Park (someone notices his name tag sewn into it and gives it back to him), and when he bins in and the bin compactor tries to swallow it, the compactor malfunctions, and he gets rubbish and refuse spewed onto him.
• Imagine Spot: Each episode has one, normnally thought up by Spirou.
• In Which a Trope Is Described: The naming convention of the animated series is: "How to survive X." For an examples, there's "How to survive rice pudding" or "How to survive red hair."
• Loophole Abuse: In "How to survive a love interest", after striking a deal with Leopold in that he'll lay off Suzette if Spirou does his homework, he realises mid-gym session that Leopold never said anything about doing the homework ''correctly''. It doesn't work, as he immediately goes back on his word, but because the homework was incorrect, he gets more homework to do.
• Love Potion: In "How to survive a love interest", Spirou and friends to to make one out of water, squash, a chicken drumstick, and chocolate pudding. It apparently only works if you stand on one leg and concentrate on your love interest (Suzette in Spirou's case). They try it on Mancholat wooing Elanor, who immediately throws up after consuming it.
• Naked People Trapped Outside: Happens to Spirou in the handily-named episode "How to survive when you're totally naked", after he locks himself out of the house after trying to shut a window so he could bathe in peace.
• Puppy Love: Between Spirou and Suzette.
• Scenery Censor: Used extensively in the obviously named "How to survive when you're totally naked", which involved Spirou hiding behind bushes and flowers etc.
• The Diaper Change: Spirou has to do one for Maesther's little brother.
• Totem Pole Trench: Invoked in an Imagine Spot by Spirou in "How to survive playing board games with Mamy", where he and one of his friends pose as a fictional board games agency in an attempt to stop playing Mamy's favorite game: Two little horses. Spirou considers the idea not good enough.

The Movie

• Action Girl: Suzette does not hesitate to cut, with her file nail, the rope of a grapple that three bullies used to catch the Cool Sidecar she's in with. She does it, however, not because of the danger, but because this interrupted her while she was busy describing her future.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Eléanore in the comics had a very big nose, but it was not be recreated here. Nicolas even gets to like her, even though she "enslaved" him for a month.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Spirou's mother is blonde instead of red. Also, Mrs Chiffre now has chestnut hair instead of black.
• Adaptation Expansion: The comics was mostly one page-gags. The movie keeps a Slice of Life structure for that reason. But the scenario follows a story arc: Spirou not wanting to follow family traditions by going to a bellhoping school, and if he must, staging a local "round the world trip" before, which necessitate the fabrication of a special vehicle.
• Adaptational Explanation: In the comics, Spirou and his family wore bellboys uniforms on a daily basis (and sometimes sleep or even bathe with their cap on) with absolutely no other explanation than Rule of Funny. Here, for adults, it's because it is/was their job. Sometimes the grandfather wears his old jacket by nostalgia but he's mostly in civilian (albeit still red) clothes, just like Spirou and his mother when she's at home. For Spirou, it's due to the fact he must be enrolled soon in a bellhop school where such uniforms are compulsory. To enjoy the glamour of the uniform, he tries it in his present school. In the end, he decides to keep the costume even though he won't be a bellboy — because he likes it and it impressed his girlfriend. It explains why his adult self wears it on a daily basis despite not working in a hotel.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Suzette either wear braids or loose hair, but never her usual pigtails.
• Adaptational Job Change: Miss Chiffre, in the comics, mostly taught maths, and Abbott Langelusse was the monitor of out-of-school activities, in line with the fact that ecclesiastics supervised such activities until the The '70s. Here she is implied to be a 5th grade teacher, and the Abbott is the choir teacher in particular.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Abbott Langelusse was, in the original story, a Sadist Teacher who seemed to punish kids just for the pleasure, and a giant Hypocrite who was implied to be André-Baptiste's real father and quite interested in carnal pleasures despite his job. It's still implied here that he has an illegitimate son. But when the latter report on the others children, the Abbott tends to not believe him and reluctantly go after the kids, admonishing André-Baptiste for Crying Wolf. Abbott Langelusse is also now a Metal Head, playing rock and roll and often quoting metal singers, making him way cooler overall.
• Adapted Out: Melchior Dugenou, Miss Chiffre's boyfriend, and Léontine, Spirou's paternal grandmother. Albeit she does appear on a photo on a family tree, with the nametag of Agnès.
• Age Lift: A light one, as Spirou and the other kids are depicted at around 8 in the comics. Here, they are 10, as they are supposed to enter junior high school by the next year.
• All Part of the Show: When a Gang of Bullies chase after Spirou's Cool Bike, Suzette assume that he staged a high-speed pursuit, just like he staged the local trip around the world. Except he did not.
• Bowdlerize: Spirou is still distracted by the low-cut neckline of Miss Chiffre, spies on Vertignasse's sister with a telescope, and says that his grandfather learnt him how to watch under girls' skirts. All other aspects of his Dirty Kid personality were cut. He also lost the habit to smoke away from prying eyes he had in early issues.
• Call-Forward: The movie makes clear that this child version of Spirou will become the one known in comics (while the original story could be vague on this). Not onlydid a Fortune Teller predict he would be an adventurer, but Suzette comes to this conclusion when his Cool Bike, already fast like the turbotraction, manages to fly, reminding her of engines such as the fantacopter. Also, the squirrel patch on the back of Spirou's jacket is similar to Spip.
• Chain of Deals: Spirou and his friends need Masseur's father garage to make their Cool Bike in. To let them in, the latter needs his homework to be done by Eléanore, the best student. She accepts if one of the boys will be her slave for a month. Nicolas agrees in exchange of his friends' desserts.
• Composite Character: In the first issue of the comics, Spirou see two differents Fortune Tellers. The first, young and named Irma, makes pretty accurate predictions ^note She describes Spirou threatened by Zorglub, shot by Zantafio, pursued by wild animals from Africa and Palombie, flying with the fantacopter or falling from a crashing plane . Spirou leaves totally traumatized while Vertignasse assures that she is a Phony Psychic. The second, old and named Hilda, makes accurate predictions too, but faints when Spirou bluntly asks her if his future involves hot women. In the movie, there is one Fortune Teller, young and named Hilda. Her first prediction is short but accurate (she describe wide open spaces). The second time she assures that she sees Spirou as a bellboy, but on his grandfather's demand (whom she is dating). Feeling that these predictions were phony, Spirou comes a third time and she makes accurate predictions again, seeing criminals ^note Zorglub, Zantafio, Vito Cortizone, you name it, a ferocious beast ^note Very likely the marsupilami and a Femme Fatale ^note  Either Cyanure or Luna Cortizone.
• Cool Bike: Spirou and his friends make a bicycle version of it, including a Cool Sidecar, and a jet engine.
• Creator Cameo: When Vertignasse goes to the luxury hotel where Spirou's mother is working, in order to try to convince her to not send Spirou in a bellhop school. As Vertignasse cross the hall, he passes by Tome and Janry.
• Custom Uniform: The bellboy uniform was played straight in the comics, but here, Spirou spends the first scenes in a civilian attire. Then he tries the uniform played straight at school. Some people find it classy, but three bullies snark him, asking if it means he shall carry their schoolbags. Spirou then goes on to wear a customized version that drops the cap, includes a hooded jacket worn under the regular one and a pair of tennis shoes. It's similar to what his adult counterpart wore in the comics in The '70s (the jacket open on a white pullover and no gloves or cap, at least indoor).
• Follow in My Footsteps: Everyone is a bellhop in Spirou's family from father to son for generations, so he's expected to do the same. However the latter is tempted to Screw Destiny, without hurting his parents in the process.
• The Glasses Come Off: Inverted. Nicolas, André-Baptiste and Eléanore gain glasses they did not have in the original.
• Hidden Depths: Mr Mégot was a former cycling champion, and is really sad to feel rejected by Mrs Chiffre who stood him up. Spirou forged Mrs Chiffre's love letter as part of a scheme to get the garage keys back, but felt bad when he witnessed his gym teacher's disappointment.
• I'll Take Two Beers Too: When Mr Mégot is heartbroken at the bar, a remorseful Spirou comes to speak with him. Mr Mégot orders two beers and Spirou objects he can't drink it, but the teacher answers that the two are for him.
• Ironic Fear: Spirou turns out to have claustrophobia, explaining his panic to be in a lift, and his lack of enthusiasm to have to work in these for the rest of his life.
• Last-Name Basis: A family tree poster is titled "Spirou family" in their home, revealing that everyone refer to Spirou by his last name. In the comics, it was Depending on the Writer that Spirou was either his last name, or a nickname.
• Malaproper: Mr Mégot uses the wrong suffix nearly every time he speaks. Also, later, Suzette who's mad at Spirou assures that whatever he would ask her (going with him in his "world tour"), her answer is no and it is "set in sand". She obviously meant stone, but it fits as she'll finally change her mind.
• Named by the Adaptation: Nobody address Spirou's grandfather and mother by their names in the dialogues, but their first names (Firmin and Alice) are written under their photos on a family tree. Blink and you'll miss it, but Spirou's father turn out to be named Jean-Baptiste on it.
• Passing Notes in Class: In the very beginning, Spirou pass a note to Suzette, making it circulate in all their classmates' hands. Suzette opens it, hoping for a Love Letter, but it is just written on it that she let her pen fall on the floor.
• Real Is Brown: The movie costume designer explained in an interview that she thought that the bright red of the bellhop uniforms lacked realism and they're designed in burgundy instead (Spirou even ask his friends if the costume is not "too red") . It's defied, however, in The Adventures of Spirou and Fantasio where the uniform is indeed bright red.
• Tie-In Novel: A comic was released at the same time as the movie. The cover was inspired by the movie poster, with the comic characters drawn in the exact same positions and attitude than the actors. But the book itself is not a retelling of the movie, it's just a collection of interviews of the actors, sliced with a selection of gags published before, about the character in question.
• Unseen No More: In the comics, Spirou's father was The Faceless, very likely because he would have been (judging by his looks from behind) his son in adult form spitting image. In the movie, he does not show often, but it's because he's stated to work night shift. And while he's still visible only from behind in person, the photo of his face is seen clearly on the family tree's poster (and on class photos, but younger). ^note  Quite likely because he averted Strong Family Resemblance anyway. The actor hired to be the father was not the same (Thomas Solivérès) that was adult Spirou in The Adventures of Spirou and Fantasio, nor did he resemble him.

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