Fear the power of cartoons!
"Animaestro, you're going to show everyone who you really are, with a power as limitless as your imagination! All I ask in return are Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous."
—Hawk Moth
Thomas Astruc has released a new Ladybug and Cat Noir animated movie, but when no one recognizes the effort he put into it, he becomes the villainous Animaestro to show the world what animation can really do.
Tropes:
- Absurd Phobia: In-Universe, Ladybug complains that in Astruc's movie, she's written as being scared of cats, which she isn’t.
- Animation Age Ghetto: In-Universe; the bouncer questions how a cartoon movie could measure up to the recorded real antics of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
- Art Shift:
- Animaestro's power turns him into traditionally animated characters, which naturally stands out in the show's CGI format.
- There's also the trailer for Astruc's Ladybug and Cat Noir movie at the very beginning, which is literally just the Ladybug PV.
- As Himself:
- In-Universe, Adrien voices Cat Noir in the movie — though nobody except him knows he's Cat Noir.
- In the French version, creator and head writer Thomas Astruc voices his fictionalized self in the episode.
- Author Avatar: Thomas Astruc appears in this episode as the director of the Ladybug and Cat Noir MOVIE, not the actual television series.
- Bowdlerise: The version on Disney Channel (US) and Disney+ omits Thomas Astruc breaking out in hives after eating almonds and showing the stain from the chocolate cake he sat on.
- Call-Back: Marinette turned down the invitation to go to the premiere as Ladybug as "She's a superhero, not a celebrity", something she decided during "Prime Queen".
- Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Ladybug slams Animaestro’s movie’s trailer for implying that she’s afraid of cats, causing him to angrily rant that she’s doing this, a point Cat Noir concedes.
- Continuity Nod:
- Jagged Stone once again brings up how Marinette designed his sunglasses and album cover.
- Clara—er, Laura Nightingale did all of the music for the movie, having previously been responsible for the Diegetic Soundtrack Usage in "Frightningale".
- Crazy-Prepared: Marinette prepares a special macaroon for Adrien once a week, so she wouldn't have to give him a stale one.
- Creator Cameo: Thomas Astruc appears as the titular supervillain.
- Development Gag: All scenes from the in-universe film are from the Animesque promotional video that came out before the actual Miraculous Ladybug series, which of course went with a very different visual style in the end.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Thomas Astruc is frequently looked down on and dismissed, even though he directed the movie. This leads to his transformation into Animaestro.
- Enemy Mine: Marinette agrees to team up with Chloé to keep Kagami away from Adrien.
- Eye Beams: Animaestro uses these when transformed into a superheroine.
- Freudian Slip: Marinette offers to help her parents out at the premiere, saying she "can hand the macaroons out to Adrien — I mean uhhh, to everybody of course not just Adrien because Adrien's not the only one who likes macaroons".
- Funny Background Event: Marinette is clumsily trying to keep the macaroons on the plate while Jagged Stone is talking to Astruc.
- Gender Bender: Some of Animaestro's forms include a superheroine and a magical girl.
- Gratuitous Ninja: One of Animaestro's many cartoon forms is a ninja.
- Hand Seals: When Animaestro transforms into a ninja, he makes several quick hand gestures to magically summon a cloud of smoke.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The heroes likely never would have discerned Animaestro's weakness had he not engineered the situation which demonstrated it to them.
- Humiliation Conga: Astruc. In addition to nearly everyone at the premiere not recognising him, he ends up in a series of events that get him completely humiliated in front of everyone.
- Humongous Mecha: Animaestro turns into one of these after his Kaiju form is tied up by Ladybug's yo-yo.
- Imagination-Based Superpower: Animaestro can turn into anything he wants with seemingly any power he wants, no matter how nonsensical it may be.
- Internal Reveal: Chloé finds out about Marinette's crush on Adrien, which it turns out she was actually unaware of. She initially is going to inform him of it, but decides to keep it to herself, believing that Marinette has no chance anyway.
- It's All About Me: Chloé as usual. When she learns who Astruc really is, after initially mistaking him for a waiter, she immediately starts berating him for not putting Queen Bee in his movie.
- Jerkass Ball: Marinette agrees to Chloé's nasty scheme against Kagami and helps her. Usually she is able to see through Chloé's Manipulative Bitch tendencies, but not this time.
- Karma Houdini: Both Chloé and Marinette get away with what they were planning to do to Kagami. That they failed doesn't diminish the fact that they were bullying her. What really pushes it into this trope is that Marinette got what she wanted anyway (a seat next to Adrien).
- Love Makes You Evil: Marinette starts pushing the line into this trope when she plots to sabotage Kagami and Adrien's date by humiliating Kagami. This is less about Kagami personally and more about Marinette's fear that Adrien will move away and she will never see him again if he dates Kagami - that doesn't make it better, but it does mean it's less personal.
- Manipulative Bitch: Chloé takes advantage of Marinette's well-known tendency to spiral and plays upon Marinette's fear of losing Adrien - namely that Adrien will move away to Japan with Kagami if he falls in love with her, meaning that Marinette will never see him again. Marinette grabs the Jerkass Ball hard as a result. It also doesn't help that during their last outing, Kagami was somewhat of a Jerkass to Marinette.
- Magical Girl: One of the last forms Animaestro takes is a generic magical girl, complete with Stock Footage leading up to her attack.
- Mistaken for Servant: Chloé initially assumes Astruc to be a waiter and orders him around. So, business as usual for her.
- Morphic Resonance: Everything Animaestro transforms into retains his Ladybug domino mask, which is where the akuma is.
- Mythology Gag:
- Astruc's movie trailer uses clips from the animated pilot video.
- Animaestro's superheroine form is actually Majestia
from the Ladybug comics.
- Notzilla: The first form Animaestro turns into is a giant Godzilla pastiche.
- Plot Allergy: Astruc is allergic to almonds.note As such, all the macaroons made for the event were made with coconut. All except the special one Marinette wanted to give to Adrien, which of course Astruc ends up eating.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Chloé makes another racist jab at the Japanese.Chloé: If we don't sacrifice a few macarons now Adrien is going to be eating sushi for the rest of his life!
- Portable Hole: Animaestro uses one when he turns into a cartoon dog.
- Self-Deprecation: Thomas Astruc as portrayed in this episode is a loser who no-one knows or respects, with Ladybug dismissing his work as bad based solely on the trailer.
- Ship Tease: Adrien and Kagami have a handful of possibly romantic moments. Complete with sparkly background and music.
- Shout-Out: Animaestro's power lets him turn into a mashup of Goku and Ryu, a blond superheroine in red and blue tights with a gold symbol across her chest, a giant robot (which could reference any number of Humongous Mecha shows, but stylistically appears most inspired by Transformers), an apparent inhabitant of Equestria and a black-and-white cartoon animal that speaks in a high-pitched voice.
- Smoke Out: Animaestro becomes a ninja and uses this to blind Ladybug and Cat Noir, hoping to grab their Miraculous while they're distracted. It fails because it exposes them to his weakness in the process.
- Sudden Name Change: Nadja refers to Clara Nightingale as Laura Nightingale in this episode for some reason.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When Ladybug broadcasts a message telling Paris to not look at Animaestro, the Gorilla crushes his phone with his bare hand to follow the order.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Two-fold. While Marinette is never able to give Adrien the special macaroon, Astruc gives his seat at the premiere to her, which happens to be next to Adrien. Astruc, in turn, gets the recognition he was looking for from Marinette, and therefore Ladybug herself.
- Toxic Friend Influence: While calling Chloé a friend to anyone is pushing it, she convinces Marinette to take part in a scheme to get Kagami away from Adrien, when Marinette is able to typically keep her jealousy in regards to Kagami more-or-less under control.
- A True Story in My Universe: The show's creator plays an in-universe version of himself making a movie based on Ladybug and Cat Noir. What we see of the film is the "Ladybug PV" anime pilot short that predated the series.
- Villain Has a Point: When Animaestro snaps at Ladybug for judging his film without actually seeing it, Cat Noir tells her that he has a point.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Animaestro can only act if others are looking at him, either directly or through a live feed.
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: Everyone assumes that a movie director does the art, the script or the craft services for the premiere.
- Who Would Want to Watch Us?: The bouncer at the premiere is rather disappointed that the movie isn't a live-action flick starring the real Ladybug and Cat Noir.Bouncer: Who would want to watch Ladybug and Cat Noir as cartoon characters?
- You Are Too Late: Villain version. When Ladybug breaks a TV camera to keep people from watching Animaestro, Hawk Moth (Who had been watching via tablet) transforms back into Gabriel and drives to the sight to watch with his naked eye. He gets there just as Animaestro is defeated.
