Ghosts better stay hidden!
Ghost Force is a French computer-animated children's television series created by Jeremy Zag and produced by Zagtoon and animated by SAMG.
Andy, Liv and Mike, three high school kids working as a team of superheroes, known as Ghost Force, are tasked with secretly hunting down and capturing the ghosts that terrorize New York City. Operating from the secret underground laboratory built by Miss Jones, they are the city's only line of paranormal defense and must put their daily lives on hold in order to ghost power-up and restore the city to normalcy before citizens catch on. With inherent desire to “troublemake,” the ghosts, which are invisible to the human eye, use fright as fuel to increase their power and ability to affect the world around them.
Production began mid-May 2018, and released in Fall 2021 on Disney Channel throughout the globe.
Tropes in this series include:
- All-CGI Cartoon
- Artificial Limbs: Miss Jones has an arm (and hair) that appears to be made out of the same boo energy that comprises ghosts.
- Big Brother Instinct: Andy and Liv both have this for Mike and Andy very vividly demonstrates this trope towards Liv; Liv, for her part, has a pretty big Little Sister Instinct and is fiercely protective of Andy.
- Black and Nerdy: Mike. He wears glasses and is very much a science nerd.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Comes into play about Liv and Andy's fight about Liv revealing that her brother can't swim despite his bravado; Liv was correct that Andy shouldn't have been lying but Andy was well-within his rights to be furious that his sister revealed one of his secrets without his consent.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Many ghosts have been shown to have mind control powers but Piraniak in particular brainwashes Liv/Myst into a very dangerous opponent for the two male leads.
- Brother–Sister Team: Andy and Liv are siblings and work in the same team.
- Color-Coded Characters: Andy/Fury is green, Liv/Myst is pink, Mike/Krush is blue, and Glowboo is orange.
- Color-Coded Secret Identity: Andy, Liv and Mike all dress in color schemes that are heavily reminiscent of their hero costumes.
- Cross-Cast Role: In "Xhypno", Andy tries to get the role of a Damsel in Distress in a film his parents are making when the actress who originally got the role doesn't show up. His parents instead choose Stacy to play the role.
- Delusions of Doghood: The eponymous ghost of "Hypnolion" hypnotizes people into acting like animals.
- Ectoplasm: Fury's powers are about using ectoplasm or something slimey to bind rogue ghosts or shield himself and his friends.
- Familiar: Each hero has a personal ghost that they can release to use their respective finishing moves. Fury has a dragon, Krush has an ice golem, and Myst has an "octocat". Ms. Jones has her own pet ghost, but its powers are unknown.
- Fluffy Tamer: Ms. Jones studies the ghosts that the team captures so she may eventually tame them.
- Foil: In a way, to Miraculous Ladybug. While Ladybug and Cat Noir are the main protagonists, Ladybug is the title heroine and she's the one to ultimately save the day with Cat Noir as a support hero. Plus, the antagonists are random humans turned into Villlians of the Week that act under the Big Bad's influence. In Ghost Force, Fury, Myst and Krush act as a team to stop the Monster of the Week, acting on their own volition, and any of them can finish the ghost using special moves.
- Grade Skipper: Mike is actually a year younger than Liv (who actually is the appropriate age for their current grade) and is stated to have skipped a grade.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Fury's weapon is a bo staff while Myst fights with a bow that shoots spectral arrows.
- Hour of Power: The team each has a finite amount of "Boo Energy" when transformed that's used up quicker the more they use their powers. When their reserves are depleted all their powers shutdown, including flight, often leaving them dropping out of the sky and requiring rescue by another teammate. In one episode Miss Jones manages to rig a battery for a field recharge, but says it's only viable because they're currently shrunken enough for it to be effective.
- In Medias Res: The series opens with Ghost Force openly operating as well-known heroes and we have yet to get any info on how Miss Jones recruited them or how the ghosts started invading New York.
- Insistent Terminology: Downplayed but it's not ever really shown in canon that Liv and Andy are part of a blended family as both of them refer to both parents as "Mom" and "Dad" and only refer to each other as "bro/my brother" and "sis/my sister".
- Mama's Boy: Marlo, one of the Ghost Force's classmates, gives his mom a bouquet of flowers in one episode.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: Professor Pascal is shorter than most of his twelve-year old student body.
- No Ontological Inertia: After a ghost is captured, whatever effects it was causing immediately cease, be it a blizzard, heatwave, hypnosis spells, webs made of gum that were keeping people suspended in the air.
- Not What It Looks Like: When classmate Milo sticks a bouquet in Liv's locker, she's quickly flustered because she has no idea how to handle this and is further confused when Milo takes back the bouquet; turns out the flowers were for his mom and he meant to stick them in his locker but accidentally put them in Liv's because he was concerned about being seen with flowers as it didn't fit with his "cool guy" image.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: One of the male co-leads, Mike, has electric blue highlights on his outfit, while the female co-lead Liv has pink ones instead.
- Power-Up Food: Certain ghosts enter Booster Mode from bonding with foods they've eaten. The freezing ghost in "Bananice" becomes a banana monster from eating the titular ice cream pop, and the ghost in "Arakgum" becomes a gum-based giant spider from eating a wad of gum.
- Real-Place Background: Just as Miraculous Ladybug is set in Paris and uses real areas from the city, Ghost Force is set in Manhattan. While there's obviously landmarks like Central Park and the Times Square, there are also streets like Lexington Avenue.
- Shared Universe: With Miraculous Ladybug.
- Word of God says Miraculous World: New York was originally meant to be a crossover between Miraculous, this and the yet unmade Pixie Girl. A crossover between Ghost Force and Miraculous Ladybug is still planned.
- In the "Bananice" preview clip, a poster of Ladybug
can be seen near the graffitied alleyway. The basketball courtyard in the same clip is also where Techno-Pirate was arrested in the "New York" special.
- Shout-Out: As shown in this trailer, our trio of color-coded teen heroes use lockers that send them down tubes so they can get into their superhero outfits and receive their mission briefing, in a French cartoon. Hmm…
- Single-Minded Twins: Andy sees Jane and Stacy as this. While they are very much in sync with the other and often have similar goals, they aren't as similar at a glance, though Jane keeps some of her own interests secret from Stacy who prefers the two of them to be more similar than different.
- Sixth Ranger: In some episodes the team is assisted by Glowboo, a Robot Buddy provided by Miss Jones though not built by her.
- Sleep-Mode Size: Ghosts start off in tiny, cute but impish forms that cause chaos until they gather enough strength to enter "Booster Mode", which transforms them into a much stronger form capable of projecting their powers on a larger scale.
- Spell My Name With An S: The title and group are either spelled "Ghost Force" or "Ghostforce".
- Spoiled Sweet: Downplayed but the main trio is probably all somewhat well-off given that Liv and Andy are the children of decently successful film makers and Mike is the son of a well-known basketball player but are generally nice kids who are friendly and kind to their peers.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Zigzagged with the trio, who wear brightly skin-tight black rubber suits, with capes made of light formed when they use their built-in jetpacks.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: While this trope is not quite in effect for the Paris-bound Ladybug and Cat Noir, the fact the series do exist in a Shared Universe brings one to ask where the many New York based heroes shown in Ladybug are during the events of this series. Hero capital of the world yet no sign of them in series, though dialogue in and out of universe does imply that New York does have other superheroes.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Some characters in the main trio's classroom have similarities with the Miraculous cast, in design, personality or roles.
- The trio itself:
- Andy have some of Adrien's Cat Noir persona (even his hero uniform have black and green as main colors, and his main weapon is a staff), being cocky and rash, mixed with Kim's competition tendencies and love for sports, namely basketball;
- Liv displays some of Marinette's more levelheaded side and a light resemblance with Juleka's gothic streak, using mainly black and pink clothes with some bats on it;
- Mike have some of Nino and Max on him, sometimes showing a knack for complex plans similar to Marinette's, aside from being the most intelligent of the trio.
- Drake fills a similar role to Kim and Chloé, being both the athletically inclined one and the main thorn in our heroes' side.
- Bobby serves as one to Ivan, being the largest student, and fills Sabrina's role as the mean kid's henchman.
- Charlie fills out a role similar to Alya, both are big fans of the protagonists' hero identities who frequently film and blog about the heroes exploits.
- Rajat is one to Max, being the bespectacled intelligent class member.
- Jane and Stacy look similar to Chloé, and while they do annoy the heroes in their civilian identities while being fans of their heroic selves they're far less aggravating than Chloé and are not generally bullies.
- Officer Callinghan fills in the ineffectual police officer role that Roger does in Ladybug, but while Roger is typically well meaning but bumbling, Callinghan has delusions of grandeur and less allied to the heroes than his French counterpart.
- The trio itself:
- Teachers Out of School: When the main characters chance upon Professor Pascal when the latter is making fireworks for Central Park's Fourth of July celebrations, Andy is surprised that teachers have lives out of school.
- Technicolor Science: In one episode, Miss Jones is mixing beakers claimed to be water and sulfur trioxide, only one glows green while the other glows bright blue.
- Tempting Fate: When the main characters go to Central Park to celebrate the Fourth of July, Andy is in the middle of commenting on how the best part of summer vacation is not having to endure Professor Pascal's lessons when he notices Professor Pascal is there as well.
- Thinking Up Portals: Myst's unique power.
- Trickster Mentor: Ms. Jones can be that to her kids in spades!
- Tuckerization: This series has a character named Professor Pascal and a writer named Pascal Boutboul.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Our main trio attend Central High, while moonlighting as ghost-powered superheroes fighting other evil ghosts.
- X-Ray Sparks: The opening sequence shown in the trailers has the sparks reveal Andy's nerves and organs as they run down his body when he suits up.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: When left for too long, ghosts can boost to a more powerful form, which is why it's recommended for the Ghost Force to capture them before that happens. Don't count on them managing to do that though. Lampshaded in "Piraniak" when Glowboo asks if they were supposed to capture the ghost before it boosts and Myst comments on how it never works.
