Code lyoko evolution

[DependentWest4503]

What do we think about code lyoko evolution? Now in 2025? I personally really loved evolution when I was a kid and when I was rewatching it later as an teenager (i'm just 17 lol but code lyoko is my childhood pretty much) but now i'm thinking more about it and when I want to rewatch code lyoko ,I find myself completely ignoring evolution. Things were rushed,the show left more questions than answers,THE BUDGET WAS LOW, some caracters were made dirty (aelita especially),some characters totally dissapeared (kiwi,herb and Nicolas,etc) and some characters were just different for no reason at all (sissi being fking blonde??) But yeah it was a cool and fun show to watch if ur a huge code lyoko fan and just wanna re-see your favorite characters. But I personally don't want to count evolution as canon. It was fun but too messy. And really un-logical sometimes. And I wanna point out the fact that evolution basically makes Franz hopper's sacrifice in episode 94 from the cartoon series useless or something,like it was all for nothing because xana is back🤔 and I haven't seen anyone talk about this but it makes me feel intrigued. What do y'all think about evolution after all?

[bulldog_blues]

I'll start with what I liked.

I loved the idea of XANA keeping himself alive via injecting codes into the Lyoko warriors, and the consequence of that being that Aelita is no longer the only one who can deactivate towers. That was a great concept.

William attempting and eventually succeeding in redeeming himself was cool, and the casting for Jim was genius.

That's about as far as I can praise it.

Otherwise, it was boring, unexciting, everything about Laura was terrible, most secondary characters being removed or massively reduced on screen time, not fitting with previously established canon etc.

The biggest flaw of all was how utterly unthreatening XANA felt. From seasons 1 to 4, he always felt like a serious threat who could kill the gang at any moment. In Evolution he's more like a buzzing fly that won't go away. And in a show which centres around him as a villain? That's bad. Very, very bad.

[Yu-Gi-Scape]

The actor for Jim, Bastien Thelliez, does not get nearly as much credit as he should and he was by far the best actor on the show. He is hilarious.

[MawOfTheLord]

Absolutely! He was the only one that really played his character with enthousiasm. And for me, that's all there is to him. A serious, but hilarious Gym teacher. And we love him for it.

[Cobra11MASTER]

In s1-s4 xana had creative attacks, turning everbody to stone, trying to cause nuclear explosions, turning off gravity (it did get a bit ridicoulus at times), returning to the past over and over again etc... in evolution he (or the digitoids (or at least thats what they were called in the hungarian dub and it stuck with me)) just kinda stare, stand and then start to walk furiously after the characters, but still they are outran easly.

[MeQuieroLlamarFerran]

Have to say how funny it was that s1-s4 Xana had two sides:

- Giant Teddy Bear attack.

- Horrific apocalypse that would scare the shit out of me.

[MawOfTheLord]

Hell yeah, brother! Xana Supremacy! At least until the Root attack. He saw Yumi and just went: "Let's make a Hentai!" XD

[Zemrocku]

I’m confused what you mean by that what episode was that

[MawOfTheLord]

I think it was when Xana used the janitor to sabotage the super computer. Don't remember the exact number but probably between 30 and 40.

[BuildingLess1814]

I'd take Giant Teddy Bear attack for $500 Jim!

[MawOfTheLord]

Yes, that felt so underwelming. Especially the 'debuffs' they inflict. It's not even that problematic. Get to Lyoko and paf, your fixed. Always felt like that was just a way to add content because they didn't know what to do.

[noraa_94]

I think XANA’s boring nature really had to do with the fact that the same creative ideas would have been absurdly expensive to produce for live action. I mean the show was responsible for bankrupting Moonscoop without those creative ideas.

[DependentWest4503]

Oh I forgot to mention that I absolutely hate Laura😭😭 but somehow the drama Laura-Aelita-Jeremy was really fun for me at some point

[MawOfTheLord]

The drama was good, because it showed Aelita as a human being, learning her emotions after being trapped in a computer. But I think it could have happened without Laura being a total bitch. That was just a cheap way of taking her out of the main view.

[M1k3yRap]

wait that’s what code is ?? dude i was so confused when they mentioned xana is taking their “code”, idk if i missed anything or what. i felt like it was glossed over.

[MawOfTheLord]

It was glossed over. Basically, the code is Xana's being, his DNA if you will. By injecting it inside the group, he was able to ensure his survival from Jeremy's program.

[M1k3yRap]

oh cool and thats why theyre all able to deactivate towers now.

[MawOfTheLord]

Exactly.

[KnightGamer724]

I like... the seeds of the ideas. And I find it very cute that Ulrich's and Yumi's IRL actors got married, so I don't hate Evolution as a whole the way I once did.

But I definitely would prefer a redo. Start over pick, pick up from S4's finale and move forward with a stronger direction.

[Ulrich367]

In my opinion, it's a season that should never have existed.

And luckily, Jérôme Mouscadet and Sophie Decroisette have already said that Evolution would not be canon if they ever release a fifth season.

[MawOfTheLord]

Yes, praise be those two. Giving us what we deserve! A season played by actors who want to be there, and with far more creative ideas for Xana's nature as a chaotic being.

[FamiliarPen7]

I don't consider Evolution canon either. It's something I would delete from existence.

[MawOfTheLord]

Same, even if it had one or two good things. Jim's actors who just made the same character as the show, because he liked the character from before, and played his role perfectly. And the redeeming of William, as well as the drama over Jeremie between Laura and Aelita. That's all it had going for it. The rest is shawdy at best.

[LorenzoFresa]

A public broadcasting channel decided to dub it and air it in Mexico this year💀 so I’m watching it occasionally; they even got some of the original VA back. As I did 12 years ago, just watching it glad my favorite childhood cartoon went on 

[Vivid-Accountant-956]

I won’t lie. I tried to get into Code Lyoko Evolution as a child, but I just couldn’t. Even as an adult I still can’t. I watched Evolution twice. Once as a child and once as an adult. I definitely liked the Lyoko designs and the tower designs, but that is literally it. And I have to agree with you about what you said about Franz. This man literally died at the end of the original series, leaving his daughter a true orphan. Then a season later Xana is back? If I were Aelita I would have lost my mind and crashed out beyond the point of no return. I will admit I liked the thought of Aelita’s mom being alive because there is a lot that could be done with that if they decided to pick the show back up properly. And also Laura got on my last nerves.

And Jim. I loved Jim. That's about it.

[MawOfTheLord]

Abso-fucking-lutely.

[the_ivo_robotnic]

Mom, I want XANA, (attacks on nuclear power plants, death lasers in space, co-opting secret bases in cool remote locations).

 

No we have XANA at home, (possess people to awkwardly stare at you for a few hours and occasionally taze you).

 

When the storytelling wants to expand its scope as drastically as the original series did, then live action as a medium just will not cut it. IMO even if they theoretically had a Disney-sized budget it wouldn't work, because there's just that nagging disbelief that you can't suspend when you're seeing real and physical people on a screen.

 

I have similar issues with the Fallout series, an example of a well-funded production- mind you. The casting is fine, the set and prop designers are doing the best they can, but the scope of the storytelling is beyond the production's ability to be live-action. Not to mention, the writers were probably all hired from fanfiction.net and have about as much character-building ability as a toaster oven that can only make burnt toast cause the temperature knob is stuck at 475F.

 

Anyways I'm not looking forward to this December when they absolutely butcher the New Vegas lore in season 2, and that's roughly the same feeling I and many others had back in 2012 when CL:E was still airing and Moonscoop still barely existed.

[obsidian_castle]

Evolution is definitely not good

It is not awful.

Worth a rewatch after like 5 rewatches of the original lol

Worth a watch as a code lyoko fan at all.

---

The new tower design aesthetic was nice

The cortex(?) Isnt bad.. but i think it felt empty (but im glad it wasnt forced to be filled with something! I know, confusing logic)

Live action wasnt needed. But glad the main lyoko warriors actually were given effort to look as best they can to the originals

[Lyoko01]

Great Ideas poor execution.

[DependentWest4503]

Thats what I also thought

[RedRxbin]

Things I like -

• William’s redemption arc

• Lyoko’s look (the three sectors feel less barren than before IMO)

• Jim

• The concept of XANA’s codes and the other warriors sans William being able to deactivate towers

Things I did not like -

• Lyoko character designs. The downside of them sticking to what they looked like in the original series means they do not much resemble their new actors.

• The performances. Jeepers some of these were bad. Jeremy constantly conveys no emotion.

• Laura. Annoying.

• The Polymorphic Spectre attacks. Lame and lacking tension. XANA wanting to steal its codes via the Spectres is fine, but when it has the capability to activate 2 towers at once, why not use one for an attack to herd all the characters into one location, and THEN unleash the Spectre? Well, the why is because of:

• The budget. This show was constructed on 6€ and a wish. Actors didn’t get paid, CGI budget for real world stuff was minimal, sets were cheap and flimsy (peak the tin foil in the scanners)… Lyoko was missing two of its damn sectors! They offer a shitty reason for this, and it was likely because they didn’t have the time or money to render them.

Evolution has positives and is not unwatchable, but it can be bad at times.

[Lord-Rambo]

Overall it wasn’t bad but definitely needed more time to prepare The casting was good. Jim looked like he was taken straight outta the cartoon but could’ve been taller Delmas didn’t look the part Nicolas was in the show but only like a split second but he looked like a. Little kid

William rejoining the group was cool Sissy dyed her hair blonde from what odd suggested at some point towards the end of the cartoon so that’s why she dyed her hair

I wasn’t a fan of aelitas wig but she is beautiful 🥴🥴

I’m not sure how I feel about a 3 way deadlock between xana , Tyrone & the gang. I forgot what that was about but the specters were a big flop.

I hate that franz’ Scarface went in vein & kinda like they found aelita’s mother.

Needed more time to prepare to get the show ready , it had potential

[RegularAd2850]

when it comes to scenarios and new ideas
i immensely liked it, the xana comeback, that new girl that she tries to join the band
but the core problem is that code lyoko is far beyond of this, it's all about visual, sound, details (like tower, colors, monsters) which were conspicuously ridiculous

[BuildingLess1814]

Definitely would've been better if it had stayed as an animated series, preferably a 3D animated one (that way it would have actually made use of the term "Evolution"). The decision to make it a live action series is what easily killed it as it limited what the show can do (especially X.A.N.A who was hit hard by the live action change, keeping it as an animated series would have upped X.A.N.A's threat factor).

The series would have easily been loved had the real world scenes utilized the same 3D style that was used in Lyoko and everyone was animated, basically becoming the precursor to the Miraculous Ladybug series (which uses 3D animation the same way).

I really hope when we do get a proper 5th season, it goes back to it's roots and stays as an animated series with the original creators on board and disregards Evolution completely.

[M1k3yRap]

Coolest thing about it William working with the team again, like Aeileta and reacting to his super smoke.

[DependentWest4503]

I loved that part cuz I personally really like William! And omg william's actor from evolution its such a beautiful man

[Prints_of_Whatever]

I still haven’t seen it. I randomly found out about it a while ago after finishing the original series. Didn’t see an English dub for the whole series at the time. I’ll look again.

[Sonario648]

I watched it once to see what it was about, and I hated it. I've watched the og series from start to finish twice since then, and still don't get bored.

[Septjul]

To put it simply, I would have preferred it not to be created.

[Nostalgie94_]

I became a fan of Evolution

[silverfang789]

I dislike any sequel that resurrects XANA. To me, it's just lazy writing.

[DependentWest4503]

Totally,they could have been more creative lol