List of Carmen Sandiego characters

This is a list of fictional characters in the Carmen Sandiego series.

ACME

The ACME Detective Agency or ACME Crimenet (changed to ACME Timenet in Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?) is the organization that the user or protagonists always work for. The exact nature of the organization is never explained, but it appears to be concerned mainly with tracking down and capturing international criminals. ACME trains and employs agents who act as detectives, spies, and double agents against V.I.L.E.

Although the structure of ACME Headquarters varies, it is always located in San Francisco, often being depicted as well within view of San Franciscan landmarks such as the Transamerica Pyramid and the Golden Gate Bridge. Additionally, ACME usually has numerous field offices around the globe. An ACME training academy of some kind is often stated or alluded to exist, presumably located at its San Francisco headquarters.

The Chief

The leader of ACME is called "The Chief", though the nature of the character varies considerably in different media. The character is never given a name beyond that title. In the original first few computer games "the Chief" was a mysterious male figure hidden in the shadows who had very little personality or role. No Chief character appears in Carmen Sandiego's Think Quick Challenge, Carmen Sandiego Word Detective and Carmen Sandiego Math Detective. The most notable "Chiefs" were the live-action Chief played by Lynne Thigpen and the Holographic Chief of Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? voiced by Rodger Bumpass.

In the PBS game shows Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, the Chief became a more dynamic character. Played by Lynne Thigpen, the Chief was a comically no-nonsense figure with a strong sense of justice who spoke with dialogue that was riddled with puns, alliteration and other forms of word play. Her catch phrase was "I salute you," which she often uttered while holding a magnifying glass over her eye. According to the World episode "The Canal Caper," her great-grandmother, Agnes Acme, is the founder of ACME. Agnes Acme was also played by Thigpen and is apparently deceased, though that didn't stop her from providing clues.

The character proved popular and the computer games Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time) included QuickTime videos of Thigpen portraying the Chief. Thigpen again played the Chief in the planetarium film Where in the Universe is Carmen Sandiego? and its sequel Where in the Universe is Carmen Sandiego? II.

In the spin-off animated series Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego, the Chief (stylized as the C.H.I.E.F - Computerized Holographic Imaging Educational Facilitator) was drastically retooled, becoming a wise-cracking sentient computer image not unlike Max Headroom. Playing a slightly more important role than his counterparts in the franchise, the Chief was still limited to providing exposition, alerts of Carmen's recent crime and comic relief. He was voiced by Rodger Bumpass. This version of the Chief had a very intimate professional and personal relationship with Carmen. They were both trained as agents when ACME was in its infancy (the Chief more likely created as an attempt at an autonomous robotic agent, complete with android body), and were often partnered up with each other on many cases. They became fast friends, and although he was angered and shocked at Carmen's defection to a life of crime, he didn't have the heart to close her file. It's clear that Carmen also thinks highly of their friendship, having once entrusted the help of ACME agents Zack and Ivy to help restore a virus-stricken Chief back to health after she 'kidnapped' him for a Christmas night to 'relive the good ol' days', and once again teaming up with him to capture the criminal Maelstrom, whom they had captured during their detective years and had returned to take his revenge.

The Chief featured in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego: Treasures of Knowledge and Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums was voiced in both games by Marcie Henderson. Perhaps as a tribute, this Chief looks somewhat similar to Lynne Thigpen, although her voice and personality are unmistakably different. In fact, she has little personality beyond getting angry whenever Carmen breaks into ACME communication lines.

Zack and Ivy

Zack and Ivy are the teenage protagonists of Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?. They were voiced by Scott Menville and Jennifer Hale respectively.

At eighteen years old, Ivy is an expert martial artist and skilled pilot who takes her duties as a detective seriously, being both driven and easily frustrated. In contrast, her fourteen-year-old younger brother Zack approaches his job with easygoing attitude, though he also demonstrates immaturity and impatience towards more traditional non-technological methods; however, his skills include being a polyglot and having a photographic memory, allowing the siblings to complement each other well.

Chase Devineaux

Special Agent Chase Devineaux is featured in Carmen Sandiego Word Detective, Carmen Sandiego Math Detective and Carmen Sandiego's ThinkQuick Challenge. Designed by Joseph John Barney,[1] Chase is voiced by Pat Fraley and his last name is pronounced "dev-in-no."

In all three of these games, Chase fulfills the role typically held by the Chief in Carmen Sandiego products in sending the user off on missions and such. It is made clear that he is not actually the Chief since in Carmen Sandiego Math Detective the user occasionally receives messages from an unseen Chief. However, whereas he appears "in person" in Carmen Sandiego's Think Quick Challenge, he communicates with the user electronically in the other two games. Chase also informs the user of clues he's found throughout the course of the game. He is often shown to be speaking to the user from an exotic location in which he is presumably hunting for clues.

Chase was one of Carmen Sandiego's partners when she was at ACME. After Carmen left ACME, Chase Devineaux went undercover and started working separately from ACME. He started working with ACME again on the Babble-On-Machine case (depicted in Carmen Sandiego Word Detective) and has since become an ACME Special Agent. In Carmen Sandiego's Think Quick Challenge, he is stated to be "ACME's top agent." Chase has red hair and he seems to be around the same age as Carmen. He has a pet falcon named "Phoenix" whom can usually be seen on his shoulder in Carmen Sandiego Word Detective and Carmen Sandiego Math Detective. Phoenix does not appear in Carmen Sandiego's Think Quick Challenge.

Jules Argent

Julia "Jules" Argent was once Carmen Sandiego's partner and she still considers Carmen to be the best agent ACME ever had. Jules is experienced with Carmen Sandiego's methods and is full of facts. She keeps a journal to keep track of clues and apparently has a good sense of intuition.

Jules believes that "everyone" at ACME blamed her for Carmen leaving the organization. In fact, Carmen herself considers Jules to be "very opinionated" and claims this made her "a little difficult to work with," although she never specifically states whether this had anything to do with her leaving ACME. Jules is twenty seven years old, was born in Hong Kong and has a vaguely Asian-esque appearance. According to Hawkins, she is a linguistics expert. She mentions owning a cat.

Jules was featured in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego: Treasures of Knowledge and Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums. Jules was voiced in both by Irene Trapp.

Shadow Hawkins

Shadow Hawkins was so arrogant when he started his first assignment, that he thought he could, "catch that ACME traitor and be home in time for dinner." As the case went on though, it became clear, even to him, that Carmen Sandiego wasn't easy to catch. Shadow Hawkins seems to believe gadgets are the answer to everything. He was apparently raised on a horse farm.

Shadow Hawkins was featured in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego: Treasures of Knowledge and Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums. He was voiced in both by Mark Atherlay, although his surname was misspelled "Atherly" in the latter.

Cole Gannon

Cole Gannon (age 17) trained in ACME to be a secret agent after school and on weekends, for about a year when he had the chance to go after Carmen Sandiego in his first "official" mission. He's a computer genius and a martial arts expert, but he's a little overconfident and doesn't seem to fear very much; ACME is still working with him on this. In combat, Cole Gannon uses a staff. Cole Gannon was featured in Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums, where he was probably voiced by Kevin Miller (given that Miller's name was listed first in the credits).

ACME Good Guides

Photographers

ACME detectives

These detectives were featured in Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?.

V.I.L.E.

The Villains' International League of Evil (or V.I.L.E. for short) is Carmen Sandiego's criminal organization whose agents either assist her in committing outrageous thefts or else commit thefts on her behalf. The organization is always referred to by its acronym, which is pronounced phonetically and is therefore often a source of puns.

Carmen Sandiego

The main antagonist of the series. Carmen Sandiego is the leader of V.I.L.E. She has nearly always been created through animation techniques, either with various forms of computer graphics or with traditional animation. The television version of Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? is, to date, the only time the character has "officially" been portrayed in live action, aside from photographs in early game manuals. Carmen was a former ACME agent who went rogue. Because of her previous days as an ACME agent, Carmen knows how to outrun the ACME agents and keep them at bay, making her the most notorious criminal that ACME wishes to capture.[2] She is most commonly depicted wearing a red trench-coat and matching wide-brimmed hat.

Carmen Sandiego's voice was heard for the first time on the Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe computer game during her trial after she is captured. Her voice was featured regularly in the World game show, though only during the phone tap skit. Carmen had little personality on the World show, aside from being constantly exasperated by her crooks' incompetence, and no voice artist was credited. However, later performers maintained the distinctive slightly husky voice she was given on World.

In the Earth series, Carmen had a much larger role and was voiced by Academy Award-winning actress Rita Moreno.[3] Moreno would again voice the character for the game Carmen Sandiego Junior Detective and the planetarium films Where in the Universe is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in the Universe is Carmen Sandiego? II. In the computer games Carmen Sandiego Word Detective and Carmen Sandiego Math Detective, Mari Devon took on the title role, opposite Pat Fraley as Chase Devineaux. Most recently, her voice was provided by Christiane Crawford for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge and Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums.

On Time, her only live-action appearance, Carmen also had little personality and was generally portrayed as a straight villain. Furthermore, her face was never fully visible and all images of her were posterized, giving her a stylized, "unreal" look. Although the actress playing her was not directly credited, it has been confirmed that she was played by actresses Janine LaManna in the first season, and then Brenda Burke in the second season. While Janine LaManna did not have any other roles, Brenda Burke was seen portraying minor characters, such as Eleanor Roosevelt.

Efforts were made at least once, in 2006, to produce a film featuring the character, possibly starring Sandra Bullock as the titular thief.[4] In 2011 or 2012, there is talk that Jennifer Lopez would play the titular thief.

V.I.L.E. Operatives

The following are operatives that work for V.I.L.E.:

V.I.L.E. Robots

V.I.L.E. KnowBots

These "KnowBots" (short for Knowledge Robots) were featured in the game Carmen Sandiego's ThinkQuick Challenge

Enemies of ACME and V.I.L.E.

The following have been enemies of both ACME and V.I.L.E.:

References

  1. "Chase Devineaux". Communicomics.com. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  2. "Top 100 videogame villains". IGN. Retrieved 2010-05-13.
  3. Mangan, Jennifer (1994-05-04). "'Educating Rita". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-10-02.
  4. Cox, Dan (1997-12-03). "Bullock on road to Sandiego—Entertainment News, Film News, Media". Variety. Retrieved 2011-12-16.
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