Déclic Images

Déclic Images was a French company, created in 1999, which distributed many Japanese titles in French-speaking countries, mixing recent titles (Love Hina, Fruits Basket, X from CLAMP, Sonic X...) with older cartoons (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Heidi, MASK, Tom Sawyer, Astro Boy...). Between 1999 and 2012, Déclic Images released around 80 different cartoons.

After a strong rise from 2002 to 2005 with ten new titles every year, the company released the Grendizer series on DVD in August 2005 and Captain Future in 2006. It was later found that the company did not hold the rights for the series. After a long legal tangle, the company was ordered to pay 7.2 million euros following a decision of the Court of Cassation.

The company has undergone numerous restructurings, a judicial reorganization and, due to the past cases, was unable to obtain license contracts for new series, having lost the confidence of Japanese distributors and producers. The company closed in 2012, after being placed in compulsory liquidation.

Releases

The DVDs generally include the European French dub only, but some episodes in season 3 have the Canadian French dub instead. The order of the episodes is not respected and the titles are mixed. Déclic Images cut the series into 4 "seasons" of approximately 18 episodes. To support this new order, the openings have been reassigned so that the episodes in each box set all use the same intro. For example, all 18 episodes in Box 4 sport the season 4 opening.

The Transformers, Box 1 (2004)

• Transformers — Volume 1

Contains the episodes More than Meets the Eye, Part 1, More than Meets the Eye, Part 2 and More than Meets the Eye, Part 3.

• Transformers — Volume 2

Contains the episodes Fire on the Mountain, War of the Dinobots and The Ultimate Doom, Part 1.

• Transformers — Volume 3

Contains the episodes The Ultimate Doom, Part 2, The Ultimate Doom, Part 3 and A Plague of Insecticons.

• Transformers — Volume 4

Contains the episodes Heavy Metal War, Changing Gears and A Prime Problem.

• Transformers — Volume 5

Contains the episodes The Immobilizer, Atlantis, Arise! and Enter the Nightbird.

• Transformers — Volume 6

Contains the episodes The Insecticon Syndrome, Dinobot Island, Part 2 and The Master Builders.

• 
  Box 1, with the 6 DVDs
• 
  Volume 1
• 
  Volume 2
• 
  Volume 3
• 
  Volume 4
• 
  Volume 5
• 
  Volume 6

The Transformers, Box 2 (2004)

• Transformers — Volume 7

Contains the episodes Make Tracks, Microbots and Megatron's Master Plan, Part 1.

• Transformers — Volume 8

Contains the episodes Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2, Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 1 and Blaster Blues.

• Transformers — Volume 9

Contains the episodes A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court, The Golden Lagoon and The God Gambit.

• Transformers — Volume 10

Contains the episodes Auto Berserk, Quest for Survival and The Secret of Omega Supreme.

• Transformers — Volume 11

Contains the episodes The Gambler, Kremzeek! and Sea Change.

• Transformers — Volume 12

Contains the episodes The Girl Who Loved Powerglide, The Search for Alpha Trion and Hoist Goes Hollywood.

• 
  Box 2, with the 6 DVDs
• 
  Volume 7
• 
  Volume 8
• 
  Volume 9
• 
  Volume 10
• 
  Volume 11
• 
  Volume 12
• 
  Alternate DVD box of Volume 12

The Transformers, Box 3 (2004)

• Transformers — Volume 13

Contains the episodes The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1, The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2 and Trans-Europe Express.

• Transformers — Volume 14

Contains the episodes Masquerade, Cosmic Rust and Starscream's Brigade.

• Transformers — Volume 15

Contains the episodes B.O.T., Chaos and Dark Awakening.

• Transformers — Volume 16

Contains the episodes Child's Play (later dub), The Killing Jar, The Revenge of Bruticus and Triple Takeover.

• Transformers — Volume 17

Contains The Transformers: The Movie.

• Transformers — Volume 18

Contains the episodes Prime Target, Surprise Party and The Dweller in the Depths (later dub).

• 
  Box 3, with the 6 DVDs
• 
  Volume 13
• 
  Volume 14
• 
  Volume 15
• 
  Volume 16
• 
  Volume 17
• 
  Volume 18

The Transformers, Box 4 (2005)

For this box, various episodes have the Canadian French dub instead of the European French one.

• Transformers — Volume 19

Contains the episodes Carnage in C-Minor, Fight or Flee (Canadian French dub) and Webworld.

• Transformers — Volume 20

Contains the episodes Madman's Paradise, Nightmare Planet (Canadian French dub) and The Ultimate Weapon (Canadian French dub).

• Transformers — Volume 21

Contains the episodes The Big Broadcast of 2006 (Canadian French dub), Only Human (later dub) and Grimlock's New Brain (Canadian French dub).

• Transformers — Volume 22

Contains the episodes Money Is Everything (Canadian French dub), Call of the Primitives (Canadian French dub) and The Burden Hardest to Bear (Canadian French dub).

• Transformers — Volume 23

Contains the episodes The Face of the Nijika (later dub), The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1 and The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2.

• Transformers — Volume 24

Contains the episodes The Rebirth, Part 1, The Rebirth, Part 2 and The Rebirth, Part 3.

• 
  Box 4, with the 6 DVDs
• 
  Volume 19
• 
  Volume 20
• 
  Volume 21
• 
  Volume 22
• 
  Volume 23
• 
  Volume 24

Notes

• The 24 DVDs were released at newsagents or by subscription, each time with a file to put in a collection binder, containing character files and information about the series, written by Ludovic Le Mentec. Each file contains some text and layout errors (sudden font change, perforations changing side, characters with weird names like "Hot Rhodimus", typos...) but remains interesting. Posters were included with the boxes as well, reprinting the art from the box.
• 4 episodes of the G1 cartoon (Child's Play, The Dweller in the Depths, Only Human and The Face of the Nijika) were dubbed (or re-dubbed?) late in France, probably on demand from Déclic Images. That may be because the original episodes were lost, not usable or maybe even not dubbed at all. The quality of those dubs is... questionable.
• A lot of episodes are missing from this edition. The total count of episodes is 74 instead of 98. Some of them can be found by buying DVDs from the other home release made by UFG Junior, but the latter is not complete either. Between the complete two editions, there are still 15 episodes missing.

• Probably to save as much disk space as possible, almost all the logo transitions have been cut from the episodes released in that collection. Sometimes, even if it remains rare, they even cut some little part of the episodes. What a good idea!
• Some episodes are present on both the Déclic Images collection and the UFG Junior collection.
  • Regarding the episode "The Ultimate Doom, part 2", the Déclic Images version overlaid the tracks with music and sound effects twice, making many phrases inaudible throughout the episode. The UFG Junior version of the episode does not have this problem.
  • For the episode "A Prime Problem" in the Déclic Images collection, the sound of the episode gradually shifts as it plays, leading to several seconds of lag in the final scenes. The UFG Junior version of the episode does not have this problem. Two points for UFG!
  • For the episode "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1", the Déclic Images version had the great idea to remove the final shot with Optimus Prime, and therefore his unique line. This was either to save a little space on the disk or to remove the “to be continued” mention. Again, the UFG Junior version of the episode does not have this problem. Well, three points for UFG!
• The changed order means that we see for example the episode "Chaos" or "Dark Awakening" before the film, as well as episodes in two parts which are found 5 episodes apart (sometimes with no second part at all!), and episodes with Optimus Prime and Megatron in the volumes of "season 4" having been published after the film (published at the end of the "season 3").
• In addition to the new order, some titles are mixed up on the covers. Some of them have typos, like the title of "The Cosmic Rust" (official title "La Rouille Cosmique"), hilariously written "La Nouille Cosmique" ("the Cosmic Noodle") on the cover. Some DVDs randomly use both the English names and the Canadian French names of the robots in the summary behind the box. But it's the European French dub on the DVD. Confusing, heh?
• On the back of the 24 DVDs of the collection, we can read in small "Déclic Images presents: Tranformers". The typo is also present on the front of the DVD box of The Movie. Ah, copy paste!
• However, Déclic Images is the only group to have released The Transformers: The Movie on DVD with the French dub.
• All the artworks for the DVD covers, the posters and the information files were made by French illustrator Jérôme Alquié. Most of his drawings are based on screenshots from the series, but others are very strongly inspired by the Dreamwave comics (like Volume 1 which copies the first panel of issue 3) or official illustrations (like Volume 24 which copies an illustration from Studio OX).
• The episode selection menu shows Optimus Prime from Transformers: Armada.
• Despite all these errors, Déclic Images remains the main source for obtaining the major part of the original series in French (with both dubs mixed, but in French). The collection is visually pretty, as are the artworks and the accessories that go with the collection (binder, posters).

External links

• Wikipedia entry (English)
• Wikipedia entry (French)