Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?

Greetings! I hope you all had a great Christmas and that Sandy Claws was kind to you! I also wish you a Happy New Year!

So, Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? Well to find out you'd have to go and watch this cartoon series that aired back in 1994. I'd never heard of this until a friend of mine brought it up in conversation and was quite surprised I'd never seen it. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I unwrapped the DVD containing the entire series from under my tree.


Happy days!

Those who know me well will understand I love the older cartoon and TV shows, especially from my childhood as well as old japanimation shows.

At first I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not but have now watched several episodes and I'm quite enjoying it. This coming from a 27 year old adult! Well...big kid :)

I didn't know this but the series is based on a video game series starring Carmen Sandiego but I've never come across it. Basically Carmen is a thief who travels the globe stealing valuable items such as the Mona Lisa and Stonehenge! Yeah, you read that last one correctly.

The episodes start that way and then switch to a live action scene where you see the back of a kid sitting at his computer who receives a message off Carmen informing him of her latest theft and daring him to try and catch her. The kid, known as Player, then contacts the ACME Detective Agency which consists of two teenage detective siblings, 14 year old Zack and 18 year old Ivy. These characters are once again animated and set about investigating Carmen's thefts.



The cartoon is an action/adventure but is also educational. If I saw this as a kid my general knowledge would have been vastly improved. Carmen always leaves a clue for the detectives who will then sometimes ask Player to cross reference ying with yang to discover Carmen's next location. They then travel to this place by means of a portal. I wish I could use portals to travel abroad! Would be so much easier!

Before they reach their destination the cartoon shows you pictures of landmarks and gives you facts about the country they are visiting. This bit reminds me of the Eurovision song contest where they give you information about the country before they perform their song.

Eventually Zack and Ivy will catch up to Carmen after evading her henchmen and end up retrieving the stolen loot. However, Carmen always has an ace up her sleeve and manages to escape who then taunts Player at the end of the episode. 

Her final words? 'Until next crime!'

This cartoon is entertaining though. Here is the intro below but be warned the theme might become stuck in your head!