History YMMV / Madeline

* NightmareFuel: Madeline falling off the bridge into the water in both versions of ''Madeline's Rescue'' and the movie. The narrators of the book and the TV special do not hesitate in mentioning that Madeline would have died had Genevieve not come to her rescue.

* NightmareFuel:
** There's Pepito in "Madeline and the Bad Hat", who before he came around is gifted with a tool chest by Miss Clavel, which he uses to build himself a ''guillotine''. With this, he beheads his chickens to cook for dinner. The girls and Miss Clavel react to this sight about as well as you'd expect.
** Madeline falling off the bridge into the water in "Madeline's Rescue". The narrator does not hesitate in mentioning that Madeline would have died had Genevieve not come to her rescue.
--->''"Poor Madeline would now be dead,''\\
''But for a dog that kept its head,''\\
''And dragged her safe from a watery grave."''

* NightmareFuel:
** According to a number of complaints filed by parents at the time the special was released, ''Lost in Paris'' was full of this to their children. It doesn't help that the movie features Madeline being lured from the old house to a sweatshop where she is forced to participate in a child labor ring.
** Then there's Pepito in "Madeline and the Bad Hat", who before he came around is gifted with a tool chest by Miss Clavel, which he uses to build himself a ''guillotine''. With this, he beheads his chickens to cook for dinner. The girls and Miss Clavel react to this sight about as well as you'd expect.
** Madeline falling off the bridge into the water in "Madeline's Rescue". The narrator does not hesitate in mentioning that Madeline would have died had Genevieve not come to her rescue.
--->''"Poor Madeline would now be dead,''\\
''But for a dog that kept its head,''\\
''And dragged her safe from a watery grave."''

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: ''Lost in Paris'' has the song [[https://youtu.be/QtSnc8fnEhk "We Can Sing, We Can Dance"], which is rather similar to [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast "Be Our Guest"]], complete with similar lyrics. The fact that [[AllAnimationIsDisney Disney originally released the special on video]] doesn't help much either.

** While popularly thought of as French due to the setting, Madeline is actually American, with family in Texas. Though this wasn't revealed until ''Madeline in America'' was published long after Ludwig Bemelmans' death Only the animated series explicitly portrayed her as French, with the shorts from the 50's not giving her a nationality, the episode from ''Shirley Temple's Storybook'' correctly portraying her as American, and the film seemingly portraying her as British. Much like Miss Clavel being a nun and the place being an orphanage, this is also common enough that Bemelmans' grandson and successor has had to go on record that Madeline is not French.

** Miss Clavel is not a nun. Yes, she dresses the part, but she's never once been referred to as 'Sister'. That there are two forerunners to Miss Clavel in Madeline's debut story ''The Golden Basket'', one of them being named Sister Angeline, may be a contributor.

** The place the girls are staying at isn't an orphanage, it's a boarding school. Madeline herself is an orphan in two adaptations, but not all.

** While popularly thought of as French due to the setting, Madeline is actually American, with family in Texas. Though this wasn't revealed until ''Madeline in America'' was published long after Ludwig Bemelmans' death Only the animated series explicitly portrayed her as French, with the shorts from the 50's not giving her a nationality, the episode from ''Shirley Temple's Storybook'' correctly portraying her as American, and the film seemingly portraying her as British.

** People frequently claim that Madeline's adventures are set in 1939, during World War II. 1939 was the year her spin-off book was published, she herself first appeared in 1936 in ''The Golden Basket''. The books and animated series take place in an unspecified time in the 1930s, while the live-action film takes place in the 1950s.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: ''Lost in Paris'' has the song [https://youtu.be/QtSnc8fnEhk "We Can Sing, We Can Dance"], which is rather similar to [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast "Be Our Guest"]], complete with similar lyrics. The fact that [[AllAnimationIsDisney Disney originally released the special on video]] doesn't help much either.

** While popularly thought of as French due to the setting, Madeline is actually American. Only the animated series explicitly portrayed her as such with the shorts from the 50's not giving her a nationality, the episode from ''Shirley Temple's Storybook'' correctly portraying her as American and the film seemingly portraying her as British.

%% ToyShip: Madeline and Pepito. (Explain why and how people ship them.)

* QuestionableCasting: ''My Fair Madeline'' had Creator/WhoopiGoldberg (yes, ''[[Film/TheColorPurple THAT]]'' [[Film/JumpinJackFlash Whoopi]] [[Film/SisterAct Goldberg]]) [[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340228/ as Miss Clavel]].

** Miss Clavel is not a nun. Yes, she dresses the part, but she's never once been referred to as 'Sister'.

** People frequently claim that Madeline's adventures are set in 1939. 1939 was the year her spin-off book was published, she herself first appeared in 1936 in ''The Golden Basket''. The books and animated series take place in an unspecified time in the 1930s, while the live-action film takes place in the 1950s.

* {{Narm}}: "Lord Cucuface, beware! Genevive, noblest dog in all of France, you shall have your ven-ge-ance!" For the record, that line did not appear in the TV special. The movie did include the second sentence, albeit with a normal pronunciation of "vengeance".

** One episode is "Madeline and the Hunchback of Notre Dame", in which Madeline, Pepito and the girls perform a play based on Creator/VictorHugo's novel. A year later, Disney released [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney their adaptation of ''Hunchback'']]…and a year after that, added “Madeline” to it’s lineup of shows.
* Then, in 2002, Disney’s adaptation got [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameII a direct-to-video sequel]] which gave Quasimodo a love interest named... Madellaine.
* One of the children on ''{{Series/OutOfTheBox}}'', another Playhouse Disney program, was named Madeline.

* Snarkbait: Due to the excessive cutesy-ness and simplistic designs, Aesopy-storylines and [[ProneToTears excessive crying]], it can occasionally fall into this.

** One episode is "Madeline and the Hunchback of Notre Dame", in which Madeline, Pepito and the girls perform a play based on Creator/VictorHugo's novel. A year later, Disney released [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney their adaptation of ''Hunchback'']], followed in 2002 by [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameII a direct-to-video sequel]] which gave Quasimodo a love interest named... Madellaine.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Due to a constant stream of retcons over several media, if you count the amount of named friends that attend school with Madeline, there are more than 12 girls. The only way it makes sense is if we view each installment where the girls have different names as [[AlternateContinuity Alternate Continuities.]]