| Image Alt: | Delilah and Julius title card |
| Genre: | Animated series |
| Director: | Nick Rijgersberg (season 2) |
| Composer: | Pure West |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 2 |
| Num Episodes: | 52[1] |
| Runtime: | 22 minutes |
| Channel: | Teletoon |
Delilah & Julius is a Canadian animated series targeted at children as well as teenagers and adults, and animated using Macromedia Flash technology. It premiered on the Canadian animation channel Teletoon. Delilah & Julius was produced by Decode Entertainment and Collideascope Digital Productions. 52 episodes were produced.[2]
The series centers on a pair of highly trained young adults, Delilah and Julius, who were both orphaned children of special agents. Together, they graduated from the Academy, a training facility headed by Al, a free-spirited special agent who brought the duo together, and fight international crime and a myriad of villains as a pair of savvy, well-trained spies.
Delilah and Julius are depicted as multi talented, being gifted musicians, masters of disguise, martial arts experts, and fluent in 20 languages. The pair is shown as professional and work together well as a team, though at times their relationship can be seen as romantic.
Delilah Devinshire (Marieve Herington) has a very determined personality. Delilah's greatest quality is her commitment to truth. It's also what gets her into trouble. She takes things seriously, but she can break down easily in certain situations. Her spy parents went missing when she was only five and are presumed dead. Delilah does not believe this, however, and she is determined to know more about them and to disprove the rumors that her parents were double agents. Delilah's relationship with Julius is very important to her and gets jealous when Julius flirts with other girls (especially Ice). She appreciates having a capable partner in Julius, and together they will stop at nothing to keep the villains from carrying out their evil plots. Delilah believes in breaking her opponent down from the inside out. She gets inside the villain's head, and she loves a new challenge. Delilah is strong-willed, inventive, resourceful, quick-thinking, and graceful. She is experienced in fencing, etiquette, and explosives, and always has time to learn something new that may be useful on a mission.
Julius Chevalier (Fabrizio Filippo) is often flippant, but is very determined and has a passion for crime-fighting. Where Delilah is more goal-oriented, Julius is more spontaneous. He deals with situations as they happen and still manages to find the time to have fun. He enjoys surfing, poetry, safe cracking and yoga. His parents were killed in action when he was only four, and Julius wishes avenge their deaths. For now, he is comforted by the fact that they were considered two of the greatest spies of all time. Julius is laid-back and a little cocky. This confidence allows him to act on the fly and keep cool in the face of danger, though he tends to be a bit careless in calmer situations. He has a good sense of humor and is very intuitive when it comes to the needs of his partner, Delilah. Beneath a nonchalant, arrogant exterior lies a sensitive and caring guy – especially towards Delilah. He often tries to impress Delilah, and becomes extremely jealous and petty when she shows interest in other boys. He is shown to be in love with Delilah.
The director of the Academy, Al (Andy Bianchi) is always highly informed and gives Delilah and Julius their mission assignments. Al is not only their primary contact and mentor, but he is also a parental figure for Delilah and Julius. A free-spirited individual, Al's method of speech is modeled after the mid-'70s Californian hippie stereotype. He is passionate about food and culture and has a unique sense of humour, but can also be serious, especially when it comes to keeping his students safe.
Scarlett (Jackie Rosenbaum) is the Academy's gadget guru. Like Al, Scarlett is prone to using anachronistic '70s expressions as well as caring a lot about her students. She is inventive and always coming up with new spy technology that keeps Delilah and Julius ahead on their missions.
A frequent partner of Delilah and Julius, Nosey (Robert Tinkler) is a well-meaning, good-hearted goof with a reputation for being a stink magnet. It's not that he is really stinky, he is just inevitably drawn into very smelly situations on his missions. Nosey seems to be attracted to Zoe, a new member of the Academy.
Another one of Al's arranged spy teams, Ursula and Emmet are the rivals of Delilah and Julius who are jealous of their popularity and success. Ursula is also a double agent working undercover at the Academy for an unknown evil foe.
Zoe (Athena Karkanis) is the newest Chinese spy at the Academy. She likes to read comics and knows them all by enthusiasm. When Zoe first arrives at the Academy, she thinks Julius is cute. However, a relationship with Nosey is revealed throughout a few episodes. Zoe is a redhead and has a rather feisty personality which is the stereotypical attitude most redheads have. Her espionage skills are well-developed, and the Academy Crew seems to trust this newcomer.
Currently available sources do not fully identify which actors voiced most supporting characters; however, actors known to have had roles in the series include Denis Akiyama, Linda Ballantyne, Scott Beaudin, Robert Bockstael, Justin Bradley, Benedict Campbell, Drew Coombs, Neil Crone, Stacey DePass, Carlos Diaz, Novie Edwards, James Gallanders, Janet-Laine Green, Katie Griffin, Jamie Gutfreund, Tim Hamaguchi, Tracey Hoyt, Randy Hughson, C. David Johnson, Brittany Kay, Kim Kuhteubl, Julie Lemieux, Scott McCord, Marnie McPhail, Stephanie Anne Mills, Al Mukadam, Noah Plener, Jeff Pustil, Adam Reid, Andrew Sabiston, Tyrone Savage, Alison Sealy-Smith, Colette Stevenson, Susan Quinn, Rachel Wilson, Danny Wells, Maurice Dean Wint and Noam Zylberman.
Two seasons were produced, each consisting of 26 episodes.[3] Each season included a three-part finale, originally aired together under one title[4] but later as separate episodes.
"The Underground" is the pilot episode for the series.
Development of the series began in early 2002, with 13 episodes budgeted at US$200,000–300,000 each. Originally, the show was aimed at the teenage girl demographic with a very different concept for the main characters, "a brawn-and-brains husband-and-wife team of self-made millionaires".[5]
By 2005, the first season had expanded to 26 episodes in production, with a budget of $1.2 million. At the time, the premise of the series involved the title characters "fighting crimes of conformity" around the world.[6]
Delilah and Julius - The Complete First Season was released September 9, 2008. The DVD set contains the first 13 episodes in both English and French and has a run time of 290 minutes.[7] Special features include character biographies, a spy gadget gallery, and the original English-language script for the pilot episode "The Underground".[8]
An official YouTube channel run by WildBrain Spark began uploading episodes on May 31, 2019.[9]
The full series has been released on CraveTV.[10]
The series was one of the top-rated shows on the English-language Teletoon in May 2006,[11] and the 10th most popular original production on the French-language Télétoon as of October 2007.[12]
The pilot episode was reviewed by the Edmonton Journal[13] and The Sydney Morning Herald.[14] Kidscreen compared the show to Totally Spies!, another Teletoon original, but with "a more sophisticated sense of humor focused on relationship-building" aiming for an older audience.[15]