Madame LaCroque

Evil-doer
Full Name	Madame LaCroque
Alias	LaCroque
Origin	Madeline: Lost in Paris
Occupation	Lace Boutique Owner
Powers / Skills	Unknown
Goals	Become rich from the manual lace labor. Make every girl in the string factory miserable (both failed).
Crimes	Child abduction Child abuse Forgery Fraud Theft Child Labor
Type of Villain	Abusive Businesswoman

“	You will do as you are told. Making lace for as long as I choose. And if you're not quick, I will cut off your hair, and use it to make lace!	„
	~ LaCroque issues her orders to Madeline.

“	The rarest lace comes from the reddest of red hair.	„
	~ LaCroque, suffering her breakdown, threatens to Cut Madeline's hair.

“	Look what you've done! All your coughing has turned the lace yellow! Ruined!	„
	~ LaCroque chastising Fifi for her illness.

Madame LaCroque is the main antagonist of the 1999 telefilm Madeline: Lost in Paris. She is an extremely cruel and evil woman who kidnaps young girls and forces them to make laces for her in her boutique.

She was voiced by the late Lauren Bacall, who also voiced the Witch of the Waste for the English dub of the 2004 Studio Ghibli film, Howl's Moving Castle.

Appearance

Madame LaCroque is seen to have long luxurious golden blonde hair when she was younger as a carabet star. Today, she's bald. Her attire consists of a purple dress and overcoat, purple heeled boots, black lipstick, gold dangly earrings, a dark purple choker with a turquoise gem and she wears a grey wig to cover her bald head. She has a small scar on the left side of her forehead.

Personality

Madame LaCroque is perhaps the darkest character in the Madeline franchise. Her personality traits resemble those of a sociopathic narcissist and she has utterly no sympathy nor remorse for her actions. LaCroque is an extremely cruel, heartless and abusive taskmaster, forcing her slaves to manually make lace. She threatens to cut off their hair for rebellion or for working too slowly, in addition to feeding them stale bread. LaCroque is also shown to be a coward when she tries to pin the blame on Henri for her crimes to the police, even though that none of it was his fault.

Biography

In her youth, Madame LaCroque was once a cabaret star until one night, she lost her fame when she made an embarrassing mistake by accidentally ripping her dress while dancing before falling off the stage during a performance. Since then, she no longer performed because of her humiliation. She shaved all of her beautiful blonde hair to make lace since she had no money and started the lace factory. She, along with a failed actor named Henri, lied to the courts promising that they would take very good care of the kidnapped girls. When Henri brings Madeline to her factory, the criminal duo plan to steal Madeline's family fortune while she works at the factory. She proves to be an extremely strict, abusive and mean taskmaster, blaming Fifi for her piece of lace being yellowed (due to her coughing illness which wasn't her fault). She then locks Madeline in the detention room for defending Fifi from her.

The next day, LaCroque gets angry when she sees that Madeline and the slave girls had made calls for help in the laces and when they had tattered doilies on their pillows due to the cause of their pet mouse eating the pieces of cheese that was sewn into the lace doilies.

One day in the boutique, a female customer requests red lace for her red dress, LaCroque cuts off some of Madeline's hair to fulfill her request. Following this, Madeline takes off running away as the taskmaster gets distracted by Chloe, who was looking in through the window. LaCroque chases after Madeline, before getting tripped over by two other girls with lace.

Four girls, including Fifi and Madeline, tie up LaCroque's legs before she cuts herself free with her scissors. She spitefully promises haircuts for all the girls, starting with Madeline, whom she corners. Seeing the events unfold, Pepito attaches his shrunken head to a fishing rod he found in a trashcan, before using it to knock of LaCroque's wig, revealing her bald head. After seeing the shrunken head, LaCroque shrieks in terror before falling over and the key to her shop falls out of her pocket. Fifi grabs the key and unlocks the door before Pepito and the others barge into the shop.

Madeline and a few other lace factory workers tie up LaCroque in endless rolls of lace and string, just before the police arrive with Miss. Clavel and Henri in tow. Both LaCroque and Henri then get arrested by the police and were likely sentenced to several years in prison as punishment for their crimes. However, Henri might get a lighter sentence for his cooperation with the police.

Gallery

Young Madame LaCroque

"Red hair for red lace!" LaCroque grabs Madeline.

Madame LaCroque after she’s defeated by the slave girls.

LaCroque caught by the cops.

Trivia

• Madame LaCroque is the most insane Madeline character, since her actions cause physical damage, but she throughly enjoys it and threatens to those who protest against her actions, instead of seeing the problem and solving it. The following events are hints to her insanity:
  • Fifi was coughing so much and damaging the lace. This wasn't her fault; she was just sick. LaCroque immediately lied, saying that Fifi was lying about her condition. Madeline protested the truth but was jailed for this.
  • LaCroque doesn't believe in a true family. Rui from Demon Slayer also suffers this problem.
  • LaCroque believes she's a good teacher. However, it's obvious that her harsh methods have caused permanent damage.
  • Even though this wasn't his fault, LaCroque openly and cowardly shouted that Henri had planned her defeat.
• Madame LaCroque is considered to be a mean spirited version of Miss. Clavel.