See Concept Art From The ‘Jurassic Park’ Animated Series That Never Was
Amid a tsunami of tie-ins that included sequels, video games, toys, games, etc., the one thing theJurassic Parkfranchise never got was an cartoon. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. ArtistWilliam Stouthas revealed there were once plans for aJurassic Parkanimated series, described as a “mature” primetime show with a “graphic novel look.”
Alas,Steven Spielbergnever signed off, so we never got to see the show. But now thanks to Stout’s concept art, we can dream about what might’ve been. See theJurassic Parkanimated series artwork after the jump.
Stout shared thisJurassic Parkanimated series concept arton his website, along with some abandonedmovie poster ideasfor the original film.
Stout writes:
Upon the success of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park movie, all kinds of ancillary projects abounded: toys, games, novelties, apparel, etc.
Towards the end of all of this merchandising I got a call from artist Will Meugniot, asking if I’d be interested in designing a Jurassic Park animated series. This was not going to be a kiddy show (although kids of all ages, including myself, could enjoy it). They wanted the show to be a mature prime time series with top writers and state-of-the-art television animation augmented with quite a bit of CG animation. Universal Cartoon Studios wanted a “graphic novel look” to the series. I came in, showed my portfolio and was hired.
We made a trailer to communicate the look and feel of the series, also showing how we would combine computer animation with traditional animation. All we needed was Spielberg’s approval.
I heard through the grapevine that he never bothered to watch what we had done. By that time the word was out that he was burnt out on Jurassic Park merchandising and all of the film’s commercial exploitation. So, it never got made.
Too bad indeed. Stout’s artwork is gorgeous, and captures both the wonder and the terror of the original film. Of course, withJurassic World’s record-breaking box office run this summer, it may just be a matter time before someone gets the idea to reattempt an animated series.
