One of the greatest disappointments about Jurassic Park is that there was no animated spin-off. Considering the wealth of Saturday morning cartoons in the early 90s, along with the success Spielberg’s Amblimation was enjoying, you’d think a JP cartoon would be a no-brainer, but alas it never materialised.
Well, Universal did consider a series and actually put some serious work into developing it. Artist William Stout was hired to create some concepts for the film, and a selection of them can be seen above. No surprise that the cast were scheduled to return, but it’s fun to see that one of Jurassic World’s stars - the Mosasaur - was set to make an appearance too.
Stout is selling these pieces, so head over to his website if you’re interested.
More information about the series can be seen in another post from Stout, dated 26th April 2014. Revealing that development progressed far enough for there to be a trailer, Stout writes:
“Although I own a copy, I don’t think this trailer is available anywhere.
“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.”
Whether this was the sole reason is impossible to say, but hopefully we’ll see more art, and maybe even that trailer, sooner or later.
