Test Footage for an abandoned Crash Bandicoot animated series

[TigerClaw]

Apparently, There was a planned animated series on Crash Bandicoot, But it was abandoned after Sony wanted to go with 3D instead. Check out the test animated footage.
http://nerdist.com/watch-sonys-aband...imated-series/

There is a Crash Bandicoot animated series. Or at least the exhumed corpse of one. I repeat, this is not a drill.

Recently, test footage for a cartoon series inspired by Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot video game franchise hit the internet, along with plans for other possible transmedia tie-in content for the once-great video game mascot. The video, which you can watch above, was released by David Siller, a lead designer and senior producer at Universal Interactive Studio, who worked on Crash Bandicoot.

According to Siller, the series was influenced by “Animaniacs and even a few others popular at that time,” a fact that should be evident by the goofy-ass theme song playing throughout the video. “It was based on ideas for where we were going with this IP at that time,” Siller said. “It was probably too ambitious in nature and was also trying to be humorous. It was never used or even embedded in the game as a hidden ‘easter egg’ treat.”

Given the existence of animated series for The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., and Sonic the Hedgehog, it made total sense that Crash Bandicoot was being considered for his own show. However, TV wasn’t the only other arena for which Crash was being adapted. Given Universal Interactive Studios’ close proximity to the Universal Studios theme park, a themed “attraction was also discussed,” according to Siller.

These plans were scuttled on the rocky shores of reality when Naughty Dog reached a co-publishing deal with Sony that brought the anthropomorphic animal to the original PlayStation console instead. Alas and alack, the world will never know the thrills of a Crash Team Racing-style go-kart race.

The 1990s were a wild and wooly place, especially for video games. Platformers reigned supreme and every company was scrambling to create a cute, cuddly, anthropomorphic animal mascot with juuuust the right amount of attitude to appeal to the youth demographic. Spyro the Dragon, Gex, Croc, Bubsy—the list goes on and on, but few achieved the name recognition and popularity of Crash Bandicoot.

Created by Naughty Dog’s Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin for Sony Computer Entertainment, Crash Bandicoot put players in the red sneakers of its eponymous hero Crash, a resident of the Wumpa Islands who was forced to foil the nefarious Doctor Neo Cortex’s plans or die trying. (Some of those levels were pretty hard when I was younger, so there was plenty of “die trying.”)

With eighteen games associated with the franchise and more than 50 million units shipped worldwide, Crash Bandicoot is arguably one of the most successful video game franchises in history. Honestly, Crash’s disappearance is baffling given the characters’ seeming omnipresence from 1996 through the early 2000s. Yet like Smash Mouth and frosted tips before it, Crash Bandicoot, too, fell victim to the inexorable march of time. We’ll always have the PSN store and speedruns on Twitch, Crash. And this seriously godawful animated test footage. On second thought, let’s just stick with the PSN store and speedruns.

[TurtleTitan97]

This wasn't for an animated series. It was for cut scenes for the original game: http://www.gamnesia.com/news/crash-b...g#.Va7G7prbLIU

[Powder]

Wow, that's an awesome relic. I'd have definitely watched the hell out of that, even if it's not tonally in line with the game series.

[Jester]

Is that Jim Cummings singing the theme song?

[Powder]

Certainly sounds like it!

[Peanut]

Thank God someone saved the world from that sh*t. Though by the mid 90's I was pretty much out of the cartoon game.

[Jester]

Seems like it might be in the vein of Earthworm Jim. Love that series.

[The Stryker]

Jim Cummings gets a paycheck: the series.

[TMNT_Guy]

Originally Posted by Jester

Seems like it might be in the vein of Earthworm Jim. Love that series.

Makes sense, both were presumably done by Universal Cartoon Studios.

It's also interesting that Tiny Tiger and the Komodo Brothers from Crash 2 are in this. I wouldn't have minded having that intro in the game, but I would have been disappointed if that had been the ending of the game. "You win!...but the bad guy wins anyway."

It's a shame it wasn't included as an extra in Crash 2. Japan had the Crash Dance music video as an unlockable, it's a shame we didn't get anything exclusive like that.