Ark: The Animated Series - Vestigialization Of A Series

Ark: The Animated Series is a 2024 animated series based on the video game, Ark: Survival Evolved. The story is taken directly from collectable pages scattered throughout the video game, which recounts the same story from the perspectives of multiple characters, each writing in their native language. Hand drawn animation was chosen for the series because it "ages better" than 3D and is not easily mistaken for a video game cut-scene. Snail Games (publisher) chose the American based studio, Lex + Otis, to animated the series and paid for a massive, star-studded ensemble to voice the characters.

The series was announced in 2020 but went without a confirmed release date or streaming platform until 2024, when the first six episodes were released unexpectedly in a surprise drop. For unexplained reasons, part two was delayed to sometime in 2026. Given the developer/publisher's history of abandoning projects or announcing vaporware, I have decided to release this review of "Part 1" and will update it in the future if or when 'Part 2' is released.

Credit Music: Awakening (by Gareth Coker)

Spoiler Warning: I am going to give a synopsis of each episode and my opinions at the very end.

Episode 1: Element 1

An Australian woman from the 21st century, named Helena Walker, awakens in the ocean and is chased to shore by a megalodon that is subsequently consumed by a leedsichthys. On the beach she discovers a strange gem embedded in her wrist and adopts a friendly "endangered" dodo, much to the chagrin of Bob, a survivor who had planned on eating the bird. Bob was fighting in World War II two weeks ago before washing up on the beach, same as Helena. The sight of long extinct animals such as achatina, brontosaurs, triceratops, and pteranodon leads Helena to conclude that the island must be some sort of 'lost world'. As a biologist and paleontologist, Helena expresses her belief that lived experiences and memories can be recalled through DNA.

"Bob" was one of two default player character names, the other being "Joe". New players who stuck to the beach (a safe zone) were often called "Beach Bobs".

She discovers an injured parasaurolophus which she saves and names "Scary". Shortly after, Bob is killed by men riding raptors and Helena is taken captive on the orders of Sir Edmund Rockwell, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences from 1890s London. Appalled by the use of human slaves and the poor condition of the animal mounts, Helena tries fleeing from the Legion Tribe but is stopped by their leader, a Roman Centurion named Gaius Marcellus Nerva riding atop a tyrannosaurus.

"No one knows what or even where this place is. Some think it to be the afterlife, and others purgatory. I call it "The Ark". But of one thing I am certain, we are in a crucible from which only the strongest and most fit shall emerge." -Edmund Rockwell

During a private meeting with Gaius, he reveals a green artifact to Helena and asks if she can discern its meaning. There are two others in the hands of his enemies. When brought together he believes he will be granted the power to return to his time. While his back is turned, Helena uses an achatina she picked up earlier to taint Gaius' wine, paralyzing him. She grabs the artifact and lets loose the tribe's malnourished raptors to cause a distraction. While running away on Scary, she is pierced by a spear.

Episode 2: Element 2

Helena struggles to gather her own food and is attacked by troodon in the night, causing her to stumble into a pit containing a saber-cat. An ancient Chinese warrior from the Three Kingdoms era called Mei-Yin Li comes to her aid. Mei-Yin guides Helena through a cave while teaching her basic survival skills and explains that word of the altercation with Gaius has gotten around. She tried and failed in the past to destroy him and has the blue artifact is in her possession. The red artifact is with a man called Kor the Prophet.

While dodging arthropluera and onychonycteris, they come to a green gate that opens in response to Helena's green artifact. Inside is a spider broodmother and its spawn. Upon defeat the pair are rewarded with guns. A hologram then activates to indicate that one of the three floating obelisks in the sky has become operational.

The backstory and importance behind Mei-Yin's "Beast Queen" title is never shown. Originally she had a menagerie of dinosaurs and a black raptor she was very fond of.

Episode 3: Element 3

The commotion draws the attention of a tribe with whom Mei-Yin has connections. They ride diplodocus through a redwood forest in order to reach the tribe's tree house village where Mei-Yin tries to convince the former Apache outlaw, John Dahkeya (real name 'Thunder Comes charging') to resume his fight against Gaius. However, the tribe is battling swamp fever and can't get enough blue flowers because a "great bird" has eaten them all. Helena believes the bird may have inherited the flower's healing properties through epigenetic markers and sets out to tame one.

Climbing past dimorphodon and meganeura to a pteranodon nest site, they grab an egg and then ride a pteranodon home. The egg hatches into a quetzalcoatlus which John lets his adopted daughter Alaise keep as a pet.

If the show tried to emulate how people actually play ARK, then everyone would just be using "flyers" to get around all the time.

Episode 4: Element 4

The group makes plans to free the slaves being held at one of Gaius' mining camps, but their current numbers are too thin to launch an attack. The group tames a herd of stegosaurs to remedy their low numbers. Wearing disguises, they try sneaking into the camp but are immediately detected by the camp's head, Domina (also known as Octavia), a former gladiator.

After being thrown in with the other slaves, Helena uses the acid from an arthropluera to eat through her shackles and startles a doedicurus (used to mine rocks) in order to cause a distraction. She hides alongside the ankylosaurus used to pull carts, but is once again caught by Domina. This prompts the slaves to rebel by riding the ankylosaurus into battle against guards mounted on purlovia.

Helena lowers the drawbridge, allowing Mei-Yin and the stegosaurs to enter. Angered, Domina rides her yutyrannus into battle, letting out a fear inflicting roar that clears the battlefield. John arrives with his tyrannosaurus pair which succeed in overpowering Domina, knocking her off the bridge. An enemy messenger is seen running from the encampment but Helena refuses to take a shot at him.

"You want to talk to me of killing. You've kept those soft little hands of yours clean, but she is no doubt here because of you. You gave the orders, but you don't swing the axe; so you think that somehow keeps you pure and innocent." -Domina

Episode 5: Element 5

At the tree house tribe's base, Helena trains in her free time: cooking with Alaise and her megalania, racing with Mei-Yin and the gallimimus, carrying water buckets alongside lystrosaurs, and engaging in combat training with her fellow man.

Elsewhere, Gaius expresses disappointment with Rockwell because he believes Rockwell had a hand in Helena's escape, thus allowing the "Beast Queen" to challenge him openly. News from the mining camp messenger only angers him further. In the night, Gaius arrives at the tree tribe's base with armored brontosaurs carrying siege weaponry. John manages to hold them off with the guns Helena and Mei-Yin retrieved from the artifact gate, long enough for the tribe to evacuate through baryonyx infested swamps.

Although the redwood trees are shown easily burning in the show, redwoods are naturally resistant to fire, insects, and fungi in real life because they are high in tannin and do not produce resin or pitch.

Episode 6: Element 6

The tree tribe finds safety before making plans to rescue Mei-Yin, who was taken captive by Gaius. A small group rides megalania up the walls of the enemy base to plant explosives. The blast opens the doors for the tribe's two tyrannosaurs, allowing them to gang up on and kill Gaius' tyrannosaur. As the group escapes with Mei-Yin, Gaius calls in his giganotosaurus. John challenges Gaius to single combat and is slain, but not before setting off an explosion that kills the giganotosaurus.

"These are not my stars, and this is no afterlife. If it were, I would see my wife again, or hold my son in my arms. But this place has given Alaise a new life. And for that alone it must be something sacred... and surely has a purpose of its own." -John Dahkeya

Thoughts:

The show starts out with a lot of mystery, a sense of discovery, and wildlife that is made out to be both wondrous and dangerous. Then it starts slaughtering these creatures left and right without much of a fight. The size of the dinosaurs changes to suit whatever is most convenient for the plot, such as making the achatina and arthropleura pocket-size while super-sizing the lystrosaurus and purlovia. The story also places a lot of focus on a creature (the parasaurolophus) that is statistically weak and has limited uses in the video games, while downplaying the tyrannosaurs (many player's go-to battle dino) who are bested by the much bigger giganotosaurus - a dinosaur that is destroyed as suddenly as it appears.

Helena as a protagonist is pretty vanilla. There is nothing remarkable about her and I just don't care about her mundane past or the spontaneous romantic relationship with Mei-Yin that literally comes out of nowhere (I didn't mention this in my summary). Not only do these two have zero chemistry, but they also never hook up in the video game's storyline because Mei-Yin already has a girlfriend in the games called Diana Altaras. This isn't the only unusual alteration they made to the original story either. In the game Rockwell wasn't psycho evil - he was just a scientist inventing new foods and cures (which you can find recipes for). His relationship with Helena starts out amicable but gradually deteriorates as she makes more and more discoveries. Rockwell's jealousy turns to paranoia, which is then exacerbated by the corrupting effects of "Element" (or "Edmundium" according to Rockwell) - a substance used in space technology. It is a gradual mental decline into cartoon villainy born out of envy. The show's version of Rockwell portrays him as irredeemably evil from the start and not terribly bright either.

Some of the flashbacks and messaging of the show felt out of place (which I also didn't include in the summary), almost like they were included for the sole purpose of virtue signaling. Normally flashbacks are used in media to show how a character keeps making the same mistakes without learning anything, or to show how they've grown as a person and improved over time. They may also be used to explain why a particular person or item is important to the plot, but that doesn't really happen here. Mei-Yin's backstory was pretty good, explaining why she is cautious around people and is as skilled of a warrior as she is, but the rest of the character flashbacks felt disruptive to the plot. For example, there is one flashback in which Helena is fighting for aboriginal rights in the modern day, but then it just ends there and doesn't do anything more with it. Another one is just Helena and her wife farting. I suppose an argument could be made that these flashbacks show Helena's lineage and taste in a partner, but then what bearing does any of that have on the current dino-warfare plot?

My biggest question after watching this show is who the intended audience is. It seems to want to be taken seriously, but the characters are written like one-dimensional Saturday morning cartoons and lack nuance. The villains are evil to a cartoonish degree, such as whipping a restrained parasaur for seemingly no other reason than to demonstrate just how 'evil' they are. Then you have Helena carrying around a dodo while fleeing for her life and it just looks ridiculous. I guarantee you a Roman Centurion couldn't care less about ARK's version of a chicken. So then it has got to be for kids, right? Well... it can't be; not with all the swearing and gore in the second half. Like Disney's "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend", it sits in this weird middle-ground where it is simultaneously too simple and silly for adults while also being too crass and violent for children.

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