Animation Domination: Ark The Animated Series

Helena Walker (Madeleine Madden), a modern day Aboriginal Australian paleontologist awakes in a strange ocean and is almost immediately chased by a giant shark, but eventually makes it safely to an island shore.  She befriends a Dodo bird who was being hunted by Bob (Karl Urban).  Bob is from the 1940s and was fighting a battle in World War II when he found himself in the same ocean.  The island they are on is full of prehistoric beasts and plants.  Helena is soon captured by Sir Edmund Rockwell (David Tennant), a 19^th century scientist working for General Gaius Marcellus Nerva (Gerard Butler), an ancient Roman general who is attempting to train dinosaurs to be his battle beasts so that when he finds a way to return to his own time, he can use them to conquer the Empire and the world. Helena uses her wits and escapes but is injured in doing so.  Once to safety, she collapses and dreams of when she found out that her wife, Victoria (Elliot Page) is missing and presumed dead, but this vision gives her the strength to get up and tend to her wounds and state that she means to survive.  Her goal is to find the 3 artifacts that are prophesied to grant immense power and the way home to their own time.

Ark: The Animated Series is an animated epic science-fiction series with all six episodes streaming on Paramount+ beginning March 21, 2024.  It is based on the 2017 video game called Ark: Survival Evolved.  Throughout the years the game has had several expansions, including Genesis in February of 2020 and Genesis Part 2 in November of that same year.  In both you are accompanied by a companion AI called HLN-A voiced by Madeleine Madden and in Part 2 you fight against Sir Edmund Rockwell voiced by David Tennant.  The animated series not only used both these characters but also got the actors to reprise their roles. The animation for the series is beautiful with vibrant colors and gorgeous imagery done in a very anime style.  The storyline is intriguing and well laid out and the script is good, although some of the expositional dialogue felt a bit heavy handed and forced. The cast is stellar with Madeleine Madden, Gerard Butler, David Tennant and Michelle Yeoh, and Zahn McClarnon all do an amazing job vocalizing their characters. They show strength, anger, sadness, joy and tenderness. There are such subtle wonderful performances that both show in the animation and in the absolutely amazing performances by the actors. In addition to the leads, you have actors like Jeffrey Wright, Vin Diesel, Alan Tudyk, Karl Urban, Russell Crow, Malcolm McDowell, and Juliet Mills all expertly providing voices to characters throughout the series.

I have never played the game so know very little about the source material.  I am conflicted after watching the first episode and am unsure if I will continue watching. This has nothing at all to do with the quality of the program which seems to be top notch, but more to do with the content.  It is alluded, if not outrightly said, that every person who finds themselves on the Ark, died or were very near to death. Most was during some sort of battle, but Helena was by her own hand, either on accident or purpose.  Her wife was her strength and her rock and when she died Helena’s world came crashing down.  Throughout the episode there is both sadness and brutality to it.  And it is this sadness and brutality that I am not sure I am currently in a state of mind for.  At the same time there is kind of tenderness to the characters and a sense of truth to them as well.  There is also plenty of action and adventure and danger around every turn. There are game-like elements peppered throughout, like finding weapons, collecting objects, and taming beasts.  Overall, this is an interesting and intriguing story with a lot of heart mixed in with raw brutal moments.