Les Mondes Engloutis, called “Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea” in english, is a french animate
Les Mondes Engloutis, called “Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea” in english, is a french animated series that aired from 1985 until 1987.The show is about… well…. Here’s the opening narration. It does a better job than I could;“Ever since the time of the Great Cataclysm, the Arkadians have lived deep in the center of the Earth. They believed they were the only survivors of this great devastation. Their civilization thrived under the power of their sun, the Tehra…until it began to fail. In desperation, the children of Arkadia broke the law and entered the forbidden Archives, searching for a solution. What they discovered gave them hope. Anxiously, they used their special powers and created a messenger to the people above. They named her Arkana.”The show follows Arkana, an artificial person (she’s definitely not human. I’m not sure what to call her.) who discovers two human children from the surface and begs them to return with her to Arkadia to help save their sun, the Tehra, which is the source of life for the subterranean civilization. During their travels, they meet a man named Spartakus, whom is from one of the deeper tiers of the Strata (It’s like the Undergound, but they move more through alternative dimensions than through rock and caves). Spartakus is a warrior, and seeing the rather unequipped and vulnerable group, joins them to return to Arkadia. With them, is Bic and Bac, two magical fire-creating creatures who are thousands of years old and who helped create the kingdom of Arkadia. As well as the ship with a built in AI.They are often in conflict with a group of rather cartoonish punk-looking pirates. The Pirates act as if they are a group run by a democracy, but in truth the current leader Max,s girlfriend “Massmedia” (not very subtle there) broadcasts his orders through microphone to the lower pirates and influences them to how Max wants them to act and behave with her radio show. The show was developed by Nina Wolmark who is also a graduate of Sociology, and brought much of that to the story. Although aimed at children, the show managed to weave complex motivations into the characters the group meets as they travel deeper into the Underground to Arkadia, as well as Arkadia’s crumbling society itself. a Civilization pictured to be a utopia, but which in fact is stagnant due to its own comforts and reluctance to take chances and risks, even when faced with death.Other characters the group meet include a slave tasked to carry a sacred object to a king as a ritual which will grant him freedom as a reward, something the slave desperately wants, but once faced with the idea as a reality of being in control of his own life buckles for a moment in fear, thinking perhaps the comfort and safety worth remaining a slave for. As well as secular tribes unwelcoming of outsiders, and dangerous philosophies and traps from unknown inhuman forces controlling those who come across them.The show ran for 52 episodes across 2 seasons.Nina Wolmark also worked on Ulysses 31, a retelling of the Odyssey poem by Homer (written around 8th century BC) except set in space.The show also had a bad-ass intro song. The intro was dubbed into english for the show’s initial release, but when rerun it was replaced, for some… stupid… reason…(actually all the music for this show is really good)Names of characters and places were changed for the english version. I’m using the English names here because I can’t speak French so these are the names I associate with them u.u I don’t know why they named the English version “Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea” since Spartakus is not the main character -- source link
#cartoons#80s