NINJASAURAS REX - Awesome Character Art for Dino-Warrior Series!
If you grew up spending Saturday mornings with a bowl of cereal in your lap that would spill onto your pjs while you religiously watched shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles, then we have a treat for you! Here's some great looking character art for an original new animated series, Ninjasauras Rex, which is being developed by Emmy Award winning director Frank Paur.
His credits include the aforementioned Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles, as well HBO's Spawn, X-Men: Evolution, Men In Black: The Series, Hulk Vs. Wolverine, and many more -- essentially, the man shaped and monopolized your childhood. Paur is developing Ninjasauras Rex with frequent collaborator Steven Meyer (The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes).
Here's a short synopsis:
NINJASAURAS REX is a 1/2 hour animated adventure/comedy series that follows the exploits of a Ninja Tyrannosaurus Rex and his teenage sidekick Asper in what at first looks to be Feudal Japan. Throughout the series the heroes and the viewers will explore and discover the complex world of mystery that is the background of NINJASAURAS REX. They will unravel secrets and lies, find new allies, and fight old enemies. They will bring to the world knowledge of their forgotten past and show them the way to a glorious future.
That barely scratches the surface of the unique world that this takes place in. It has all the comedy/action potential of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but with the added promise of exploring not just ancient Asian culture and folklore, but Jurassic Park-type sci-fi elements and human civilization.
Check out the character designs and descriptions and let us know what you think! We'll hopefully be unveiling more from this project in the near future, so stay tuned.
Rex
A T-rex, Rex is retrieved from a forgotten temple as a young hatchling by Asper. More human than animal, Rex has become fiercely protective of Asper and insanely jealous whenever somebody else gets her attention. Trained in the way of the Ninja along with Asper, Rex takes to the teachings eagerly, but often bungles most of his attempts at stealth and martial arts. Luckily, he always has good old stompin’ and chompin’ to fall back on.
Asper
The young girl who finds Rex. She trains side by side with him as a ninja; she is Rex’s mouthpiece. Even though most people only hear a series of grunts coming from the dinosaur, Asper has no trouble understanding what he’s saying, often carrying on complete conversations with Rex to the confusion of others. As a teenaged girl she can tend to be very cold and calculating, although she has no problem letting her guard down around Rex (Who, compared to Asper, is a cry-baby).
The Emperor
The Emperor is living two lives. To his men and the outside world, he comes off as cruel and scary, but also powerful and smart. But when he is behind closed doors he is a whole mess of neurological disorders and tics. The constant stress of keeping a barely held-together Empire is almost too much for him and over the course of the series he starts to crack more and more. While his men all appear to be ignorant of this, a few of them are suspicious.
Shadow Master
The cruelest and darkest character on the show. Very little humor is to be found in him (Although the fear of lizards thing is kind of funny... until it leads to one of his rages). This is a character who gave up the idea of having a soul very early in the war, and because of it he has gone up in the ranks of the military quickly. But he knows how weak the Emperor truly is, and plans on one day overthrowing him and ruling in his place. But first he has to find the giant lizard that took his arm and get his revenge. A truly terrifying character, undone by his one obsession, the ticking alligator to his Captain Hook.
Ninja Master
Anybody who has seen a Shaw Bros. Kung-fu movie knows this character. Old, cantankerous, yet more wise than anybody could imagine. He guides Asper (And eventually Rex as well) toward being a Ninja. He also has a proclivity towards playful behavior. Although it comes across as strange to the others, his reasons are more sound than they understand.
Cecil (alt. name “Bucket”)
Shadow Master’s right-hand man (the irony of the position is not lost on him). A sniveling sycophant in every manner, he lives to serve and please his master. Has the largest collection of “action figures” (Dolls, really) in the land. Nobody knows that the dolls are really his way of working through a childhood trauma involving his father, a crazed donkey, and a well.
Character Dynamics:
While Rex and Asper share a strong bond, it doesn’t mean they aren’t at each others throats. Occasionally they’re more like siblings than a pet and its owner. Strong-willed Asper thinks she would make a natural leader, but Rex also thinks he would be a natural leader, especially in a world where leading means much stompin’ and chompin’. Thankfully the Ninja Master is there to put them in their place.
And although Rex is a big, scary Dino-warrior... he still has his playful side. If nobody’s watching, he isn’t above chasing a butterfly in a field or doing cannonballs into a lake.
The warring factions would obviously have a mix of dynamics. As mentioned above, sometimes necessity would cause them to form uneasy alliances. Most of the time they are at war. The humor comes from the way the military heads in charge handle the situation compared to the soldiers themselves. More thoughtful and reflective than their leaders, often times the soldiers pass the time by shouting philosophical debates across the battlefield on the finer points of war.