Netflix’s Tomb Raider series follows a popular video game adaptation trend

Key insights

• The Tomb Raider Netflix series uses animation to continue the story of Lara Croft.
• A growing trend is that video game adaptations are increasingly moving towards animated series in order to be successful.
• Animation is preferred for video game adaptations for reasons of cost-effectiveness and narrative exploration.

Netflixs Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is streaming now, following a popular trend with video game adaptations these days. The TV series continues the story of Crystal Dynamics. Grave robberyr games, but different from others Grave robber Adaptations, it’s not live action.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft takes place after the events of Survivors trilogy of games (Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider). In it, Hayley Atwell plays the voice of the legendary action hero Lara Croft, who sets off on a trip around the world after an artifact is stolen from Croft Manor. The series comes from creator Tasha Huo, who also worked on it The Witcher Prequel series Blood origin. Above all, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft don’t try to go down the old path again Grave robber The franchise’s television debut will instead use the animation format.

Tomb Raider relies on the animation trend

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is presented in anime style with animation by Powerhouse Animation Studios. The studio previously worked on titles like Masters of the Universe: Revelation and that gives it Grave robber Series with a vibrant 90s cartoon look and feel. Powerhouse Animation also worked on another video game adaptation in the same style: Castlevaniacontributing to a current growing trend in the industry of video games being adapted into animated series.

If you look at the video game adaptations that have taken place in recent years, many of them have gone the animation route. CD Project Reds Cyberpunk 2077 I have an anime series on Netflix called Cyberpunk: Edgerunnerswhich earned a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. The studio also confirmed another adaptation of Cyberpunk 2077 is in the works at Netflix, also in animated style. Netflix is ​​also responsible for other animated video game adaptations, such as those mentioned above Castlevania Series, Dota: Dragon’s Blood, Arcane: League of LegendsAnd Dragon Age: Absolution.

This trend is not slowing down either. Netflix has already confirmed an animated adaptation of Devil May Cry is in the works and an animated series titled Splinter Cell: Deathwatch with Liev Schreiber will soon be released on the streamer. In addition, there are plans to customize the Xbox War equipment franchise into an adult animated series.

Why do so many video game adaptations turn to animation?

As video game adaptations become more popular in Hollywood, animation often becomes the preferred genre for adapting these franchises. The reasoning is pretty clear: they are consistently successful. Most animated video game adaptations score above 90% reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, but they are also often well-received by fans of these franchises. In a world where there have been so many failed video game adaptations, this is a winning formula.

Additionally, animation is much cheaper to commission than a live-action series, especially for some video game franchises that require fantastical worlds or massive action set pieces. Take Grave robberFor example. The 2018 film, starring Alicia Vikander, cost nearly $100 million and barely broke even at the box office. In contrast, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft was able to travel to several different countries in one season, engage in many high-stakes action sequences across a variety of biomes, and create a visually interesting depiction of fantasy elements that would otherwise take hundreds of hours to realize in CGI . While achieving this in live-action would quickly skyrocket the budget, the Netflix series does it just as efficiently and cost-effectively in animation.

Video games and animation also have an inherent foundation. Video games have long been a place where creatives can push the boundaries of different animation styles. Some games aim to simulate reality The Last of Us or Detroit: Becoming Humanwhile others take advantage of the creative freedom that animation can provide, e.g Cuphead, the brave squireor Ghost driver. Adapting these types of games into an animated series or film is far more natural than trying to force them into live action. This is of course possible, but with different results; Notice the fans’ reactions Sonic the Hedgehog or what is to come Minecraft Film for example.

There also seems to be a trend for video game adaptations to favor the animated series format over the cartoon. While some adjustments, like the Super Mario Bros. MovieWhile the film format has had great success, an episodic format seems to work better for larger adaptations of open-world games. Franchises like Cyberpunk 2077 or Dragon Age are set in large, expansive worlds with many different characters and stories to explore. By breaking it down into 8 to 10 episodes, the creators can adapt the history of these franchises far more faithfully than if they tried to squeeze everything into a two-hour film.

Grave robber was typically a narrative action-adventure game, so it also works in a feature film format. But the Netflix series has proven that the story of Lara Croft can be played out over several episodes and presented just as faithfully in the anime style.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is now streaming on Netflix.