In the grand tradition of cheesy TV show tie-ins to video games comes the Rayman animated series. Made three years after the Donkey Kong Country started airing, it uses similar 3D CGI technology but a bit more advanced; it looks a lot better than that show did. Only four 11-minute episodes were made before its cancellation. It was made in French Canada (much like the DKC show) and dubbed in at least French, English, and German. Once again I will link to Haruka Tavares’s Youtube channel, where you can watch all four episodes in all three of these languages, and also the short making-of documentary. There was a DVD release but only in France, although it has all voice tracks included.

Looking at the screenshot above, you might be forgiven for it feeling unfamiliar. The show was produced at the same time as Rayman 2 was still in development but for whatever reason did not use the characters from the game. Nonetheless the world feels very inspired by the game’s style and tone and some of the characters seem like parallels or replacements for game characters, such as Betina being inspired by Betilla/Ly and Lacmac being a stand-in for Globox.

Aspects taken directly from the games include Rayman himself, Flips who is a Ludiv, and Razorbeard who in this case is the lackey of the main villain. The initial premise is also based on an early story iteration for Rayman 2, of a cosmic circus kidnapping Glade dwellers as attractions. Also, strangely Ed from Tonic Trouble has a cameo as a jack-in-the-box.

While the circus forms the basis for the first episode, the story is actually an ongoing arc which quickly progresses from imprisonment to an escape, to Rayman and friends as fugitives hiding out in a city. I suppose from there it does devolve into an episodic sitcom format with the gang in an abandoned apartment having wacky scrapes involving the detective who is hunting them.

There’s a lot of unique content to the show’s world. The circus master Rigatoni is a typical cartoon villain, but he quickly disappears from the show. The primary antagonist is Inspector Grub, a loser detective who becomes a sympathetic figure by the end. His species seems like a much taller variation of a Teensie, and they populate the city of Aeropolis where the action takes place. This city is a developed society with public transport, tall buildings, etc., which is not often seen in the series, but it’s pretty self-contained and surrounded by forest so it’s not too out of place.

The circus inmates who escape with Rayman are a bunch of unique misfits; apart from Rayman and Flips, Lacmac is a blue rabbit-like creature who is strong but stupid, Betina is seemingly a human girl and the “sensible one”, and Cookie is an anthropomorphic mammal of some kind who is the complaining hypochondriac one but who has useful skills. What with the strange species and societies throughout the series and especially in Rayman 3, it’s not inconceivable that this setup could be in the same world as the games (yes I’m making that argument).

I enjoyed the first two episodes when there was an ongoing narrative more than the later two which fall back on cheap sitcom tropes. The dialogue is not great throughout but the scenarios are interestingly strange; I liked the monorails, the giant car-eating monster, the flying circus, the on-the-lam feel. The show looks good for the time, and the visual design is quite strong; out of all of it, the design of the buildings and environments feels the most like Rayman and much like the Super Mario Bros movie is the best part of the show.

After watching it I’m convinced that there’s no reason it can’t be part of the game world. Razorbeard could just be acting the minion part as a result of being down on his luck after his defeat (either after Rayman 2 or Rayman 3 GBA), and everything else fits well enough (Lacmac even makes a secret cameo appearance in Rayman, apparently). I’m now integrating it into my internal continuity. One final strange note; the voices are a mixed bag what with Betina having three different actors between four episodes and the cheesy cartoon tack most of the cast takes. But Rayman is voiced by Billy West who is apparently doing an early iteration of his Fry voice, only a lot more… Bostonian, I think? If nothing else that’s worth watching for.