Turok was a brave Kiowa warrior living some time in the 1800's before the arrival of white men. He and a young companion, Andar, wander into a savage prehistoric land they call Lost Valley and find themselves cut off from their homeland and people. They wander around Lost Valley, encountering cavemen and hungry dinosaurs (which they call "honkers"), searching for a way out.
The Turok franchise is most notable today for the Turok video games. The first Turok video game appeared early in the life of the Nintendo 64 console, and the next two sequels were also Nintendo exclusives, though were later ported to PC. The fourth installment of the series, Turok: Evolution, released in 2002 across all console formats, was a critical and financial disappointment.
After the success of the Turok video games, a series of Turok novels came out, dealing with the same storyline as the games. The first book was mainly the first game in text and then the second, third and so on were their own stories.
In 2005, Buena Vista Games announced it had acquired the rights to the Turok franchise and would be publishing new games for consoles and handhelds. Propaganda Games will develop the new titles, and will be using Unreal Engine 3 to power the console versions. It will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Animated DVD
On January 2, 2007, the Animation Guild weblog reported that Turok, Son of Stone was being produced as a 70-minute animated DVD for Classic Media by ex-Disney (Aladdin & Hercules) producer Tad Stones. He has also produced the two Hellboy animated movies and the Buzz Lightyear TV series.
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And Turok was a Kiowa, too. Did you realize that at the time?
ReplyDeleteRecent versions of the series have had Turok fighting intelligent dinosaurs in another dimension. That's one way to update the concept so Turok doesn't come across as a caveman-style savage.
I suspect Adam Beach will update the concept if and when he does a Turok movie. For instance, you could send Turok back in time to the Cretaceous period. You could make him a South American Indian who discovers a "lost world" in the Amazon jungle. Or you could do a "Jurassic Park" thing in which scientists clone dinosaurs and they run amok.
Unfortunately, I only remember hearing of "Turok: Son of Stone" when I was a kid, and I've never read one.
ReplyDeleteThis "franchise" has great potential, especially if it gets a big break during one of those frequent "Dinosaurs are Cool" periods. Not only that, it nicely skirts around the "cowboys and Indians" stereotypes, and features a non-overdone tribe (the Kiowa) to boot.
Turok doesn't skate around the "Indian as savage" stereotype. That's all the original character was. I haven't read the updated version, but Turok was badly in need of an update.
ReplyDeleteP.S. The Legion of Super-Heroes has a member named Sun Boy. But he isn't a Kiowa Indian.