The Lost World is a Canadian-French animated series that adapts Arthur Conan Doyle's famous story The Lost World and aired in 2002, the same year fellow television adaptation Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, likewise an International Co Production that involved Canada, ended.
Contains examples of:
- Abusive Precursors: There were not one, but several cycles of civilization on the plateau predating the modern Ayara, the majority of whom were oppressive and cruel to the other inhabitants of the plateau before meeting their downfall. It's never outright confirmed whether "the Ancients" refers to a singular empire or not, but it seems to be implied there were quite a few and each met a different doom.
- Adapted Out: Irish Edward Malone is omitted, a first for an adaptation of the story, and replaced by American Billy Turner.
- Adaptation Name Change: In a manner of speaking, since Challenger's full name is shortened from "George Edward Challenger" to just "Edward Challenger."
- Adaptational Dumbass: Challenger, originally a professor in the original story and its sequels, is a man of lower intellect.
- Adaptational Job Change: Due to Adaptational Dumbass, Challenger is implied to be a sailor by profession, but still an adventurer.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: The members of the expedition repeatedly refute the idea of magic being real regardless of evidence to the contrary, especially Roxton and Summerlee. It takes a giant ghost made of the collective restless spirits of an entire long-dead civilization appearing right in front of them all to make them finally believe in anything supernatural.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- The Parasaurolophus are not only bipedal, but have more tyrannosaur-like bodies with short forelegs and very long hindlegs.
- The pterosaurs all lack pycnofibers and take off like birds, and most don't really resemble real species, especially the Pteranodon (called the "Kua'chi" by the Ayara) which have webbed fins on their heads and tails. The Rhamphorhynchus (called the "Quetzalcoatl" by the Ayara) are also much bigger and more aggressive than in real life. That said, they are shown perching quadrupedally just as often as bipedally, and have correct plantigrade feet. Summerlee also correctly points out Pteranodon don't have teeth.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Than most animated kid's shows of the time. Throughout the series there is a shocking amount of scenes where animals get killed or eaten with visible wounds and bloodshed, although nothing TOO gory is shown for long.
- Canon Foreigner: Protagonist Billy Turner and his mother Molly are both new additions.
- Cartoon Creature: It's unknown what kind of dinosaur Giggles is supposed to be. He looks somewhat like older depictions of Oviraptor (with a small nose horn instead of a crest) but is frequently shown crouching and running on all fours.
- Demoted to Extra: Challenger, the main character of not just the original novel but the original series of stories, is changed from the leader of the expedition to a simple member, while the leader of the expedition is now Summerlee.
- Dirty Coward: Maplewhite and Culver at every opportunity, with Culver embracing the 'coward' part more and Maplewhite the 'dirty'.
- Domesticated Dinosaurs: The Ayara ride on saddled Parasaurolophus just like horses/camels, and also keep Coelophysis and Protoceratops in pens at the village, though it's not clear what they use them for. Maplewhite and Culver ride on Centrosaurus in one episode.
- Evil Uncle: Refreshingly averted with Urkan. While far from a nice guy and somewhat power-hungry, he never makes any attempt to usurp his sister or his niece's birthright.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: A female T. rex falls off a cliff and is impaled through the skull by a tree trunk. We even later get a better view of the corpse as it's being bored into by scavengers.
- Frazetta Man: The ape-men living on the plateau fit the trope to a T: huge, hairy, looking like a blend of human and gorilla, and generally aggressive. They are shown to be rather intelligent and capable of using advanced tools, however.
- Informed Species:
- The ground sloth from the third episode looks more like a chalicothere with a three-toed sloth's face.
- The Kua'chi are identified as Pteranodon by the explorers, but they hardly look like real pterosaurs, having webbed fins on their heads and long tails.
- Left Hanging: The series ended with no resolution. Jack Turner, Molly's husband and Billy's father, has made it off the plateau and vowed to return, but the show was never renewed for another season.
- Living Dinosaurs: Wouldn't be The Lost World without them.
- Mayincatec: Subverted to a degree. The Ayara people who populate the plateau are very clearly inspired by various Mesoamerican cultures, but are specified as being descended from the actual Incas.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Almost no animal featured in the series actually lived in prehistoric South America.
- The Morlocks: The Huari are yet another subversion: while they are creepy-looking, albino humanoids that live in underground caves and are initially regarded as dangerous omens, they turn out to be rather benign and actually go to the protagonists for help. Just don't make them mad...
- Raptor Attack: Velociraptor is shown to be scaly, pack-hunting, and vicious, even displaying Monstrous Cannibalism at one point.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Empress Coya of the Ayara, barring a few instances, is generally willing to trust the outsiders much more than her brother. She's also pretty wise to Urkan's antics and almost never puts any faith in Maplewhite.
- Related in the Adaptation: In a first for an adaptation, two members of the expedition are related to one another with Professor Summerlee being Lord John Roxton's maternal uncle.
- Temper-Ceratops: Inverted by the Protoceratops and Centrosaurus, which are docile enough to be domesticated by the Ayara.
- Tentacled Terror: A gigantic, freshwater octopus large enough to wrap its arms around a plane appears in one episode.
- Savage Spinosaurs: Played With. One episode has Challenger getting menaced by a Baryonyx, due to him scaring her young away.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: As can be expected, Tyrannosaurus rex makes several appearances starting with the first episode, and is something of a recurring threat.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: Stegosaurus is presented as territorial and has attacked the group at two points.
