Crash Bandicoot: The Thread

[Your Vest Friend]

Sounds like Tiny might have been either one of the earliest concepts made for Crash 2 or actually a leftover from Crash 1. I know the Komodo Brothers are the latter. 

Speaking of which, you can tell this would have been before Crash 2 was close to finalisation because of how different the Komodo Brothers' designs were. I mean, I recall someone saying they were originally the Kimono Brothers or something, and their garb is much more Japanese than Arabian there. Also Joe is in red!

[Tani Coyote]

My friend is saying this was a cancelled ad for the first game.

 

Was Tiny ever planned for the first game, though? He's the one thing that convinces me that isn't the case.

[CrashRatchetFan]

My friend is saying this was a cancelled ad for the first game.

 

Was Tiny ever planned for the first game, though? He's the one thing that convinces me that isn't the case.

Tiny and the Komodos were designed by Joe Pearson to appear in the first game but were pushed for the sequel. 

This was done by AKOM. The same people who did Batman, Animanics, Tiny Toons and I believe Tom & Jerry Kids. 

Edited August 13, 2015 by CrashRatchetFan

[Your Vest Friend]

Actually, scratch that, it wasn't the Kimono Brothers...this is a quote from Charles Zembillas

As far as I recall Joe [Pearson] came up with the idea for the characters. In the production bible this is their description...

............

KIMODO AND KIMONO (The Dragon Brothers)

These characters are located at the end of the Ruins area, and must be defeated before proceeding to the next island.

.............

There's also fairly extensive bios on them. At some future date I'll see what can be done about getting this out.

This cartoon would definitely fit with that info.

[E-122-Psi]

Tiny being a leftover from Crash 1 would add more logic to him suddenly being Cortex's most loyal minion in Warped onwards.

Unless he's a truly obscure canon immigrant.

Edited July 18, 2015 by E-122-Psi

[Your Vest Friend]

Not only has this been proven real by Pearson's response to it, I tracked down where he got it from;

David Siller, he was a producer on Crash 1.

[Irish David]

Ohhhhhh the temptation https://www.ubertee.com/product/bandicoot-time. I loved Crash Bandicoot when i was growing up but i started losing interest after The Wrath of Cortex, i didn't have a PS2/3 or an Xbox so I didn't pick anything up after that. Personal favourites were Crash 3 and CTR. Hope that he makes a comeback but I doubt it will be anytime soon

[Jango]

HOLY CRAP!

Why/how in the heavens wasn't this brought up before? This is probably 18 years old stuff!! Talk about time travel! The world MUST see this!

Edited July 18, 2015 by Jango

[Your Vest Friend]

Okay, so yeah, this animation suddenly popped up and people got excited over it, me included. But me being ever so curious, I snuck around the uploader's account, which led to a chain of events which has now seen David Siller, aforementioned Crash 1 producer and the one who showed it first, actually speak on the subject of the intended purpose of it;

It was based on ideas for where we were going with this IP at that time. It was probably too ambitious in nature and was also trying to be humorous. It was never used or even embedded in the game as a hidden "easter egg" treat.

Once UIS licensed the game to Sony for publication, Sony did not want it utilized since they were heavily pushing the "3D" agenda.

So yeah, it wasn't actually for a cartoon at all, but for an idea for the game itself. Hence why there was that ending animation there. 

[E-122-Psi]

Explains why hand drawn Crash is rarely seen. A shame really. The universe looks cool in that format. Should the first game ever finally get a remake I'm all for them adding this in some way.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Okay, so yeah, this animation suddenly popped up and people got excited over it, me included. But me being ever so curious, I snuck around the uploader's account, which led to a chain of events which has now seen David Siller, aforementioned Crash 1 producer and the one who showed it first, actually speak on the subject of the intended purpose of it;

So yeah, it wasn't actually for a cartoon at all, but for an idea for the game itself. Hence why there was that ending animation there. 

Well that aught to solve for this one then.

Edited July 19, 2015 by Jovahexeon Joranvexeon

[CrashRatchetFan]

Huh, so they were going the Sonic CD route in terms of animated cutscenes, eh? Interesting nonetheless. 

A little bit more info regarding this; this was produced by Universal Cartoon Studios (the same people who did the Earthworm Jim cartoon) and as a matter of fact it's almost exactly like EWJ but with Crash Bandicoot characters. Also, Jim Cummings is the guy who's singing. By the way, if you follow Charles Zembillas' blog which he shares his Crash artwork, a lot of the frames/keyframes are lifted DIRECTLY from his character designs. Also, the island archipelago background artwork from the very beginning came from ND's old website:

It's funny that years later, Titans and Mind Over Mutant would utilize the idea of animated cutscenes to bridge the games. 

Edited July 19, 2015 by CrashRatchetFan

[Mauro Fonseca]

Pearson says it WAS a proposal for a cartoon show, though. Odds are what Siller means is

 

1- the cartoon show didn't go forward

2- we  didn't even reuse this as an easter egg

3- one of the main reasons it didn't go forward is Sony wanted  Crash to always be 3d.

[Graystripe2000]

Huh, so they were going the Sonic CD route in terms of animated cutscenes, eh? Interesting nonetheless. 

A little bit more info regarding this; this was produced by Universal Cartoon Studios (the same people who did the Earthworm Jim cartoon) and as a matter of fact it's almost exactly like EWJ but with Crash Bandicoot characters. Also, Jim Cummings is the guy who's singing. By the way, if you follow Charles Zembillas' blog which he shares his Crash artwork, a lot of the frames/keyframes are lifted DIRECTLY from his character designs. Also, the island archipelago background artwork from the very beginning came from ND's old website:

It's funny that years later, Titans and Mind Over Mutant would utilize the idea of animated cutscenes to bridge the games. 

Crash of the Titans didn't use animated cutscenes. Only Mind over Mutant. 

[Ripe]

So, animated cutscene and possible plans for animated serie? Watching the video I'm not sure that should I be happy or sad that it never happened, probably happy because the animation has some, questionable things (and because of the history of video game TV-shows).

When it comes to Crash, I love it. Games on the PS1 were the ones which I played most as a kid. Classic trilogy are some of my all-time favourites, my favourite being Warped, and CTR is great kart-racer. I even remember liking Crash Bash very much but I haven't played that in the long time because I no longer have the copy. But Crash 4? Well, after that the next game I played was Mind Over Mutant, which was ok. I really enjoyed the story (even Finnish dub was good) but gameplay, while fun raised few questions as a long-time fan. After that nothing and I don't know if there is any hope for a future Crash game which I would call a worthy sequel to Crash 3.

[E-122-Psi]

I kinda felt underwhelmed by Mind Over Mutant, the platforming kinda dragged and the levels, while a nice variation in genres, weren't nearly as lush and huge as they were in Titans. I did like it wasn't over amok with button bashing like Titans, which got even duller at times (especially with how damn long the levels were) but it still didn't feel like a perfection of the formula and the Aku boarding, which WAS fun in the first game, was also gone. Coco playable was nice, especially with a co op option, but she was basically just a skin (the sad thing is this is her best developed playable role in the series by a lot).

What I also liked about Titans was that, despite the over the top humour and personality changes, it truly felt like a cinematic version of Crash with a decent story and some great bits of character (Twinsanity was too, but it was nearly all for Cortex). Mind Over Mutant dropped pretty much all of it for 'Yay, parodies'.

Still we did at least get something of a Crash cartoon:

 

Concerning Titans/MOM, I liked it was of the few Crash platformers to take full advantage of multiplayer (especially the PSP Titans which had a VS mode). Only one other platformer did so, the portable title N Tranced. It's a shame because the retro Crash levels seemed as perfect for racing around in as Sonic ones.

Edited July 19, 2015 by E-122-Psi

[CrashRatchetFan]

Crash of the Titans didn't use animated cutscenes. Only Mind over Mutant. 

You're half-right but COTT had at least one animated cutscene to open the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bncx-4VJDnk

[CrashRatchetFan]

Apologies for double-posting, but we got some interesting discoveries.

For those of who unaware of a man named David Siller, he is known for creating Aero the Acrobat but he had a large part in creating the Crash Bandicoot IP. I suggest that you check out his Facebook page and add him as a friend ASAP. You'll find some mind-blowing things:

https://www.facebook.com/crashbandicoot.untoldstory?fref=ts

[Jango]

Post it up! Some of us don't have facebook! Please!

[Your Vest Friend]

They'd know David Siller if they've been following the animation thing, I mentioned it was him who uploaded, he's the catalyst for everything that's happened in the last three days regarding Crash.

[CrashRatchetFan]

What Dave posts is deserved to be worthy of front-page news. He was sorely responsible for all the things we loved about the first game (gameplay mechanics, level design, etc...). We never heard of Universal's side of the story because there was no concrete evidence to support it until now. 

For example, did you know Mark Cerny had a certain dark side? He wasn't satisfied with the final character art set created by Zembillas and Pearson. Check it out:

Remember Jason Rubin constantly mocking the Marketing Director at Universal about potential names for Crash and the Tawna controversy? She wasn't even at Universal at this point:

Little is known about Universal Interactive's president but he was sorely responsible for Crash becoming exclusive to Sony in the first place and was a swell guy to work for:

...and then Rubin got him fired...

And last but not least, the egomaniacal Jason Rubin:

So yeah, remember all of those blog posts and interviews of Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin about the origins of Crash? This makes all of that nonexistent. In plain talk, Gavin and Rubin were and still are full of shit. David Siller tells it like it is. 

There's plenty more to show and tell but I'm busy at the moment. Maybe somebody else can pitch in?

 

Edited July 22, 2015 by CrashRatchetFan

[MightyRay]

Holy fish! This changes a lot of things! I hope this bloke keeps spilling the beans about Crash because this just got interesting!

[CrashRatchetFan]

More from Dave's FB page, this time concerning the music,

As mentioned in an earlier response, I hired Mark Mothersbaugh and his Mutato Muzika operation to do the music for Crash Bandicoot. the Naughty Dog guys went snowboarding and didn't want to get involved with this, except to try to bitch slap me. I got his contact from someone else at Universal Studios through Rob Biniaz contacts. Mark came to our offices and was wearing a frilly brown coat and green sunglasses, but he was cool. We hit it off, so I hired him. I then prepared and sent him an outline and description of the type of music we wanted. He and his group nailed it! I sent him a message telling him how much we loved the new culture pop music they were creating. The following days later, as I came to work, Rubin called me angrily into his private office and shut the door. He processed to yell at me using many curse words.

Apparently Dan Kollmorgan, the sound programmer had reported to Rubin a discussion he had had with Josh Mancell, Mark Mothersbaugh's associate at Mutato Muzika. What was the problem? Well, I sent a message to Mothersbaugh that as "Producer" I would be the point person for them to deal with and not to deal with Naughty Dog directly. I was told by Mark Cerny and Rob Biniaz to handle this relationship that way. They did not want everyone at Naughty Dog communicating and possibly confusing the direction of their work. I was a "soldier under command" so I did that.

Back in Rubin's office, he was angry at me about "this letter" and then threaten my life! He said I was going to be sorry! I did NOT report this to management or anyone one else at that time. I was a mature adult who could take this and I wasn't afraid of Rubin as I came from a tough neighborhood and had loads of associates myself. Rubin's father was a lawyer and I suppose told him to always act tough or people will shit on you. Those tactics do NOT work, but that was the final straw. Mark Cerny then used this severed relationship to get involved as Sony had just arrived. He said quote "They don't like you!"....

Speak about failing to support your own directive and your employee!!!

Rubin was an asshole and Cerny was an opportunist. Cerny comes off as more surprising since he didn't even back up Dave. It gets much worse though...

[Jango]

This is surreal. We knew some of them had misunderstandings during the production of Crash, like Charles Z. and Jason, but this, even with Mutato Muzika's Mark? Rubin's description is exactly how I would describe my boss. Outside working space he is totaly normal, cool, funny. But working for him is most of the times a nightmare, he can be insane, yells and call names to the face of all the employees... Just to proove that every industry has its problems. How they managed to keep working together for more 7 games? Deep inside they must've had passion for what they were doing. But still, having someone bipolar like Rubin (if this is really the truth) in charge, will only complicate the work, and even affect its final quality, not to mention his employees's mental and physic state will be affected too... No wonder why they never spoke about REALLY going all the way to do another Crash game, side effects and bad memories of those times.

[CrashRatchetFan]

This is surreal. We knew some of them had misunderstandings during the production of Crash, like Charles Z. and Jason, but this, even with Mutato Muzika's Mark? Rubin's description is exactly how I would describe my boss. Outside working space he is totaly normal, cool, funny. But working for him is most of the times a nightmare, he can be insane, yells and call names to the face of all the employees... Just to proove that every industry has its problems. How they managed to keep working together for more 7 games? Deep inside they must've had passion for what they were doing. But still, having someone bipolar like Rubin (if this is really the truth) in charge, will only complicate the work, and even affect its final quality, not to mention his employees's mental and physic state will be affected too... No wonder why they never spoke about REALLY going all the way to do another Crash game, side effects and bad memories of those times.

You got it wrong, there was no confrontations between ND and Mutato (as far as I know), it's just another case of Rubin's inflated ego trying to have creative control over every bit of production and in order to convince himself and others worthy, had to wipe off Charles, Joe, and Dave from existence. 

Also, here's some of Joe Pearson's designs for some of the supporting cast. Beautiful and full of energy I might add: