Les mondes engloutis

This show is another one of my favorite animated shows of all time, though sadly it's also an under the radar gem that like the ancient civilizations on the show has been forgotten. I watched this show when I was about seven years old on Nickelodeon and it blew me away. The 80's decade to me was a golden age for animation as the market was starting to become more open along with our culture; a lot of animated shows were coming in overseas. Seeing this show blew me away because I honestly never seen anything like it and to this day there hasn't been any other show like it. It's too bad that French Animation didn't become a big wave like Japanese Anime over time, I honestly would love to see what other animated shows they have that I have yet to see.

I really love the animation style; the character animation is pretty good I really like how each look unique which creates some diversity and was a bit of a novelty at the time. But it's mainly the background animation that impresses me the most, I really love the detail in each of the lands and the ancient civilizations which really have just this otherworldly and slightly post-apocalyptic quality from just how colorful, strange, and even slightly familiar they all look.

The characters serve their functions they're not deep characters though they have a bit of persona and there are bits of development as the adventure goes on. Arcana whom wears this unique almost Aztec dress and head gear. She's an evolved version of the Arcadia species as she has two legs and even her figure is shaped like any humanoid. But she is armed with their mind powers which are useful throughout the show.

Spartacus whom looks like a native American /Aztec which is cool seeing a hero of that nationality which I don't see often is sort of a Tarzan like character as he a man that has lived outside of Arcadia and knows about most of the underground world. He acts as a bodyguard for Arcana and the two human surface dwellers.

Supporting characters Bic and Bac are fun as they are these smart duck bill platypus/armadillos like creatures. Other than serving up comic relief their both useful as they both have some knowledge about things in the underground world.

Then there are the villains, the Pirates whom are this odd-looking bunch that look like characters from a "Mad Magazine" cartoon. They are constantly pursuing the characters trying to capture them for their own gain. Despite all their fancy toys they have one huge problem, their all idiots. Their also kind of comic relief characters as their always fumbling around in their plight.

But really, we're all in this show for the adventure. I love the story line, it's strange yet unique and easy to understand it honestly feels like it's one that came from another world; and I love that one of the joys of the sci-fi and fantasy genre is in different kinds of plotlines, most that think outside the box. It's a cool idea on a lost ancient civilization that resides under the earth and has an artificial sun for its people to live. It sort of makes me think of a lot of the other lost civilizations like Lemuria and Atlantis and what happened to them.

This show also to me also follows a lot of the pulp adventures stories which always put fun and adventure first and store logic in the closet. Like for example, how is there oxygen and atmosphere in the layers of the earth; let alone due to the earth's mass how is it possible each land overtops the other without collapsing, what the heck is holding them? But most importantly those stories always had this fascination with Lost Civilizations and the possibilities on what they were like. I really love those kinds of stories and there really aren't that many shows that do this except for "Stargate: Atlantis" and "Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water" another underrated gem.

By its nature the plotline in saving Arcadia is just a driving point as we're all in this show not so much for the destination but the adventure. And it's on hell of an adventure, I really love how the underground world is conceived as we see the characters going deeper and deeper in their journey back we discover new kinds of lands, creatures, and civilizations that once existed. Each episode was always something new, which added to the adventure feel of the show. It always made me excited wondering what is the next land their going to, what are we going to find there?

I love how in each of these lands and civilizations we discover lots of things from the customs of people, creatures, plant life, buildings and what they were for, technology and their function, you name it. The writing and the amount of depth to each of these episodes and lands are just great there are just full of creativity and color, the possibilities are as deep as the earth the characters descend down. We even learn a little more as we go along about the underground civilization Arcadia, where it's technologically advanced, they have some sort of pet droids along with some that act as ships, their humanoid but their have no legs they float which makes me wonder more about their anatomy. But I really like how it's a civilization that is devout to the powers of the mind as they seem to value knowledge and other things of intellectual value but also possess psychic abilities.

One other thing that stands out about the show is at time it turns into a musical as in some episode there are these musical numbers that appear, at times for no reason at all. But the highlight is the theme song itself which is just fantastic, it's one of my favorite theme songs of all time which fits as it has a mysterious and adventurous tone to it.

It's true that the only bad thing about this show is it didn't have a seasonal follow up, there were just a lot of plot threads/questions that never really got answered like Spartacus's origins which we never know about or why Arcadia's history is being covered up, could there be some dark conspiracy at work? Hopefully somewhere along the line, this will be another show that will return with a new season. In this era there have been a lot of shows that have came back after ending a long time ago with new seasons like "The X-Files" so why not. Or if not do a revival so that the questions can be answered, it's a thought anyway.

"Spartacus and the Sun Beneath the Sea" shines bright.

Rating: 4 stars

I used to watch this show when I was a little girl. When I think about it, I only remember it vaguely. If you ask me, it was a good show. The opening sequence and theme song are two things I only remember vaguely, too. In addition to that, everyone was ideally cast. Also, the writing was very strong. The performances were top-grade, too. I hope some network brings it back so I can see every episode. Before I wrap this up, I'd like to say that I'll always remember this show in my memory forever, even though I don't think I've seen every episode. Now, in conclusion, if some network ever brings it back, I hope that you catch it one day before it goes off the air for good.

I remember whenever I was visiting relatives in Japan, I would always turn on this show "&Acirckadia Monogatari" (Les Mondes Engloutis' Japanese title) on every morning on NHK and I instantly fell in love with it and started my fascination with European animation as well as Asian!

It follows the adventures of two surface children (Bab and Rebekka), mysterious wanderer Spartakus, magical being Akana and two twin ardvark type creatures called Bik and Bak. The end of the world happened long ago, making the floating mystical continent of Arkadia fall beneath the oceans of planet earth. The Arkadian civilization mutate into legless people whom look part human, part jelly-bean and wear strange headdresses and lost memories of the surface world after the creation of their sun, the Shaguma. However, this sun, after many years, is fading away and something must be done, so the children of the Arkadian clan and their organic living spaceship go into the forbidden grottos of this civilization, research their ancestors and create a magical woman from the life force of the ancient Arkadians and named her "Akana".

That is the basic plot, but it gets deeper and deeper with every episode you watch of it, combining original storytelling, with time travel, paradoxes, some comedy, mythological elements and of course, a big cast of colourful characters.

I reccomend this animated series to you. It was a long time since it aired in Japan (have not seen the French version yet, want to though), but it maybe airing in other places, since LME seems to have a cult following in Europe.

I give this show full house in my voting, because I was very little when I saw it, and I loved it then, and so I have to think that I still might.

I would very much like to see this show again, or even better: buy it. But how?

It is available on French DVD, but there are no English subtitles - or in any other language, for that matter. Ergo, I can't buy the French DVD-version.

I therefore ask you, guys:

Is there a DVD version out there, with English subtitles???

Les mondes engloutis or Arkadia as it`s also known by is one of the classic series that I would love to see again someday.

The series was broadcasted on television over here in the late 80`s and the re-runs used to be broadcasted in the early 90`s, but now the series seems to have disappeared.

The music is exceptionally memorable and the atmosphere and style is absolutely of the highest class. This is a series with nostalgic value so catch it on tv whenever you can!