THE MUMMY: THE ANIMATED SERIES / THE
MUMMY: SECRETS OF THE MEDJAI
Universal Cartoon
Studios, Sunwoo Entertainment
John Schneider – Rick O’Connell
Grey DeLisle – Evelyn O’Connell
Tom Kenny – Jonathan Carnahan
Nicholas Guest – Ardeth Bay
Jim Cummings – Imhotep, Sir Arthur Fenwick, opening narration (season 1), various
Michael Reisz – Colin Weasler
In 1992,
producers James Jacks and Sean Daniel approached Universal Studios about updating
the original 1932 Mummy
film for the 90s. Universal approved, but wanted the film to be kept to
around $10 million. In the following years, the concept went through several
ideas and revisions with the likes of Clive
Barker and George A. Romero
being attached. However, none of the approaches were quite right. In 1997, Stephen Sommers contacted Jacks
and Daniel with his desire to make the film. He had grown up liking the
original Mummy and wanted to reproduce the parts he liked on a grander
scale. He essentially pitched it as Indiana Jones or Jason and the Argonauts
vs. the mummy. Around this time, Universal’s management had changed due to
the spectacular failure of Babe:
Pig in the City and had a renewed interest in revisiting its
successful 1930s franchises, so they took to Sommers’ idea and greenlit the
movie with an $80 million budget.
The
Mummy, set in 1926, saw British librarian and aspiring Egyptologist
Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz)
going on a quest to discover the lost city of Hamunaptra when her brother,
Jonathan (John Hannah), came
into possession of a map he stole from American adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser). They recruited
Rick as their guide and found themselves in competition with a group of
American treasure hunters led by his former associate, Beni (Kevin J. O’Connor). The
Americans discover the Book of the Dead which Evelyn “borrows” and reads from,
inadvertently awakening Imhotep (Arnold
Vosloo). Imhotep was a high priest and sorcerer who, in 1290 BC, was having
an affair with Anck-su-namun (Patricia
Velásquez), the
mistress of Pharaoh Seti I (Aharon
Ipalé). They killed the Pharaoh and she killed herself to avoid capture by
his guards, believing Imhotep could resurrect her. However, he too had been
captured and mummified alive. It was up to Rick and Jonathan to stop Imhotep before
he sacrificed Evelyn to finally resurrect Anck-su-namum.
The Mummy opened on May 7, 1999. Despite mixed reviews, it went on to have the highest non-holiday May opening of all time with $43 million. It proceeded to amass $416.4 million worldwide. Naturally, Universal wanted a sequel and got one in the form of 2001’s The Mummy Returns. Set in 1933, Rick and Evelyn are now married and have a son, Alex (Freddie Boath), who possessed equal parts his mother’s intelligence and mischief and his father’s bravery. Alex accidentally got the Bracelet of Anubis locked onto his wrist, which would kill him within two days if he didn’t get it to Ahm Shere as shown in a vision. Also, an Egyptian cult resurrected Imhotep again so that he could confront and defeat the Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson) and assume command of Anubis’ army to conquer the world. The sequel opened on May 4, 2001 and while garnering even more mixed reviews went on to gain a $435 million box office.
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| Promotional art showing the Manacle of Osiris in action. |
Looking to keep up the momentum of the franchise and attract a younger audience, Universal commissioned the creation of a cartoon spin-off. Developed by Tom Pugsley and Greg Klein, The Mummy: The Animated Series followed a simplified version of the first movie while incorporating elements from the sequel. For the show, Evelyn (Grey DeLisle) was given a promotion at the British Museum of Antiquities for the recovery of the Book of the Dead (which alternated between being bound tablets as in the movie and a traditional book). She, Rick (John Schneider) and Alex (Chris Marquette) were given a dirigible, The Zephyr, to take them to a dig at Hamunaptra. Jonathan (Tom Kenny) tagged along to escape some unhappy people he cheated. Colin Weasler (Michael Reisz), Evelyn’s co-worker who was due the promotion she got, stole the Book and followed them in order to resurrect and control Imhotep (Jim Cummings) and exact his revenge. Instead, Imhotep subjugated Colin and sought to claim the Manacle of Osiris—the object for which Seti had him mummified for trying to steal (since adultery and murder isn’t really kid-friendly)—that had bonded itself to Alex’s wrist. With the aid of old friend Ardeth Bay (Nicholas Guest), a member of the nomadic Medjai tribe charged with keeping the world safe from Imhotep, they drove the mummy off. Every weekly episode featured an ongoing race between Imhotep and the O’Connells to find the Scrolls of Thebes, which meant control over the Manacle.
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| The O'Connells: Jonathan, Rick, Evelyn and Alex. |
To avoid
paying for actor likenesses, the character models designed by Steven Choi and John Suzuki bore only a passing
resemblance to the movie cast with Evelyn and Jonathan being given bright red
hair, Rick made blonde, and Alex an orange hue. Imhotep was given hair in his
human form, although he spent the majority of the series as a purple
semi-decomposed entity reminiscent of the early stages of reforming himself
upon resurrection in the films. Imhotep also spoke clear English, whereas while
he used it in a few scenes (an audio translation for the audience) he mostly
spoke in ancient Egyptian. Like the
films, Alex was given visions via the Manacle that helped warn or guide him on
their journeys, but also gained additional powers like energy bursts and
telekinesis. Rick’s propensity for firearms and the small armory he carried
with him was removed and replaced with a whip or other offensive objects he
found on location during fights. Ardeth did maintain his sword, but rarely used
it. Colin, while an original character, exhibited squirrely traits similar to
that of the Beni character.
 |
| Imhotep lives! ...Sort of. |
The
Mummy: The Animated Series debuted on The WB on September 29, 2001 as
part of the Kids’ WB
programming block (its debut was delayed by the 9/11 terrorist
attacks). Imhotep and Colin served as the primary villains, but typically
Imhotep would summon a monster or mummy soldiers to do his bidding against the
O’Connells before dealing with them directly himself. Most of the first season
was written by Pugsley and Klein with additional scripts by Tony Schillaci, Nick DuBois, Elaine Zicree, Marc Scott Zicree, Marty Isenberg, Robert N. Skir and Steven Melching. The music was
composed by Cory Lerios, John D’Andrea and George Gabriel, with Cummings providing
backstory narration over the opening theme. Animation duties were handled by Sunwoo Entertainment. Uniquely, before the
intro each episode opened up with the episode’s title over a sepia tone globe
showing where in the world the story was taking place at that moment. The globe
would return again during the episode to show a change in location.
The series
didn’t quite attain the heights of the films, and a little creative tooling was
done for the second season. Given the subtitle The Secrets of the Medjai complete
with a new intro, Alex was taken into the Medjai order to receive their
training and to learn how to better control the Manacle. Introduced were fellow
trainees Fadil (Jeff Bennett)
and Yanit (Jeannie Elias),
giving Alex people his own age to interact with and friends beyond his
mongoose, Tut. After having been previously, Anck-su-namun (Lenore Zann) was introduced as
a recurring villain; made a high priestess whose power and ambition could rival
even Imhotep’s to the point of betraying him after he resurrected her. This
also led to the integration that Evelyn was the reincarnation of Princess
Nefertiri, Seti’s daughter. Another recurring villain was Ninzam Toth (Michael T. Weiss), a dark
Medjai who betrayed the order. Pugsley and Klein only wrote the first and last
episodes of the season, with William
Forrest Cluverius and Greg
Weisman joining the other writers for an episode apiece.
 |
| Dark Medjai Ninzam Toth. |
The
Mummy failed to find a significant audience, due in large part to The WB
constantly putting it on hiatus from its schedule in favor of other programs
and shifting its timeslot several times. It was ultimately cancelled at the
conclusion of the second season. However, it was allowed to resolve most of its
major plotlines while leaving the possibility open for a return; something very
few animated series ever get. It remained on in reruns for the rest of that
June until it was removed from the network in July. It then aired on Toon Disney until the
channel as rebranded as Disney
XD.
 |
| Colin Weasler, living up to his name. |
In 2002, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released three
episodes edited together as a movie on the DVD Quest
for the Lost Scrolls. That year, Ubisoft published a 2D platforming video game
for the Game Boy
Advance, which allowed a player to switch between the O’Connells for
different fighting styles and skills. A 3D action game for the PlayStation 2 was
published by Hip
Games in 2004, however this time the player could only use Alex. None of
the series’ voice actors reprised their roles. As part of the promotion for the
third and final film in the main trilogy, Tomb of the Dragon
Emperor, the complete series was released across three
DVDs in 2008, and later as a single
set internationally by Mediumware in 2013. It was made available for
streaming on Peacock
in 2020.
A fourth Mummy film was planned, but ultimately scrapped in favor of Universal’s attempted Dark Universe reboot in 2017. However, the 90s Mummy franchise continued on until 2018 in the form of the Scorpion King spin-off series centering on that character. It debuted with a theatrical film in 2002 and a prequel and three sequels that went direct-to-video. Like its parent series, Scorpion King had also been announced as getting the reboot treatment.
EPISODE GUIDE:
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