Welcome to "Jurassic Park" -- the animated series?

In 1993, Steven Spielberg's blockbuster had every tie-in imaginable -- from toys to T-shirts. The only thing that didn't make the cut was a proposed animated series that was in the works. An artist commissioned for the project, William Stout, recently revealed what was in store for Alan Grant and friends -- and it looks like the show would have "spared no expense."

Stout released concept art for the series on his official website, writing that the cartoon was "not going to be a kiddie show" -- though Stout points out that kids of all ages could enjoy it.

"They wanted the show to be a mature prime time series," Stout wrote, "with top writers and state-of-the-art television animation augmented with quite a bit of CG animation. Universal Cartoon Studios wanted a 'graphic novel look' to the series." Stout came in, showed his samples and was hired.
A trailer was eventually made showing off just what this series could do -- and based on the art here, it looks impressive. So why didn't the show get the greenlight? According to Stout, you can blame Spielberg.

We made a trailer to communicate the look and feel of the series, also showing how we would combine computer animation with traditional animation. All we needed was Spielberg's approval.

"I heard through the grapevine that [Spielberg] never bothered to watch what we had done," Stout said. "By that time, the word was out that he was burnt out on 'Jurassic Park' merchandising and all of the film's commercial exploitation. So, it never got made. Too bad."

At least we get to see what could have been. Thanks, internet!

Check out more of Stout's art in the gallery below.