General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Revisioned: Tomb Raider

Revisioned: Tomb Raider (also written Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider) is a ten-part animated anthology web series based on the Tomb Raider video game franchise, distributed free of charge through the GameTap online service of Turner Broadcasting System from July 10 to November 13, 2007.¹ It was created by Ricardo Sanchez, GameTap's vice president of content, and commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of Tomb Raider, the 1996 game that introduced the archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft.² Each short film presents a different writer's and artist's take on Lara Croft, in the manner of an anthology such as The Animatrix (2003).³

Key fact	Detail
Format	Ten animated short episodes, each written and directed by a different comic book or animation creator³
Run	July 10 to November 13, 2007, on GameTap TV¹
Occasion	Tenth anniversary of the Tomb Raider franchise²
Voice of Lara Croft	Minnie Driver, Academy Award-nominated actress¹
Episode length	About six minutes on average³
Creator	Ricardo Sanchez, GameTap's VP of content²
Award	Southeast Regional Emmy Award, 2008⁴

Spoilers

Episodes and contributors

The ten episodes tell seven stories. The first three form a linked arc, "Keys to the Kingdom," written and directed by Peter Chung, the animator behind Æon Flux, in which Lara investigates the murder of an archaeologist who claimed to have found a way to bring the dead back to life.⁵^•⁷ Other stories include "Revenge of the Aztec Mummy" (written by Brian Pulido, with character design by David Álvarez), the two-part "Angel Spit" by Warren Ellis, in which Lara seeks a mysterious Antarctic substance that can cure any disease, "Legacy" by Pulido with designs by Ivan Reis, "Pre-Teen Raider" by Gail Simone, "Raising Thaumopolis" by Michael Stackpole, and the finale "A Complicated Woman," with story and art from comic book illustrator Jim Lee of Wildstorm/DC Comics.¹^•⁵^•⁷

The commissioned roster also included Cully Hamner, Christos Gage, Louie Del Carmen, and the studio Six Point Harness.¹ Because each episode came from a different creator, the visual styles vary widely, from cel-shaded and manga-inspired looks to dark realism and outright comedy.³ The series is non-canonical: each story arc takes place in its own continuity, and only "Keys to the Kingdom" and "Angel Spit" span multiple episodes.⁵

Commissioning and production

GameTap, described by its parent Turner Broadcasting System as a broadband entertainment network, announced the REVISIONED series in May 2007 as an anthology that would "explore and reimagine" well-known video game franchises, with Tomb Raider as the first subject.² Sanchez framed the casting of contributors around Lara Croft's status: "Lara Croft is an icon, so we brought in some of the most iconic creative talent of today."² The anniversary project ran alongside a companion documentary, 10 Years of Tomb Raider: A GameTap Retrospective, which profiled the games' creators, the live-action Lara Croft models, and fans.²

The writers and artists were given creative freedom over their episodes but worked from basic guidelines from the franchise's developers so that Lara would not act out of character.⁵ Production companies credited on the series include Acme Filmworks, GameTap Entertainment, Turner Studios, and Wildstorm Productions; Drew Neumann composed the music.⁶

Release and schedule

The first episode debuted on July 10, 2007, shortly after the release of the anniversary game Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and new episodes were originally scheduled to run through August 23.² The run was extended: the final episode, "A Complicated Woman," launched on November 13, 2007.¹^•⁸ All episodes were free to view at GameTap.com, an early experiment in free, web-based serialized animation.²

GameTap announced a second REVISIONED season of six episodes spotlighting games from Activision's back catalog, including Pitfall!, Kaboom!, and Pressure Cooker, developed with the comic-creator charity The Hero Initiative and writers such as Mark Waid, John Ostrander, and Paul Jenkins.¹ The Tomb Raider season remained the only REVISIONED season devoted to the franchise.⁵

Afterlife

After GameTap closed, all ten episodes were made available for free on YouTube, where they remain viewable.⁵ In 2008 the series won a Southeast Regional Emmy Award from the Television Academy.⁴ It was the first animated Tomb Raider series, and it stayed the only one for well over a decade: when Netflix announced its anime Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft in January 2021, the official franchise site noted that Lara had not been animated since the Revisioned shorts, released nearly fifteen years earlier.⁹ Among fans the series is remembered chiefly for its anthology format; the shifting art styles and standalone stories are frequently compared to Star Wars: Visions or Marvel's What If...?.⁴

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026