While it may be a point of disappointment for the director, Steven Spielberg snuck a deep-cut Easter egg from his filmography in The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park, and a VFX team looks to be the first to have uncovered it. The 1997 film followed Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm as he ventured to Isla Sorna in the hopes of stopping John Hammond’s ambitious nephew from launching a new amusement park. Loosely based on Michael Crichton’s sequel book, The Lost World saw mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, but its box office success kept the Jurᴀssic Park franchise alive.

In Corridor Crew‘s latest episode of their “VFX Artists React” series, the group took a look back at The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park. While reviewing the movie’s iconic T. rex rampage scene, the group humorously took note of the fake movie posters at a Blockbuster Video showcasing a Robin Williams-starring Jack and the Beanstalks and Arnold Schwarzenegger-led King Lear adaptation. It would be the latter that would attract their attention, with Niko Pueringer revealing it to be a deep-cut Spielberg Easter egg harking back to his work on Animaniacs. Check out their explanation in the quote and video below:

There is no Arnold Schwarzenegger King Lear, and there is no sequel to [Robin Williams’] Jack called Jack and the Beanstalks. Now, the crazy thing about this Easter egg, we’re going to go deep on this Easter egg here. Steven Spielberg was the executive producer of Animaniacs, there’s an Animaniacs skit about reading Variety, the magazine about Hollywood’s entertainment business — which is a super inside baseball skit — and there’s a joke in there that Yakko makes that Paramount is struggling, so they cast Arnold Schwarzenegger in King Lear. It’s a lyric from an Animaniacs song, and they put it into a poster in Steven Spielberg’s Jurᴀssic Park 2.

What The Lost World’s Animaniacs Easter Egg Meant For Spielberg

He Would Later Bring It Full Circle

Across its five-season original run, and three-season revival run, Animaniacs proved to be just as much for adult audiences as for young ones with its meta commentary and humor. As denoted by the Corridor Crew group in the above video, the “Variety Speak” skit is certainly one segment that required more of an in-depth knowledge of Hollywood than most younger viewers were privy to. Some of the other more notable Animaniacs references to have gone over kids’ heads at the time include the infamous “Fingerprints” joke and 2001: A Space Odyssey parody.

Given the show was still generally targeted towards kids, it also makes sense why some adult viewers wouldn’t recognize the faux King Lear poster in The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park. The broad idea of a Schwarzenegger-led William Shakespeare adaptation is humorous enough to catch older audiences’ eyes, particularly when paired with the fake Robin Williams and Tom Hanks movie posters, the former of which was already another Spielberg nod to his and Williams’ Hook from a few years prior to the first Jurᴀssic Park.

Interestingly enough, Spielberg would even bring the Animaniacs and Jurᴀssic Park reference cycle full circle with the latter revival’s premiere, in which the three-time Oscar winner appeared himself to welcome the returns of Yakko, Wakko, Dot, Pinky and the Brain to the screen. It would come with a few twists, however, as Andy Milder voiced Spielberg, Brain actor Maurice LaMarche voiced Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, Keith Ferguson voiced Sam Neill’s Dr. Grant and Abby Trott voiced Laura Dern’s Dr. Sattler.

Our Take On The Lost World’s Animaniacs Easter Egg

Spielberg Has Frequently Paid Homage To Some Of His Most Iconic Works

Given he’s been behind some of the most iconic franchises in history, Spielberg’s films are some of the most parodied and referenced in pop culture, but it’s even more fascinating when the filmmaker looks to include them in his own movies, as he did with The Lost World. His 2018 adaptation of Ready Player One is certainly the one with the most self-referential Easter eggs thanks to its video game setting, while the likes of The Adventures of Tintin featured a few nods to his Indiana Jones movies, showing his continued appreciation for all of his past works.

Source: Corridor Crew