Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea

Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea
Main characters (title page without text)
Created by	Nina Wolmark
Country of origin	France
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52
Production
Running time	20-25 minutes
Release
Original network	Antenne 2
Original release	September 24, 1985 (1985-09-24) – March 26, 1987 (1987-03-26)

Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea (French: Les Mondes Engloutis, "The Engulfed Worlds") is a French animated series created by Nina Wolmark. The series consists of 52 episodes, each between 20 and 25 minutes in length, divided into two 26-episode seasons.

Ever since the time of the Great Cataclysm, the Arkadians have lived deep in the center of the Earth. They believed they were the only survivors of this great devastation. Their civilization thrived under the power of their sun, the Tehra...until it began to fail. In desperation, the children of Arkadia broke the law and entered the forbidden Archives, searching for a solution. What they discovered gave them hope. Anxiously, they used their special powers and created a messenger to the people above. They named her Arkana.

The lost city of Arkadia (named for Arcadia) resembles a small Alderson Disk, and is home to an ancient civilization which escaped a Great Cataclysm in the ancient past by relocating deep within the Earth's crust. Unaware that life continued on the Earth's surface, and hoping to keep their people safe, the elders sealed all records of their past in the city's Archives.

Arkadia survives by the light of an artificial sun, the Tehra (Shagma), which is dying. A group of young Arkadian kids and teens defy the law and enter the Archives. With information about the world above, they create a messenger, Arkana, and send her above to find help.

Arkana encounters two children from the surface, Matt and his sister Rebecca, and brings them back through the underground strata (which seem more like separate worlds or dimensions, with one strata even being the distant future) to save Arkadia. They travel in a living turtle type spaceship called Tehrig, along with Spartakus (a mysterious wanderer) and Bic and Bac (a pair of pangolin-like creatures), Arkadia's mascots.

Arkana: The Arkadian children created her out of stone with the help of the Tehra's rainbow light, as well as the avatar of all the Arkadians. As she was made in the image of the surface dwellers, she has legs, unlike the Arkadians themselves, who somehow lost them some time after the creation of the Tehra. She is a well-meaning but naïve magician, capable of telekinetic feats and projecting illusions. Her mission is to seek help from above in repairing the Tehra. She is referred to by the show's villains as the "supergeophysical gal". She seems to have a strong resemblance to an Arkadian scientist from the distant past, who helped in the creation of the Tehra.