Lara Croft
Lara Croft is the protagonist of the video and computer game series Tomb Raider .
Lara Croft was invented in 1994 by Toby Gard , who was then still at the software manufacturer Core Design Ltd. was employed in Derby , England . He was looking for an alternative to the usual characters because he considered it inappropriate to equip a male lead with the acrobatic skills that he intended for the protagonist.
biography
An extensive biography was devised for Lara (there are three different versions): The aristocrat was born on February 14, 1968 (other sources give February 14, 1967, the first published date of birth being December 25, 1969) in Wimbledon , Surrey , England, as the daughter of Lord Richard Henshingly Croft. As a teenager, the Englishwoman made her first archaeological trip to Cambodia with family friend Werner von Croy. She attended several elite schools from the age of three to the age of 21 (ages 3–11: private tuition; 11–16: Wimbledon High School for girls; 16–18: Gordonstoun Boarding School; 18–21: Swiss Finishing School) .
In one version of the biography, Lara's parents die in a plane accident: She is the only survivor and has been looking for a life at the limit ever since. She inherits her father's estate and becomes the 11th Countess of Abbington. In the other variant, she is rejected by her parents because she does not want to lead the noble, staid and boring life of a British noblewoman and is more enthusiastic about archeology and tomb raider than cultivated conversation. Lara is described as a self-confident, self-sufficient , adventurous, but not suicidal, strong person who acts completely independently and is a loner. She meets friends mainly in the comics and the two films that have nothing to do with the stories of the games.
The latest version of her backstory was established in Tomb Raider - Legend : According to this, Lara crashes as a little girl with her mother in Nepal on a plane. Both survive the crash. On their march back to civilization they discover a stone dais , an ancient mechanism that is activated with the help of a sword in a stone. The curious Lara pushes the sword into the stone and activates the mechanism. Lara's mother, Lady Amelia Croft, pulls the sword out of the stone to protect her daughter and disappears in a flash of light. Lara reaches civilization again by herself and has come to terms with the death of her mother, only her father, Richard Croft, refuses to accept it. When Lara begins to understand the truth about her mother's disappearance after her father's death, she realizes that her father was right and that her mother must not be dead but in Avalon.
Her travels in the twelve (as of 11/2019) parts of the series take her to a wide variety of locations in search of various artifacts (such as comet fragments or a dagger). Lara Croft changes her clothes again and again in the games - except in parts 1 and 4 - she became known in the typical light blue body with the brown hot pants , the dark boots, the small backpack and the two 9 mm pistols.
Restart of the series
The realignment of the series bears the title Tomb Raider like the original but tells a different story. Lara Croft is a young archaeologist who is shipwrecked with the Endurance and stranded on an island that turns out to be the lost kingdom of Yamatai . Here she has her first adventure and is forced to kill a human for the first time in order to defend herself. In the course of the plot she goes through the development from an insecure and scared young woman to a strong and defensive personality.
Appeared outside of the Tomb Raider games
Lara Croft has already advertised various products ( Seat , Lucozade , Brigitte ), appeared in the Die-Ärzte music video Men Are Pigs and was on tour with the band U2 .
In 2010 a street in Derby, Derbyshire was named after Lara Croft.
Movies
In the movie with the title Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and its sequel The Cradle of Life , Lara Croft is played by the American actress Angelina Jolie and dubbed by Marion von Stengel .
In 2018 she reappeared in the film Tomb Raider , played by Alicia Vikander and dubbed by Yvonne Greitzke .
Appearance
The appearance of the character played a central role from the start. The initial figure was equipped with an oversized bust, which was created by a calculation error in the design of the actress and was retained. In addition, she wore unrealistically tight clothing during her adventures. Only over time was the figure made more realistic, so her chest size "shrank" from issue to issue and her clothes became more and more covered in order to inspire a female clientele for the game.
Lara Croft doubles
For advertising purposes, Eidos Interactive has officially presented Lara Croft doubles, which appear publicly in typical clothing and in characteristic poses at trade fairs and product launches and which have received and are well received in the press and on the Internet.
| Surname | Date of birth | Term of office | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nathalie Cook | 1996-1997 | Engaged as a double even before Tomb Raider became famous, therefore remained almost unknown. | |
| Rhona Mitra | August 9, 1976 | 1997-1998 | She was previously known as an actress. She was fired for reasons unknown despite even having undergone surgery for the job. |
| Nell McAndrew | November 6th 1975, England | 1999 | She was fired in 1999 after she presented herself as the naked Lara for American Playboy . |
| Lara Weller | April 6, 1975 | 1999-2000 | The Dutch woman is considered the best and most similar double in fan circles. |
| Lucy Clarkson | July 6th, 1983, England | 2000-2002 | - |
| Jill De Jong | February 2, 1982, the Netherlands | 2002-2004 | - |
| Karima Adebibe | 1985, England | 2004-2008 | Was controversial among fans because her facial features, unlike those of her predecessors, showed little resemblance to Lara from the video games. |
| Alison Carroll | March 27, 1985, England | 2008-2009 | Voted for the embodiment of Lara in the eighth part of the Tomb Raider series ( Underworld ). The then 23-year-old former gymnast was born in England. |
| Diana Dorow | June 16, 1976 | 2002-2010 | The "German Lara Croft"; she has worked as a double since 1999 and was selected in 2002 by Eidos Interactive as a "Cyber-Lara-Double". It was particularly similar to its virtual prototype because of its distinctive facial features. In 2010, she announced on her website that she would quit her job as a double. |
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There are also women who are associated with the character of Lara Croft, but are not directly connected to advertising for Eidos. One of these so-called unofficial doubles is Vanessa Demouy (born April 5, 1973, France). She appeared on the cover of the French magazine VSD in 1997 because of her striking similarity , but she has declined any further engagement as Lara Croft.
Even Angelina Jolie is not an official double, but the most famous incarnation of Lara Croft as the lead actress in the two films Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life . In the third film adaptation, Alicia Vikander took on the role.
Voice actresses
For many years, Lara Croft was set to music in the German version by Marion von Stengel . With the reboot of the series in 2013, Nora Tschirner and later Maria Koschny took over their roles. The voice of Rise of the Tomb Raider from 2015 was taken over by Lara Trautmann , who also bears the stage name Lara Loft , which is based on the character .
literature
- Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky: Lara Croft. Model, medium, cyber heroine. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2001. (edition suhrkamp; 1745. Gender Studies) Treatise from the perspective of gender studies ; also as PDF (3.32 MB)
- Marvin Chlada , Wolfgang Haible (eds.): Lara Croft. A myth is deconstructed. Verlag Trikont Duisburg, Duisburg 2002. ISBN 3-88974-500-8 , SUBtext 1. series (sociological)
- Carla Hopfner: Lara Croft and Charlie's Angels. New heroines in the action film. Braumüller, 2005. (Focus 10) (film studies)
- Patrick Steinwidder: Perfect Girls: The computer game adaptations "Lara Croft Tomb Raider", "Resident Evil" and "Final Fantasy". In: Medien-Impulse , magazine ed. from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science, Art and Culture, December 2003 (media education / media psychology about the film adaptation of Lara Croft)
- Not game, not meat . In: taz , June 21, 2002
Web links
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - Legend (official website)
- WikiRaider.de - Tomb Raider Lexicon
- Lara Croft doubles
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lara Croft gets its own street . heise online. Retrieved February 27, 2010.
- ↑ Robert Hähnel: Why does Lara Croft have such large breasts? . Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
- ↑ "Lara Croft" receives a breast reduction . rp-online.de. May 24, 2005. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
- ↑ www.nellmcandrew.tv - official website of Nell McAndrew (English)
- ↑ Jill De Jong: Official Website (English)
- ↑ Tomb Raider: The new face of Lara Croft . onlinekosten.de. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
- ↑ [1] - official website of Diana Dorow
- ^ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: New "Tomb Raider" film: Alicia Vikander plays Lara Croft. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved November 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Tomb Raider - German voice known for Lara Croft . January 16, 2013. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
- ↑ Rise of the Tomb Raider: Maria Koschny speaks Lara Croft - 4Players.de . In: 4Players . ( 4players.de [accessed on May 5, 2018]).
- ↑ Rise of the Tomb Raider - Maria Koschny new voice from Lara Croft - insidegames. Retrieved May 5, 2018 .
