Thundercats

[Howard_Casto]

I was wondering if anyone else caught the Thundercats premiere this weekend. 

I did and overall I enjoyed it.  It's a "reboot" of the series, but as a whole they kept the good things about the show and nixed the nonsensical things. 


Changes:  (There shouldn't really be any spoilers). 

In the old Show the cats fled thundera in a space ship because it had been overrun by the mutant hoards (which were assumingly from another planet).  All of the cats (with the exception of the twins) were apparently in their late 20's to mid 30's except for Lion-O, who appeared to be around 12.  During the long journey the cats are put into hypersleep, but lion-o's chamber malfunctions and he wakes up as a grown man, who just happens to be the surviving air to the thundercats.  The planet they land on (and the pursuing mutants, crash landed on) turned out the be the homeworld of mum-rah, and in typical old-man fashion he attacks the cats weekly in a "get off my lawn you dang kids" fashion. 

Now in the new show the cats share thundera with a whole host of sentient animals.  Although the lizard men (and assumingly other races) appear on the show they are no longer mutants and just considered to be another animal race.  Now this is the only thing on the new show that truely bothers me, multiple species evolving to human-like status on the same planet?  Nah. 

Every other change, as a whole is a positive one.  The cats are now much younger, with cheetara and tigro in their very early 20's, lino-o maybe a hair younger than that and the twins as children.  The twins (wily kit and kat) have been recast btw, becoming impish street urchins instead of spoiled royal brats.  The change fits them well.  Mum-rah is now an almost forgotten ancient legend as well as the book of omens and it's secrets of "technology".  This means that mum-rah actually has a reason to attack the cats, which is good, except for the lack of tech.  That part has me a bit puzzled seeing as how one of the main draws of the original thundercats was seeing all the cool things panthro would build.  But we are only one episode in so we'll see. 

Also snarf, thankfully, has been reduced to a silent house-pet. 

The art style is good, but it's very "anime" which I'm not a fan of.  Although the quality was crappy I think I preferred the style of the original show.  That being said, it does look very impressive with properly drawn characters and backgrounds.  None of this teen-titans/new transformers hack job crap. 

As a whole the show reminds me of the reboot of he-man from a few years back with everything at a much higher quality.  Unfortunately it has the same flaw as the he-man reboot did in that it takes itself just a bit too seriously. 

It's something to keep an eye on though so watch it. 

p.s.  The original voice of Lion-O does a guest spot as lion-o's dad in the new series, so check it out for that if for nothing else.

[Thenasty]

I liked this cartoon along with He-Man n GI-Joe back in the days 

[Howard_Casto]

I liked this cartoon along with He-Man n GI-Joe back in the days 

I did too.  But for whatever reason I always liked the villians more.  Mum-rah and Cobra Commander were sort of my heros gowing up.  I liked skeletor too. 

That being said I have been known even to this day to hold my enchanted cardboard tube aloft and say  "By the power of GreySkull... I ...have.... the POWER!"  And runing around saying "HO!"  never gets old.... even as an adult. 

[Bootay]

My 3 year old daughter does the same thing....but every day. LOL

I am a fan of all the old shows too so I turned my son and daughter on to them. My son is 13 so he is pretty much done with it now, but I was surprised when my daughter got into them all.

I haven't watched the new show yet...but I hate the anime wanna-be stuff that comes out now-a-days. And I am not usually a fan of the reboots. The He-Man one was decent and the TMNT one from 2003 was decent too because it was dark, which is what the original lacked...however the absence of Beebop and Rocksteady bothered me.

I still haven't tried the Voltron reboot either. I think I am less interested in reboots than I am the originals. But I will try them out for sure eventually. Maybe my daughter will like them if I don't. 

[Vigo]

I was explaining to my wife the other day what the thundercats were, since she is from Taiwan. The funny thing is that I found out she grew up watching them, too. They are called Pi-li Mao. So now she has been going around  every day saying "Pi-li, Pi-li, Pi-li Mao, Ho!"

Unfortunately, she didn't have He-man over there....

I haven't watched the new show yet...but I hate the anime wanna-be stuff that comes out now-a-days. And I am not usually a fan of the reboots. The He-Man one was decent and the TMNT one from 2003 was decent too because it was dark, which is what the original lacked...however the absence of Beebop and Rocksteady bothered me.

+10,000

[Mikezilla]

Have they showed Mumm-ra change into his bad ass form? I bet you 100 bucks they did away with the "ancient spirits of evil" bit because parents today suck and flip out if a villian is actually scary or even remotely evil.

Im not a fan of the anime drawing style, but I also dont like the DC Batman Superman angle shoulders no shape style either. The original Thundercats style of animation was awesome, I wish they would just revamp that a little. I didnt mind the new he man when it came out, they made some of the villains really cool, trapjaw in particular. Ill have to check this out, I havent seen it yet.

There was a voice panel at comic con, and the dude that did lion-o was hilarious. He could make a sailor blush though considering how much he cussed. 

[Vigo]

Yeah, I don't quite get the fascination to make American stuff look like anime. I'm guessing it boils down to be a marketing gimmick to "look hip" for the kiddies.

Respect for quality animation is dying.

[Bootay]

Yeah, I don't quite get the fascination to make American stuff look like anime. I'm guessing it boils down to be a marketing gimmick to "look hip" for the kiddies.

Respect for quality animation is dying.

It's because Dragonball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon were such a big hit for those few years. Once those shows got big EVERY show started to mimic the style. I don't mind Anime if it is legitimately Anime...I mean that was their style. So when I watch old Robotech or Voltron the Anime doesn't bother me. It's the American animators trying to copy the style that annoys me. Especially when they feel the need to make everyone little kids. I know they feel that kids will relate more if Superman or Iron Man are little kids....but I have 2 kids and one on the way and let me tell you...they get into the old cartoons just as much as the new ones. And in some cases they prefer the old ones over the new ones so what does that tell you? As usual a rich, out of touch old guy is making assumptions as to what kids want to see...just like in the 90s when every character from Barney to Super Mario to The Thing from the Fantastic Four were embarrassingly rapping in their shows to appear "hip". Let me tell you ..NO ONE wanted to see that...not even kids. LOL

[Vigo]

Again, I agree with everything you just said.  Ugh....I remember that "rapping era" 


Damn Pokemon Pandemic. I guess in Japan last week, Studio Ghibli released their new movie, a pokemon movie in Japan beat them out in the box office.

[Mikezilla]

Yeah, I don't quite get the fascination to make American stuff look like anime. I'm guessing it boils down to be a marketing gimmick to "look hip" for the kiddies.

Respect for quality animation is dying.

Agreed. It sucks big time... Wish I had more to say but thats it. Im glad we got a dose of good animation in the 80's though. I feel sorry for kids today, the animation is atrocious. I watched that new spiderman cartoon on netflix(well its new to me, its probably cancelled now) and the animation is terrible. What they are doing is cool, like the ideas the shows producers have, but the animation is just so flat and boring...

[Bootay]

Yea I felt the same way. I watched the first few episodes with my kids and I liked the story just not the way a lot of the characters looked. The backgrounds looked good mixed with CGI and stuff...but the characters were really drawn bad. And sloppy....with a lack of detail.

[AcidArmitage]

Have they showed Mumm-ra change into his bad ass form? I bet you 100 bucks they did away with the "ancient spirits of evil" bit because parents today suck and flip out if a villian is actually scary or even remotely evil.

Nope they totally kept it! (awesome) although he didnt get to transform because the sunlight hit him before he could finish

[AlienInferno]

I liked this show when I was a kid.  Still do.  Just can't watch the new version because I just have basic over the air tv still.     I have seen some sneak-peak videos online.  What I've seen has been good.  But I have been reliving some of my youth lately.  The Qubo channel here has Night Owl which starts at 11:30pm my time.  Starts off with an hour each of He-Man, Shera, some future-ristic Cowboy cartoon which I've never heard of before but is good, and Ghostbusters.

[Mikezilla]

Have they showed Mumm-ra change into his bad ass form? I bet you 100 bucks they did away with the "ancient spirits of evil" bit because parents today suck and flip out if a villian is actually scary or even remotely evil.

Nope they totally kept it! (awesome) although he didnt get to transform because the sunlight hit him before he could finish

Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- really?! Thats aweosme! I didnt know sunlight affected mumm-ra... Hm.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah remember the old show?  Mum-rah is kinda like a mummie vampire.  He even has bat wings in some forms. 

Like I said, in terms of story, thus far all the cool things (mum rah, sight beyond sight ect.....) they kept, all the bad things (talking snarf, lamer characters, ect...) they nixed.

The art style is anime inspired to be sure, but it doesn't look like anime.  It's kind of some hybrid style.  Look at the 2003 he-man... up the quality by a factor of 3 and give all the cats bigger eyes... that's what it looks like. 

As for the voltron reboot, it's crap, don't watch. 

[hypernova]

I never did watch this show.

I did, however, just watch the newer Looney Toons show on Cartoon Network.  Holy crap, what an atrocity.  The episode I watched was the cliche "neighbor overstays his welcome" bit.  The neighbor was Yosemite Sam.  Bugs and Daffy were roommates in a suburban house.  Gawd.  This almost makes me want to call the producers up and scream at them.

Poor Bugs and company.  They don't deserve this.  Another classic gets the modernization ---fudgesicle--- job.

[Howard_Casto]

Actually the Looney Toons show might be the best modern version of the LT since duck dodgers.  You just happend to catch the worst episode they've aired so far. 

They've reformatted it into a sitcom.  But not a lame sitcom, a seinfeld styel sitcom.  Tons of subtle jokes..... not as many pie in the face gags like back in the day. 

It isn't perfect, but it's pretty good. 

[nox771]

Ahh, didn't even know about this.  I remember this show as a kid.  My wife is also from Taiwan and I know she knows about it.  The topic came up once before when we saw this clip on Robot Chicken:



This clip is better though - "I got nine lives and a whole can of whoop ass" 

Lion-o is dead good

I don't know why everyone is harshing on the anime style though.  I think it works for this show.  Here is a link for those who had to search for it like me:  http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/thundercats/video/index.html

[Bootay]

I haven't watched it yet so I am not being harsh on it's style yet. I am being harsh on the other wanna-be anime reboots. I hope Thundercats is great.

I really hope they kept the Robears too....LOL JK

[Vigo]

I don't know why everyone is harshing on the anime style though.  I think it works for this show.  Here is a link for those who had to search for it like me: 

I haven't seen it either, but on the commercials I saw, the animation quality itself doesn't look bad at all, but the style is just grating. Why take an american cartoon done in American comic book style and converted it to an anime style solely for the purpose of marketing to the kids who think Pokemon is hip? They turned snarf into a frickin' Pokemon, there is no other way to describe him. If it was actually a Japanese made cartoon, I would be more than fine with the style difference because it would be an adaptation. Styling a cartoon to cater to pokemon kids and people with unhealthy man-crushes towards anything that looks anime styled is a very lame, IMO.

I can at least say that it looks much better than the first episode of the original Thundercats where they didn't draw clothes and everyone was walking around naked. 

[Vigo]

Thundercats always sucked.  I personally preferred She-Ra... might as well slip a few barbarian babes in there between the oiled up dudes wrestling in their underwear.

Ahh, it makes sense now. So this is what Jim grew up watching:







 

[Vigo]

You got a point there, there is something disturbing about a cat lady with cleavage. Plus, if she is a cat, wouldn't she have like utters on her pelvis instead?



Out of all those cartoons, I personally liked He-man best. One think I do have to hand to she-Ra is that Hordak was a pretty underrated bad guy. The tie in stuff between the two cartoons was pretty cool (and it got boys to actually want to own some of the She-Ra action figures).

[Mikezilla]

You got a point there, there is something disturbing about a cat lady with cleavage. Plus, if she is a cat, wouldn't she have like utters on her pelvis instead?



Out of all those cartoons, I personally liked He-man best. One think I do have to hand to she-Ra is that Hordak was a pretty underrated bad guy. The tie in stuff between the two cartoons was pretty cool (and it got boys to actually want to own some of the She-Ra action figures).

 

[Ed_McCarron]

That always irked me.  Winged unicorn?  Is it a Pegasus, or a unicorn?  Make up your mind, Mattel.

[knave]

That always irked me.  Winged unicorn?  Is it a Pegasus, or a unicorn?  Make up your mind, Mattel.

You make one by putting a pegacorn into a unisus. 

[Howard_Casto]

Thundercats always sucked.  I personally preferred She-Ra... might as well slip a few barbarian babes in there between the oiled up dudes wrestling in their underwear.

All the mysteries of why you are the way you are have been revealed. 

Don't kid yourself there friend, she-ra isn't a "barbarian babe"  she's a princess... a pretty pretty princess, on a pretty white horse in her pretty white dress.

That show was worth it for Hordac though.  It was odd, all the heroes on she-ra made the heroes on he-man look heterosexual by comparison and yet the villains were frikkin awesome. 

And if lovin' Cheetara's wrong, I don't wanna be right.

[Ed_McCarron]

the oiled up dudes wrestling in their underwear.

http://blackacrebrewing.com/hey.swf

[Howard_Casto]

Well two episodes in and it isn't looking too great for the cats in terms of episode quality.  Seemed like a standard episode from the old show, and trust me, that's NOT a good thing. 

But I suppose that's excusable considering the overall story arc is still right on track. 

The thing that bothers me though is continuity errors. 

At the end of premiere the cats home was overrun with lizard men and mumrah himself.  The cats barely made it out alive and were running away from the castle compound.  Cut to this episode and the whole compound is virtually empty.  And the cats manage to walk back in, find lin-o's dad, and cremate him in a massive bon fire.  Hell the twins are sitting out in the open playing a flute!  You would think that if mum-rah wanted the sword of omens so bad he would... you know, leave some guards or something!

Also in this episode they are on a boat with fish men sailing across a sea of sand (I know, it's wierd, but remeber back to the old thundercats... just as strange).  When the captain emerges from below decks it's obvious that the ship's insides are filled with water.  Likewise when the ship takes damage later on, water leaks out.  And yet the twins go below deck and it's as dry as a bone!  There's only one entrance to below deck and we see it filled with water in the first shot, so what gives?

Also there is some spontanious wardrobe changes thoughout the episode, but considering they have a "long journey" montauge I'll let it slide.

[CCM]

Well two episodes in and it isn't looking too great for the cats in terms of episode quality.  Seemed like a standard episode from the old show, and trust me, that's NOT a good thing. 

But I suppose that's excusable considering the overall story arc is still right on track. 

The thing that bothers me though is continuity errors. 

At the end of premiere the cats home was overrun with lizard men and mumrah himself.  The cats barely made it out alive and were running away from the castle compound.  Cut to this episode and the whole compound is virtually empty.  And the cats manage to walk back in, find lin-o's dad, and cremate him in a massive bon fire.  Hell the twins are sitting out in the open playing a flute!  You would think that if mum-rah wanted the sword of omens so bad he would... you know, leave some guards or something!

Also in this episode they are on a boat with fish men sailing across a sea of sand (I know, it's wierd, but remeber back to the old thundercats... just as strange).  When the captain emerges from below decks it's obvious that the ship's insides are filled with water.  Likewise when the ship takes damage later on, water leaks out.  And yet the twins go below deck and it's as dry as a bone!  There's only one entrance to below deck and we see it filled with water in the first shot, so what gives?

Also there is some spontanious wardrobe changes thoughout the episode, but considering they have a "long journey" montauge I'll let it slide.

This is a cartoon you are going on about, correct?  Maybe you are expecting too much/taking it way too seriously?

[Howard_Casto]

Cartoons are only childs play in the US and even then only to the ill-informed.  Not expecting much because it is a cartoon is like someone saying not to expect much out of a particular issue of Watchmen or The Walking Dead because "it's only a comic book". 

My guess is you haven't watched an animated series in MANY years because such blatent continuity errors haven't been seen in a "cartoon" since the mid 80's. 


The pilot was astoundingly good, so yes, I expect a lot. 



Mind you that isn't to say that there aren't animated series that are terrible... there are plenty.  But there are plenty of live action series that are terrible.  The point is the fact that the show is animated has nothing to do nor should it have nothing to do with the quality of the content.


Due to the reality show invasion I'll all but abandoned regular US television with the exceptions of original series on HBO and Showtime, because you directly pay for the channel and thus they are willing to take more risks with their shows, the excellent anime dubs on adult swim, a few shows on the syfy network for cheese factor and many of the shows on cartoon network. 

If you see me watching tv I'm probably streaming an original web series or some anime from crunchyroll. 

[Howard_Casto]

 

[AlienInferno]

Due to the reality show invasion I'll all but abandoned regular US television with the exceptions of original series on HBO and Showtime, because you directly pay for the channel and thus they are willing to take more risks with their shows, the excellent anime dubs on adult swim, a few shows on the syfy network for cheese factor and many of the shows on cartoon network. 

If you see me watching tv I'm probably streaming an original web series or some anime from crunchyroll. 

I'm with you on this one.  I'm so tired of reality shows.  Pretty much just watch the news, PBS, and Qubo night owl (He-man, Shera, Ghostbusters, and BraveStarr).  If I had cable I would be watching Cartoon Network 24/7.  I used to love watching the anime dubs on adult swim six years ago.  Haven't seen it since so I don't really know what's on now.

[youngjohn12]

I did too.  But for whatever purpose I always liked the villians more.  Mum-rah and Cobra Leader were kind of my heros gowing up.  I liked skeletor too.

That being said I have been known even to this day to carry my captivated paper pipe aloft and say  "By the energy of GreySkull... I ...have.... the POWER!"  And runing around saying "HO!"  never gets old.... even as an mature. 

[Vigo]

a captivated paper pipe is exactly what you need after the large....even as a mature.

[Mikezilla]

a captivated paper pipe is exactly what you need after the large....even as a mature.

Dude. This guy not only brings up old threads, but butchers everything. Can we do something about this? 

[Donkbaca]

I knew a dude who carried a captivated paper pipe and would yell Ho! all the time.  The large was not good to him

[SirPeale]

I banned the profile, but I'm keeping the comments 'cause they're teh funniez.

I imagine it was just a matter of time before some ads hit, or the profile was changed to include a URL in the sig.

[Donkbaca]

dang it, its such a funny spambot though...

[Mikezilla]

Yeah they are funny, but its annoying when it would necro a bunch of old threads.

[Vigo]

Wll, at least Necroing threads was fitting for the zombie motif of his spam.