Thursday, August 4, 2011

Just Sayin'--THUNDERCATS (2011)

Hey, finally things calmed down to get some new content up on the blog that's not the usual end of the week stuff--there's a novelty. That said, there's not really a coherent thing here, really two quick hits that I decided to combine in the name of economy and, y'know, getting it up on the blog already.

Man, I miss those days when I could just bang out an Iron Man review and have done.

Anyways, I'm late chiming in on this, but I recently caught the new iteration of Thundercats, and of all the attempts to bring it back (including that awful Wildstorm mini-series where Wilykat and Wilykit were Mumm-Ra's sex slaves. No, really--that totally happened, and is an excellent reason why sometimes you just shouldn't bankroll someone's fanfic) it's easily the best one, because it's not just a cool intro, and if you remember--take your rose-coloured glasses off now, please--that's pretty much all the original show was: Awesome intro that promised far more than the show delivered. Not that the show tried all that hard anyways.

Thankfully, the new series seems to be aiming a bit higher, taking all the various bits the show would introduce and discard, finding the connections, and tying it up into something resembling an interesting fictional world that will, one hopes, drive many stories for many seasons . . .or just until Cartoon Network forgets about the show, stops running it, and kills it with negligence just like they have Sym-Bionic Titan, Brave and the Bold, and Young Justice.

Seriously, they have a bad habit of hobbling the momentum of new series.

In any event, the two-parter I saw gives a good beginning and sets up a number of interesting story springboards and pushes some fan buttons without derailing everything to do it. The animation was pretty great for a TV show (I know some people don't like the more blatantly "anime" look, but as anime studios animated the original cartoon too, it's been in its DNA from the start) and the whole thing says "we spent a little money on this for a change, enjoy the quality."

Also, no Ro-Bear Berbils. That's always good.

I'm intrigued to see where things go from here, and that's more than I have been able to say about Thundercats . . .well, ever, really. Will this lead to a revival of its cousin shows Tigersharks and Silverhawks? Well, that's probably too obscure even for most 80's nerds, so I'm guessing not.

Tomorrow: Supergods.

3 comments:

Gloryfic said...

I tuned in to the Thundercats premiere with little to no expectations, I mean remembering what they did to revive the Masters of the Universe...yikes! Also the original Thundercats series (never a fav)- made for the fallout children of the 80's drugged-out parents- that seemed to be Mattels real commercial, twenty minuets to sell the toy series (More so then He-Man and She-Ra- which had actual stories, lessons and character development to go with them...sigh...but I digress.) Anyway it sucked me in and I got to say it was really good. I agree with everything that your review had to say. I myself have never been one for the anime art, but it flows with the original and helps keep the flavor without any of the monotony. I hope that Cartoon Network doesn't do to this what it has with so many others!!!! (Oh and an honorable mention goes out to Flapjack among the fallen. ;D)

Lebeau2501 said...

Yeah, those are pretty obscure. I am a child of the 80's, and I'm drawing a blank. Thundercats is one of those cartoons that the intro animation and theme song had my eight-year-old sensibilities in a frenzy that could only be described as a seizure. I'd get so pumped that I wouldn't notice the slow down in pace once the show started.
Heh, I have to share this with you, My word verification for this comment is 'faill'.
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Kazekage said...

Gloryfic--well, I didn't think the MoTU revival was all that bad, really--unlike the original, it had the virtue of actually being animated, which was something of a novelty in and of itself. :)

Lebeau--Silverhawks and Tigerharks are basically Thundercats with birds and fish, respectively. They had a formula and they stuck with it to the end, you have to say.

I've seen episode 3 now and while the pace slowed a bit, it looks like we have an over-arching plot that should give things structure and we're getting a look at the wider fictional world. So far, so good.

I'll go have a look right now! Thanks for stopping by, y'all!