Thundercats

Original Vintage art!

Today  I set my mind to talk about another brilliant series that come out of the 80's as probably one of the key animation TV series from the era. Asian director Katsuhito Akiyama was in charge of the direction of the TV series that run for four seasons from 1985 up to 1989. The series was produced by Jules Bass, Lee Dannacher & Arthur Rankin Jr. The animation department was mostly japanese animators, and you can tell by the high quality of the characters design, as well as the background & mecha designs. Bernard Hoffer wrote most of the music for the whole show, and yes, he gave birth to the wonderful Thundercats opening song. The strong alliance between american production companies & japanese animation companies was nothing new since, Harmony Gold firestarted the alliances with Robotech among other projects, bringing the wonderful world of japanese animation into the American culture, and eventually the world. Let's just remember how popular cartoons were in the 80's, they even spawned huge best selling merchandising lines that not only featured toys, but a whole list of related products such as coloring books, clothing, sticker albums, school stuff (pencils, erasers, copybooks) and even eating stuff like glasses and lunchboxes. Yeah, there was a huge hype built around the toy industry in the 80's. The story has it, George Lucas started they toy fever by taking it beyond children, and turning it into the latest business trend. I for one, think that Lucas is not to blame alone. Remember the Diaclone toys? well, probably not, but the Diaclones were japanese transforming toys that eventually became The Transformers! Want more? well, what about the Conan the Barbarian knock off kids version known as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe? Believe I could lead you into a neverending list to prove my theory, but that'll be explain in a forthcoming review, I promise.

The Thundercats toyline.

Out of the many popular 80's cartoons the Thundercats were a positive update of the clichéd hero tale. The show became so popular that still, to date there are paid television services running the series worldwide on a regular basis. Besides, there is the reboot tv series being developed and broadcasted by Cartoon Network.

The story is basically about a small group of Thunderians, who are Thundercats which is basically their equivilent of a royal family who have ot abandon their homeplanet of Thundera as the planet is destroying itself, led by Jaga the few reminaing Thunderian ships are attack by Mutants form the planet plundarr and are taken out with no trouble by the mutants ship, all except the flagship which they know is carrying the eye of Thundera, which is ebedded in the hilt of the mystic sword of omens.

Thundercats definitely borrowed the most popular elements that made other movies & cartoons famous. For instance, the royal family idea comes definitely from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Another example is the space mystique vibe seen in the whole show, probably that was taken from Star Wars, as we have Jaga the master spirit (Obi Wan Kenobi anyone?) and the counterpart Mum-Ra, the immortal (as emperor Darth Sidious?) and let's not mention Lion-O, the young but brave learner, emulating some kind of chosen one a la Luke Skywalker. However borrowing elements from different sources, doesn't mean Thundercats were a copycat and a shitty cartoon, to me it was the other way round definitely.

Lion-O the lord of the Thundercats.

The cast of the Thundercats. Maximize the pic for your pleasure.

Besides, was there any show that gathered so many cool characteristis? Like, for instance the amazing japanese animation? every single character look the coolest, the weapons were amazing, and the awesome mecha made you want to become an engineer for sure! The background animations were also well taken care of, unlikely many cartoons that would repeat the same animation over and over again, cause it was merely a background. The guys in charge of the Thundercats did worry about every little detail. Besides have you thought about the third planet being a devastated planet earth? Sure you have! I mean, there are traces of the egyptian culture (Mum-Ra's tomb) and animals that have eventually mutated into humanoid shape, but smarter and meaner. And how about the very few surviving humans that live in the woods? oh yeah, let me tell about the robot bears! the Berbils! and the space pirates? gee, this animation had it all, it stands as strong as Robotech & the Transformers do to date.

Team work and Family values, that's a lesson!

Check the amazing backgrounds the show had!

So ,now let's have a little talk about the characters that made this show so memorable:

Lion-O is the yound lord of the Thundercats who often receives advice from the ghost of Jaga and is keeper of the sword of omens, he has the look of a Lion like his name.

Cheetara is one only 2 females in the show at first, she can run at very fast speeds, but can only keep it up for about two miles, she has the look of a Cheeta hense her namesake.

Panthro is the engineer of the group who manages to build anything you can think of out of just about any ammount of scrap he can find, he resembles the look of a Panther.

Tygra the scientest who's bolowhip allows him to become invisible giving him an advantage in fights, Tygra also has the ability to trick people's minds (a bit like the jedi mind trick) he resemble a tiger.

Wiley Kitt a Thunderkitten who along with her brother Wileykatt is always getting into some kind of trouble.

Wiley Katt a thunderkitten like his sister Wiley Kitt and is always getting into trouble.

Snarf is Lion-O's trusted companion,keeper and friend, not sure what snarf is supposed to be only he is a feline like Thundercat not like the others who are part humanoids part cats.

Mum-Ra, AKa Bad motherfucker.

Bengali was a blacksmith on Thundera before it was destroyed he was almost left on Thundera along with his companions Lynx-O and Pumyra, bengali resemble a Bengal Tiger.

Lynx-O lost his sight when flames caused by Thundera's destruction engulfed his eye's, but his other sense where hightend by the loss of his sight, he uses a brail board made by Panthro to help him with his duties in the Cats Lair and the Tower of Omens, he resembles a Lynx.

Pumyra the third female of the Thundercats, she resembles a Puma.

Slythe is the leader of the mutants who attacked the Thundercats on their arrival on the third planet, Ssslythe wishes only to possess the eye of Thundera, Ssslythe is a lizard type humanoid.

Monkien is a monkey type human and a part of the mutants.

Jackalman is a jackal typehumanoid, and is also a part of the mutants.

Vultureman is a vulture type humanoid, doesn't really like Ssslythe ordering him about most of the time but does obey him.

Cheetara was so fucking hot!

Mumm-Ra is the devil priest of third earth and is everliving as long as evil exists, Mumm-Ra is over a thousand year old and his body is decayed, even though Mumm-Ra's appearance is that of a weak frail old creature his magic is very powerful, Mumm-Ra serves the ancient spirits of evil who do not exist on the same plain of existance as Mumm-Ra does on third earth, but they do communicate with him via the four giant statues in the black pyramid where Mumm-Ra lives, the ancient spirits of evil grant Mumm-Ra the power to transform himself into Mumm-Ra the ever living, a more powerful, more hideous looking and stronger version of his normal self, Mumm-Ra the everliving's power is beyond question, and his voice was one of the most evil and best bad guy voices in cartoon history in my opinion.

Yes, Cheetara has inspired some adult cosplay.

Holy Cheetara!

This Cheetara body paint rocks!

Overall a great animation from the 80's, definitely top 5 category. Of course, the entire animation has been re-released in DVD and it's available everywhere. Here's the wonderful opening song:



And some of the old TV ads promoting the amazing Thundercats toyline: