On behalf of the ThunderCats Lair Team, I just wanted to thank all of you who signed the Larry Kenney Movie Petition. We’ve reached the 500 signature milestone and we couldn’t have done it without your support.
I would like to also take this moment to mention that specific (important) individuals working on the ThunderCats movie are fully aware of the petition and know how much we want Larry Kenney to be in the movie in some shape or form. While Larry may not necessarily voice Lion-O, having his presence in the movie would be a great nod to the core fans who have supported ThunderCats for the past decade.
Please continue to spread the word regarding the petition. 
Thank you!
Awesome news. There can be no other, really. Whilst Larry Kenney may not play Lion-O due to the aging of his voice and such, he can play many others including Jaga and Mumm-Ra (which I’d love to see). It’s only right that some of the original voice actors get roles in the upcoming film, considering their large contribution to the cartoon.. but nobody else can do Lion-O justice, IMO. And I’m so glad this petition is getting much recognition.
:liono To put it in Stone Cold Steve Austins words : Hell Yeah !!
Thats great news. Hope we´ll get to hear Larry in the movie one way or the other. Even if it isn´t Lion-O. As long as he´s present, it´ll work for me.
KoC
This is wonderful news, Manny! Is the petition going to be summited to these other people? And if so, when? 
And you’re right. Even if Larry doesn’t get to reprise Lion-o (though a great many of us are hoping that he does), if nothing else he can do the voice of Claud-Us, Lion-O father, who he voiced in the cartoon show. And if a new ThunderCat cartoon series is based on the movie, perhaps then he can reprise Lion-O.
This is very awesome news! thank you for the heads up, Manny! And thank you soooooo much for doing this petition. It will definitely be a great nod to the fans no matter what or who he voices (even though it would be great if he did Lion-o)!
What on earth are you guys talking about Larry’s “aging voice”? The guy is a skilled voice actor who has been doing countless voice impressions for years? Did Optimus Prime’s voice in Transformers sound “overaged?” Hell no, he sounded awesome. And so will Larry in whatever work he picks up for many more years to come.
Note that our front page has a news release about Larry signing on to do voice work on a new cartoon. Guess the producers thought his voice was up to snuff too.
Hey, Grizz, don’t get mad at me! I didn’t say word one about “Larry’s aging voice”. It was nick!
And, yeah, I’ll check out the new cartoon that Larry’s going to work on.
Yes. It was me.
I don’t doubt that Larry Kenney is a terrific voice actor - but the movie is about the Thundercats when they first got to Third Earth. Lion-O’s voice then sounds completely different to what it is now. I didn’t say ‘over-aged’ or suggest that he may not be able to do the voice justice - I said that his voice has aged (which it has) and since Lion-O is supposed to be younger in the movie (well, around twenty odd or so anyway), it’s a possibility that they bring someone else in to do Lion-O. Possibility. If it happens, it happens. Larry’s talented enough to voice other characters like Mumm-Ra or Jaga or Jackelman whose ages aren’t really of concern - but if you hear Larry doing his Lion-O when Lion-O first changes into the young man, people might pick up that “Hey wait, he sounds much older than he should”. I’m not saying it’s a negative thing, but.. Thundercats was over twenty years ago now. And his voice has changed.
Did Optimus Prime’s voice in Transformers sound “overaged?” Hell no, he sounded awesome.
Right. But then your leaving out that Transformers had to replace one of the original voice actors because his voice had aged to the point where it didn’t sound plausable… believe it was Hugo Weaving that replaced him. Also, that practise has been happening for years - Phil Harris, who was an exceptional radio talent also, voiced Baloo for Jungle Book. But when it came to Talespin, his voice had aged to the point where they couldn’t use him - they got Ed Gilbert instead.
My point is - Larry Kenney is a very talented guy and, yeah, he still does great impressions (which is why he’s doing Redneck Space Track. I never said his voice wasn’t up to scratch). However, there is a significant difference to his Lion-O today as there was twenty years ago. And it’s occured because Thundercats was nearly twenty something years ago and he’s grown older. If the movie is going to take place when Lion-O first ages and he plays twenty-something, it might not be a particually great idea to have an older Lion-O play young Lion-O.
There’s one possible way they can get around that little problem. With just about everything on this planet going digital, Larry’s voice could be altered to where it would sound exactly as it did when he was voicing Lion-O for the original cartoon show. And since his voice now sounds only somewhat deeper, it wouldn’t take much digitally to make it sound younger. What do you think of that?
I would like to add that after comparing Larry’s voice as Lion-o from the original cartoon to modern day (The TCL welcome he did for example), there is a bit of a difference. The difference is Larry is older now, and all of our voices gradually change over time.
IMHO, Larry is the only person for the job when it comes to voice acting for Lion-o, and I hope the petition gets the message to WB, but I also do see Nick’s point of view.
Optimus Prime doesn’t really “have” a specific age. Lion-o does, and this is something I am sure the producers of the new movie will look at. How Larry’s modern day Lion-o fits the characters age.
They could very well “enhance” his voice to better fit the character, or they could change Lion-o’s look a bit, to make Larry’s voice fit better.
Even if Larry does not reprise his role as Lion-o, I think it would be a great tribute to Larry and us the fans if he was given the task of voicing another character such as Jaga or even perhaps Claudus.
I do believe Larry will be involved “somehow”. Hopefully the news will come sooner then we expect.
If there was a way to digitally alter his voice so that he sounds younger without it being too obvious, yes. I’d be totally for something like that.
But to my knowledge, there isn’t a sure-way technique to make Larry Kenney’s Lion-O sound younger. Take an example from The Godfather video game - originally, Marlon Brando agreed to voice it and did all the dialogue. However, his voice had basically aged to the point where the dialogue was unusable (there were other factors but that’s one of the major ones) so they had to find someone else to replace him. Also, look at the ‘Scarface’ video game - Al Pacino was actually going to do it but his voice had also aged to the point where it was unbeneficial to the character since Tony Montana was young and Al Pacino sounds, well, old. Good old but old nonetheless.
My point is, in those instances.. there were major studios and financial backing going into these games. And in both cases, there wasn’t any way to digitally alter their voices so they had to find replacements. Guess what? Both replacements did amazing - Al Pacino actually hand-picked his replacement. Brando? His impressionist was so good you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. Also, back to Talespin for a second.. because this brings up another point: Louis Prima did the original voice and, to my knowledge, had passed away before Talespin was made. They decided to use King Louie in the cartoon and got Jim Cummings to voice him: result? Apparently, it’s near-perfect. Yeah, there were some lawsuits from the Prima estate but that was down to unpaid royalties and such.
At the end of the day, I have much respect for Larry Kenney and believe his Lion-O was and still is amazing. But we already know the plot - which is taken from Exodus and that takes place when Lion-O first becomes an adult - the comparison to him when he started and now is different. Larry might be able to voice Lion-O, yeah, but voice a just-adult Lion-O? Somehow, I still think the end result will be that because the original Thundercats was twenty years ago, his voice has aged and it might not sound.. well.. young. I mean no disrespect in saying that, but that’s just how I feel.
I’d love to see Larry Kenney have involvement in the movie as Jaga, Mumm-Ra and other characters (still major parts and parts which he could pull off wonderfully). And if he’s cast as Lion-O, I’ll be happy. But IMO, it’s not the end of the world if it turns out he can’t and someone else can step in. It’s not all doom and gloom and with Warner Bros. backing this, they’ll find the right person.
When Kenney did the voice over for the Thundercats Season two volume two DVD “game” that was a special feature for the set he sounded the same as he did all those years ago to me.
I hope he gets to be Lion-O again just because Kenney kicks butt in a multitude of ways.
I just had a thought. What if – and this is pure speculation – but what if Larry were to narrate the film as a twenty-years-older Lion-O looking back? Or possibly telling the story to a group of young Thundercats-in-training or even his own child/children? That way he can still be in the film portraying Lion-O and WB can have a younger person voice the younger Lion-O. Then everybody’s happy.
This is just an idea I had. Odds are it won’t come true but it is nice to think about.
500 Signatures THANK YOU
I usually just look up links in signatures of users who write interesting/informative/compelling posts, or are in some other way intriguing to me.