Episode 003 – Berbils

Cartoons ThunderCats (1985)
1

Episode 003 – Berbils

New characters introduced:
The Berbils – A race of robotic bears that grow a wide variety of edible fruit
Trologs – A race of dog-like creatures that raid the Berbil Fruit fields
Giantors – Giants who have bushes that is the only source of food for the Trologs
Mumm-Ra – First we see Mumm-Ra can take other forms as well

The movie version is actually over six and a half minutes shorter than the individual episode. The scenes with the Trologs and Giantors are not in the movie version at all. This includes the parts where Lion-O says they are friends, and that friends help each other. But the Berbils use the alert and blow darts for the Trologs from the episode for the locust swarm in the movie. Also Mumm-Ra transforms into a locust before Lion-O even reaches the Berbil village in the movie. The movie version does have fewer odd situations as a result.

How does Tygra know the rock storm was not natural? They just crash landed on an unknown planet, how can he know what is and is not normal there?

What purpose would the Berbils have setting traps in the forest? There’s Meat Fruit, Grape Fruit, Veggie Fruit, and Candy Fruit. Why capture animals in traps?

Ro-bear-Bill shows an interesting point of view. The Berbils refuse to just give the Trologs their fruit, but they also refuse to harm the trologs in their attempts to protect their food from theft. At the same time, Ro-bear-Bill feels sorry for the Trologs because he sympathizes with why they steal the fruit. This is a very complex and mature point of view to have. Lion-O has a hard time understanding the logic, but as the series progresses, he will come to adopt a similar sense or morals.

After the Trologs, the Giantors show up. With the help of the other ThunderCats Lion-O easily shows the Giantors that they are not a match for the ThunderCats and that they are not going to steal from the Berbils again. This starts an interesting set of scenes that just don’t make sense in the DVD version.

In the Movie version, the other ThunderCats were not called because the Trologs and Giantors did not show up. The two versions come back together after the DVD version has Ro-bear-Bill telling Lion-O thanks, and asking him to thank the other ThunderCats as well, even though they are in that same shot.

When the giant locust shows up why do the other ThunderCats stand by and do nothing? And once Lion-O went insect riding, why did the other ThunderCats wander back to their camp?

Sword Rule #3: Call to it… Call and it will obey. So now Lion-O has learned that he can call for the sword and it will come to his hand. It may be a good thing he didn’t know this rule when the Berbils had him tied up.

When Lion-O returns to the ThunderCat camp, Tygra asks what took him so long. Seems odd that Tygra would ask what took him so long when he showed up for the Giantor fight and saw Lion-O hop on the giant bug and go riding it over the volcano and get dropped in.

2

We learn from Cheetara’s Sixth Sense in Thundercats Ho that Lynx-o, Bengali and Pumyra were saved and brought to Third Earth by a Berbil Ship. Ro-Bear-Bob and Ro-Bear-Bert who were the pilots knew of Thundera and were shocked by it’s destruction, whereas the New Thundercats hadn’t heard before of them. Also, the Ro-Bear- Berbils were very familiar with Third Earth and their ship was able to reach the planet without suspension capsules by using only the remaining fuel, additionally given that Berbils had a tiny homeworld and were forced to form colonies to many distant planets in order to survive, suggesting they were a globetrotter race, maybe their technology was superior to Thundera’s too!
However, when Berbils first met Lion-o in Third Earth he seemed totally strangers to them a well as the reference of “Lord of the Thundercats”, as Snarf pointed out “i don’t guess they have heard of us”. Probably the ‘Berbil years’, Ro-Bear Bill mentioned about their stay in Third Earth was a much longer period than “10 galacto years”.

I always loved the peculiar sound the Berbils made and their teddy-bear appearance reminded me of a robotic version of Ewoks from Star Wars! Anyway, they were great allies to the Thundercats and a very sympathetic race

One memorable moment in this episode was towards the end when Jaga teaches Lion-o how to summon the sword to his hand, a scene repeated many times in the whole series, by and large the first few episodes laid emphasis to Lion-o’s naive and immature character which brought him into many troubles and made him rush into action rather than listening to the voive of reason first.

3

One point I was going to wait until ThunderCats Ho! is that Lynx-O had to be at least as old as Jaga on Old ThunDera, yet Lynx-O, Pumyra, and Ben-Gali not only survived the trip without suspension capsules, they appear to not have aged any, just like everyone else (except Lion-O). Personally, I think the story starts making really weird twists and turns at that point.

I agree the fact that the Ro-bear-Bill not knowing of the ThunderCats vs Bob & Bert knowing about them is odd. That will be a very interesting point to discuss when we get to them (in ThunderCats Ho!)

4

I wonder what happend to ro bear bob and bert ??? did they find the birbil village and get along with ro bear bill and belle and the other birbles???

Untill i know that I will never sleep its bugged me since 1988 lol

5

Well, we see these two Berbils fighting along New Thundecats against the Berserkers at the island in the Northern Sea!! :pumyrahappy::lynxo:

6

We’re still in the introductory phase of the series as we are introduced to the Thundercats’ first allies! The unholy children of R2-D2 and the Ewoks…yuck.

lol, I think this is the weakest out of the early intro episodes, but it still has its merits. Mumm-Ra displays some of the immense power he has in that he can cause problems for the T-Cats while still inside his Pyramid. Also, I liked the idea of the T-Cats having to earn the trust of their allies first rather than just randomly being accepted. They’d have a much harder time with The Warrior Maidens, The Snowman, & a few others, but here it is nice to see that both sides aren’t on entirely friendly terms at first.

The thing I remember most here is that about half the episode was ripped out when released on VHS as part of the “Exodus” movie (which included the first four episodes). The initial pilot episode actually contained extended footage (which made the episode better as a while) while this one eliminated all fight sequences with the Trollogs & Giantors, which I think helps the episode flow better, but then again, it was part of a 75 minute movie, so maybe it worked better when viewed that way.

7

Maybe they were influenced by Ewoks and C-3PO of making a Koala cyborg critter.