Favorite Thundercats Episode?

[Wilycub]

@adssse

Yes, that’s a great example of their identity crisis! They also really seemed to grow larger in later episodes (as did the muscles).

Ya, the eyebrows got really bushy in some episodes of Season 4. And the muscles… oh boy! The shoulder, upper arm and forearm looked like three beach balls strung together! :confused

[Mark_M]

@Wilycub

Ya, the eyebrows got really bushy in some episodes of Season 4. And the muscles… oh boy! The shoulder, upper arm and forearm looked like three beach balls strung together! :confused

Lion-O was way more pumped up than He-Man.

[Wilycub]

@Mark M

Lion-O was way more pumped up than He-Man.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more pumped!!! LOL! At least with He-Man, the animators maintained some sort of believable proportions. With Lion-O they just went nuts during the final seasons. In the first couple of seasons, he looks pretty good, though.

While I’ve never been a big fan of reusing/recycling animation the way the MOTU cartoons did, its advantage is that it maintains a consistent look throughout the series. With ThunderCats, the look of the episodes changed quite a bit, in some cases a bit TOO much.

[Mark_M]

@Wilycub

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more pumped!!! LOL! At least with He-Man, the animators maintained some sort of believable proportions. With Lion-O they just went nuts during the final seasons. In the first couple of seasons, he looks pretty good, though.

While I’ve never been a big fan of reusing/recycling animation the way the MOTU cartoons did, its advantage is that it maintains a consistent look throughout the series. With ThunderCats, the look of the episodes changed quite a bit, in some cases a bit TOO much.

That is the one thing I will say about Filmation cartoons, like He-Man, She-Ra, Bravestarr and even their Ghostbusters cartoon. They were consistent in writing and animation. None of them deteriorated writing wise like Thundercats after Starr left the team.

[Booshman]

@Mark M

That is the one thing I will say about Filmation cartoons, like He-Man, She-Ra, Bravestarr and even their Ghostbusters cartoon. They were consistent in writing and animation. None of them deteriorated writing wise like Thundercats after Starr left the team.

They were all consistently at a level below Thundercats though, even when it was mediocre.

[Mark_M]

@Booshman

They were all consistently at a level below Thundercats though, even when it was mediocre.

No, no, no, no. The writing in some episodes of He-Man and Bravestarr especially was excellent and tackled many subjects that others shows wouldn’t even touch. With the exception of a couple episodes after Thundercats Ho pretty much every episode was very formulaic with Lion-O saving the day with the sword. None of those episodes come close to the Bravestarr episodes ‘The Price’ or ‘Fallen Idol’ or the He-Man episode ‘The Problem with Power’.

[Wilycub]

@Mark M

With the exception of a couple episodes after Thundercats Ho pretty much every episode was very formulaic with Lion-O saving the day with the sword.

That really was due to the bad choices of writers that were picked by the production team. Instead of searching for good, talented writers (which there were plenty of), Rankin/Bass opted for cheaper, inexperienced writers, some of whom had never written anything before TCats, and most who never wrote anything after. There were just too many freelance writers, each writing one or two episodes. Not only did this wreaked havoc on the overall continuity, it resulted in pretty bad episodes.

I really felt bad for Mumm-Ra in those episodes. Many of the later writers had written for shows like “Strawberry Shortcake” and “My Little Pony” and “Care Bears”, and they turned the scary and powerful Mumm-Ra into a bumbling Gargamel like caricature.

Many of the R/B production team have very little to no memory of working on the last season of TCats, as they were focusing most of their energies on “SilverHawks”. They just wanted to quickly wrap up TCats.

[Booshman]

@Mark M

No, no, no, no. The writing in some episodes of He-Man and Bravestarr especially was excellent and tackled many subjects that others shows wouldn’t even touch. With the exception of a couple episodes after Thundercats Ho pretty much every episode was very formulaic with Lion-O saving the day with the sword. None of those episodes come close to the Bravestarr episodes ‘The Price’ or ‘Fallen Idol’ or the He-Man episode ‘The Problem with Power’.

When I talk about mediocre TCats, I’m not going into second season, a lot of which blends into one for me. I’m just going of the stuff I’m more familiar with from the first season. The mediocre stuff there is still pretty great, the bad (of which there isn’t a lot in those early days) is what I would lump in with forgettable kid oriented fare from the same era.

You’ll have to send me some must watch episodes of He-Man and Brave-Starr. Every random episode I pull up of MOTU on Youtube has been rubbish. I haven’t watched Brave Starr since it was on TV. I started watching Ghost Busters from the beginning not so long ago but I couldn’t get more than a few episodes in.

[Mark_M]

@Booshman

When I talk about mediocre TCats, I’m not going into second season, a lot of which blends into one for me. I’m just going of the stuff I’m more familiar with from the first season. The mediocre stuff there is still pretty great, the bad (of which there isn’t a lot in those early days) is what I would lump in with forgettable kid oriented fare from the same era.

You’ll have to send me some must watch episodes of He-Man and Brave-Starr. Every random episode I pull up of MOTU on Youtube has been rubbish. I haven’t watched Brave Starr since it was on TV. I started watching Ghost Busters from the beginning not so long ago but I couldn’t get more than a few episodes in.

I know what you mean. The first half/first season of Thundercats is great.
Some great Bravestarr episodes. Well first of all the movie needs to be watched. Fallen Idol, The Price, Bravestarr and the Law, Eye of the Beholder, Trouble Wears a Badge, Balance of Power and Strength of the Bear.
Some really good He-man episodes would be The Problem with Power, The Cat and The Spider, Origin of the Sorceress, The Witch and the Warrior, The Dragons Gift, Hunt for He-Man and Search for the Past.
Come to think of it I tried watching Filmation’s Ghost Busters and also couldn’t get beyond a couple episodes. Pretty poor cartoon but it had a wonderful toyline.

[Booshman]

@Mark M

I know what you mean. The first half/first season of Thundercats is great.
Some great Bravestarr episodes. Well first of all the movie needs to be watched. Fallen Idol, The Price, Bravestarr and the Law, Eye of the Beholder, Trouble Wears a Badge, Balance of Power and Strength of the Bear.
Some really good He-man episodes would be The Problem with Power, The Cat and The Spider, Origin of the Sorceress, The Witch and the Warrior, The Dragons Gift, Hunt for He-Man and Search for the Past.
Come to think of it I tried watching Filmation’s Ghost Busters and also couldn’t get beyond a couple episodes. Pretty poor cartoon but it had a wonderful toyline.

Cheers for the list, I’ll check those out.

[Mark_M]

@Booshman

Cheers for the list, I’ll check those out.

Those would be my favourites. I am more familiar with Bravestarr than MOTU. I still have a couple dozen MOTU episodes too watch.

[mumm_ra_n_rana]

@Wilycub

That really was due to the bad choices of writers that were picked by the production team. Instead of searching for good, talented writers (which there were plenty of), Rankin/Bass opted for cheaper, inexperienced writers, some of whom had never written anything before TCats, and most who never wrote anything after. There were just too many freelance writers, each writing one or two episodes. Not only did this wreaked havoc on the overall continuity, it resulted in pretty bad episodes.

I really felt bad for Mumm-Ra in those episodes. Many of the later writers had written for shows like “Strawberry Shortcake” and “My Little Pony” and “Care Bears”, and they turned the scary and powerful Mumm-Ra into a bumbling Gargamel like caricature.

Many of the R/B production team have very little to no memory of working on the last season of TCats, as they were focusing most of their energies on “SilverHawks”. They just wanted to quickly wrap up TCats.

I knew I wasn’t the only one who noticed this. At least he got to shine in some episodes like the last day and while return to thundera part 5 had a stupid macguffin ending mumm-ra was actually a threat again. I REALLY wish he’d won that fight. I never liked Thundera anyway. The planet was boring But I already ranted about the poorly written episodes of season 4 so I won’t do it again.
Speaking of swollen people mumm-ra got swollen up as well. Why did the episodes animation get all weird and squishy later on anyway?

[Tygra_Rules]

@Mark M

I know what you mean. The first half/first season of Thundercats is great.
Some great Bravestarr episodes. Well first of all the movie needs to be watched. Fallen Idol, The Price, Bravestarr and the Law, Eye of the Beholder, Trouble Wears a Badge, Balance of Power and Strength of the Bear.
Some really good He-man episodes would be The Problem with Power, The Cat and The Spider, Origin of the Sorceress, The Witch and the Warrior, The Dragons Gift, Hunt for He-Man and Search for the Past.
Come to think of it I tried watching Filmation’s Ghost Busters and also couldn’t get beyond a couple episodes. Pretty poor cartoon but it had a wonderful toyline.

I was a big fan of He-Man and Bravestar, although the latter didn’t air for too long here.
Must say “The Witch and the Warrior” might be, IMO, the best He-Man episode ever.

[mumm_ra_n_rana]

I have never watched he-man. If memory serves me I might have seen 1 episode years ago but that’s it and clips I’ve seen of it online just put me off. I don’t like the animation. Also there’s the fact Skeletor sounds like the Monarch from Venture Brothers and I can’t take him seriously as a villain.

[adssse]

@Wilycub

That really was due to the bad choices of writers that were picked by the production team. Instead of searching for good, talented writers (which there were plenty of), Rankin/Bass opted for cheaper, inexperienced writers, some of whom had never written anything before TCats, and most who never wrote anything after. There were just too many freelance writers, each writing one or two episodes. Not only did this wreaked havoc on the overall continuity, it resulted in pretty bad episodes.

I really felt bad for Mumm-Ra in those episodes. Many of the later writers had written for shows like “Strawberry Shortcake” and “My Little Pony” and “Care Bears”, and they turned the scary and powerful Mumm-Ra into a bumbling Gargamel like caricature.

Many of the R/B production team have very little to no memory of working on the last season of TCats, as they were focusing most of their energies on “SilverHawks”. They just wanted to quickly wrap up TCats.

Very well said. I don’t know if they were unwilling to pay top notch writers or why they went that direction. They had many well respected comic writers in the beginning but seemed to drive them away. Perhaps after it was such a success they figured they could just roll out episodes from whom ever was willing to write cheaply and it wouldn’t matter due to the brand.

I will admit that I do enjoy even the most cringeworthy episodes though

[Mark_M]

@adssse

Very well said. I don’t know if they were unwilling to pay top notch writers or why they went that direction. They had many well respected comic writers in the beginning but seemed to drive them away. Perhaps after it was such a success they figured they could just roll out episodes from whom ever was willing to write cheaply and it wouldn’t matter due to the brand.

I will admit that I do enjoy even the most cringeworthy episodes though

As Wilycub mentioned I believe it is because of Silverhawks. Ted Wold came up with Thundercats and Starr did a lot of ground work for it, but Silverhawks was Rankin Bass and Peter Lawrence’s project and they could do whatever they wanted and make it an even better success because they knew what they were doing LOL.

[mumm_ra_n_rana]

@Mark M

As Wilycub mentioned I believe it is because of Silverhawks. Ted Wold came up with Thundercats and Starr did a lot of ground work for it, but Silverhawks was Rankin Bass and Peter Lawrence’s project and they could do whatever they wanted and make it an even better success because they knew what they were doing LOL.

except for the fact most people would rather pretend silverhawks never existed.
Maybe Rankin Bass should have stuck to making holiday specials.

[Daremonger]

I was introduced to the Rankin/Bass world through ThunderCats and SilverHawks. :3

[mumm_ra_n_rana]

@Daremonger

I was introduced to the Rankin/Bass world through ThunderCats and SilverHawks. :3

well at least thundercats isn’t a musical.

[Daremonger]

@mumm_ra_n_rana

well at least thundercats isn’t a musical.

The ThunderClaw theme music (which was used for the HoverCat and the ThunderStrike) sounds like workout music to me, and the final two notes before the music ends remind me of the Inspector Gadget theme song.