So that’s it, the series is just going to end at “What Lies Above”? We get no closure and we’re just supposed to accept that? How could they do this? First they throw this “Pumyra is a traitor” thing at us and then just end the series there
You saved me the time of writing that very sentence. The bottom line is our beloved Thundercats fell into ALL the wrong hands. I’ve made no bones about saying this starting with the OS DVD release; the WORST thing that ever happened to Thundercats has been Warner Bros.
Regardless of whether you love the NS, think it is better then the OS, whatever, you can not deny that the reason why Thundercats is so epic is due to the OS. THOSE CHARACTERS from the OS are what made Thundercats so amazing to all of us long time fans and those who have been gained in the years after the OS’s original run. To “reinvent,” “reimagine,” or “reboot” those characters is series suicide. As already mentioned, Go Go Gadget arms Panthro? Give me a break…
Why did it fail? There are so many reasons that have already been covered… Right off the bat however they had a show in a Friday night (adult) time slot, with a toy line being produced for children. :sneaky: 13 or so episodes in they realize there mistake and move the show to Sat mornings but it is far too late. Kids are not going to be able to get into a show at episode 14 or whatever it was. Then there was the show it’s self. With few exceptions, the writing and continuity was shoddy at best. Lion-O would spend an entire episode learning something only to forget it for 3 episodes straight. How many times did Lion-O use Sight Beyond Sight in the entire series? Then you would get this great big build up with a couple good episodes (The Sword of Plundar episodes) then bring everything back down to a screeching halt with filler episodes. Bah whatever… I have covered this over and over again in other threads or forums… Really it was just all in the wrong hands. Sorry Just venting guys but I have always hated how WB has handled Thundercats. I am a loooong time fan you see, starting as a child in the 80’s to this very day.
The only things I can say about the new series is we got two fantastic episodes in The Petalers and The Duelist and the Drifter, and both the art and music were great.
Everyone will go back to loving and remembering Thundercats for the OS, and yes, sadly one day people will forget about the NS. That may not be such a bad thing however. Perhaps once WB believes people have forgotten about it they will try again and do it right this time… Only who knows how long that will be. According to what Dan Norton said about it taking a long time to bring it back to TV, you can estimate just how big of a commercial failure the NS was.
I invested well over $300 - $400 on the new toyline. Now I am not so sure it was wise. I could have used that money to complete my LJN Loose Complete collection.:rolleyes:
My thoughts exactly, except you got it wrong. It was Saturday MORNINGS when it was changed.
Correct. Sat Mornings.
I want to re-post what I put on a group’s wall on Facebook:
When it comes down to it, we can all complain about the show being gone. You can just constantly send hate mail to CN and post on multiple pages, blogs, and forums that you’re upset and we should fight back. You can go to countless conventions and do countless speeches over the show. You can cry over it and hope that it will return sometime soon. But you know what? That’s not going to help. If you truly want the show back, you should buy the DVDs and toys, along with other ThunderCats merchandise. Cartoon Network and WB didn’t cancel it because people didn’t like it; they cancelled it because they weren’t making the profit they wanted to. While most of this is their fault, if you want to save it, you’re going to have to give them your money, not your complaints. I am very upset that the show is gone, but let’s be realistic here.
As long as there are those of us who chose to celebrate Thundercats in writing and art,OS or NS, we will always have Thundercats. And that is what matters.
MGP
That’s how I see it.
Chris here…
I’m obviously very sad that the ThunderCats revival appears to have been so short-lived - I’m still cautiously optimistic that there may still be another role of the dice for the franchise in some form but for the moment I think we’ve seen everything of substance we’re going to see for a while. 
I’ve read above criticisms of the show itself - I’m kind-of in two minds, in the sense that I personally thought the show at its best was absolutely excellent - particularly the second half of the season. However, looking at it through the eyes of pitching the show to kids, I do have a theory why the show didn’t work like the original…
The original had a formula to each episode that not just worked from a story perspective but added excitement for kids watching it. The biggest thing that was missing from this series for me was the “Thunder…Thunder…Thunder…ThunderCats HO!!!” each time! 
It sounds silly, but IMO this is a big reason why the original ThunderCats was a success - through that sequence, it had something each episode that was exciting, iconic and powerful that kids could instantly identify as being part of ThunderCats, which meant something exciting was about to happen, and which the episode would build up to each time…
I actually call this the “Superman factor”, and the original He-Man cartoon had it as well - everyone would cheer when Prince Adam would transform into He-Man in the same way that we’d cheer when Clark Kent would change into Superman and fly off to the rescue, because deep down the concept of someone or something more powerful turning up to save the day in exciting and dramatic fashion is something that everyone, particularly kids, can relate to and which strikes a chord. Every kid at some stage wants to be empowered in some way, and Prince Adam becoming He-Man or Lion-O calling on the power of the Sword of Omens is a metaphor for that.
So, even though it might sound silly, I think that’s a big reason why this new take of ThunderCats didn’t catch fire. Which is a shame, because the pilot episode I thought was OUTSTANDING - one of the very best animated debuts I’ve ever seen of any series, ever. And there were, IMO, tons of good episodes in there. So I’m really sad right now, but still tinged with optimism that there may still be some future for the ThunderCats, in some form. 
Worst ways round, we still have 26 more ThunderCats episodes than we had 18 months ago, and no one can take those (or the original series) away from us!
If you’ve made it this far down this lengthy post - thanks for reading! 
ThunderCats - HOOOO!!!
Take care…
I also think it would’ve helped if they would’ve went ahead and remade the old intro with the NS designs. That’s THE one thing everyone remembers about the old show, if they remember nothing else about it. It made people excited from the get go. I don’t think loosing that minute from each episode’s story would’ve hurt all that much. And it would’ve saved them a little bit of money cause in the long run they would’ve had less to animate.
They COULD not do that. CN never gave them enough time for an intro.
After reading many posts, I think one reason things went so awry was because the NS was new. I would have preferred to see a reboot that started some years later on New Thundera and Third Earth. The original characters would have moved on in life; new characters could have been added. New dangers and adventures, but plenty to give the old characters some action, even in backstory episodes. Something for old and new fans and true to the mythology and spirit of the old show. Just imagine Tygra being a ruler on Third Earth as some Thunderans decided to migrate there, rather than stay on New Thundera. Imagine adventures involving both worlds and kings. This reboot was a great opportunity lost in any case.
MGP
True as that may be i still find the overall story and ideas very interesting by having the stones, how they landed on third earth and how it all panned out. The show had many faults, but i see the OVERALL story as being very good and very much interesting.
I could never get into the NS backstory. I never understood Mumm-Ra’s motivation or purpose and how the animals even tied in with him. The quest aspect was fine, but the motivations of the characters were never truly explored. Don’t even get me started on the shabby treatment of the female characters as window dressing.
MGP
Great point. It seems like all the stuff we looked forward to seeing in the OS (Sight Beyond Sight, the Thundercats call, the Thundercats signal, their eyes lighting up, individual theme songs) were all mostly absent from the NS. Look how bonkers everyone went when when in “Recipe for Disaster” Lion-O did the backwards somersault like in the OS opening! That’s the stuff we wanted and they almost never gave it to us, leaving a lot of us with a feeling of leaving each episode “empty handed.”
And your right, for young children that “powering up” formula works. Hell even as an adult I get a kick out of it. Even if episode after episode the powering up sequence is the same stock footage over and over again it doesn’t matter, it works!
And what the heck do you think my point was?
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That wouldn’t have been a reboot. That would’ve been a sequel. Which is what they did with Voltron Force…and it sucked.
My biggest gripe with the NS was the fact that Lion-O wasn’t LION-O. There’s only so much a guy can take of an insecure/unsure/guiltridden/love-sick/heartbroken protagonist. The writers didn’t help much by making Cheetara into a cardboard Mary Sue or Tygra into a whiny snob, and don’t even get me started on Panthro’s “arms”.
Another thing that the NS dropped the ball on was Mum-ra and Lion-O’s animosity. In the OS every time the two shared screen space you could feel their hatred and desire to see each other fall.
I hope in the future someone gets another crack at the franchise, and that someone remembers what made the OS legendary.
At least the remake had some sort of proper backstory. That’s one thing that was wrong with the original series. No proper backstory. What was the beef between the Thundercats and the Mutants? Where did Mumm-Ra come from? We never found out.
And I say this as a huge fan of the originals. Backstory/continuity was one thing the new series did powerfully right.
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I see what you mean. I still feel a shiver down my spine when I hear that chord on the woodwind, you KNOW what’s coming next. And Larry Kenney did the most amazing job with it (Will Friedle never came close). But at the same time, while it was one of the things that made the show, I do have a problem with the way they crowbarred the catchphrase into every single episode (except the Annointment Trials, apart from the pointless use at the coronation), and particularly with the way it became a universal fix-all later on.
I found it interesting the way “Thundercats HO!” became a battle cry in the new series. And also found it funny when it sounded better from Tygra - credit to Matthew Mercer on that front!
But on a basic level, the key difference in favour of the original series was that it had hooks you could hang your hat on. Not just the catcphrases, it had the incidental music - you could follow the plot just from the music in the original series, from the establishing fanfare of Cats’ Lair, to the sword warning Lion-O, or giving him sight beyond sight, or coming to his hands, or even the main catchphrase (wow, that’s four bits of music just for the sword!). You knew when the action had shifted to Castle Plun-Darr, or when the Mutants were going on the offensive, or when Mumm-Ra took centre stage. You knew when Tygra was turning invisible, or Cheetara was racing to the scene. You knew when Snarf was having a comic moment, or the Kittens were flying on their spaceboards. And best of all, you knew when the Thundertank turned up. The Thundertank theme is the coolest piece of incidental music ever devised, bar none. For the most part, the new series just doesn’t have that stamp of recognisability with its music. But then, most incidental music tends to be the same these days (honourable exception, I was out of the room when the advert came on but I could tell from the first few bars of incidental music that it signalled the return of Doctor Who - and yes, that’s incidental music, not Ron Grainer’s title theme - speaking of whom, he also did the music for Steptoe & Son, which is quite a diverse pair of shows!).
Chris here…
Yep, I agree with this point 100%!
Take care…
Just because Voltron did not work as a sequel does not mean that Thundercats would have. I saw the sequel as creating a broad base and a bridge for old and new fans with plenty to work with for story development and new characters and action. Just saying.
MGP
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The NS back story made no sense to me and did not win either my heart or my attention. (If Mumm-Ra could take out a galaxy (!) the Thundercats could never hope to beat him.) The original could have had several jump points for a full back story if the OS had not faltered after the first 60 some episodes. There certainly was plenty of plot points for fan writers to draw upon ove rthe many Thundercatless years.
I would disagree on continuity with the NS. The characters shifted moods more than a mood ring, the adventure was constantly diverted for no good reasons, and some stories, Tygra’s origin, in particular, were just plain stupid. A balloon? Really? Expecting Evil to cure/heal? What was Javan thinking.
MGP
I don’t want to come off harsh by asking this, but did you watch the episodes of the NS in order? Or perhaps you missed some episodes? If either are the case, I could see why you didn’t like it.
As for Tygra’s backstory, the balloon wasn’t even significant. It was just a way to save Tygra. And they had no one else to resort to in order to cure their disease.