Got an email from someone… 
Manny:
I just came across the petition website. Thanks so much for
the kind words … you guys are the best!
Please pass along my gratitude to Neil, Chris, Manny R,
Kyle, Mark, Martin, Matt, Angie, and the whole team.
All the best,
Larry Kenney
Chris here…
That’s awesome Manny - fantastic stuff! Have you replied to that yet? I was wondering whether Larry would be interested in (and indeed, comfortable with) linking to the petition on his website?
Take care…
Not yet Chris. I’m not sure if Larry would be comfortable with linking to the petition via his website…I think he’d be too modest to do something like that…although it would be a great way to get more exposure.
Chris here…
Apologies for reviving an old thread - I was just wondering, do we yet have any idea when we’ll be submitting this petition to WB? I saw over at the voice actor for Lion-O rumour thread on the movie forum that WB have had sight of it, or words to that effect - is this correct? If so, that’s good, as at least they know what the hardcore fans want! 
The one pet peeve I have is all these folks saying “It should be a petition to get ALL the original VA’s back!!!” - what they don’t realise is that, in that scenario, WB would just dismiss the petition as being a vehicle for fanboys (and fangirls) who can’t deal with change! :roll: At the moment I’m not too optimistic about Larry’s chances, only because I think WB would think they would need some big name VA’s in order to draw in new fans (as per your post in that thread, MannyF), and Lion-O is obviously the most significant character. But, at least we’ve tried, and earned ourselves some damn good publicity for the site in the bargain!
Take care…
There really would be no point in sending the petition to WB with only 400+ signatures. It’s not enough. Jerry knows about the petition and he knows how we feel…but I don’t think it would do any good to send it with only 420+. We didn’t even break 500. 
Chris here…
That’s a shame - especially given that, if I’m honest, even 420 sigs is more than I actually expected us to get. How many sigs did the petition(s) for Peter Cullen to return as the voice of Optimus Prime generate? Unfortunately, unlike Transformers which has a massive hardcore fanbase, ThunderCats is a bit of an also-ran, and I suppose as a consequence the series’ fans don’t have as much “people power”…
Take care…
Guys I have an idea on how we could drum up more votes on the petition…
Let’s PM people individually on the massive facebook group called “Bring Back the ThunderCats” at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2219859891
It takes quite a lot of time to do it, but as a member of the group you can message other members. So long as you’re a member of the group it seems that there is no limit to how many members you can send a message to. There are 8470 people in the group and Facebook lets you show a random selection of 2000 members. What I’d propose is that we each plug away at sending messages to people in the group.
Copy and paste the same message and keep going one person after the next until you have done your 300 messages. It should take about 20 seconds for each person once you’ve got your rhythm going so just over an hour and a half total. Unfortunately because the member list is randomly generated each time you visit the pages you won’t know if you’re spamming somebody more than once. However, possibly a small price to pay given what’s at stake. Also, these people are all on a ThunderCats group dedicated to bringing back the T-Cats. So in my opinion, we’re messaging them about something they care about. Some more than others, but hey… we can’t do any damage by sending out the messages so long as they’re polite.
If 5% of the people we message actually go to the site and fill out the petition we’ll have 500 entries total.
Here is the message I intend to use:
Subject: On-line petition re: new ThunderCats movie
Greetings fellow ThunderCats fan. Please excuse this unsolicited message, but I am writing about something you will likely have an interest in. As you may or may not know by now Warner Brothers is in the early stages of developing a ThunderCats cgi movie. It’s an exciting time to be fan. You probably also know that the voice actor who played Lion-O, Larry Kenney did a brilliant job and that nobody could replace him. I work on a well known fan website and we’re in touch with some of the people responsible for making the movie. We’re working hard to convince these people that Larry Kenney should reprise his role as the voice of Lion-O.
I’m writing to ask you to help this effort by signing an on-line petition that we’ve started. If you feel the same way we do then please go to http://petition.thundercatslair.org/ and fill out the form (takes under two minutes to go through it all).
ThunderCats HHOOOOOOOOO!!!
Mark from www.thundercatslair.org
Have we asked the folks at EOT to bulk message all their forum members asking them to fill out the petition?
I’m going to get started tomorrow, if anybody has questions about how to do this let me know. If anybody isn’t comfortable with doing this, I think thats fine it’s down to a personal choice and I know we all have busy lives anyway. Every little bit done would help though.
Cheers,
Mark
Chris: I wasn’t even aware that there was a Peter Cullen petition, but it would be a safe that that it easily broke 1000 signatures. Even at that number execs would turn a blind eye to it, especially since it is an online petition.
420+ signatures a great feat for us…but unless we ask a large site to put this news on the front page (Toy News International, for example), we’re going to be hard press to get 1000 signatures.
Mark: Feel free to send messages in Facebook. I rarely sign on to it, so I am not very familiar with how everything works there.
Great idea Mark about the messages however I have an even greater idea that could save you tons and tons of time. Get a hold of the admin of the group and he could message all members of the group with the petition all at once
Worth a try and could potentially give us tons of signatures and eliminate the chances of spamming people
Amidst all the discussion pertaining the rumor I posted…I’ve been told not to give up on the petition.
Take that what you will. I’m considering going to the webmaster of Toy News International and requesting if he would be willing to make a note of the petition on the site’s front page.
I’ve been also told to try and contact some of the big websites that report on movies and get them to spotlight the petition. I’m not entirely sure how exactly I’m suppose to persuade these big sites to take notice of us, but I guess it doesn’t hurt to try.
All I know is…two of my sources have told me NOT to give up on the petition.
MannyC… unfortunately the admin can’t mass e-mail once a group gets above 1000 members. Even if that function was possible, the guy who is the admin hasn’t done a damned thing with the group in months and he doesn’t respond to my offers to “buy” the group from him.
MannyF… let me know how I can help. If you want to help me find out which sites are big in movie fan (other than Aintitcoolnew) then I’ll be happy to go on a phoning/e-mailing campaign with you.
Your sources… do they include a certain director you’re in touch with?
Thanks Mark. Yeah, Aint It Cool News would be one of those sites and also that site with “Tomatoes” in it…like Rotten Tomatoes?
Anyhow, my sources do include Jerry, but he also forwarded me to other people who could give me some inside tips. So 3 people working on the movie…and then we have Sam, from WHV UK.
No idea how I got so many people to respond to me, but I’m not complaining.
Methinks they’re using us for some viral marketing… and to that I say…
USE AWAY!
Chris here…
This is all exciting stuff - re: Facebook, I’d love to help but unfortunately at the moment it’s as much as I can cope with staying alive, when I’m getting “ThunderCat time” I’m utilising it on the Episode Guide, and also haven’t forgotten a writing assignment that MannyF gave me. But, it’s good to see Facebook being utilised!
If I may make a suggestion about the spamming thing, even though it’s as tedious as hell, one way to avoid spamming would be to actually write down the name of each person you message through Facebook, that way you will at least be able to look up who you have and haven’t contacted, maybe (even though it’s time-consuming) put the names into some kind of simple database programme. Just a thought, and probably not a very practical one - however, I thought I’d mention it.
I’m encouraged by the folks at WB saying not to give up on the Larry petition - at the very least, if Larry didn’t get the role of Lion-O but received a speaking role of some description in the movie, that would be a nice nod to old-school fans, and also a sign that ThunderCats Lair is leading the way, baby!
Take care…
Well I’ve been going into facebook off and on for the last couple weeks and have been sending messages to folks in the ThunderCats group. I’ve sent out about 200 messages and that led to 26 new sign ups since I started. That’s a pretty good hit ratio!
If others want to join in and help me with this I’m sure we’ll get 500 signatures in no time. We only need 49 more guys. Let’s get this done!
Only need 31 more signatures to take the petition to a round 500
Total Signatures to Date = 481
Only 19 more to go before we hit 500 guys…
Manny, could we send another e-mail to the members of the forums asking them to go and sign the petition and to encourage their friends to do the same?
I’ve posted the info about the petition in as many facebook groups as I could think of… so close now!
Chris here…
Hey everyone, apologies for bumping an old thread, but just wanted to mention that, since hitting the 500 signatures milestone, this has actually continued to generate a nice number of signatures - now up to 628!
Whilst obviously, realistically, this isn’t really a big enough number to mean anything to Warner Bros, I still think this is a great testament to the grassroots Internet campaign that we embarked on, and that others helped us with!
Take care…
Agreed, and I’d encourage everyone on the team to sign up for a digg.com account and digg the article… this would help us get some free traffic to this page everytime someone searches for ThunderCats on digg.com
What’s our official line?
Chris here…
Folks have started asking me when we’re going to be submitting the Larry movie petition to WB?
Now, I know that MannyF has told all of us on the team that WB are aware of the Larry petition, and have encouraged us to keep going with it (or words to that effect) - but, for speaking publicly to folks on our forums or elsewhere, what’s our official line on this?
The only reason I’m asking is because I don’t want to get MannyF into trouble with his contacts at WB - if someone (ideally MannyF himself) could LMK what I should say when asked, that would be great. Many thanks!
Take care…