No doubt there, but it’s still going to suck. In fact, that may be a reason why it will be worse.
That’s not what you said but sure.
As strange as it sounds, I always hope every lego them does well, only for the chance that we may get something more unique further down the road.
I’m hoping that one day LEGO will do a “classic” cartoon theme, such as Hanna Barbera stuff, or He-man, or even a Thundercats line. I know it’s a long shot, but if the past 5 years have shown us anything, LEGO is open to all kinds of ideas. I never would have thought in a million years we would get LOTR or Ninja Turtles lego themes.
Glad I’m not the only one here thinking the similarities are a little too close for comfort. The minute I saw footage of it, I couldn’t help but wonder if this perhaps was the real reason TCats got brushed aside; simply because this Chima thing was already in the pipeline and the two shows looked too similar?
The visual similarities of certain characters seem just too close to be ignored.
If this is the case, I agree, it well and truly sucks. Again, I’m hopeful that maybe this Netflix deal with WB might help to give the show a second life.
Just me but I’m not seeing much similarity overall.
Laval and Lion-O are minimal similarities at best. Sword wielding lion wearing blue has been covered numerous times. Chaotic and Yu-Gi-Oh come to mind.
Outside of being king, Laval’s father really holds no bearing to Claudus.
Eris being a female and good really doesn’t do much to attribute her to Vultureman. If anything, she’d be more akin to Cheetara and even then, only barely.
Craggar and Slithe, that’s about the best comparrison to make for show similarity but then again, Thundercats doesn’t own the exclusive rights to anthropomorphic characters.
I can’t really say Panthro is similar to a wolf at all.
Can’t say the attack on the kingdom is very Thundercats either since again, it is also a commonly used theme.
Maybe if there was more to legitimately link the two shows together and the Thundercats reboot didn’t have as much theme grabbing as it did, my hackles would be raised.
My view on it is this; if someone made a show that had fighting anthropomorphic turtles in it who fight crime, it would be automatically labeled a TMNT ripoff, no questions asked. If any fan/defender of Chima (if they exist) has to go through countless upon countless paragraphs of explaining and picking out microscopic details to show that it is not a ripoff, then it’s a ripoff. Even the most incompetent television writers/producers can at least make some subtle differences to make sure the risk isn’t even there to have it written off as plagiarism. It’s as if they were not even trying to make Laval look different from Lion-O, nor be in a different circumstance.
Also, what is another trait of a ripoff? When the original content is there, it is terrible. I read on Toonzone that the script sounded like some low-budget, improperly-translated anime dub, and I learned that they were completely right after watching it (which took every ounce of open-mindedness I have). The pacing was also a nightmare, with a flashback lasting almost 1/3 of the runtime of the 1 hour premier. The voice direction was also really sloppy and rushed. On another comparison, it’s a HUGE step down from Ninjago, which was at least mildly watchable.
We could be looking at a situation where LEGO pushed their replacement for Ninjago towards Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network realized they wouldn’t be able to create lucritive merchandizing deals with Thundercats, so they sidelined it in favor of Chima, which is almost designed to be the flagship LEGO theme, which Ninjago formerly was.
I don’t blame them, and I’d actually prefer this situation to any other, mainly because that means Thundercats wasn’t DOA on their own merits, but was sidelined for other shows because of theme conflictions. That gives it a fighting chance on either another network, or another owner. I wouldn’t even care if we had to wait 2-3 years, and get a NEW series that builds off the old one, much like the Legend of Kora, and then they back fill the storyline through flashbacks to tell us what would have happened in season 2. I know it’s a far stretch, but if the return of Teen Titans and the Legend of Kora prove anything, it’s that fan demand over a prolonged period of time CAN produce results.
…except for the new Teen Titans cutting the action for a more kid-friendly approach.
My thoughts exactly. My guess is that TCats was the victim of a backroom deal much like the one you described here. That would go a long way towards explaining CN’s noncommittal attittude towards it.
For that matter, they STILL owe us an explanation of why they pulled DC Nation so abruptly for a few months. Though unless we employ some Zero Dark Thirty-style torture sessions, I doubt we’ll ever get an answer from them.
wow lol… i’m just finding out about this, and i’m sure most will obviously be reminded of Thundercats. so i’m guessing this might be the reason the head guys at CN didn’t bother to renew Thundercats for a second season. wow the similarities to the Thundercats are striking for some of these characters especially the main lead character.
When a family member, who barely knows anything about ThunderCats, sees 5 seconds of the comercial for “an adventure never before seen…” guess what they think it is?
I had to spend twice as much time explaining why this Chima show is not “Lego ThunderCats” as the comercial lasted. I was actually losing the argument (for why Chima is not a generic Lego ThunderCats), so I had to give in and say it was a Lego rip off.
Perhaps Chima will attract the young viewer market the writers for Thundercats failed to do and the Lego toys will sell well to children unlike those pathetic toys Bandai made.
Doesn’t help the ThunderCats franchise, it just funds more bad lego action shows.
I never said it would help the Thundercats franchise. The only ones who can help Thundercats are WB and over the last year it is pretty obvious they do not care for the franchise or its fans.
Ouch! :eek: On a loosely related note, it seems like that’s happening on this thread, too.
I should point out that while I do think Chima is a bit of a rip-off of Thundercats it doesn’t bother me that much as there has been various other cartoons and toy line you could argue copied Thundercats.
I am not upset at CN for showing Chima in favour of a second season of Thundercats. At the end of the day the toys were not selling and the show wasn’t attracting enough viewers, and it’s the people behind the cartoon that are to blame for it because they all had a different audience and goals in mind.
Agreed. I seem to feel like there was probably a lack of communication and a lack of unity among themselves as well as not realizing about the Generation Y culture being involved in their viewing, which Chima has a better shot at. Do I need to explain or you dudes wanna read into that?
Imo they did it all wrong if they really wanted to sell toys to 6-11 y’olds off of the show. Just stick to the tried and true formula of the OS, not this confusing stuff about a love triangle, brotherly strife, Lion-o being everyone’s b!tch, splitting up the team, not enough cool villain moments, not enough decent action and lack of continuity even kids will pick up on. And they even did a lot of fanservice to fans of the OS but guess what they aren’t your target audience! Or put more mature themes in and aim it at an older audience, ie get rid of all the childishness. I bet even the 10 y’old kids can appreciate that more.
Also, and I know this is just my opinion, but they ruined Pumyra. Shoulda kept her as a cutiepie which is what made her so likeable in the OS despite her lack of screen presence! The betrayal was cool though, but too little too late.
I agree with your idea of the toyline issue, the love triangle ordeal (it really was a big mess), and the less screen time with the villain dialogue. For example, even in Transformers, the Decepticon interaction are obviously hilarious, if not more, than the Autobot interaction. I do agree that some of the script and idea of the OS should have stayed but sometimes the stuff from the OS didn’t make much sense to me as a kid either…or was too weird and creepy. For example, Lion-o at 12 being stuck as 17 year-old by something that aged his body was my tongue in cheek. I loved 98% of the character designs in this new series, though. Many of the OS for like the “fillers” like Drifter I loved. Even some of the new elements were very interesting (and I mean it as it is, very interesting–neat!)
Oh I love you for the cutie pie Pumyra comment! I did not like her either in the NS because I couldn’t relate to her like I did in the OS. #IAMacutiepie!stophatin’ When I saw the OS, I was like “Where’d she go? I miss her! She so PREETY!”
Shame on me, I derailed the thread. Sorry! Chant with me! “Chima, BOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
Just watched the very first episode of the series. In all honesty, I didn’t like it at all. The dialogue in many instances was bad, pacing was too fast, and story was nothing note worthy. Yes, it was all too childish, but I’ve seen other kid shows written way better…but I suppose its just one episode, however, going by the tone of the show it isn’t even funny to warrant a watch. I thought its Lego, it must be somewhat funny but it wasn’t. However, anyone who has watched the new Cats is bound to draw to parallels with the few intro scenes. Not entirely similar, but still. Despite however much you might want to say Laval is not inspired by Lion-O, truth is the first glance of his leads you to think Laval = Lego Lion-O. I guess the only thing I liked about it was its animation and art, other than that I don’t recommend this, even for kids. Sigh…this is truly a shame that this show is what replaced the Thundercats!