Explain why you like Thundercats so much… Whenever my friends discover my love for Thundercats, non of them get it, and I struggle to put into words what it is that makes it so fantastic. I would love to hear your versions!
My love for the Thundercats…
I’m 33 years old. I’ve been watching cartoons all my life. I was watching ABC, CBS and NBC’s Saturday morning lineups during the 70s and the first half of the 80s. I saw a LOT of cartoons.
And then came the 80s toy shows. Like so many, I was crazy about He-Man. I thought the animation of He-Man was much better than the Saturday morning stuff I saw. And sometimes the stories were really good. In fact, my favorite He-Man episode is Into the Abyss. I first saw that episode at 10 or 11 years old. And I thought it was so neat watching adults play hide and seek. That episode was forever burned into my mind. Today it’s still my favorite episode because there’s no threat or emergency to be dealt with, it’s a look at Adam and Teela as people. But I digress…
The Thundercats debuted the first day of my seventh grade year. I was at a new school and the day was a complete disaster (anytime I pass that school, I quietly curse it). I had tried to watching Exodus, but my mother screamed at me to start my homework. Later on, I started watching THUNDERCATS and was almost immediately hooked. The show was UNLIKE any other before it. It’s animation; sound effects; music, it had its own vibe, its own identity. I was such a He-Man fan…and this show was so different. He-Man was the hero of Eternia; the Thundercats were the survivors of a destroyed planet. They made their way to 3rd Earth and became its heroes. Life had hit them very hard.
The THUNDERCATS had emotional moments, so many. And they were so very well done. I recall the THUNDERCATS’ sorrow when they realized Jaga wasn’t going to finish the journey. It was also touching to see Cheetara’s tears. That was a Disney-esque moment. I’d never really seen cartoon characters hurting like that. I do admit that the He-Man characters had good, emotional moments, but they didn’t hit me like the THUNDERCATS did. The music helped that big time. My most memorable THUNDERCATS music pieces are Jaga’s Theme; when the Eye of ThunDERa’s signal enveloped that space station in Sword in a Hole and when the Star of ThunDERa drew Jaga back from the Black Planet in Thundercats Ho: The Movie.
My favorite THUNDERCATS storyline is The Annointment Trials. Lion-O’s conflicts with the other THUNDERCATS weren’t the result of a bad attitude or a spell, but there was something to be proven. I still, and will always, smile and shed a tear during Lion-O’s conversation with Jaga after he’s defeated Mumm-Ra in The Trial of Evil…and when he is crowned.
The way Lion-O was handled was good too. In the beginning, he was every bit the inexperienced kid…but he grew into a competent leader. Sometimes I think Lion-O may have undergone the Hero’s Journey in THUNDERCATS.
There are many reasons why Thundercats is awesome. It’s really hard to lock it all down, but I know that I was always impressed with the artwork, the characters, the special effects (you know, like how the water always had that shimmering from the sun on it…), the gadgets, and especially the themes for all the characters! It was the perfect blend of Science-fiction and Fantasy. And it was different. I’ve always loved the storylines, especially “The Anointment Trials”. I’m 28 now, and have never found anything that compares. I was crushed when they cancelled the show… and now i’m thankful that the dvds are out!
Howdy
Well for me, I used to love watching Thundercats except for reasons unknown to me the only ep I taped was The Dream Master. So it was the only ep in my adult life I could remember. Suddenly with the advent of He-Man on DVD it sparked my love for animation and so I was on a hunt. I got Transformers and He-Man and D&D and Visionaries etc and then I thought something was missing. THUNDERCATS. So for my birthday this year I got all three sets and my love affai has just begun.
Chris M
Easy. Nostalgia!
Why I love Thundercats
Hey all, thought I’d give a crack at this one. I love Thundercats for many reasons, and I until now, I couldn’t compare it with any of the other great 80s cartoons to help me understand why. After having watched the He-Man S1V1 and the Thundercats which have been released so far, I think a big reason is its animation quality. When compared to He-Man, Thundercats just seems more detailed, more flashy and more, well, everything. The score seems so much better than He-Man’s with a full orchestra sound vs. He-Man’s kinda Scooby Doo-esque animation and score. A second reason I prefer Thundercats is the fact that the animation was done in Japan, though I only recently found that out. I LOVE ANIME!!! Some may not consider this Anime, but I do. Of course, my being 1/4 Japanese, I’m sure makes me bias to anything Japanese. The fact that its a Rankin/Bass production is a big boost in my book too, since the first animated show I ever remember watching was The Hobbit and this. Maybe since those were the first animation I saw made me compare all animation I saw later to The Hobbit/Thundercats. Don’t get me wrong, I love lots of 80s cartoons, but the only one that rivals Thundercats, for me, is Bravestarr…but after my family moved to Ohio, I found no one up here had ever heard of Bravestarr, whereas I had never heard of M.A.S.K…but i digress. Anyway, add in the fact that the morals of Thundercats were never thrown in your face ala He-Man/She-Ra/Bravestarr or the PSAs in G.I.JOE, but rather subtely slipped into the plot, made me feel like I was being entertained rather than learning something, which, in my childhood, was always a bad thing..LOL. I think Thundercats also identified with young (boys in my case) by having a child in an adult’s body leading the way made it really cool too. Next, the main two figures LIT UP…how cool was that? When with other toy lines, the best you could hope for was some kind of articulation/battle injury features…I don’t lump Transformer figures with other lines, because the ability to transform put them in a whole other category for me…I would also put the Voltron figures in the same category as Transformers. I could go on and on, but it’s like 5:30 Am here,and I’m getting tired…so there’s a few reasons why, for me, Thundercats is the GREATEST cartoon ever. Here’s hoping your friends and future generations can understand this and as the theme song says: “Hear the magic, feel the roar, Thundercats are loose!”
That’s what they were and still are for me: something contagious that was unleashed on my pre-teen mind and I could catch and love… and man did I catch it!
Until next time,
-ThunderOtaku
I think collectively you all have done a great job there.
Animation - Yes for its time it is great. Special effects, amazing action and movement captured really well
Storylines and special moments - Such a broard spectrum of issues and adventures are covered in a nice blend of action and learning.
Music and Voices- This is a major one for me.. I have animated before and it always looks crap silent. It is when you watch Thundercats on mute you realise how much the music contributes to the show. The voice actors were amazing, some of the characters had brilliant voices with unique sayings.
Nostalgia - Every time I watch it I am reminded of my childhood, the action figures, the comics. It was great and still is now every time the screen lights up red and the music starts
This year has been great for me re-lighting my Thundercat fire in a big way.. Thundercats HOOOO!!
Chris here…
I should have replied to this thread a lot sooner…! 
There are loads of reasons why I love ThunderCats, and here are just a few of them…
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Great, mature storyline - I’ve always felt that the storyline at the heart of ThunderCats is very mature and well-developed, from the concept of the ThunderCats being the last of their kind, fleeing their dying planet, to becoming the protectors of Third Earth. The story is filled with magic, mystery (just what IS the Eye of Thundera anyway, and how does it empower the ThunderCats?), action, excitement and adventure!
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Character development - although it’s fair to say that the adult ThunderCat characters don’t change much (beyond us discovering new things about their powers and abilities), Lion-O goes through a huge emotional journey, starting out as the young, cocky hereditary Lord of the ThunderCats and slowly learning that role and earning his title. Like Luke Skywalker’s in the original Star Wars trilogy, Lion-O makes the full journey from boy to man in the ThunderCats series.
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Exciting music - ThunderCats has probably my favourite musical scoring of all time, narrowly pipping Filmation’s He-Man & She-Ra to the post! I love how each ThunderCat has their own distinctive, unique theme, and the line “Feel the magic, hear the roar, ThunderCats are loose!” is so evocative of excitement, with each episode you really feel like you’re witnessing an event!
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Great animation - ThunderCats was ahead of its time, and unlike its contemporaries, does not look dated on the animation front even today.
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Great voice acting - a bone of contention for me is when I hear people rubbishing the voice acting on ThunderCats. I personally have never, ever had a problem with the voices - I particularly rate Larry Kenney, who IMO came up with an astonishing variety of different voices. If you’d told me as a kid that Lion-O and Jackalman were voiced by the same guy, I’d have asked you what planet you were on! LOL!
This isn’t to say that ThunderCats didn’t have its weaker moments too, but overall I think that it is one of the strongest fantasy (as opposed to sci-fi) properties ever conceived, not just in the genre of kids shows but in general terms!
Take care…
I totally agree with the both of you that all those points are what makes Thundercats great! I don’t think anyone could ever be better than Thundercats. Here’s to more great things to look forward to in the future… Thundercats, hoooooooo!:tygra:
I’m too lazy to go into specifics so I’m just going to agree with what Chris has said as I agree with all of his points.
However I do agree that nostalgia is a major point. Watching Thundercats with my brother and then making our own adventures with the action figures was one of my happiest memories from childhood.
Just looking at the figures loose reminds of the adventures we made, looking at the figures MOC reminds me of birthdays and christmas when we received Thundercats toys and then spending our pocket money on Thundercats. I also remember the first figure I got and when I got it (Lion-o on holiday in Blackpool)
and then of course watching the episodes on DVD reminds me of when we watching them on BBC1 after school. We used to take it in turns to record the episodes. One week my brother would record the episode and then the week after I would and so on…
Nowadays my brother is more into WWE wrestling, but he will still watch the odd episode of He-man, She-Ra and Thundercats on DVD.
I agree with everything everyone said. For me, the cartoon stood out as being a little better drawn, and animated than He-Man (My other favorite show for the 80’s). Most of the storylines were very developed, and they had the most mini-movie episodes (exodus, etc.) I had ever seen from any cartoon back then. I loved the cartoon as a kid, too bad most of my friends wrote it off as a “He-man knock off”. :roll:
:? I say, to each his own, but that’s got to be one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard. Even at he-man.org, members disagreed with that idea.
He-Man and She-Ra are both the concept of being born worthy of great power. Thundercats were NOT. Their planet was destroyed, they were strangers on a strange world, and they took up the burden of fighting evil on Third Earth.
If there’s any “knocking off”, it’s He-Man and She-Ra. Their origin is an almost exact replica of Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel AKA: SHAZAM! Billy Batson was just an orphan kid until he encountered the wizard Shazam, who’d chosen Billy as his champion against evil. Now when Billy speaks the wizard’s name, magic lightning strikes, transforming him into Captain Marvel. Later, Billy discovered he had a long lost twin sister named Mary Bromfield(she’d been adopted). She, too, wound up being able to call upon the power of SHAZAM!
[QUOTE=Rath Montchar]
:? I say, to each his own, but that’s got to be one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard. Even at he-man.org, members disagreed with that idea.
[/QUOTE]
I agree, I loved both shows, and I think both shows were outstanding in their own right. But when my friends would say this, I’m talking about people who didn’t really get into the story,and just saw some basic similarities that were common in both shows; i.e. the power sword/sword of omens, certain names like mer man, beast man/ vulture man, jackle man, etc.
I don’t think they are similar at all actually,only in very little unrelated ways. I always wondered which show came into being first (not because I think one copied, or anything like that).
Here is what I think
Thundercats is amazing. Reading what everyone has put so far I feel there is very little to add. I must admit I do find it painful to watch some episodes. Especially when they laugh at the end of each episode in a vary dramatic way. But it was the 80’s. It is great that this site is allowing fans a chance to recapture their past and discuss the Thundercats with people just the same as you. Fantastic!