"Omens" (special one-hour series premiere) - Official Talkback Thread! (CONTAINS SPOILERS!) :)

Cartoons ThunderCats (2011)
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Well, I’m new here too and would like to share my thoughts about the new anime.

First of all, I was satisfied with the results. TC2011 is a prime example how you should reboot a classic series. After watching this new show I will doubtly ever go back to the classic one. However, I’ve to admit that I never watched more than five episodes of the original cartoon because I was still to young or it was just simply boring as hell.

I grew up with the 90ies cartoons and still watch animation/anime and cartoons if they have been written clever enough. As far as I can tell here’s friendly clash between the purists of the old show and the new fanbase and I actually do understand to some degree how you can/should defend the old series. But no, this isn’t such a case were you’ve to choose which one is better, it’s actually obvious which one of the shows ist better. And yes, that’s the newer series.

The main problem with the older fans are the attached memories to the old series. From the fair point of view I must say that most 80ies cartoons were simply overstyled random adventure of the weekend series with a kickass opening theme. But times have changed and for the most part japanese anime was not for a silly reason the top one prefered animation-medium for a long time worldwide. It took really long, until the us-productions recovered from their edgey-style which was introduced in the late 90ies with Rugrats and similar shows. The cartoons became simpler and stupider.

I came aware of the new wave of really good animations with The Avatar which really reached new levels of selfawareness and high quality writing. I think most of the shows today have been heavily influenced by nickelodeons show.

To make it short: Yes, the new ThunderCats is a good show.

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Very true. To be honest, it’s a lot harder for me to watch the old show now that I have grown up, except for few very best episodes of the series. They just seem too childish now. The new one in that respect improves a lot, an adult can very much watch this show without having to be spoon fed every bit of detail. The story now seems much more intelligent as you said. Well I guess this partly because kids are a lot smarter these days, thus the need to improve on the intelligence of story telling.

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It was nice watching two new TC episodes, but I’m not sure I’ll get used to the new design. I’ve always had a problem with that : same with Saint Seiya Lost Canvas.
Anyway, I’ll definitely keep watching it.

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Finally saw it and I’ll admit that I’m hooked. Please continue.

The animation felt/looks very Miyazaki-ish. He always has a lot of townsfolk themes in his movies and it was nice to see so many people of Thundera.

The racial divide between cats/lizards is something that definitely needs to be explored further. Mumm-ra using them to get the sword is a throwback from the 80’s cartoon only this time they aren’t interested in the sword only ruling over the cats.

Larry Kenney was excellent! The salute he gave Lion-O was from the original cartoon. Screamed like an idiot when Claudus yelled "Thundercats Ho!!:smiley: When he mowed down those guys with the sword it was so sweet!!:thumbsup:

Want more people from OT. Lynx-O looked awesome!

Lion-O is pretty cool. Going more with brains than brawn approach this time around. But brawn is good too.

Mumm-ra…meh. He needs to do more before I get impressed by him. But who can come close to Earl Hammond? THAT was Mumm-ra. This new Mumm-ra has a knuckle-butt chin.

As much as people bash 80’s stuff folks seem to forget that they couldn’t get away with too much back then. They were doing good making the cartoons since they were marketing to sell toys. I think most kids had active imaginations and filled in the blanks because we knew they weren’t going to show somebody get killed on screen or their heads bashed in.

This will be my AU Thundercats. I will always LOVE the original. :slight_smile:

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ok heres my opinion
the show starts off lacking something but it gets better when u get passed the first half hour or so and your first battle with evil begins

claudous seemed to be a little bit to serious at times to me but he also seemed to be well not to bright in terms of the technology aspect of things as well as what i will call the elder tcats so far.

snarf to me is like what id call a mogaii aka gizmo from gremlins, i dont like how they treated him much likke cringer from 2000 heman no personality whatsoever

jaga look is ok, but i need to see more of him even though he does seem wise

the kids animation for what they look like is horrible

liono and cheetarah Look like rockers but to me right now they r the only personablle charachters in the new series so far

tygra right now i cant stand he acts like a self centered fool trying to always picks fights

mummra looks good, dont like his voice though right now nor do i like that he cant go in the light it reminds me of dracula to much

slythe needs to loose weight he looks like he gained a ton in the last several years

grune looks ok i suspect he and mummra and the mutants will have there own leauge in the future of some sort

and not to forget lynxo he looks basically the same except he took steriods

ill be watching still as it has promise

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Short sword of omens sucks

I havent seen much discussion on this but i like the old design of The Sword of Omens better. In particular when it is in the short form. In the new series it looks like a small dagger and missing the side edges. New series Long sword is fine, i just dont like the design of it when its short.

Whata you guys think? Overall series is great.

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Ya know I was thinking. The whole “spell put on the sword so evil can’t touch it” thing actually explains why Mumm-Ra would still want the sword even though he can’t use it. That was one of the silly things about the OS, but here it’s like a spell that he can break instead of it being an inherent part of the sword. So there’s actually a possibility of him breaking the spell in the future and using the Sword against Lion-O.

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I had the feeling Mumm-ra only wanted the stone inside the sword.

Slythe: just want the thundercats to fall
Grune: wants power which he gets with the sword
Mumm-ra: wants the stone in the sword

This will eventually lead to a clash between Grune and Mumm-ra, Slythe will also clash with them because both Grune and Mumm-ra want ultimate power which again threatens the lizards race.

Just a guess

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Was it ever strictly stated that there would be “mutants” in the show? Seems to me that they are just sticking to having different species as races. That doesn’t mean the OS mutants wouldn’t work in this new show. All of them were animals, not two headed hybrid abominations.

One other thing… if technology is some sort of myth to the T-Cats, then how do they explain Tygra’s vanishing capabilities? Watching him vanish is very techy, no so mystical.

It makes me ponder about their world. Did humans colonize this moon (3rd Earth), then die off to let other species brought over evolve?

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Why exactly can’t turning invisible be mystical? I’d guess Jaga enchanted his Whip or something.

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May as well stick my two penneth in on this whole new series melarky.

So did anyone else think thatit felt like the OS had happened centuries before and these Thundercats were the descendents. That’s what all the carvings ect were about. Also can explain why they’re nolonger aliens.

Overall I enjoyed it, but I’m going to take some convincing before I rank it with He-Man and TMNT in terms of revivals.

Pros:

I liked Lion-O being the sole voice of mercy for the Lizards. He was a well thought out character that has the ability to be a true hero.

Slithe, he looked great, that’s the slithe I want as one of my big bads.

Kit and Kat, they reminded me of Aladin in the Disney film but they look to have an interesting background that will make them strong additions both to the team and the cast.

Eldarra, the mythic city of gold, good to know they still dig out Earth myths like Eldorardo, hopefully there will be more.

Claudus’ death, really well directed, even if it was a touch too Bruce Wayne for me. Makes Mumm-ra a real threat.

Tygra and Lion-O’s brotherhood, a nice touch that tied them together well, though I would have liked Tygra to be less of a jerk.

Grune’s betrayal, okay it was a bit obvious, he is Grune after all, and he and Jaga didn’t fight, but his betrayal was really well played. You don’t mind being taken in by an obvious rouse if you enjoy it.

Lynx-O, already blind though, my money’s on him coming back in season 2, alongside Bengali and Pumyra.

cons:

It was rushed, it should have been a three parter, giving proper chance to develop the characters into a team, and Claudus a chance to do the full “Thunder… Thunder… Thunder… Thundercats HO!”

The reveal of Mumm-Ra, that should have been the moment, it wasn’t Panthro that killed Claudus, it was Mumm-Ra, a monster that doesn’t exist, that can’t exist. They should have spent more time saying he wasn’t real and then ended part two with the reveal. I’d have even left it until next week to pick up the story from there. A week to live in the nightmares that would have established him as a terror.

Snarf, I enjoyed him in the os, he played the role well, but in this he felt like Cringer from the 2002 version of He-Man, a pointless pet, he was Lion-O’s nanny, his companion, not a pet. He was Orko or Madam Razz and broom, not cringer. While I’m on the subject a Prince that slacks off his duties, they gave him the Prince Adam gimmick, and made Tygra sound like Teela when he talked about him. Now I enjoy He-Man, old and new, but did they need to make Lion-O him.

Where were the other mutants, if you’re being oppressed band together to fight them, or at least try to, come apart at the seems and have that be the way the good guys win. It should be a major subplot not just a potential one off episode at some point.

The Thundercats are the baddies, an absoloute monarch that conquers other nations, takes the best land, rules with a might is right policy, and encourages racism, that sounds like the bad guys to me. I don’t expect the average Thunderian to be a paragon, look at Baron what’s his face in the os episode well of doubt, but the king shouldn’t be such an @$$#07£ and expect to be the good guys. The Lizards seemed to be the victims, they really need to make Slithe evil otherwise I’m not rooting for the Cats.

Other Points:

Mumm-Ra’s new weakness, not a big issue to me, but it is cliched to the hilt. He is evil so he can’t stand the sun. The reflection idea was much better. This could become as much a cop out as that did anyway.

Low tech/no tech, shouldn’t the Thundercats have all the best toys, I’m sure they will when Panthro gets back but no tech at all?

Claudus showing Lion-O what the sword can do, shouldn’t the sword have snapped, it was Thundercat against Thundercat.

I hope the Berbil arm means they appear in the series.

Anyway that’s just what I thought, will have to watch it again to be sure, as well as the next episode soon as I can track it down online (yes I know it’s not out yet)

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Thanks. I made this from the 720p source, multiple frames like yourself (from VLC), a few hours with MS Paint editing the .PNG output aligning the pixels from the multiple frame snapshots. 2-passes required; one for the cheetara alignment, another for the replacement of the overlay Cartoon Network logo.

I have two 22" monitors in portrait mode and a 42" in landscape. The new Cheetara is my left wallpaper at the moment.

I’m waiting for Pumyra now for the right side; or a new member should they be introduced later on in the series.

I’ll figure something out for the center. Hopefully a good shot of Cat’s lair, the new Thundertank, or some collage of all the team members as the series continue.

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The Berbils do appear, they’re shown in concept art over at IGN.

Frankly I think this is the only show that has taken the cue from Airbender in the storytelling and animation department. And if that show and it’s fandom is anything to go by, it’s all going to get bigger, MUCH bigger.

I find the Wildstorm comics to be far more fanboy than this.

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Love, love, LOVE Lynx-O’s new design btw. He went from looking like an old guy in an 80s exercise video to someone who really looks like he could kick butt. If Bengali and Pumyra end up being half as awesome I welcome their cameos.

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I’m glad more people see the epic awesome badassery of the new Lynx-O design. I don’t care if he doesn’t become part of the main cast, but he deserves some for of respectable role sometime down the line. And his voice, even if we heard little, was perfect.

Who was his VA?

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I agree that Snarf has no personality. I can’t stand how he sounds. It’s like sraping nails on a chalkboard.

I’m not impressed with their animation either. I do wish they’d kept the kids as pre-teens rather than younger children. Although maybe they’re going to age them during the series.

Another animation thing I didn’t like, when Lion-O was running late, the way he ran up the steps to Claudus. Typical Anime I suppose, but it made him look like he should have been the kittens age.

As for Claudus being tough, I did like how he stuck up for Lion-O to Grune when he said Tygra should be made king and not the bloodline.

Regarding Tygra, I think the poor guy is going to be facing such a dilemma. He clearly looked up to Grune with great respect and admiration. Grune seemed to be a hero for Tygra and then Grune not only betrayed him, but is responsible for his father’s murder. That’s a lot to weigh on his mind.

Tygra’s redeeming quality in this episode, at the end when Jaga told Lion-O to extend his hand and did the claw shield thing, Tygra knelt down and showed his allegience to Lion-O. If he was a total jerk, he could have just stood there. I look forward to them redeeming his character.

He looks like a frog to me.

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I didnt find Slythe to be any bigger than the OS.

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Slythe had a thinner waist in the OS. What made him look so big was his broad shoulders and hunched back.

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3859/slithe.jpg

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I’d thought it’d be interesting if I posted my mom’s reactions to the new series. My brother and I are two old-fashioned Italians who live with our mother until we get married. So when our mom heard we wanted to rewatch the Thundercats premiere, she wanted to watch with us.

She didn’t care for it for two reasons: first, in the old series everyone wanted to make Lion-O the best he could be because they recognized it was for the good of the group. Here, people (mostly his brother and friend Tygra, which she especially didn’t like) are constantly criticizing and tearing down Lion-O, with the exception of Jaga. Second, she liked in the old series Lion-O acknowledging the wisdom of his elders and trying to learn from them. She thought it taught a valuable lesson to kids that is lacking in this new incarnation.

If I were a parent, I could see myself having the same issues. While I’m glad this series is teaching our youth about racial discrimination, I do wonder if perhaps our generation benefited from having upstanding morals to our heroes (e.g. Lion-O, He-Man, Optimus Prime). By trying to make the characters more three-dimensional, we may have lost something precious. Time will tell…

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I think it was a far more realistic portrayal of a family.

You have the younger son trying to live up to what his father thinks he should be, but struggling because he just wants to be himself. You have the older sibling that thinks he’s better than the younger. You can tell they still love each other cause Claudus sticks up for Lion-O at the dinner table and he lets Lion-O have his way with the lizards. And Tygra has his back when Lion-O truly needs it, yet tries to lecture him when he thinks he’s slacking off just like a real sibling would.

I didn’t see anything that made it seem like Lion-O didn’t respect his elders (though just like in real life sometimes his elders don’t respect him.) and I think that will be something kids watching can relate to. They weren’t constantly tearing him down. They had their good moments with him as well. Just like a real family.

As for heroes having upstanding morals, Lion-O obviously has very good morals in this show.

And as for the good of the group. Well they’re not quite a group yet. The parts you see they didn’t really have to rely on each other as much as they did in the OS. At least until the end.

I say for you and your mother, just hold on a few episodes first. Wait and see where they’re going with it.