Recommended viewing before the new show

Cartoons ThunderCats (2011)
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With the series premiere less than a month away, I thought now would be a great time to watch some other movies and shows to kind of get prepped for what to expect. So here’s a list of some that I thought would be great to watch in the intervening weeks:

The Lord of the Rings trilogy- Pretty much the template for ALL epic fantasy. I’m sure the show’s producers had this in the backs of their heads when conceiving the new series. I’d especially recommend this as the extended versions just came out on Blu-Ray.

Excalibur- I’ve always thought that both Lion-O and the sword of Omens shared more than a few parallels with King Arthur and Excalibur, and this movie IMO is the best adaptation of the Arthurian legend, with all the epicness and grandeur it deserves. Plus you get great performances from the likes of Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne and Patrick Stewart. Don’t miss this!

Avatar: The Last Airbender- Since at least one of the showrunners also worked on this series, it makes sense to go back and rewatch this to get a sense of how they’ll be approaching the new series, particularly in terms of character development and progressive storytelling.

Game of Thrones- Even though this show is aimed at a considerably more adult audience than the new Thundercats show is, I wouldn’t be surprised if critics started making comparisons, saying things like “It’s Game of Thrones for the younger set.” And it wouldn’t surprise me either if this new show had some intriguing and complicated subplots like GoT has been known for.

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For Avatar: The Last Airbender, do you recommend the movie or the cartoon series? :wink: I like both, but the cartoon series is more epic I think.

You forgot to mention the original ThunderCats tv show. :thumbsup:

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Good idea.

the “lord of the rings trilogy” is very high up my list of things to watch. Extended on blue ray you say? In terms of more scenes or what do you mean?

I’m not sure if I saw Excalibur, maybe I have. Is it the 1981 movie? I have vague memories of that from when I was a kid.

I have not heard of the other 2

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The cartoon show, obviously! :slight_smile:
Merged Post:

Yeah, the extended versions, which includes the scenes that weren’t in the original theatrical releases (such as the death of Saruman in Return of the King). It makes the movies a lot longer, but overall it makes it a much richer experience.

Definitely the 1981 movie. And if the memories are foggy, then I’d say a revisit is about due. :slight_smile:

Avatar: The Last Airbender aired on Nickelodeon several years ago. It was acclaimed for having an ongoing story that had a clear begninng, middle and end as well as distinctly fleshed-out characters. It’s been available on DVD and I’m sure Netflix has it as well. It was made recently into a live-action movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan which - although I never saw it - I’m told should be avoided at all costs.

Game of Thrones is an adaptation of the first book in a series called A Song of Ice and Fire by acclaimed author George R.R. Martin. It premiered on HBO earlier this spring and just wrapped-up its first season. If you get HBO, you can probably catch it in reruns or On Demand, or again, Netflix. Or you can just wait for it to come out on Blu-Ray (which is what I’ll be doing).

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Stardust. Stardust is like the epitome of what a good fantasy movie should be. Funny, light, but with bad guys who you truly think could kill the heroes.

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O yes Lord of the Rings. Actually I’ll be watching Return of the King tonight. Got the extended editions on blu-ray day one, those movies are fantastic. I don’t think any other fantasy movie out there comes even close to the quality of LOTR. The level of detail and stunning visuals make it an unparalleled fantasy adventure. Of course, extended editions are better than theatrical editions for they add much more depth to all of Middle-Earth and its characters.

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Demolisher, I totally recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender to you.

They came out with a movie last year which was the first I had heard of it. I enjoyed the movie so I decided to buy the cartoon series on DVD since I knew the movie was based on the cartoon series. I was hesitant to do so because I haven’t liked cartoons since I was a kid. All the cartoons I’ve come across on tv are hideous to me.

But I LOVED, this cartoon! It was extremely well written, the animation looked great, and the characters were very relatable.

The story: There are four races of people - Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. Within each race, there are individuals born with the ability to bend their natural element - water, earth, fire, or air. There is one unique individual called the Avatar who is able to bend all four elements. He or she has the awesome responsibility to fight for and maintain peace and order between the four races. The Avatar experienes a reincarnation. When the Avatar dies, he or she will be re-born into the next element of the cycle.

The back story to Avatar: The Last Airbender is that when the Fire Avatar died, an evil man sent his military force to invade the peaceful Air Nomads to anhilate them in an effort to end the Avatar cycle and stop the Avatar from being reborn. At that time, the Avatar was a 12 year old boy named Aang who managed to escape before the invasion and had no knowledge of it, and was frozen in ice for 100 years until two teenagers in the southern water tribe found and rescued him.

Aang awoke to find the fire nation as the dominant power invading the two remaining races. Unfortunately, he became frozen in ice before he learned the other elements so he only knows his native element - air.

In the series which takes place in what’s called 3 books, Aang is in a race to learn the other 3 elements. He first must master water (book 1), then earth (book 2), and finally fire (book 3) before he came hope to face the evil fire lord.

Meanwhile, Aang has one special power, he can enter what is called the “Avatar” state in which his eyes and tatoos glow white. When he enters this state, he is connected to all his past lives and all their knowledge and power are his to use. But he can’t control it which makes it very dangerous for him to enter, yet he can’t seem to control entering it either.

Anyway, great cartoon series!

http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/article/110/1102486/avatar-the-last-airbender-20090112015911722_640w2_1277765874.jpg
http://darialois.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/avatar-state.jpg
http://cdn2.mixrmedia.com/wp-uploads/ningin/blog/2009/01/avatar-219-the-guru-220-the-crossroads-of-destinyavi-5.jpg

PS, they’re coming out with a sequel series soon on Nickelodean which is where this cartoon aired.

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Never seen Stardust but sounds interesting. Every time I watch Avatar (2009), even though its long I just picture Thundercats being made in the way but with a little more humor. I can’t wait for Zack Snyder to direct this…

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Yay! One more who thinks Zack Snyder would be a perfect choice to direct a Thundercats movie!:thumbsup:

Snyder for some reason gets a bad rap. I don’t know why. All of his movies have been great. Ocelli and I really liked Sucker Punch. His adaptations of Watchmen and 300 were excellent. And his remake of Dawn of the Dead is now almost as equally popular as the original. If you watch any of his movies (but especially Sucker Punch and 300), I think you’ll agree he’s the perfect choice for a Thundercats movie. :cool:

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One good thing about Zack Snyder would be that he doesn’t go around changing every little detail just because he can when he makes a movie. For that alone he’d have my vote, BUT I wish people would stop making live action movies of cartoons. I want to see an animated Thundercats movie. E/g the 1986 Transformers: the Movie instead of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies.

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All his movies are full of EPIC action scenes-I can only imagine what his new Superman movie will be like. I remember I took my girl to see Watchmen and I’ll never forget the boredom on her face lol. 1) it was wayyy too long 2) unless you read the comics (which I didn’t) it will get confusing very quickly…anyway Sucker Punch is his best to date!

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I didn’t read the comics and I followed the movie pretty easily. Wasn’t confused at all. Wouldn’t have taken a little girl to go see it though. lol

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I agree! Certain cartoons that should not be made into movies of unless do right = “The Smurfs”,“Yogi Bear”,“TMNT”. But WB wants to make the most $$ out of ThunderCats due to the large fan base & an animated movie would be only good for direct to video, TCats has way more potential than that wouldn’t you say :slight_smile:

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Actually I rather liked the live action Ninja Turtles movies. And an animated movie, if done well, can also make tons of money. Just look at the Lion King or any number of Pixar movies. Which brings me to the thought I’d be perfectly ok with a CG Thundercats movie if it was good CG and the story was well written.

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An animated movie of Thundercats may actually be a better medium for story telling, well more mature story telling. A direct to DVD with higher production values or feature film, either would be good. I don’t know if any of you saw Vampire Hunter D Blood Lust, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Thundercats in similar fashion.

Not too sure about live action, I’d rather they kept it animated. But maybe Peter Jackson could tackle it, that guy has imagination.

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Airbender airs like 10 times a day on Nicktoons. In one week one can catch most of a season, so most of the series can be viewed there in a month. Last weekend they had a marathon that led to the amazing finale. Definetely a must watch since it’s the closest to the new Thundercats from the American animation industry.

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The Vision of Escaflowne. For some reason the new Thundercats reminds me of that. Especially since the cat people in both series look similar.

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Since Game of Thrones was brought up, I’d like to add that while the HBO series is good, I really recommend reading the books if you like it. The show is a good adaptation, but there is so much more detail in the books and insight into the characters. However, it is a long read… I’m just about done with Book 3, and Book 5 is coming out later this month.

And to bring that back on topic, if there’s even half the court intrigue in the new Thundercats series that Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire has, we’ll be eagerly awaiting every new episode as it comes out to see what’ll happen next. :wink:

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LOVE that show. It’s where my screen name Balgus is from. lol

And yeah, I see some similarities there too. espcially the mechas you see in the wondercon trailer.

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I’m looking for the books, but they don’t seem to sell them here in Peru :frowning: