Thank You!!! To The Execs at WB...

Cartoons ThunderCats (2011)
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This is a thred that will hopefully get the attention of the execs at WB that put the current TCats movie on hold.

First and foremost, THANK YOU!!!

Solely based on the concept art recently released - as talented an artist as Charlie Wen is, you’ve just prevented the greatest disaster to the franchise.

To Charlie; As much as I love your art - I have to refer to your comment on your blog…

“Thundercat’s is another old cartoon that’s making it’s way to film…hoooooooo! hehe—sorry, couldn’t help myself. The show also made an impression on me as a kid, maybe not quite the way Gatchaman did, but none the less, it took a good chunk of my after school hours.”

From that comment it becomes apparent that you weren’t a "Hard Core" fan. I want you to keep your job on the project, but what I want to get through to you is that Thundercats…the Thundercats many of us grew up with, were insipred by, and had led us in the right direction - and made the impression that Gatchaman made on you - is NOT to be tampered or experimented with.

An update to the Thundercats is not so much based on a change in character design as it is in the way the characters think. Not taking anything away…just expanding their intelligence. The wisdom of the classic series; i.e. Jaga’s proverbs and the way the TCats learn from their errors MUST be maintained.

I can assure you - both the execs and artists - that the audience at large will much more accept an update to Thundercats if less is done to the overall design of the classic series and when neccesary, an update made to the way the characters think and reason.

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WOW!:o That is something.

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Thunderfan, you said it best. When I first saw the concept art, I thanked the powers this is project is on hold. If I had eagerly awaited this movie and was sitting in the audience to see TCats and saw this figure appear I would have said, “Nice character. Where’s Lion-O?”

I look at new Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams. He updated the franchise, yet we could recognize who Spock, Kirk and McCoy was. If he had messed with this, a lot of TOS fans would have walked out. And I would have done the same when if this had made it to the big screen. I can’t imagine what Cheetara, Pantrho, Tygra and kittens look like.

4

Counterpoint, also to the execs at WB:

Not all of us feel the way that Thunderfan does above. Some of us accept and some even like the fact that, just as the X-men, most notably, had to undergo certain design changes to work on the big screen, so too will the Thundercats. Although I can’t say I agree with the complete concept of Liono presented, preferring that the colors of his outfit were closer to that of the original costume, I do not have a problem with the update of the shape of his clothes themselves.

That last fact demonstrates a major point as well, and one that I’m more in line with Thunderfan on: Change the design, concept, or plot too drastically, and the film ceases to be Thundercats. While I accept and even look forward to certain necessary updates, I definitely do not and will not accept a complete redesign that loses ALL or even just the majority of the concept of the original series.

Finally, and unrelated to most of the above, I would strongly suggest that, if the movie should continue, you should consider making the movie a live-action one, perhaps with some cgi, rather than an all-cgi movie. Whether you know it or not, there’s a welldone, for the money and time spent on it, Thundercats movie trailer floating around out there with such stars as Brad Pitt, Vin Diesel, and Hugh Jackman and past scenes from their movies photoshopped into Thundercats-based characters and scenes. Something akin to that, I feel, would please not only me, and the people who agree with me, but Thunderfan, and the people who agree with him.

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Batman. As long as WB has the rights to Thundercats I will continually keep referring to Batman. As I’ve already stated in another thred, as many incarnations as Batman may have, enough consistency is maintained that makes it unmistakable that your watching Batman.

WB, you know what I’m talking about…please apply the same to the Thundercats.

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Considering the many, many different interpretations of Batman there have been, I don’t think that’s a very good analogy. You had cheesy Batman from Superfriends, cheesy Batman from Scooby Doo, campy Batman from the tv-show, surprisingly good Batman from the first modern movie, steadily worsening Batman from the second movie, very bad Batman from the later modern movies, younger Batman from the new series, decent Batman from The Animated Series, futuristic Batman from Batman Beyond, and there’s probably more that I’m either not aware of or are missing.

Plus, NONE of those were even close to being similar to the way Gil Kane originally portrayed Batman.

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My .02 cents on this.

Trying to stay positive about my all time favorite franchise, Thundercats, I am hoping that WB’s decision to halt the project can only mean that someone at WB has come to their senses and decided to go with a live action/CGI movie, instead of pure CGI.

I just got done watching the Matrix trilogy again, only this time on Blu Ray. During the part in Revolutions where the squids start to invade Zion and you have that epic CGI intense battle between the squids and the battle mechs operated by the humans, I thought “This was in 2003, why in the bloody hell can’t WB do a live action Thundercats movie with all the make up and CGI technology we have, TODAY?!”.

It simply boggles the mind, especially seeing as how every Sci Fi/ 80’s cartoon/comic book movie being released is live action with CGI built in. GI Joe being the latest. Why can’t WB do the same with Thundercats?

If they go with live action, I am ok with some of the characters having their costumes updated a bit without completely altering their trademark appearance, (like giving Lion-O a pair of pants.) :smiley: But they don’t need to do a complete make over, it is not necessary!! And just think of what a bad ass make up department could do with the Mutants! A live action, hairy, built, ****ed off Jacklalman with a club. I’d pay to see that if done right!

Anyways, most know I don’t have much faith in WB’s handling of the Thundercats franchise after seeing that abysmal DVD set they put out, absolute crap, and at a hefty price. Most other 80’s DVD sets got a beautiful treatment, except of course our beloved Thundercats. None the less I have accepted WB owns Thundercats and wants to do this movie. I can only hope they do the series justice.

And for the record, my favorite interpretation of Batman was the animated series from the 90’s, the one’s where the artist would create the series using black paper as the foundation. Batman for me is “The Dark Knight” and Gotham is a “dark” place, which is why I guess I thought that animated series was great. Plus unless I am mistaken it introduced Harley Quinn, a great character which I was hoping would show up in the latest Batman Movie.

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Bob Kane. It’s Bob Kane…hence, why the point was missed.

However, from that perspective you have a point Shepherd. Some portrayals of Batman are/were more preferred than others. However, in reference to my comment in another thred, the fact remains you always knew you were watching Batman, regardless of color palette - Dark Knight or campy detective.

My point: there’s a formula.

A formula that always makes Batman, Batman. Regardless of range - campy or dark.

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Damn it. I’ve been outgeeked. :stuck_out_tongue:

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LoL:liono…

In all seriousness though, really well thought out post on “08-25-2009, 05:02PM” Shep.

Let’s keep the feedback coming folks.

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Chris here…

Even though I’m probably out-of-sync with the views of a lot of my ThunderCats Lair colleagues, having seen those proposed concept designs I’m also not entirely upset to see the ThunderCats movie put on hold. However, the only things I’d say are…

  1. What you saw was only concept art, and so not necessarily the finalised designs to be used in the movie…

  2. If you look at some of the Star Wars concept art by Ralph McQuarrie, some of that looks radically different to what ended up on the big screen…

  3. For me, a good story is everything - if they could have created a movie that was true in spirit and story to the original source material, I could probably have lived with any visual changes they’d made. :slight_smile:

For myself, I still think that CGI is the way to go for a ThunderCats movie, and the sad thing about this is that I think this movie could have paved the way for other, more serious CGI-animated movies (i.e., not just movies like Shrek or The Incredibles, but actually serious, dramatic CGI-animated movies). But, who knows? This may well work out in our favour! :slight_smile:

(And if it doesn’t work out for the big screen, why don’t WB follow Star Wars: Clone Wars’ example and create a CGI-animated TV series instead? Clone Wars may have fallen below expectations at the box office, but it’s been a runaway smash on Cartoon Network!) :slight_smile:

Take care… :slight_smile:

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I think you make a great point Chris, concept art is to give you an idea of the feel… overall tones… ya know the concept. I personally like the concept work but I can see where fans of the cartoon would see the departure from their beloved cartoon and cry foul

WB can’t make a successful movie by exporting cartoon ThunderCats to a CGI screen. There is going to be some wholesale changes to make it work on a movie screen. The purists out there have no chance of being happy with the movie.

For me, I would take a mediocre movie that does well and could lead to a sequel and cartoon series and new toys vs. a perfect adaptation of the cartoon that falls flat with non-fans and leads to nothing else.

And I think the movie that Jerry would put together would be better than mediocre, I think it would be great. My only criticism of Charlie’s work is of the buildings and the landscape picture. Nothing about it makes me think of ThunderCats and I actually thought it was a still from a Star Wars flick for a second. It looks like a flatter Coruscant to me. It’s beautifully done, but it could belong to any fantasy show or movie or video game.

I for one hope that WB puts this movie back into production soon.

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Chris here…

I’m not purist in that I expect everything to exactly match the look of the cartoon because it won’t - if I’m honest, what I would like to see in terms of updated looks is something similar to the way toy sculptors the Four Horsemen updated the look of MOTU, making it somehow edgier and more detailed yet still allowing someone to look at one of the characters and go “Oh wait, isn’t that…?” :slight_smile:

So, for example, you could tweak elements of Cheetara’s outfit and make it quite a bit different and/or more detailed, but still have a beautiful lady with humanoid features but obvious cat markings and long, flowing blonde hair with the cheetah markings, so that even though it’s an updated look, you can’t help but think “Cheetara”…

I wish I could draw, as it’s something much easier to show than describe! :slight_smile:

My problem with a lot of the TCats movie concept art is it just looks like it could have come from anywhere - whereas, if you look at the movie design of a character like Optimus Prime from Transformers, even though it’s radically different and updated for the big screen when compared to the original toy and cartoon character, there are still enough of the character’s major design elements (the colour scheme, the design of the head, etc.) to make you go “Wow, is that Optimus Prime?!” :slight_smile:

I have to be fair and say that a lot of the other movie Transformers designs have not fared as well - but, it would be nice if ThunderCats could get a treatment whereby the characters at least evoke the originals, ditto the settings - none of those concept pictures make me think of ThunderCats in the least, and that’s the problem I have with them… :slight_smile:

Take care… :slight_smile:

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Chris, Grizzlor…I think we’re on the same page.

I’m completely open to modifications, they just got to keep the fundamentals.

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Thank You To The Execs at WB

right on… what flick was it attached to, if i may ask?

Also, i got the impression that the real life footage in the trailer was Real Life Footage?? is it not? or you just think that is a crappy ploy for a flick?