The newbie review of the new TCats 2011 trailer

Cartoons ThunderCats (2011)
21

Mmm… South American guy here :smiley:

Actually, spotted jaguars are what we call “jaguar”, and spotted leopards “leopard”, while the non spotted ones are usually called “panthers”.

There’s a confusion about the term “panther”, because “Panthera” is used to define all the big 4 feline families (lion, tiger, jaguar, leopard), but there’s also the genre “Leopardus”, which includes many american felines like the ocelot (but the lepoard itself doesn0’t belong to the Leopardus but to the Panthera… kind of confusing, right?)

Finally, in Spanish, “panther” is used differently than “Panthera”. In South America, we usually call panther to the spotless jaguar, while in North America, panther is usually used to call the puma / cougar, and in Africa and Asia, it’s used to define the leopard.

That always intrigued me about the show back in the 80’s, because at the end of the day, jaguars and panthers belong to the same family, so that would make Jaga and Panthro members of the same species / clan. They tretaed them as two different species, but they are not. I always thought they could have chosen another feline to base Jaga on (a leopard, an ocelot, a lynx, a puma, or even a saber tooth) and then look for another one for the new TCs (or simply havn’t introduced them at all :D).

As for Cheetara, you’re right. Cheetas are “designed” to be faster than stronger. If producers and writers follow that this time, that could make of Cheetara an interesting character, and it would teach kids about everyone having strenghts and flaws, but the important thing is the combination of those to make up a good team. Maybe there should be some male Cheeta-based on character as well, to emphasize the lack of strenght in favor of the speed.

Finally, about the differences in height between Lion-O and Tygra, the second one should be taller based on the fact that tigers are the biggest cats out there. I remember at the beginning ofr the show (seasons 1 and 2) Tygra was taller than Lion-O (or at least the same size), but in the eps that were centered in his character during seasons 3 and 4 (those would only be Crystal Canyon and Mossland Monster), they made Lion-O slightly taller than Tygra… I always thought they made it to emphasize Lion-O’s position as Lord of the TCs.

That always amde me wonder which subspecies of tiger was Tygra supposed to be. I aslways thought he was supposed to be a Benagl (the biggest of the tigers), but tehn started thinking if he wasn’t an Indochine tiger or one of the other 4 subspecies out there.

It also intrigued me that it was precisely Tygra (along with Pumyra) the one left in Third Earth. With tigers being a species in danger of extinction, I wondered if there wasn’t a secret subliminal message there… but maybe I was going too far.

22

While I love to speculate on a lot of this stuff, ya have to careful that you don’t take it too far in trying to assign attributes to various characters/races based on real time knowledge of supposed counter parts.

That was a common theme in Star Trek… which race represented which ethnic/political group on Earth? Were Klingon’s supposed to be Africans or Russians? Where Romulans Chinese? Where the Ferengi supposed to be Jews? The fact of the matter is that you could pull out certain pieces of any of the groups and show that they had attributes similar to the stereotypical human group counterpart.

In a similar way we can get a little too picky when trying to match a Thundercat to it’s earth cat partner. Now, don’t get me wrong here… it’s fun to do as long as we realize that in the end, it’s just a TV show and the producers/writers probably didn’t spend even one quarter of the time we are digging into minute details.

Having said that, I’m going to now spend way too much time digging into minute deatils. :slight_smile:

What subspecies is Tygra? I think it’s safe to assume that most of us who have thought about it would put him as a Bengal Tiger; the most common tiger subspecies. If we do, then technically Lion-o should be taller as the average African Lion is taller (not bigger) than the average Bengal Tiger.

And both Tygra and Lion-o should be bigger than Panthro, as any of the many uses of panther are smaller than a lion or tiger. Furthermore, as was correctly pointed out above, there really isn’t a “panther” species of cat. It’s a name that gets applied to a number of different cats by different populations.

Now, Cheetara is “correctly” show an thin and lightweight. But it we really wanted to be anatomically correct, she should have much bigger nostrils. And while we’re on the subject of female Thundercats, would a female of Lion-o’s “clan” be essentially bald?

Finally, what species are the Wilys? I’m leaning toward Ocelot, but I’d love it if they were Clouded Leopard based.

23

I had always assumed, based on their names, that they were Wildcats, which are an actual species.

Lady Ocelli and I did want to introduce the Ocelot clan in our story. We imagined them as being generally shorter and more agile than most Thunderians, with lots of dark spots.

Because of their size and agility, we thought it would be a cool idea if they could have been the spies and ninjas of Thundera, and that WilyKit and Kat might have recieved some training from them, but it wasn’t complete as Thundera had been blown up. So in our story, the Ocelot clan would have a legendary reputation for those reasons.

24

Here’s some more details about clan Ocelot. They have stripes as well as spots which allows them more versatility as spies. Also, females have enhanced psychic abilities that help them survive the clan wars.

25

I echo red’s thoughts about looking too far into it like the height etc. at the end of the day, something symbolic like making Lion-O Taller and Panthro bigger than Tygra is all to do with media representation and that.

If we were to say Tygra was one of the subspecies, I wouldn’t say he was a Bengal simply because Bengali is clearly modelled after that particular one (all be it an inbred white one). So I would maybe say he was sumatran or something as he has a very deep orange colour to him.
On the note of Panthro and Jaga being related - Panthro could be a black leopard (of which there is no other n the show black or spotted) but even if he was a black Jaguar, I still would say they were seperate clans on Thundera for the same reason in my mind I think Bengali would come from an offshoot (although clesly related) clan to Tygra.

On a less serious note…If Cheetara had a cub (with another Cheetah) I wonder if they would give it the super cute mohican hair they tend to have :slight_smile:

26

The scene in the trailer where Lion-O and Tygra are on the tree thing in the arena, it seems people think that is Lion-O falling. I thought it was Tygra falling though. Any one have a screen cap of that scene?

27

It’s Lion-O.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/balgus82/lion-ofall.jpg

28

Yeah u can tell from the clothing…Tygra FTW!!! :stuck_out_tongue:

P.S I reckon theyr’e showing some sort of competitive arena thing there…possibly them earning their TCat status.

29

Yeah It’s gotta be some sorta competition. I think I read some other people thinking it was Lion-O and Tygra fighting to become the Next Lord, but earlier in the trailer you see two completely unknown thundarians competing on that tree thing as well. I expect it’s just some thunderian entertainment.

30

Thank you for screen cap. It goes by so quick I found it hard to tell. Anyone know the age ranges for the characters in this series?

31

Not really no…jusdging on looks however I think the main difference from the original is Tygra being significantly younger (more like 19-21 in human years as oppose to the 30ish I always thought him to be in the original)

32

I was thinking the same thing. Have they revealed if Lion-O will be aged at all like how he was in the original? Or are they planning on keeping him as is and letting him grow normally.

33

Good question! In honesty I have no idea if they’ve said either way…many peeps have said things like “they may change the voice actor for ‘older’ Lion-O” and “He’ll look better when older” etc… so whether they have heard something or merely assuming who knows!!!
1 thing, as it seems to be deviating so massively from the original already, I dont think we can afford to assume much at all, and u may have a valid point that they’ll keep him young.

34

I think people are assuming based on the old show. Nothing I have seen indicates him aging at all. Why make all the other characters (except Panthro) younger and then age Lion-O? Not to mention the fact that the toys are of the Younger Lion-O.

35

Yes, Wilykit adn Wilykat were based on the wild cat (according to both their names and the TCs wikipedia page :))

I also hoped for an ocelot to be introduced in the show, but it never happened. Being bigger than the wild cat, but smaller than the “big felines”, I pictured him (yes, I thought of him as a male) like a 17 - 19 years old.

36

I thought he was 25 in the original; just wish I could find the CN bumpers that tell their ages.

I recall Panthro being 32 and Lion-O 24 also.

37

I read somewhere (and posted it here in the TCs ages thread) that Panthro was indeed 32, Tygra 29, Cheetara 26, Lion-O 20 and the twins around 12.