A lot of time has passed since I was a kid watching the Thundercats on TV, I’ve also been a fan of some cartoon icons like He-Man and The Masters of The Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many others, recent or not.
But no other cartoon had such a cool intro like the Thundercats. If I watch He-Man or TMNT for instance, I might find it nostalgic and childish and that’s all.
But everything on our favorite show is perfect isn’t it? The song, the images, the fast animation, the guitar! Every now and then I open youtube for a quick look at those best 1.30 minutes of cartoon history!
I know this is not the right place to ask if you agree that the show’s intro was the best cartoon intro ever (I believe that everybody will agree!), but please try to put your Thundercats fandom aside for a second and think… has any intro been so iconic as this one?
As well as that, I also have many fond and happy memories of the ThunderCats closing titles as well, which for me always stood out - whilst most animated shows from this period just featured changing slides of text against a static background, ThunderCats actually featured scrolling text against a changing background!
There were other shows that had the closing titles set against moving backgrounds, notably Transformers, but even then, those were just shots and scenes from episodes of the cartoon, not specially-animated frames of animation!
I agree, Chris! There were other cartoons with closing credits against changing backgrounds, but to my memory those backgrounds were either scenes from the series (Jonny Quest) or the show’s characters (Calvin and the Colonel, other Hanna-Barbera cartoons). The ThunderCats changing backgrounds of Mumm-Ra’s pyramid, Castle Plun-Darr, and Cats’ Lair gave the show that extra touch of realism, and for a seasoned cartoon-watcher like me, the difference was noticeable.:cheetaraveryhappy:
Quick question, were all the location shots seen in the closing credits used as proper backgrounds on the show, or only some/none of them, does anyone here know? I suspect this may be a job for TCL’s resident Animation Art expert Grizzlor! Even though it’s quite a trivial point I’d love to know the answer to this!
I believe that the background shot used in the closing credits of Cats Lair is used in the show itself also, or at least a very similar one is. I would suspect that most of the rest was used somewhere in the show also, but I’m not certain. Cats Lair backgrounds are very rare and I’ve never seen a background that I sourced back to the closing credits, so I’m not sure if they were numbered in some way that I’m not familiar with.
So unfortunately I’m not much help on this question!
Since we’re talking about that backgrounds a question came up to me… How many different cels are used in one Thundercats episode? Do you have an rough estimate of it, Grizzlor?
Considering cels comprise of backgrounds, characters, props and vehicles, each animated at 12-24 frames per second (depending on the shot), I’d say about 25000 per episode.
That’s a good question, Vintage. I’d like to know that myself. I think I can wager that the amount of cels probably varied from episode to episode, which would explain the changing quality of the animation. Some stories had superb animation while others had animation that was total crap. But, yes, maybe we can put Grizzlor on the case and see what he finds.:cheetaraveryhappy:
There were a lot of great 80’s intros. TMNT, Ghostbusters and Silverhawks come to mind. Thundercats was THE best of the lot, the animation, guitar, pulse, everything was so symmetrical and action packed. It was an adrenaline rush just watching it!
I have to agree with you all that Thundercats has the best intro and closing EVER. When I watch the cartoons I used to watch as a kid, I’m amazed at how they aren’t as cool as they were when I was small. The only one that still gives me a great feeling (and I’m always amazed at) is the Thundercats. They definitely built a timeless intro with this one…
I remember back when Cartoon Network was airing the entire series and I saw the 3 new thundercats for the first time, I thought that after they were introduced there was going to be a different intro with them included…that would of been awesome
i think every1 here agrees w/ you, vintage. & not just because we’re biased, rabid fans of the show.
i’ve yet to see a cartoon that has the same high energy, catchy & rockin theme song, all while introducing the main characters & bad guys. very well put together, wonderfully executed concept, seemless flow of animation.
silverhawks is a very close 2nd, but it follows mostly the same format as tcats…& is made by the same folks.
Even though it’s quite a trivial point I’d love to know the answer to this! 