[FONT="]A child, who was brought up in the 80’s, is considered in my opinion ‘lucky’ to have been born during that time. I consider the 80’s one of the most important years in regards to cartoons. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Cartoons in those days were different in the sense of plot and final message. Cartoon series like the ‘Thundercats’ and ‘He-man’ are classic examples of good genuine children’s cartoon, with mild violence, and the message was to do the good. In our days cartoons are mostly the opposite, blood and violence is considered ‘cool’ in the industry and most of them are rude and promote sexual content, insulting people and making light out of everything; it’s a different era. I am not saying that all the cartoons are like that, as a matter of fact some are still genuine and I do enjoy good movies. I just believe as a child who was brought up in the 80’s I got to see another side to this, and I will never give up those cartoons no matter how old they are, they are good and suitable for children. The cartoons in our days are sometimes not for children. We from the 80’s remember the ‘Thundercats’ cartoon and anticipate seeing the final movie that’s coming out soon. My only concern is that as a fan and I believe many others will agree with me, that if you are going to reconstruct the thundercats as a full featured movie, I would expect to see everything as it was. What I mean by that is that, the models and characters should be as accurate enough as the reference from the cartoon. Their clothes, colours character, etc must be as the cartoon. My opinion is that if you change the original design you lose a lot from it, because you are changing it to your style instead of taking the old version and making it look real-new without changing the original design. Everything has to be designed having in mind the reference from the cartoon. For example the fans expect to see liono as he was, but this time ‘real’. If they see liono and he is wearing something that the director thought it looked better according to his likes, and then the fans will be disappointed. Because as I said if you take something from the past you do make it new, but you try not to change the original design because that’s the whole point. You must be accurate with what you do, like for example I loved the ‘TMNT’ CGI version they made, because it keeps the original design. They didn’t go like: ok Raphael wears a red bandana, but because I like yellow, I ill just change and replace Raphael’s red bandana with a yellow one. No, you can’t do this to the fans; the fans expect to see the original design, that’s the whole point. I am expecting a lot from the thundercats movie because it has a unique storyline it was one of the first who had done it, and we as fans expect to see something perfect. We like to see the original design of the sword of omens and not something that reminds of, as accurate as possible to the cartoon; you want to please the thundercats fans? Then give us what we want, as we remember it. I believe they will do a great job in the end.:lionomad:[/FONT]
Well I read most of that… Got lost half way through that great wall of text, though.. Paragraphs are your friend!
I think I got the jist of what you were saying, though, and I partially agree.
While I also want to see these characters done accurately, I do feel that there is some wiggle room for updating the character designs while still keeping everyone recognizable - similar to the 200X update on MOTU.
[FONT=Arial]I have to agree with the Thunderian. While I’m sure different elements of the original show appealed to different personalities, a lot of which is reflected in fan art, the fact remains that there are some fundaments about the original concept that shouldn’t be tampered with.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Character & Overall Design:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. What I personally loved about the original designs was the brilliant creativity behind it. Yes, the Thundercats were anthropomorphic cats…but it wasn’t obvious in most cases from a design standpoint. There was a perfect fusion of the necessary physical features of humans with the unmistakable markings of the cats represented, occasionally mixed in were the facial features of cats primarily in the Thunderian sense. Lynx-O the only classic exception.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]In my personal opinion, all that’s required for an appropriate 2010 “update” is selective and carefully crafted detail to an already perfect design across the board. In plain English, nothing is wrong with the original designs, what gave the series its spark was the personality of the characters. Which leads me to my next point.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Character Bios:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Am I the only one who noticed that they actually had a psychological consultant on hand when they made the original series? In case you missed it check the end credits, his name’s Ph D. Robert Kuisis. Hmmm…could that be a part of the reason the characters seemed so insightful compared to so many excessively violent shallow characters today?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]It’s the fundamental reason the Thundercats was such an amazing series. I truly, deeply, genuinely hope the writers on the upcoming movie took note of this outstanding fact and don’t try to dumb the Thundercats down in speech or otherwise for a younger less conscious generation who at most only have second hand knowledge of the series. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Moral:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]All I have to say is four words: Justice, Truth, Honor and Loyalty…if the producers of the new film stay true to this code for themselves, the fans and most importantly the Thundercats, we shouldn’t have a problem.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Soundtrack:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Bernard Hoffer should be the orchestrator. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. There are so many creative things that can be done with the original scores for the show and he’s the only one I have the confidence in to do it right. Come what may, I do hope they keep and stay true to the original orchestrated themes and implement new scores and musical concepts with great caution.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Reception:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]As we all know, the producers of the film are going to make what they darn well please but we the fans have the final say of whether we like it or not. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]If it’s a flop? Well, there’s some comfort in knowing that some producers recognize the value of a franchise and are willing to listen to the outcries of discontent fans, e.i. HULK = The Incredible Hulk and Super Man Returns = A remake in the works. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]I think as long as we all are as particular as Watchmen fans and are vocal about it, they’ll be cognizant enough to pay attention to the fundamentals of what made the original Thundercats a success to deliver a clean first shot.[/FONT]
I got to say I agree I don’t think for the most part the Thundercats have ever been re-designed to date, there are one or to inconsistancies between the cartoon, comics and action figures ( Ratar-O springs to mind). The good thing about having a director from the video games industry is that they ar alway aiming to make they character as realistic as possible so if they take the animals the characters are based on and use them to improve the finer detail, they may even get the realism to a level that it looks as if its a live action film!
IF the Good Guys take a more cat-like appearance, this is how it should be done. That artist has it just right.
[SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]Let’s face it, half of the fun in being a fan of anything, is taking the concept and making it your own in one way or the other. Many talents have been honed and birth given to some amazing artists due to fan conceptualization -as NewKidInTown pointed out; an artist by the name of [FONT=Verdana]Zemechiel being one of the best. [/FONT]So, kudos to any and all who keep the energies of the imagination alive. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]With that said, if I want to see a walking lion I’ll watch the Wizard of Oz. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]If I so much as see any of the upcoming Thundercats with so much as a literal tail or whisker where there were none before, I’ll have kittens! And the fans would have been done a great disservice. Think about it, making the Thundercats look like cats, would be as wrong as making Batman look like a bat. Let’s hope the Execs at WB keep that important foundation in mind as they have with the Batman franchise.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]Name one superhero with as many successful incarnations as Batman both on and off screen? Not many my friends. Holding the pride of that heavy weight under their belt is the sole reason we can have confidence that if anybody can take and remake the Thundercats with finesse, the folks at WB can. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]Remake as they will, the fundamentals of Batman are always maintained. Let’s just hope the same principle is applied with the Thundercats. [/FONT][/SIZE]
i cant wait for the movie!!! OMG , first MJ coming back now Thundercats!!??
is it a dream? lol
i just hope they follow the cartoon 100% and dont stray away with too much BS!
also the figures are gonna be cool!!!
I not only can’t wait for the CGI movie but I can’t wait for the action figures that I am sure will follow.
I partially agree with Thunderian and Thunderfan, the Thundercats can’t be over-tampered to be more suitable for today’s audience’s taste, but the thing is they can’t only rely on us fans to fill their pockets.
We must remind that entertainment IS after all an industry and it is meant to be lucrative, so they have to appeal to the new generations as well, that said we must admit that the 80’s had a totally different set of aesthetic concepts: all over-muscular macho men like Rambo, Schwarzenegger, Mr. T and He-man (what on earth is a more macho name than that?) for example, in a D&D/post-apocalyptical/savage but technologic world AND using wooly briefs -or any kind of briefs alone- with leather or metal straps showing bellybuttons.The main aesthetic paradigm nowadays is that of a slimmer man, with complete pants at least (I know, let’s leave 300 aside) and for fantasy themed stories, it goes more towards high tech or cyberpunk.
I still don’t think that lion-o has to be toned down, but still he’s still young(25, right?), so just a not so fisiculturist body is enough, and of course complete trousers! and the same goes to panthro(trousers, no the bodytype), you see, the same thing happened with batman and the X-Men, beyond any complains hardcore fans might have about the movies, the character designs were a must-have, and came out on the spot, do you imagine what would’ve happened if batman came out with Adam West’s suit because of hardcore fans?-the suit is now an entirely black armour, so a cup/belt instead of blue underwear on top- or the x-men showed with the yellow spandex instead of the new uniforms? (that’s a great bonus in the movie for the fans) to sumarize, those are wise words: not to fix what isn’t broken, I totally agree with that, but there must be room for update or tuning, maintaining the respect for what makes them who they are…
so yes, no tails or whiskers, but don’t let lion-o look like Hasselhoff either, because that’s what he looked like to me…
oh, and thank you so very much NewKidInTown! I appreciate you liked it
Not a problem, and welcome!. I “faved” a few of your TCat pieces over at DeviantArt. I think you have their look down perfectly.