So I didn’t forget to do this writeup, it just took me a little longer than usual.
Oh, and its also exclusive content for Thundercatsnow.com, so anyone interested please go there to read it.
Warner Bros. vs. Rankin Bass character design breakdown - Lion-O
The much anticipated final chapter!! 
As with the previous works, nice job on the write up.
One think I thought of while reading your post was the hair question. I think we both expressed a little dislike of the shorter, spiker hair that the new Lion-o sports vs. the more flowing mane. In hindsight, I think this may have been intentional.
Now that we’ve seen the Video clip, we now that Cladius has a much fuller head of hair which flows seamlessly into a full beard (granted, still spiker than RB Lion-o’s hair). This might be a clear link back to a juvenile male Lion.
Look at this pic:
http://www.shutterpoint.com/images/1x1transp.gif
This young male lion clearly as a mane, and yet it is still small… far from a full mane that you typically associate with an adult male lion.
Lastly, just wanted to comment that I’m happy to see a bit more modestly dressed Lion-o.
Yeah, SO glad everyone has pants. lol
I honestly don’t think Lion-O’s hair is all that different. It’s just a little shorter and more stylized. If he didn’t have the ears sticking out it would look mostly the same.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/balgus82/Lion-Oedit.jpg
Edited just for fun. lol
Great analysis Grune i like it a lot!
Well done.
I think we will all pass judgment more accurately on the characters as soon as we see them in a full episode. We just have to let them sink in
Merged Post:
I wanted to add that, right now, we all have in mind Lion-o as he was officially depicted for the New Series in the Trailer and the HD Picture but let me remind you of the initial, first image we got:http://www.entertainmentwallpaper.com/images/desktops/movie/thundercats01.jpg
I believe most fans will opt for this kind of Lion-o…He looks like the darker version of the 80s counterpart. My suggestion is this will be the older Lion-o in the New Series. Of course i prefer him to the one already shown. But it seems we’ll have to wait until he grows up.
With Thundera already being on Third Earth there will be no use for the Suspension Capsules. I don’t think Lion-O is going to age to adult like he did in the original. That first image was most likely just concept art.
You can’t say that for sure. Lion-o might age normally over the next seasons. I could easily give you plausible scenarios of what might happen in the Kingdom of Thundera justifying my belief but i will refrain…I had done so in the past in lengthy posts but it’s all speculations. We already have solid info of how the New Series will flesh out and the best thing to do right now is wait and see.
Still, i don’t think this was just a concept art, if that was so, this particular image has nothing to do with what we have already witnessed,even the sword seems different. Many popular anime, Naruto, Dragonball use this slow ‘aging’ process throughout the episodes. it’s a smart way to keep the fans close to the protagonist and follow step by step his upbringing.
Personally, I’ve loved these comparisons of yours, as they actually seemed fair and balanced, instead of “the 80’s show is sacred, and everything new is horrible” like I’ve been seeing on sites around the 'net. I like your ideas, and agree with a lot of your points. (Though I disagree on a few, like Panthro.) As for the Lion-O comparison, I think it’s the best of the bunch, but that’s just me.
And honestly, I personally think that early pic was only concept art. The Style and tone is extremely diffrent from the final trailer, and while characters can and sometimes do change over the course of a show, I seriously doubt an older Lion-O will look like his 80’s counterpart, but rather look more like his father Claudus when he gets older. And besides, I seriously doubt they’ll age him up over the first three seasons or so. (Though if there is a follow up series, like Ben 10 had with alien force and ultimate alien, they might age him up a bit.)
I read somewhere that someone wrote that they thought the new Lion-O looks emo. Does anyone here think the new Lion-O looks emo because I’m not really seeing it. They said it was because of his spiky hair, but I’m still just not seeing it. And I can’t imagine his character would have that kind of personality.
I do think Lion-O is going to be super-filled with angst. Which makes me think of Faramir in Lord of the Rings. The young prince, eager to prove himself and do right, overly worried that he’s going to fail.
Whoever said that probably just did it to be insulting or they don’t know what they’re talking about. The only thing that even remotely seems emo about Lion-O is how we’ve never seen him smile in the trailers. I always thought spiky hair was the opposite of emo.
I hope he isn’t angsty too long after Claudus dies, though if this was real life he probably would be for quite a while. I just want to see Lion-O’s personality as a whole.
I don’t know, I’m thinking him being filled with angst may make his character somewhat relatable and endearing? Perhaps my #1 favorite character in Lord of the Rings was Faramir in Return of the King, he was full of angst. So maybe I just feel drawn to that type of character. 
The longer spiky hair of the new Lion-O, in real life, the kind of guys I usually see with hairstyles like that seem to be most often Asian. Given that this cartoon is anime, I wonder if that is some Asian influence into his hairstyle. I tend to think of emo being a hairstyle that comes down over your face. Not to mention the thick eye make-up which Lion-O doesn’t have. Cheetara kind of does, maybe she could be emo.
An emo Lion-O, that I think would be annoying.
I loved the character comparisons and look forward to seeing them in action.
I just don’t want the angst to encompass his whole character. I still want New!Lion-O to have similar personality traits to Classic!Lion-O, like being a little young, naive, and learning to be a good leader. I will agree though, that if done right the angst will help his character.
As for the hair, I think they designed it that way in order to stay similar to the classic hairstyle while not looking to 80’s. The new one’s hair really only stands straight up in the couple of promo images, otherwise it more closely resembles the classic version, just spiky instead of wavy. I think when he gets older, he’ll probably grow his hair out.
I never thought of the original ThunderCats having 80’s hairstyles. I always thought of Lion-O’s was supposed to resemble a mane. Wilykit’s was like his but with a stripe, Wilykat’s was like Tygra’s. Cheetara and Wilykit should have had big bangs to make their hair look 80’s. 
I do think that Cheetara and Wilykit’s hair in the new series looks a lot more modern as does Lion’s as well as Panthro’s male pattern baldness. cringe Tygra’s and Wilykat’s seems the most similar to their original characters in that regard.
I think Lion-O in the original had some angst especially towards the beginning but he seemed to grow out of it, probably after the Anointment Trials and was a fully authorized Lord of the ThunderCats. In Crystal Canyon, Lion-O’s comment, “Take it easy, Tygra!” was obviously not from someone feeling angst.
So if they follow Lion-O’s pattern from the original, he will feel some level of angst in the beginning but will grow out of it. Will be interesting to see how they handle this aspect of his character. I definitely think we will see angst in him in the beginning, just based on his comment, “I can’t do it alone” and seeing some of his face expressions and body language.
Personally I think they made him lean, because, come on…how often do you actually see him hit people with his sword?
