Your least favorite thing about the show?

Cartoons ThunderCats (1985)
1

There’s no doubt that everybody here is a huge fan of the original “Thundercats” cartoon. I am too. It has stood the test of time and even today it is considered by many to be one of the finest animated shows ever.

However, there must be something about the show that you didn’t like. Maybe a character that you found annoying or an episode that wasn’t up to par or maybe even a plot or sub-plot or music or dialogue that you found irritating. Tell us what it was.

I’ll go first, personally I have never been a huge fan of Snarf. As a side character he is fine, but I wasn’t very pleased with episodes that make him the centre of attention and introduction of more Snarf characters and Planet of the Snarf etc.

Your turn! :smiley:

2

i disliked the majority of the mutants except for vultureman and the only thing i do wish is that they had also been able to show more romance then what we saw w the peeks in certain eps w cheetara liking liono

3

I’m most bothered by episodes in which the animation is sub-par, particularly “Sixth Sense” and “Mechanical Plague”. The latter has a few sequences that save it, but overall, the way the characters are drawn in these two episodes (and some others, “Tower of Traps” and “Terror of Hammerhand” at times) bears no resemblance to how they appear in other episodes. They just look, I don’t know… cheap?

I’m also not a fan of episodes in which the Cats interact with the outside universe, specifically humans. These tend to be Overgard episodes (“Dr. Dometone”, “Circus Train”, “Swan Song”, even the second half of “Sword in a Hole”, even though NEPTUNE is Venusian and not Terran). I give Mandora a pass because I like her as a character, but really her Interplanetary Control Force is part of this same problem. Even Captain Bragg and Cronan are borderline for me—they’re entertaining, but impossibly stupid.

My chief complaint is that they remove that thematic element of the ThunderCats being stranded on a desolate world and out of contact with the outside universe, and they also remove some of the mystery surrounding Third Earth and the fate of humanity. If the answers were compelling, that would be one thing. Unfortunately, they’re ridiculous: we’ve been reduced to cops, bureaucrats, circus clowns, and preposterous-ocean-cork-scientists.

Compare them to the Underearth People, the tiny villages of other humanoid lifeforms (Warrior Maidens, Wollos, Bolkins), the solitary humanoid individuals who seem like the last of their kind (Sondora, Cudai, Mumm-Rana, the Unicorn Keepers), remnants of an old guard broken by Mumm-Ra. These characters (Dometone, Bragg, NEPTUNE, Mandora, the EI) are completely disconnected from the magical reality of Third Earth and the plight of its people. They act and speak as if they possess no knowledge of Mumm-Ra, and the oppression and terror he’s cast over the remaining inhabitants of Third Earth.

Just my two cents. It’s a shame, because I enjoy some of the sci-fi elements that Overgard (and Steve Perry with “Safari Joe” and “Feliner”) threw in there. But sometimes they just don’t mesh well with the established world and feel.

4

My big issue is the timeline stuff. Add the New ThundeCats and don’t explain how they got there without suspension capsules. Go to settle on New ThunDera, and all of the returning ThunDerians seem to remember the Old ThunDera. So did all ThunDerians leaving have portable suspension capsules even if they made it to where they planning to go?

5

My least favorite thing about the original “ThunderCats” is the plotholes. Plotholes are predictable, but not that I look back on the show, I’m starting to wish that it actually made sense.

6

The things I disliked the most were the incoherences when it comes to timeline and character traits.

7

I was sick of how The Sword of Omens’ blade kept breaking all the time!!! I guess the hilt of the sword with the Eye of Thundera was the only important aspect of the weapon. I also hated when the sword flew out of Lion-O’s hands and did his fighting for him,like with Excalibur and the Sword of Plun-Darr!:lionomad:

8

I was forgetting, but you all know this by now: I hated thet Tygra and Pumyra were left in Third Earth by the end of the series, and they were not present in the very last episode.

9

My least favorite part of the original ThunderCats is that I never got to really hear Snarf and Snarfer’s songs (The ones I heard were unclear.) :smiley:

10

Yes!!! I feel the same, I actually only saw the final episode for the first time this week and I was really hoping everyone would be there. Including Jaga and Claudus too. I also hoped Jagara would have been given a Thundercat symbol - I mean, she had a circular space on her chest just begging for one!

It did leave me with the feeling that the cartoon was maybe left open for a new season, but my memory on why Thundercats ended is a little hazy.

11

Here’s a list of some things:

  1. Snarfer (I actually like Snarf though)
  2. Not enough Bengali
  3. Lack of key characters in final episode
  4. The fact that Bob McFadden and Earl Hammond are dead

Other than that it’s absolutely amazing :smiley:

12

I absolutely agree!!

It’s not that I minded episodes like dr dometone and so on, but they just never gave much thought to cannon or lore, or even continuity.

But then it was the 80s, not many cartoons did I suppose. Don’t get me wrong, the OS was groundbreaking and epic for its time, I think its just more noticeable now when you compare it to modern shows like the new Thundercats which put so much thought and effort into things like that.

And yeah, I hated the way the sword had a life of its own and could magically do whatever needed to be done too.

13

The glaring plotholes and inconsistencies in the OS bug me. Things like the suspension capsule issue that was mentioned above. Exodus itself had inconsistencies in it. The Thundercats needed capsules, but are we to assume the Mutants did, too? And if not, why weren’t they older? Why did only Lion-O age in the capsule? If his capsule was broken or on a different setting, they should’ve explained that. Grune’s timeline irks me as well. He knew Jaga, but somehow he managed to terrorize Third Earth centuries ago?

The way the snarf characters were written got painful as the series went on. Early on, Snarf was fine. Later on, the snarfs started getting written like canon Gary Stus with their saving the day, being devoid of evil, and stuff like that. With a couple of snarfs and the Sword of Omens that could do anything, it just got plain ridiculous, and it made the villains barely threatening.

And don’t get me started on how all the villains kept getting dumbed down. :stuck_out_tongue:

14

LOL!! Couldn’t agree with you more on that point! :slight_smile:

Seriously, if you look at the first few episodes of Season 1, the Mutants did appear scary and menacing. But as the show progressed they changed from scary villains to slapstick comedians. There was a point when their antics seemed like something out of a Marx brothers movie! I’m guessing that is why the show’s creators decided to bring in the Lunataks to re-inject some of the original villainy into the show.

I’ve noticed that the same thing happened with many animated series of the 80’s and 90’s such as He-Man, Ghostbusters, TMNT etc. I don’t know if this was because the success of these shows and the subsequent increase in demand didn’t give the creators enough time to develop the characters or if the vilains were toned down purposely to appeal to younger viewers.

15

The major inconsistency I didn’t like (because I still don’t understand) has to do with the introduction of Lynx-o, Pumyra and Bengali.

a) They were already dressed in Thundera, while in “Exodus” Jaga told the TCs that while they lived there, they needed no clothes neither weapons.

b) I know they were taken by the Berbils from Thundera to Third Earth, but how in hell they made it? The TCs needed to rest in suspension capsules to get there, while there was no indication that the new ones did as well. If they made it to Third Earth, Lynx-o should be dead (like jaga) and Bengali and Pumyra at least as old as Lynx-o.

c) In “Cat Fight” the TCs beleived the story of the new ones being evil. Wasn’t that a little late? I mean, wouldn’t Jaga have warned Lion-o before he rescues them?

Other inconsistencies:

a) Sometimes it seemed the Sword of Omens just “forgot” to aware Lion-o about his mates in danger. Take “Mongor”, for example. The demon of fear trapped Tygra, then Cheetara and then Panthro, and just then the SoO advised Lion-o. Shopuldn’t it have been better if, as soon as Tygra got trapped, the SoO told Lion-o so he could summon the others in order to a) prevent them from getting caught, and b) fighting Mongor and rescuing Tygra all together?

b) Also, sometimes Tygra seemed to forget he could turn invisible, especially in episodes when it could have been really useful. Take “Safari joe”: Tygra charged on the hunter ratehr than attacking him invisible. Sam as with Wizz-Ra and so many other foes.

c) Cheetara was supposed to get her speed for only 4 miles, but in “Secret of the Ice King” she told Pantrho and Tygra to go ahead to Hook Mountain while she checked on Cats Lair, because she could get with them due to her speed. I’m sure Cats Lair and Hook Mountain are more than 4 miles away.

d) Of course, Tygra’s inability to swim (unless he’s invisible).

e) In “The Mad Bubbler”, Jaga told Lion-o the only ones who could help the TCs were the Snarfs, as they hold no evil inside them… that’s not what was seen in “Bracelet of Power”, where Snarf enjoyed having the TCs to make his will.

f) The SoO being able to do almost everything by the end of the series.

And so on, and so on…

16

A lot of this had to do with executives and advertising/marketing experts trying to pander to the widest audience possible. Violence had to be toned down because, OMG children are becoming violent because of cartoons! (Yeah, craptastic parenting had nothing to do with it, it was all the TV, right? :rolleyes: ) That’s why Michaelangelo lost his nunchuks in TMNT and got a rope in later seasons. For Real Ghostbusters, I recall reading in an interview with J. Michael Straczynski that he actually quit the show because execs weren’t letting him write the kind of show he had been doing and been brought on to do, because the network wanted to make it more “safe” and “kid friendly.”

I’m sure the same thing was the case with the Thundercats OS. They couldn’t have the characters say that Baron Karnor was dead; he was “not alive” and Mumm-Ra was always going to “destroy” them rather than “kill” and such.

17

The original concept for Mattel’s “Masters of the Universe” was that it was barbaric. It wasn’t until Filmation’s version of the brand came out that everything was toned down.

18

The aforementioned opinions are accurate and describe some negative points of the OS.
I have to add Mumm-ra’s weakness when seeing his reflection on a mirror.He turned to the mummified version and rattled away instantly. In Season 2-Mummra Lives P.4 he is supposed to have left behind this fear.
But this was a very lame idea from the writers to beat Mumm-ra in many cases.

19

This was a prime reason for it you are right. But I think this was a characteristic of most if not all action adventure cartoons in the 80s and early 90s. In that respect I’m willing to forgive TCs that. If they did bring the Lunataks in to combat that, then it was an epic fail as they ended up being exactly the same, plus by this time the sword had a full life of its own and could solve any problem with its cat signal.
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Absolutely agree!

‘I’m all powerful! All evil! I’ll murder you all and eat your babies! Oh no, a mirror. Never mind.’

Lame. And even the NS is coming horribly close to this practice with mumm ra.

20

[SIZE=5]lol!!![/SIZE] :smiley: