Out of all those wacky, high-concept cartoons I watched as a kid in the 80s, one of them really stuck out: Thundercats. I don't know what it was about the show, but I couldn't get enough of it, and as an adult (or man-child... you make the call), I own all of the original series, and I still think it holds up as a good show overall. Recently, however, Cartoon Network picked a new Thundercats series up. Hopefully, you've seen the trailer for it. If not, you can view it here. 
Now that you've watched it, I have a few questions on my mind: Who is this geared towards? What seems to be the big differences? Is this a good idea?
 

If you remove the nostalgia value of the original I think the new one will turn out to be better.  It seems to have a more in depth plot and backstory.  That being said I'm sure we'll see tons of folks who hate it because (Insert stupid reason here), before they even watch it.  I hope it does well, it looks promising.

Maybe Pantro's redesign will look better in action.

I definitely think the show has massive possibilities if it's handled right. They seem to have a pretty kickass voice cast, the designs are (mostly) sticking pretty close to the original, and I've barely seen Snarf at all! I'm always willing to give a new animated show a chance, and I try to keep up on them, and I have to say, the potential for this show is high.

i read somewhere that it takes place on third earth and that thundara is a mighty nation...eh...

still, i have hopes for this new series.

Many of us forget that the shows during the 80s were cool when we were kids, but don't seem so cool now.  I am always excited when a show from my childhood gets a reboot, I want my kids to see the reboot and see what I saw in the show when I was a kid.  After watching the preview I think it looks good.  I like the changes and I'm interested to learn where they will be taking the series. 

This article didn't mention the adorable new designs for Wily Kit and Wily Kat.

Wow, actually looks pretty decent / faithful to the original.

" This article didn't mention the adorable new designs for Wily Kit and Wily Kat. "

this is going to be good

i never realized that Chetarra looked like she just woke up in a trailer park after a 23 hour binder and her 18th pack of cigarettes.

I think it'll be good :) But I didn't watch the old one so I don't have anything to compare to :P

Oh hell now my dad and Osiris's dad is going to be bitchin how the show removed the black guy for a russian guy to be Panthro since both our dads watched the old Thundercats show.

I can't wait to hear what Osisris dad has to say.

Me personally I hope they don't redo the old episodes I swear if there is a remake of the episode where Liono and Snarf goes out to space to find some Space Tacos. I kid you not someone will get beaned in the face with a floating red turtleshell.

doubt it'll be as good as the original, but im sure it wont be too bad

never beat the original

" If you remove the nostalgia value of the original I think the new one will turn out to be better.  It seems to have a more in depth plot and backstory.  That being said I'm sure we'll see tons of folks who hate it because (Insert stupid reason here), before they even watch it.  I hope it does well, it looks promising. "

hell no

I honestly think this reboot can stand up to the original. The trailer looked amazing. Most 80 cartoon reboots were pretty good.

Having watched the entire 80's series as a kid I can say I don't like watching them now. The animation, storylines, random plot twists, strange concepts and a bit of undertoned adult humor and situations just don't hold up to an adult viewing. But as others have said, as a kid (5-8) it was awesome.

What I get from this trailer is the show will be geared a bit older in age than a typical 5-8 year old. This is not necessarily a bad thing because of one simple fact......kids are watching cartoons longer these days then they did when I grew up. As a teacher my students are well into their teens and are still talking about animated shows and things that I would have stopped watching and would have thought they would have stopped watching at an earlier age.

I think a reason for that is because cartoons and animation today have images and themes that are more mature than the cartoons of my youth and so people stay with them over a longer period of time. This is probably an influence of anime and the themes from those shows that have been translated into American equivalents.

So I think this show could do well if it keeps a more mature theme (in concept if not always in dialog) and the trailer seems to point to that. The nation of the cat's is destroyed by the lizards and mutants and Lion-O (as the now exiled prince) seeks to defeat these enemies, free his people and reclaim his kingdom.

Oh, and the trailer itself states that in this version the planet is called Third Earth and the cat nation is called Thundara. Thus why the major characters from the 80's show can all be on this one (albeit with tweaks) without having to switch planets.

I think what I like the most of this new series is the fact that Cheetara, Tygra and Panthro will act more as mentors and teachers to Lion-O rather than just subordinates because he will be drawn and portrayed as a teenager/young adult rather than aging to adulthood during the escape flight like in the original show. This will bring a bit of tension to the show because they have to follow Lion-O's orders (given he's the prince) and some may not like that or respect him at first but at the same time we'll see Lion-O grow and mature as the series progresses.

"

Oh hell now my dad and Osiris's dad is going to be bitchin how the show removed the black guy for a russian guy to be Panthro since both our dads watched the old Thundercats show.

 

i dont think itlk stand up...  but it might not suck. snarf's entire race shoukd be wiped out episode 1. 

I hope this does well because I was able to catch a couple of episodes of Thundercats on rerun and although I defiantly see the silliness of the show I remember why I liked it as a kid. Honestly I'm worried about how fans will react to Lion-O. I think a big part of what made the show work was that children saw an adult male who was really just a little boy with all this power and leadership and made them feel like they could do it to or it was something they hoped for, but him being a teenager is kinda a mix of the two different ages but I'm not sure it will go over well because that hope factor is lost. Also I think based of his age the target audience is pre-teens to teens which I think is a mistake. 

" Maybe Pantro's redesign will look better in action.

Though I feel the skepticism about the show is similar to how fans reacted to the 2003 TMNT show, which one could argue (one like me) was better than the original, but to each there own.  Even if the show winds up being totally different, that doesn't mean it'll suck, it just means it's different.  I think this will work out fine, I mean I liked the 2002 He-man reboot, so who knows.
"

" @GothamRed said:

" Maybe Pantro's redesign will look better in action.

Though I feel the skepticism about the show is similar to how fans reacted to the 2003 TMNT show, which one could argue (one like me) was better than the original, but to each there own.  Even if the show winds up being totally different, that doesn't mean it'll suck, it just means it's different.  I think this will work out fine, I mean I liked the 2002 He-man reboot, so who knows.

"

As long as Panthro keeps his nunchucks he'll be cool. Yeah the new turtles totally kicked the old Fred Wolf cartoon's ass.  It took more time getting used to,.. actually i liked the intro as soon as i saw it, and the fact that Usagi, from the comics, made more appearances AND everything was more like the comics, it was better. Wonder how NICK will do. But yeah Cartoon Network'  where it's at dude! 

@inferiorego: ha ha ha i sure do love reading your articles man

"

It's more of a teenage perspective on the Thundercats. 

IE, you seriously cried when you heard of this remake? Anyways I'm still excited, I've only seen a few episodes of the original but I loved it. I'll admit I never liked the original designs because Lion-O's costume was a bathing suit and Cheetarra's was ugly and as was the character. Why did you bring up Snart? We've all tried so hard to forget about him and now we can't.

" IE, you seriously cried when you heard of this remake? Anyways I'm still excited, I've only seen a few episodes of the original but I loved it. I'll admit I never liked the original designs because Lion-O's costume was a bathing suit and Cheetarra's was ugly and as was the character. Why did you bring up Snart? We've all tried so hard to forget about him and now we can't. "

" @CrimsonAvenger said:

" IE, you seriously cried when you heard of this remake? Anyways I'm still excited, I've only seen a few episodes of the original but I loved it. I'll admit I never liked the original designs because Lion-O's costume was a bathing suit and Cheetarra's was ugly and as was the character. Why did you bring up Snart? We've all tried so hard to forget about him and now we can't. "

I'm incapable of crying. I'm a robot "

Classicist fanboys aside, I have faith in this series so far.

I liked the original series when I was a youngster.  Having watched the old series again as an adult, I found it to be still very cool, but rife with childishly simplistic plots for the majority of the series.  (With some exceptions.)  I don't see the original with an entirely nostalgic eye.

After having been able to watch the trailer, I have to say I'm a little impressed. I watched the series as a kid, and we had some of the action figures. But I will say that I like the updated reboot and I look forward to giving it a chance, as long as they air at a time where I will be able to watch the show. I've gotten so sick of the new cartoons coming on television and then the episodes are at every other odd time and don't stick to a normal rutine.

Most cartoons are getting to a point where as an adult I can't stand watching them. Teen Titans, Avengers and Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Are about the only ones that I can stomach. And being that I don't enjoy the humor of Adult Swim line-up I've felt kind of slighted.

Well here is too hoping that the show is good. Even if they run it for only two or so years.

" Maybe Pantro's redesign will look better in action.

I think this will work out fine, I mean I liked the 2002 He-man reboot, so who knows.

"

I don't like this changes... Looks like Pokemon. Characters looks weak, without strength.

I really hope that this reboot is received well and is a success. I've been wanting a Thundercats reboot more than the He-man reboot, more than the GI Joe reboot, and more than the Transformers reboot. The trailer looked really great so I hope that the cartoon series does well too. The redesigns look good too. Panthro is keeping it real with those side-burns!

So many thing from my childhood that I remember being awesome turn out to be... less so. Like any Scooby doo cartoon (back when it was always a guy in a suit and not a real monster); the original transformers (though still a lot better than any modern update), the three amigos (God I loved that film and how it does suck now). Thundercats I recall watching religiously and having an awesome intro whose animation quality was far better than the actual show. I haven't seen it in over ten years and I'm hoping that's how it shall remain. Too often I've watched something I used to love only to discover its crap.

To me this new version looks too anime for my liking. Still, I accept this isn't directed toward a 30 year old surly social misfit like me. Seems like its going in a different direction than the original. And I did not see Mumm-Ra so that's a big no-no for me.

" @FortressoftheMoon said:

"

Oh hell now my dad and Osiris's dad is going to be bitchin how the show removed the black guy for a russian guy to be Panthro since both our dads watched the old Thundercats show.

 

What?  FIrst, where did you read that Panthro would be russian?  Second, how is Panthro a black guy?  They're cats dude, they do not share human skin colors or ethnicity.   Not to mention that if Pantro is supposedly black, what does that make the rest of them?  Honestly dude trying to apply race to cartoon cat people just seems ridiculous to me. "

I think the new Thundercats will do just fine... It actually looks better than the original imo.

I think it would of done better to continue the series MANY generations afterwards.  Even looking at the clip.  It looks like it could possible take place  AFTER the original.  If its just a remake its not gonna be as good.  If they ADD on to the series, for example Beast Wars from transformers.  Then that would be good.

Your question of who this show is aiming for, I'm sure you already know, can apply to all sorts of things.  This is my theory: action cartoons based on toys were very popular with kids in the 1980's or 1990's.  The figures for toy sales were through the roof, kids everywhere bought the merchandise, end of story.  Once video games became popular, and once Joe Lieberman brought the house down on Saturday morning cartoon standards, let's say that 80% of the kids in America began to turn away from those kinds of shows, and never look back. Those 20% who stayed joined the older fans and collectors in supporting those properties long after the show or toyline goes off the air or aisle. Kids from then on watched without discrimination the shows that weren't toy-based or comic based and were pretty low-quality.  When an old show based on a toy property gets put up for revival, it sometimes is greatly supported by, and usually does well with, the fans who grew up in the 80's watching them, despite the TV networks paying attention to only the ratings.  Once the networks see that ratings aren't good, despite the fan support, they go with the majority (the non-fans) and assume that this isn't what people want to see on TV, so they cancel it after a season or two (or even just a few episodes).  Just to name a few examples of this notion (despite how some of these shows were not liked by some of the fandom):

-DIC's GI Joe cartoon (1989 miniseries, followed by two seasons, 1990-92)

-The New Adventures of He-Man (1990, one season)

-Transformers: Generation 2 (1993 or so, just G1 episode reruns with a computer-animated intro sequence)

-G.I. Joe: Extreme (1996, one season)

-Extreme Ghostbusters (1997, one season)

-Voltron: The Third Dimension (1998, one season)

-Biker Mice from Mars (2006 sequel series, one season on 4Kids! TV)

-GI Joe: Sigma Six (2006, one season)

The two CGI DTV G.I. Joe movies (Spy Troops and Valor Vs Venom) could also be counted as ill-fated revivals, 'cause face it, the only GI Joe TV show to come out during the 'Newsculpt' era (2002-06) was a brief 2002-03 showing of reruns of the original 80's cartoon on Cartoon Network's Toonami block late at night.

The only success stories from this time period (because they attracted fans old and new alike) are:

-Beast Wars Transformers (1996-99, four seasons, and a 1997 Emmy for achievement in animation)

-Beast Machines (2000-01, two seasons and few commercials)

-Transformers: Robots In Disguise (2001-02, two seasons)

-The Mike Young version of Masters of the Universe (2002-04, three seasons)

-I hate to say this, but the Transformers Unicron Trilogy (2002-06, made up of Armada, Energon, and Cybertron, since they could just import and redub the shows from Japan), on account of Hasbro needing a tie-in to the gimmick TF's they were selling at the time.

-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003-08, through different retitlings)

-Transformers: Animated (2008-10, three seasons)

Out of all of them, the most popular revivals with new and old alike are those of Transformers, 'cause if it's two things kids like, it's playing with toy cars, and playing with toy robots, and seeing your car robots on TV makes it even more cool for them.

"

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IN One Word  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!