MovieChat Forums > Thundercats (1985) Discussion > Thundercats, great idea, sh!t realisatio...

Thundercats, great idea, sh!t realisation

posted 12 years ago by qdfqdf
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This was a fond childhood cartoon of mine. Unfortunately having rewatched it I found it to be of such low quality it was unbelievable. I don't mind the dated animation because the drawing still looks great. What made this a pathetic pile of sh!t was the brain-dumbingly awful storyline. It was fcking retarded and almost non existant. I was poking holes in it as a kid but as an adult it was just so bad it gave me a headache. This had great potential but ended up being a stinking pile of sh!t.

[–] col_rutherford 12 years ago

I didn't see most of the episodes of Thundercats until I was an adult, so my opinion of the show isn't clouded by childhood memories. The show had its flaws, such as wooden dialogue and some annoying characters, but I thought it was better written than most animated series from the 1980s. Lion-O underwent character development as he had to learn from his mistakes and prove himself as the Lord of the Thundercats. Mumm-Ra was a truly menacing villain. Thundercats had stronger continuity than most syndicated animated series. People died on the show, which was rare for a children's cartoon airing in North America at the time. The series had a proper finale while most cartoons at the time ended without a resolution.

Now if you want to see some really awful 1980s cartoons, try watching Rubik, The Amazing Cube or Turbo Teen.

[–] qdfqdf 12 years ago

Same here I didn't see most of the episodes till I was an adult, but that didn't cloud my judgment at all. You make valid points that it had a proper ending, and that it was better than other even worse shows. Unfortunately though I stand by my original post. The writing was just awful, very frustrating in fact.

Mumm-Ra became a joke as the series went on, as did the sword of omens. I lost count of the number of times the invincible sword of omens was broken, or used/carried by someone other than Lion-O. I remember even Snarf was able to pick it up in his mouth to carry it to Lion-O, and while carrying it in his mouth the sword was stinging Jackelman's ass with tiny little laser bursts, just pathetic.

How about Ma-Mutt? "Oh I love you Ma-Mutt" says the personification of evil Mumm-Ra, yeah very menacing.

How about the amulet of friendship with the Thundercats' faces on it? If you break it they all hate eachother, it's the only thing keeping them all as friends. Just stupid.

I know it's a kid's show but don't pitch it at such a piss poor low level. Kid's will still love an intelligent well written show, and so will the adults.

[–] A-zone 12 years ago

I watched this show when I was a kid and fell in love with it immediately. Now when I watch it, I do see a lot of flaws but I feel that you are being a bit too harsh on it. Allow me to state why I feel that way:

1. I don't feel that the animation is at all dated. In fact it is still an example of the highest quality of animation. If you just look at the opening sequence, it is truly a masterpiece of animation. Compare it with another cartoon of that era "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" which used "recycled" animation. the same few shots were used over and over again to save cost. I feel that the animation of "Thundercats" is sill far superior than 90% of the cartoons of today, inspite of the fact that today's animators have computers doing half of their work for them!

2. "Thundercats" like "He-Man" and "Transformers", was created specifically to promote and sell the toys (and not the other way around). Think of them as glorified toy commercials. So naturally the creators of the show didn't really put that much thought into writing "water-tight" scripts, or having a perfect continuity. Basically, they weren't too concerned with dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. It was the show's unexpected phenomenal success that resulted in it being extended for a second season.

3. Despite the above stated fact, there were many episodes of "Thundercats" which had superb writing and storylines, especially in the first season. Even the villains were very menacing and there were some quite "dark" toned stories too. Towards the second season, the quality of the plots declined and the villains went from being scary to bumbling idiots. But that was the trend with many many shows of that time. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "Ghostbusters" for example, suffered the same fate.

4. The censors were VERY strict back in the 80's. They meticulously analysed all cartoon shows to make sure that they did not contain anything that would even mildly have an effect on a child watching them (no violence, no gore, no blood, no mature themes, etc etc.). The "Thundercats" makers even had a psychologist on their payroll who analysed every single script to make sure that it sent a positive moral message and didn't have any negative effects on a child's mind. These days you can get away with anything in cartoons so naturally the writers don't really have any "boundaries" limiting their imagination as severely as the "Thundercats" writers so you end up with much more "mature" storylines.

5. You also have to keep in mind that kids in those days (like you and myself ) really didn't have the same mind-set or thinking as kids of today. Kids didn't really read too much between the lines or question plot holes or continuity flaws back then. They were happy with the simple "good defeats evil" scenario. Kids today have very different tastes so obviously they will find the old shows "stupid".

Maybe, just once, someone will call me 'Sir' without adding, 'You're making a scene.'