MovieChat Forums > Thundarr the Barbarian (1980) Discussion > Great 80s cartoon despite all the goofy ...

Great 80s cartoon despite all the goofy anachronisms

posted 17 years ago by jmaruyama
6 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong, I was a big fan of "Thundarr the Barbarian" as a kid and still remember it fondly now but there were certain things that bugged me about the cartoon. I realize that the show was pure fantasy and that thinking too much about the logistics of the show just takes away from the pure enjoyment factor but I was wondering if anyone else was bothered by all the anachronisms.

Even though the story is supposed to take place nearly 2000 years after the destruction of Earth, many buildings and landmarks are still somewhat intact and standing (not having erroded or decomposed after over a century). Remaining human survivors still wear reminant clothing from 20th century Earth and can speak the English language. Books and comics are still found undamaged and some machinery can operate even after many decades of inactivity.

Where did all this "super science" and "sorcery" get developed from despite everything getting destroyed during the 1994 catastrophe?

I guess decades of mutations could have made some humans into "wizards" who are specially adept at wielding magic and creating technolody. I guess this could also explain all those new species of animals and lifeforms like the Moks.

Again I'm not bashing the series or trying to be one of those "realism" obsessed critics but I'm curious to hear some explainations or theories.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] xenophile2002 16 years ago

Another poster called crazyaxton suggested that some of the governments knew the "runaway planet" was headed our way, so they put their best and brightest in nuke shelters. These became the wizards. And a lot of new tech could be invented in two thousand years.

It was never (AFAIK) stated in the show, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of the world's nuclear arsenal got used in the first couple of decades following the Event. This would have added to the general devastation and provided plenty of radioactive stuff to get those mutations going.

_____
http://www.avert.org/aofconsent.htm
The subject comes up often enough.

[–] SteveM-1 16 years ago

Not sure why the Nuclear Arsenal would be used after a Cosmic Disaster?

I think if there was any radiation, it would have come from leaking Nuclear power plants damaged by the cataclysm or maybe even from cosmic rays. Remember the scene during the opening credits showing the "runaway planet hurtling between the earth and the moon"? It shows the Moon cracking and the cloud cover around Earth being sucked away. Maybe the Earth lost its Ozone layer and other layers that would have protected the inhabitants from extra Solar Radiation and Cosmic Rays.

Maybe that can explain why some stuff got preserved? Let's say the surviving humans went underground for a while to escape the Cosmic Rays. Probably not Deep Underground and not for long enough that they would have physically changed (like Morlocks in H.G. Wells "Time Machine"). During that time, most everything would stay undisturbed like buildings, old cars, etc. Humans come out in a few generations, but forget how to work a lot of the old stuff, so they revert somewhat to primitives. Or maybe some knowledge got preserved, but there wasn't enough manpower to start up all the power plants again. Who knows?

As for the Wizards and Sorcerers, maybe some people became mutated enough to bring out some latent psychic abilities. I also think that some of them were either Medical Experiments left over from the previous age. I remember one Wizard was nothing more than a Human Brain in a robot body. Another was "Gemini", the character that we saw in the opening credits of every show who had the two faces and the head that rotated around 180 degrees. Seemed like some sort of cyborg to me.

Oh well, trying to explain it all kind of takes the fun out of it. It just was what it was. I really miss the show.

[–] lookyloot 11 years ago

I give it a "pass" on some of those valid points, being that it was primarily (at least based on the time slot... sat morning) geared towards kids. in spite of that I really liked the show and some of the pretty cool ideas for settings (I remember one wizard whose lair was in the engine room of a ship that was stuck in the sand like a skyscraper) I think the artists/writers aspired for more of a conan the barbarian type of comic and did what they could to compromise. great show

[–] grendelkhan 10 years ago

Just remember the line from the MST3K theme song: "..then repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax..."

You got to have some connection to the past and the things you cite are visual shorthand. It is created for kids, who don't question those things until they are older.

Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!

[–] stillbwell 8 years ago

Hitchcock screened his latest masterpiece only to have somebody point out a logical flaw in the story. Hitchcock told him (or her, who knows?) that it was okay because it was a Ham Sandwich. The idea being that sure, it was a flaw, but it was the kind of flaw audiences wouldn't notice while they were watching the film. It was only later, while they were eating a ham sandwich, that the flaw would become apparent.

What do you call a ham sandwich that comes 35 years later?