Which brings us to those who are furious with the new kid-like aesthetics of ThunderCats Roar. Because they were vivid, absurd, fantastic worlds with simple stories and a host of cool iconography that was all literally designed to sell us toys. I know it’s equally easy to look back on these shows-what with the LSD-laden plotting nonsense, the basic good-versus-evil dynamics and the overly theatrical style of voice acting-and ask, “how did anyone ever take this so seriously?” Looking back, this is the reason I loved the gaudy insanity of these shows, but there’s also a deeper story. Joe and everyone’s favorite Eternian, He-Man. But somehow, someway, it fell right in line with other boy-focused fantasy fare of the era, like Voltron, G.I. ThunderCats is something like the product of Arnie’s Conan having sex with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats with their offspring cosplaying as the band Kiss. If all this sounds absurd, it’s because it is.
#Thundercats go professional#
But it also captured the audacity of the Queen-inspired glam-rock era and its weird intersection with professional wrestling. All the characters had that ’80s, muscle-clad design that fit with the Stallone and Schwarzenegger hero-worship of the time. The truth is that ThunderCats hits the weird cultural cross-section that defines a lot of ’80s culture, so of course us kids loved it. But, of course, I understand this point is perhaps giving the show a lot of meta-credit.
The thing I always want people to notice is the insane amount of times in the show that Lion-O takes credit for Panthro’s ideas and work.
#Thundercats go full#
In retrospect, one of the most genuinely interesting things about the show was Lion-O’s treatment of Panthro, who was popularly regarded as “the black ThunderCat,” not just because he was voiced by the great character actor Earle Hyman, but because his treatment was full of other cultural signifiers better discussed here.
And I took particularly delight in Lion-O’s embrace of these lessons, especially given that he might be one of the doofiest, dumbest and most impressionable main characters who ever lived (I swear, he’s like a 10-year-old MacGruber). And sure, the show would occasionally drop some kind of trite lesson near the end to make it seem like there was a point to its weirdo operatics, but they rarely went beyond the most basic platitudes. I don’t know if you’ve ever actually watched the show, but some of the insane story moments of ThunderCats can best summed up here. And I still do ThunderCats represents a weird, late-period last gasp of Rankin-Bass animation (yes, the company behind the batshit stop-motion Christmas specials and the Lord of the Rings animated efforts), as it tried to stay relevant during the Japanese anime-style boom.īut the result of their efforts created something particularly nutty. I watched the show religiously the first few years as part of my steady 1980s cartoon diet. I don’t say this from a place of disdain, mind you. For example, here are two seemingly innocuous tweets that sum up this sentiment quite nicely:Īllow me to jump on the grenade and point out that the original ThunderCats (1985-1989) is, by most accounts, an utterly ridiculous show. But the reactions to ThunderCats Roar speak to a deeper issue within the psychology of certain fandoms, one that we unleashed when there are perceived changes to the “tone” of a group’s beloved property. Often, it has to do with fans having an inappropriate sense of ownership over that which they love, along with a passionate predilection toward outrage to all those who wish to damage that sacred connection.
The sad truth is that we see a lot of these kinds of hyperbolic reactions in fan culture. Heck, even popular ThunderCats fan sites announced they would not be covering the new show due to such an affront to the style! Harrumph! As such, longtime fans of the show started voicing their anger and using the “#thundercatsno” hashtag. (It was specifically lambasted for what people were somewhat inaccurately describing as the “CalArts” style). Turns out that Cartoon Network had announced a new reboot called ThunderCats Roar, and fans were enraged because the design and tone of the animation struck people as way too kid-friendly and immature. Outrage! I casually looked over the other and saw that ThunderCats was trending on Twitter, and that people seemed to be very, very upset about something.
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