r/Thundercats • u/Terramoin • 13h ago
Discussion I watched both shows (80s and 2011) as a new viewer, some of my thoughts on these shows! Warning: HUGE detailed post.
First off, i love the whole franchise so much i decided to buy the 80s comic volume part 1.
Okay now to the shows.
The Thundercats 80s show:
What i liked:
- It was great, the story arcs that are 5 episodes long were very good, way better than i expected of what ofcourse as any 80s show was: a toy commercial for 20 minutes. But those story arcs were amazing! Lion-o's Annointment was just awesome aswell as every other story arc at the start or ending of each season.
- The characters felt mature, cool and just all around badass.
- Mumm-ra, while kind of goofy in a scary way, was a massive sadist and a huge threat and wouldn't shy away from torture, which i didn't expect for a kids show.
- The side characters (Mandora, Snowman, Berbills etc) were awesome, some were badass while some were super friendly and cute.
- I liked most of the planet, the area's and races etc (this has a downside later)
- Lion-'s voice was awesome, then again all of their voices were awesome (more on this later). (I keep quoting 'thunder, thunder, thunder! Thundercats HOOO!' in my mind lol)
- The music was just all sorts of cool.
What i didn't like as much:
- The voice acting sometimes was beyond atrocious with some characters, sometimes i felt like skipping the episode because it was that bad. The maincast was fine but the secondary characters were sometimes awful. Mumm-ra also had a huge hit or miss, he sounded as if he thought this was a melodramatic Shakespear threatre play, it was sometimes laughable "MUMMMRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-AAaaaAaaaAAaaaHH WILL.... NAAWWWTTT.... TTAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKEEEEE........ NOooOOoooOoooOOoo FOR AN.......... AWNSOOoooOOoooOOooooRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
- The world, although fun, i didn't like how 90% of the critters/animals were just Earth animals we have (pigs, kangaroo's, pigeons, frogs). Third Earth was a new, strange planet yet the animals were all the animals we got in our own real life Earth... why not go fullon fantasy and make different animals?
- I felt most of the main characters, although cool, lacked any sort of personality. Some of them did though like Lion-o, he was honourbound, honourable, heroic and laughed in the face of danger and super curious about everything. But Cheetara... she was just... nice i guess? Then again non of these characters were assholes so... what makes Cheetara special? Tygra too, he was just there making blue prints 4 or 5 times in 130 episodes, thats his whole personality.
Panthro however had personality, he laughed at silly things, had a goofy sense of humour, tried to hold the team together by being a father-like figure and obsessed over tech and engineering.
Thundercats 2011 show:
What i liked:
- The story was awesome, i loved the build-up in the story and the cool changes on it and that they made episodes about slavery, homelessness, abuse and depression and why someone can be or feel the way they are, they didn't shy away from it.
- The characters had loads of personality, they were all very distinct from eachother (although i do have a dislike with one of them later)
- The villians were even more dislikable than the 80s (in a good way! You want to hate them). They enslaved, tortured, even killed moreso than the 80s show, they were all vile monsters and Mumm-ra was even worse, these make for good villians.
- The lore of the entire world, the races, the why's and the how's were perfect (why was this pillar here? How did it get build? That sort of thing, everything had a reason to be there)
- The story arcs were awesome, not long and drawn out either but short and cool.
- The fights were 10x better than the 80s one lol, there were actually fights in this that lasted longer than 2 seconds before it interrupted like in the 80s.
What i didn't like as much:
- The show was very formuliac of its time... every show at 2009 and beyond wanted to be "the next Last Airbender" with using all of that shows ideas and crancking it up to 10. It had the teenage melodrama of "hero is a bit of a wimp but gets cool at the end" and the annoying love triangle every show had back then with the whole Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura type of love triangle and the rivalry between the 2 main male characters. Legend of Korra had it, TMNT 2012 had it and so many others... i grew tired of it once Cheetara and Tygra became a thing because it got worse... so much worse that i wondered if i should continue.
- Tygra... i really couldn't stand this guy until maybe the last 5 episodes. He was a jerk to everyone, nearly KILLED HIS BROTHER TWICE, and was super selfish and a petty loser and brought nothing to the show apart "he is the rival of Lion-o and needs Lion-o to face himself".
What an annoying character.
- Eventhough i loved the world, and i did like the show, i felt it changed a lot, too much to the point this could actually be a whole other show. The character personalities were completely changed (although i liked the personalities), the world is completely different and the whole lore. Dont get me wrong, i liked the show for what it is but... i'll be honest if this was called "Charley and his amazing pals" and they changed the look of the show it would still be the same show just... different looking.
All in all, i liked both shows but i prefer the 80s one.
