There were a lot of action-adventure cartoons made during the 1980s (and I mean a lot), some were successful, others fell to the wayside. Amidst this plethora of animated entertainment a few shows rose up and achieved not only financial success, but a certain degree of nostalgic immortality. ThunderCats is one such show.
Premiering in 1985, ThunderCats ran an astounding 130 episodes before it's conclusion in 1990. Despite its massive popularity, I never got to see much of the ThunderCats during its initial run (that means I have no nostalgia for it). I wanted to watch of course (what young boy wouldn't?), but the show fell into a difficult time slot for me and I was never able to get home from school fast enough to catch it. Years later, after my graduation from high-school, ThunderCats reappeared on Cartoon Network's Toonami block and I was excited to see what I had missed in my youth. Unfortunately I had not yet realized how bad 1980s action-adventure cartoons were and was instantly turned off by the childish stories and hideous voice acting. Now, more than ten years later, I can finally say that I've seen ThunderCats, having endured the first 65 episodes (season one) of the classic action-adventure series on DVD. I say "endured" because despite its visual excellence, ThunderCats features rarely good, often bad, but mostly average stories throughout its first season.
The story of the ThunderCats begins with a group of anthropomorphic cats fleeing their doomed planet of Thundera and traveling to a new homeworld. While escaping this Krypton-esque situation, the ThunderCats are attacked by a band of bloodthirsty Mutants from the planet Plun-Darr. These ruthless marauders destroy nearly all of the escaping vessels from Thundera, the exception being a ship carrying the Thundercat nobility, including future Lord of the ThunderCats, Lion-O. Once this Mutant assault is repelled, our small group of refugees realize they cannot reach their new home due to the damage sustained by their ship during the battle, instead they must venture to "Third Earth" a planet that will take many more years to reach than their previous destination. With no other options available the ThunderCats - which include the aforementioned Lion-O (young boy destined to lead the ThunderCats), Tygra (science guy), Cheetara (female speedster), Panthro (engineer and inventor), Snarf (Lino-O's nursemaid), WilyKit and WilyKat (twin troublemakers) - go into stasis sleep while Jaga (Lion-O's mentor) pilots the ship to their new home. Years later our heroes arrive at their destination relatively unscathed, unfortunately Jaga has died of old age while piloting the vast distance to Third Earth, and Lion-O soon discovers that he has grown into a man while in stasis (thus you have a child's mind in an adult's body). Before the shock of this unexpected development can wear off, Lion-O and his comrades - none of which have aged at all - are attacked by Mutants ... again. Naturally the ThunderCats are more than a match for these bumbling villains and quickly drive them off, what they don't realize however, is that an even greater force of evil - Mumm-Ra the Ever Living - is watching their every move and plans to take the ThunderCats most prized possession - the Sword of Omens (which contains the Eye of Thundera) - for himself. Can the ThunderCats thwart Mumm-Ra's dastardly plans? Will Third Earth prove to be a good home for our heroes? Can Lion-O mentally grow into adulthood before his first prostate exam? Only time will tell.
The writing on 1980s action-adventure cartoons is notoriously bad, so it should come as no surprise that ThunderCats suffers from many of the pitfalls found in similar shows of this era. Whether it's the tame action (the kind where people aren't even allowed to punch one another), the overabundance of exposition (please Lion-O, tell me what you're doing again, I can't remember), the awful "moral lessons" (many of which don't make sense within the context of the story) or the dime store philosophy (Wow Tygra, you're so deep and insightful), the writing of ThunderCats is typical for the time. While these "average" stories make up the bulk of season one's 65 episodes, there were occasions where the writing did exceed its mediocre boundaries, a couple times for the better, but far too often for the worse.
Let’s start things off on a positive note. Leonard Starr does a great job when writing the ThunderCats. With his fantastic attention to detail - as well as his respect for the audience - Starr is the kind of writer all action-adventure cartoons should have. To find an example why, you need look no further then the quintessential ThunderCats story "The Anointment of Lion-O". In this five-part story arc Lion-O has to prove his worthiness as Lord of the ThunderCats by besting all the other ThunderCats at what they do best (strength, speed, cunning etc). While facing Tygra, Lion-O discovers that his opponent has the ability to create illusions using his mind, something that we had never seen the character do prior to this episode. Most writers wouldn't even bother to explain this new power, after all this is just a show for kids. Starr goes the extra mile here, however, and reveals that the mental energy required to create these illusions takes a great deal of time and effort to store up, so much so that Tygra has been saving his mental energy for months just so that he could use it during Lion-O's trial. This respect for both the intelligence of the audience and the shows continuity, make Starr the best writer on ThunderCats by far. Though not quite on the same level as Michael Reaves (from Dungeons and Dragons) Leonard Starr definitely deserves recognition for going above and beyond what was expected from action-adventure writers of the time.
Unfortunately, where Leonard Starr sought to raise the bar for ThunderCats, other writers like William Overgard simply churned out egregious and even insulting stories for the show. Two examples of this can be found in Overgard's Mandora: Evil Chaser duology. Featuring a laughable female heroine by the name of Mandora, these two stories paired Lion-O with the galactic "Evils Chaser" (or cop) in an obvious attempt to create a spinoff series. Some highlights from this include Mandora defeating an escaped prisoner with soap (amazingly enough this scene is actually worse than it sounds), Mandora and Lion-O conversing in the vacuum of space (I had no idea that the wind could blow through your hair without atmosphere) and robot space pirates (do I really need to make a joke here?). Another hideous episode would be "The Terror of Hammerhand" (written by Ron Goulart and Julian P. Gardner). In what can only be described as surreal, this story had unicorns, monster trees, giant birds and viking pirates that repeat everything three times, Three Times, THREE TIMES (yes, it's that annoying)!!! Now bad stories like this are not a rare thing when it comes to 1980's cartoons, and they're certainly not exclusive to ThunderCats (there was that time when the Defenders of the Earth got turned into animals by Dracula so he could put them in a circus, and the time Cobra Commander tried to carve his likeness into the moon, oh and the time that midget thieves hid themselves in an orphanage in C.O.P.S), but while these unabashedly awful episodes can be excused as an unfortunate byproduct of their time period, what cannot be excused is the poor storytelling found all too often in this show.
When I say bad storytelling, I'm actually talking about two different things. The first would be glaring plot holes born from an inconsistent timeline, the other would be lazy abuse of the three act story structure. So you may remember me mentioning that Lion-O starts this show as a young boy who physically grows into a man while in stasis sleep, thus a man child literally becomes Lord of the ThunderCats. This plot line is used continuously throughout the first twenty or so episodes as Lion-O struggles to mature his mind to fit his body. Then it just disappears, vanishing without a trace. Practically overnight Lion-O becomes a wise and introspective leader, just another adult like Panthro or Tygra. When WileyKit and WileyCat (both of whom are technically older than Lion-O) do something stupid, guess who's there to scold them for their youthful endeavors? That's right Lion-O. When something awe inspiring happens, guess who's there to put it into perspective? Once again, Lion-O. Other timeline inconsistencies include the appearance of various characters who knew both the ThunderCats and Mutants before either party came to Third Earth, yet none of these visitors act like much time has passed since the last time they saw them, or even look very old for that matter (which they would presumable be since many years passed while the ThunderCats and Mutants traveled to Third Earth). In truth these continuity hiccups probably didn't bother their intended audience very much, but I still found the whole thing rather frustrating.
Ok, so my complaints about inconsistent timeframes and dropped plot lines may be a little picky, but this next issue is very much a real problem. I'm no expert on three act story structure, but from what I understand the first act introduces the characters as well as the conflict of a story. With this set up out of the way, the stories main thrust then comes from the second act when characters undertake some sort of journey (internal, external etc) to resolve said conflict. Finally, the stories climax takes place during the third act and our conflict gets resolved bringing the story to an end. Almost all action-adventure cartoons - even the poorly written ones from the 1980s - adhere to this structure, ThunderCats was no exception. That said, what I discovered while watching season one of this show was that far too many episodes of ThunderCats (probably a quarter of them) abuse the second act of this formula in a truly shameful way. Here's how it goes down. The episode will start like a normal action-adventure show with our characters being established and our conflict (or premise) introduced. Skipping to the end the episode, our conflict is resolved (sometimes in a satisfactory way, other times not so much) and our heroes enjoy a cute epilogue. Both of these acts make relative sense and are pretty standard, what doesn't make sense is everything that happens in-between. Again and again I watched episodes of the ThunderCats where the second act was made up of completely random events. Now when I say random, I mean RANDOM. The characters would literally run around, encounter an obstacle, overcome it and start the process all over again until it was time to start the third act. None of these encounters had anything, ANYTHING, to do with the stories central theme or main conflict, they just filled time. This is supposed to be the meat of the story folks, the main thrust, not a loosely connected series of events barely bridging the first and third act. Where's the substance? Where's the struggle as it relates to the main story? I've watched some bad action-adventure stories in my time, but this ... this is just the height of laziness.
With the general writing out of the way I think now would be a good time to talk about the characters of ThunderCats. I've already mentioned the basic cast of heroes, but here they are again: Lion-O, Cheetara, Panthro, Tygra, Snarf, WileyKit and WileyKat. This is actually a pretty decent batch of characters, or it would be if the writers actually used anybody besides Lion-O and Snarf. The rest of the ThunderCats, while not absent from the show, don't really get any significant time dedicated to them, and this is a real shame. Sure, there are some basic character traits like Panthro's fear of fire-bats and Cheetara's sixth sense, but outside of these very superficial fears and abilities the show just doesn't dig nearly deep enough into these characters. What we needed were some interpersonal dynamics. Episodes dedicated to the friendships, rivalries and relationships of Cheetara, Panthro, Tygra and the Wiley twins, instead we got Snarf jammed down our throat time and time again. In case you don't know, Snarf is the "cute" animal like sidekick of the show. He basically provides comedic relief for the other characters by constantly being afraid and repeating his obnoxious catch phrase "Snarf" over and over. Why the writers of this show chose to reward this grating character with multiple episodes - specifically tailored to explore his personality - is beyond me (they probably thought that he was a fan favorite with kids or something). I don't need to see Snarf prove himself to the other ThunderCats (again), I need to see Tygra's reluctant acceptance of Lion-O as leader of the ThunderCats (I made the last part up, but you get what I'm saying). This really is a sad waste, if the writers of ThunderCats had spent more time utilizing and exploring their potentially rich cast I think that this show could have been much better.
Opposing our feline heroes are the villainous Mutants and their occasional ally Mumm-Ra the Ever Living. The Mutants - like the ThunderCats - are anthropomorphic creatures with various animalistic traits. There's the Mutant leader Slithe (who looks like a lizard), Jackalman (a Jackal), Monkian (a monkey) and Vultureman (a vulture). As far as villains go, this band of (mostly) incompetent individuals work well enough within the context of the show. Their constant bickering and backstabbing is a good contrast to the noble Code of Thundera and it helps emphasize the futility of selfishness and greed. The only problem I had with them was the lack of real motivation when battling the ThunderCats themselves. Seriously, outside of their underexplained desire to steal the Sword of Omens, the Mutants have no reason to even stay on Third Earth, let alone repeatedly get their tails whooped by Lion-O and his friends. There has to be richer worlds to plunder - preferably ones not inhabited by magical sword wielding cat people - why not go there? Ultimately this inexplicable obsession to acquire the ThunderCats mystical sword just doesn't add up. Unfortunately the show's primary villain, Mumm-Ra, fares no better in the motivational department.
All and all, I have to say that Mumm-Ra is the best villain in ThunderCats (the guy should really have a doctor check into his overactive saliva glands though). Besides being a genuine threat to the ThunderCats, Mumm-Ra's ability to shift forms between a withered old mummy and a super buff badass, makes for a lot of fun in the show. Additionally I liked how the writers gave Mumm-Ra an achilles heel for our heroes to exploit, in this case the only thing capable of defeating Mumm-Ra is the horror of his own reflection. Again, Mumm-Ra's motivation - like the Mutants - makes no real sense, and in many ways feel counterintuitive to the nature of the character. Before the ThunderCats showed up Mumm-Ra was just hanging out in his pyramid, sleeping in his sarcophagus and enjoying his golden years. Now he spends all his time concocting overly elaborate schemes to steal the Eye of Thundera, and slumming it with a bunch of low class Mutants. Mumm-Ra's an immortal being for heaven’s sake, not a petty thief. Even the cliched motivation of "taking over the world" would have been better than making the show's best villain a glorified kleptomaniac.
I can see how the premise of ThunderCats would be appealing to youngsters during the 1980s. Had I been able to watch the show at the time, I'm sure I would have fallen under its spell like so many others. Since this is not the case, however, I've got to say that there was nothing special about season one's writing. Outside of the superior work of Leonard Starr, the rest of the show was mostly mediocre, and all too often terrible. Poor story structure happens far too often, characters get over and underused terribly, motivations make no sense and plot holes abound. Basically ThunderCats is, at best, an averagely written show whose stories lack the excellence of Dungeons and Dragons, and the outrageous charm of GI Joe.
One area that ThunderCats takes a backseat to no-one, however, is visuals. Benefiting greatly from producers Rankin-Bass's regular collaborator Topcraft, ThunderCats features some of the best animation done during the 1980s action-adventure cartoon boom. The best episodes happen early on - most notably during the "Exodus" story line - with near fluid animation, gorgeous lighting effects and stellar backgrounds. The space battle between the Mutants and ThunderCats from the pilot episode was especially amazing. Of course this visual prowess does not carryover throughout all 65 episodes of the series. Like other shows of the time, various studios worked on ThunderCats. Some of these outfits - like Topcraft - did exceptional work, other studio's produced results that were far more lackluster. Still, when compared to other shows of the time, ThunderCats animation stands out as some of the best.
Another win for the ThunderCats would be in the design department. All of the main characters in the series, good and evil, look excellent and unique. You can see a little of the Rankin-Bass influence with some of the designs, especially Slithe, but that's ok because none of the regular cast members sport the infamous "bulbous nose" look seen in other Rankin-Bass productions. Equally good are the vehicle and technology designs used throughout the series. Specifically I liked the look of the Thunder Tank and Cats Lair (both of which made great toys I'm sure), as well as the Nose Diver and Sky Cutter vehicles. Unfortunately secondary character designs were far less impressive. From the generic looking "Warrior Maidens" to the freaky, Muffit styled "Ro-Bear Berbils", ThunderCats clearly didn't put the same effort into the semi-regular characters as they did into the core cast. That said, I don't feel that this diminishes the show in any significant way. Weaker secondary character designs were common practice on shows like this, and I'm only comparing ThunderCats to its peers anyway.
Now comes the hard part. While ThunderCats may be visually amazing, and the stories mostly average (though problematic), what isn't amazing - or even typical - was the show's voice acting. Featuring some of the worst performances in the history of action-adventure animation, the acting done on ThunderCats was abysmal, even by 1980s standards. Ultimately I would have to name Peter Newman and Lynn Lipton as the two worst offenders, especially given their awkward delivery and inability to emote. To say that Newman's Tygra sounded choppy and stiff is like saying Charles Manson has anger issue, though the statement is technically true, it fails to convey the proper magnitude of the situation. To give you some idea of how bad this delivery was, there was a time when I actually thought Tygra was dubbed by an asian actor, one who barely spoke english. But while Newman's work on Tygra was indeed terrible, I'll also say that the actor's portrayal of other characters is marginally better. Lipton, on the other hand, couldn't even muster one solitary good performance despite being the voice of every single female character in the show! Whether it's the odd enunciation of Cheetara (whose elongation of the letter "O" baffles me) or the hideous - almost old lady sounding - voice of Willa (leader of the Warrior Maidens), Lipton's ability to single handedly ruin just about every scene she was involved in was staggering.
It's not all bad mind you. Earl Hammond does some decent work on Mumm-Ra, and Earle Hyman's Panthro was pretty respectable. Overall though, I have to say that ThunderCats has some of the worst sounding characters of any action-adventure cartoon done in the 1980s (the only other show that comes close is C.O.P.S).
Having just declared the voice acting of ThunderCats to be irredeemably bad, I would like to step back and briefly mention the shows strongest feature. The ThunderCats title sequences is easily one of the best done in action-adventure history. Perfectly storyboarded and beautifully animated, this opening sequence never got old for me when I was watching the DVD sets. Complementing this visual splendor was the heart pounding theme music that - while short on lyrics - was infuriatingly catchy and 100% awesome. When fans of the ThunderCats talk about how great the show was, I bet you what they're really talking about is this opening.
Looking back over this (ridiculously long) review, I have to say that ThunderCats is a series of extremes. The show's title sequence and animation was extremely awesome, the show's voice acting and writing, however, was extremely bad. In short, ThunderCats isn't nearly as good as many fans remember. Obviously my lack of nostalgia for ThunderCats has hardened my opinion of the show more so than cartoons like GI Joe and Dungeons and Dragons. I can't really make any excuses for that, these things just kind of happen when you review really bad TV from your childhood. That said, I would still recommend that hardcore fans of ThunderCats checkout the first volume of this DVD set (it may be bad but it's still a far cry better than Defenders of the Earth or C.O.P.S.). If you can make it through all 33 episodes without feeling like your childhood has been violated, it might be worth picking up the rest of the series (don't pay more than $20 a set though). For what it's worth, the DVDs themselves are pretty well put together with decent packaging and a handful of special features (mostly interviews). Unfortunately they can take up some considerable room on your shelf. It's not terrible or anything, but I definitely would've preferred a foldout case, or even a slim pack to the three standard sized DVD cases found in each set.
