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Why Thundercats is the Best Damn Cartoon on TV Right Now
I just wrote 1200 words on why the new Thundercats reboot is 32 flavors of amazing and I regret nothing.
Getting the Big Reasons out of the way first: Gorgeous artwork, awesome characters, an epic ongoing story, and just the right blend of humor and drama. Which are all the hallmarks of all of the truly great cartoon shows, like Avatar (to which I often seen Thundercats being compared and for good reason). To break it down a bit more: I'm completely in love with the artwork for this series, from the amazing background art and lush depictions of all of the locations on Third Earth to the creative and just plain neat-looking character designs for all of the animal-people. As for the quality of the animation itself, well... It's inconsistent. That's the most diplomatic way of putting it. But when it's good, it's really good. And the characters? The characters themselves are great fun. They're admittedly not too complex and full of cliches, but still interesting enough that you want to follow them on their adventures week to week, and of course much more interesting in the way that they interact with each other than they are alone. And yes, there's a continuing story arc, but even the filler episodes (i.e. episode 8 and episode 9) are entertaining as hell and provide some important character moments.
It has a lot of cool, complex worldbuilding based on a few really interesting premises. Okay, so, remember the 80's Thundercats cartoon? Yeah. How many of you reading this right now were among those nerdly little kids who watched the show and were actually bothered by questions like "Why is there an alien planet full of cat-people who look like they were based on species of cats from Earth?" and "why does everyone think that a magic sword is like The Most Important Weapon Ever when they have spaceships and robot bears and stuff?" I assume that the writers of the reboot series were among the ones who asked those questions when they watched the original series, too. Because the reboot actually ANSWERS THOSE QUESTIONS. With some really fun, surprising twist reveals along the way.
It avoids typical cartoon Idiot Hero tropes by having there be actual consequences when the characters make stupid decisions. Not to say that the show completely avoids having stupid characters driving the story, but at least it punishes their stupidity with believable consequences. Like being eaten alive by a giant vagina dentata. As actually happens to Lion-O in the third episode. Like I said: totally. believable. consequences.
It's exceptionally good at "show, don't tell." At least in the areas where it counts most: worldbuilding and character development. The moral lessons in each episode are often stated explicitly but we'll forgive the writers for that. Anywhoo, one of my biggest annoyances with media that tries to dumb itself down for a "kiddie" audience is the way that everything has to be explained by the characters to the audience. But Thundercats doesn't do that. Like, almost not at all. Worldbuilding details are revealed only as they occur organically in the story, Character A never explains anything to Character B unless it's something that Character B doesn't actually know yet, and characters' thoughts and emotions are revealed through actions rather than them standing around and saying "That makes me angry!" or whatever. This is another similarity between Thundercats and Avatar that I really like: that both shows were consistently good at showing their audience everything that they needed to know, rather than telling them.
It has a lot of grimdark story elements that are presented in a surprisingly kid-friendly manner, but without actually dumbing any of the content down. War, slavery, racism, classism, genocide, and cannibalism - all of these elements show up within the first three episodes, but they're presented in a way that rather impressively manages to be accessible to kids without dumbing down the content too much. Like, I'm honestly impressed with how the genocide of Thundera was handled: yes, most of the deaths happened off-screen or were shown as "holy shit look at that huge explosion OMG a bunch of civilians were just horribly killed" without actually showing, you know, dead Cats (or pieces of dead Cats) everywhere. Yet certain key moments - that eerie silence right before the first missile flies over the city walls, or Kit playing her flute as she sits on top of the smoking ruins of Thundera - hit just the right notes of genuinely scary or surprisingly haunting (respectively) so as to make the horror of that slaughter genuinely horrible enough to leave a real impact on the audience. Or at least horrible enough to be portrayed within the constraints of show that's nominally for kids.
It handles the complicated intersection of racism and classism in a more sophisticated manner than most Media For Grown-Ups manages to do. A lot of this is accomplished because of that "show, don't tell" stuff happening in the first two episodes. We're shown that there are crime-ridden slums in Thundera, we're shown that lions are Thundera's only rulers, we're told that Lion-O is Very Concerned about racism against non-Cats but shown very clearly that he either doesn't understand or doesn't care about how inter-Cat classism dicks over the Cats living in the slums or even his own adopted brother, and we're told that Tygra is Very Upset about inter-Cat classism (as least so far as it directly affects him) but we're shown that he completely buys into racism against Lizards. Together Lion-O and Tygra might have half a clue as to why Oppression is Bad, but instead they waste all of their energy bickering about the causes that are most important to them personally. Because intersectionality is hard and most of us, alien cat-people included, fail spectacularly at it. There are no neat, tidy solutions to the problems of social injustice in Thundera presented by the series either, and certainly no moments of perfect understanding to be reached by the characters. When characters do start to become aware of how unfair something about their privilege is, it's a slow process that they react to with a lot of flailing and clueless stupidity (hi Lion-O reacting to the lizard prisoners in the first two episodes!) rather than with a epiphanic moment of perfect now-I-see-the-light clarity. It's a surprisingly true-to-life mirror of how most of us (HI INTERNET) fail to understand or effectively deal with the complexities of different types of injustice in the real world. And a cartoon about cat-people having adventures on an alien planet with their cat-shaped tank and their fucking magic sword is that last place I would have ever expected to find that mirror being held up to our reality. And yet, here it is.
It's gayer than a treeful of monkies on nitrous oxide. Which fills my slashy little fangirl heart with so much glee. Now, to be fair, the fact that the show is saturated with subtext is really just the inevitable result of what happens when you create an action!cartoon show with NOT ENOUGH AWESOME FEMALE CHARACTERS: you end up with a cast of muscle-bound, extraordinarily handsome male characters whose relationships and rivalries completely drive the story. Because, you know. Not enough female characters. And although I am very much enjoying all of the slashiness in the series (did anybody writing this show honestly not expect that a good portion of the audience would interpret "and I'm going to ring yours" as innuendo?!) I would really, really love to have some more female characters at the center of the story. Like, PUMYRA PLZ. NOW. Also why does no character have a mother or female mentor/teacher? Argh. I mean, yay slash! But argh lack of female characters.
The writers understand exactly who their audience for this show is. In that they made it clear from the beginning that they're catering to both the toy-buying kid crowd and the nostalgic-for-the-80's adult crowd. The way that this show is intended to be accessible to kids yet appealing to adults shows through very clearly in nearly every aspect, from the writing to the artwork. Also, samophlange. Because the writers aren't afraid to make blatant shout-outs to the adults watching this show.
So, in less words: If you like really great epic fantasy animated series (hello Avatar fans reading this!) or are a sucker for fantasy worlds based on so-stupid-that-it's-awesome premises mixed with creative, surreal background and character designs (hello Soul Eater fans reading this!) or just really appreciate shows that are thoughtfully crafted to appeal to both children and an adult audience at the same time (hello My Little Pony reboot fans!), then you will probably enjoy watching the new Thundercats series.
And y'all should totally check it out so that I have more people to squee about this series with.
That is all.
ETA: Just to make my journey to the dark side complete: I now have an Thundercats-themed Tumblr. Moreso as a way for me to index my favorite bits of the Thundercats fandom than anything else. But please hop on over and give it a look if you like awesome fanworks (and I am admittedly very picky about what I post/re-blog) about alien cat-people.
So yeah, I have a Tumblr now. A Tumblr devoted entirely to a furry cartoon series. DIGNTIY, HOW DOES IT WORK. Not that I even care anymore.
Getting the Big Reasons out of the way first: Gorgeous artwork, awesome characters, an epic ongoing story, and just the right blend of humor and drama. Which are all the hallmarks of all of the truly great cartoon shows, like Avatar (to which I often seen Thundercats being compared and for good reason). To break it down a bit more: I'm completely in love with the artwork for this series, from the amazing background art and lush depictions of all of the locations on Third Earth to the creative and just plain neat-looking character designs for all of the animal-people. As for the quality of the animation itself, well... It's inconsistent. That's the most diplomatic way of putting it. But when it's good, it's really good. And the characters? The characters themselves are great fun. They're admittedly not too complex and full of cliches, but still interesting enough that you want to follow them on their adventures week to week, and of course much more interesting in the way that they interact with each other than they are alone. And yes, there's a continuing story arc, but even the filler episodes (i.e. episode 8 and episode 9) are entertaining as hell and provide some important character moments.
It has a lot of cool, complex worldbuilding based on a few really interesting premises. Okay, so, remember the 80's Thundercats cartoon? Yeah. How many of you reading this right now were among those nerdly little kids who watched the show and were actually bothered by questions like "Why is there an alien planet full of cat-people who look like they were based on species of cats from Earth?" and "why does everyone think that a magic sword is like The Most Important Weapon Ever when they have spaceships and robot bears and stuff?" I assume that the writers of the reboot series were among the ones who asked those questions when they watched the original series, too. Because the reboot actually ANSWERS THOSE QUESTIONS. With some really fun, surprising twist reveals along the way.
It avoids typical cartoon Idiot Hero tropes by having there be actual consequences when the characters make stupid decisions. Not to say that the show completely avoids having stupid characters driving the story, but at least it punishes their stupidity with believable consequences. Like being eaten alive by a giant vagina dentata. As actually happens to Lion-O in the third episode. Like I said: totally. believable. consequences.
It's exceptionally good at "show, don't tell." At least in the areas where it counts most: worldbuilding and character development. The moral lessons in each episode are often stated explicitly but we'll forgive the writers for that. Anywhoo, one of my biggest annoyances with media that tries to dumb itself down for a "kiddie" audience is the way that everything has to be explained by the characters to the audience. But Thundercats doesn't do that. Like, almost not at all. Worldbuilding details are revealed only as they occur organically in the story, Character A never explains anything to Character B unless it's something that Character B doesn't actually know yet, and characters' thoughts and emotions are revealed through actions rather than them standing around and saying "That makes me angry!" or whatever. This is another similarity between Thundercats and Avatar that I really like: that both shows were consistently good at showing their audience everything that they needed to know, rather than telling them.
It has a lot of grimdark story elements that are presented in a surprisingly kid-friendly manner, but without actually dumbing any of the content down. War, slavery, racism, classism, genocide, and cannibalism - all of these elements show up within the first three episodes, but they're presented in a way that rather impressively manages to be accessible to kids without dumbing down the content too much. Like, I'm honestly impressed with how the genocide of Thundera was handled: yes, most of the deaths happened off-screen or were shown as "holy shit look at that huge explosion OMG a bunch of civilians were just horribly killed" without actually showing, you know, dead Cats (or pieces of dead Cats) everywhere. Yet certain key moments - that eerie silence right before the first missile flies over the city walls, or Kit playing her flute as she sits on top of the smoking ruins of Thundera - hit just the right notes of genuinely scary or surprisingly haunting (respectively) so as to make the horror of that slaughter genuinely horrible enough to leave a real impact on the audience. Or at least horrible enough to be portrayed within the constraints of show that's nominally for kids.
It handles the complicated intersection of racism and classism in a more sophisticated manner than most Media For Grown-Ups manages to do. A lot of this is accomplished because of that "show, don't tell" stuff happening in the first two episodes. We're shown that there are crime-ridden slums in Thundera, we're shown that lions are Thundera's only rulers, we're told that Lion-O is Very Concerned about racism against non-Cats but shown very clearly that he either doesn't understand or doesn't care about how inter-Cat classism dicks over the Cats living in the slums or even his own adopted brother, and we're told that Tygra is Very Upset about inter-Cat classism (as least so far as it directly affects him) but we're shown that he completely buys into racism against Lizards. Together Lion-O and Tygra might have half a clue as to why Oppression is Bad, but instead they waste all of their energy bickering about the causes that are most important to them personally. Because intersectionality is hard and most of us, alien cat-people included, fail spectacularly at it. There are no neat, tidy solutions to the problems of social injustice in Thundera presented by the series either, and certainly no moments of perfect understanding to be reached by the characters. When characters do start to become aware of how unfair something about their privilege is, it's a slow process that they react to with a lot of flailing and clueless stupidity (hi Lion-O reacting to the lizard prisoners in the first two episodes!) rather than with a epiphanic moment of perfect now-I-see-the-light clarity. It's a surprisingly true-to-life mirror of how most of us (HI INTERNET) fail to understand or effectively deal with the complexities of different types of injustice in the real world. And a cartoon about cat-people having adventures on an alien planet with their cat-shaped tank and their fucking magic sword is that last place I would have ever expected to find that mirror being held up to our reality. And yet, here it is.
It's gayer than a treeful of monkies on nitrous oxide. Which fills my slashy little fangirl heart with so much glee. Now, to be fair, the fact that the show is saturated with subtext is really just the inevitable result of what happens when you create an action!cartoon show with NOT ENOUGH AWESOME FEMALE CHARACTERS: you end up with a cast of muscle-bound, extraordinarily handsome male characters whose relationships and rivalries completely drive the story. Because, you know. Not enough female characters. And although I am very much enjoying all of the slashiness in the series (did anybody writing this show honestly not expect that a good portion of the audience would interpret "and I'm going to ring yours" as innuendo?!) I would really, really love to have some more female characters at the center of the story. Like, PUMYRA PLZ. NOW. Also why does no character have a mother or female mentor/teacher? Argh. I mean, yay slash! But argh lack of female characters.
The writers understand exactly who their audience for this show is. In that they made it clear from the beginning that they're catering to both the toy-buying kid crowd and the nostalgic-for-the-80's adult crowd. The way that this show is intended to be accessible to kids yet appealing to adults shows through very clearly in nearly every aspect, from the writing to the artwork. Also, samophlange. Because the writers aren't afraid to make blatant shout-outs to the adults watching this show.
So, in less words: If you like really great epic fantasy animated series (hello Avatar fans reading this!) or are a sucker for fantasy worlds based on so-stupid-that-it's-awesome premises mixed with creative, surreal background and character designs (hello Soul Eater fans reading this!) or just really appreciate shows that are thoughtfully crafted to appeal to both children and an adult audience at the same time (hello My Little Pony reboot fans!), then you will probably enjoy watching the new Thundercats series.
And y'all should totally check it out so that I have more people to squee about this series with.
That is all.
ETA: Just to make my journey to the dark side complete: I now have an Thundercats-themed Tumblr. Moreso as a way for me to index my favorite bits of the Thundercats fandom than anything else. But please hop on over and give it a look if you like awesome fanworks (and I am admittedly very picky about what I post/re-blog) about alien cat-people.
So yeah, I have a Tumblr now. A Tumblr devoted entirely to a furry cartoon series. DIGNTIY, HOW DOES IT WORK. Not that I even care anymore.
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*loves Soul Eater*
*loves MLP; FiM*
I should watch this.
The character designs look amazing! Well, from what I just saw on your Tumblr. But yeah, once I'm all caught up on MLP, I'll start watching! Thanks for posting this! (^0^)
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(Anonymous) 2011-10-29 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
Why thank you! :)
I do, however, feel Cheetara and Tygra (moreso Tygra) could show off their personalities a little more, even in episodes that aren't focused on them, they both just sort of fade into the background.
Agreed, and honestly I am a bit impatient since we've already had TWO episodes that focus on Panthro and yet to have a single episode that's Cheetara-centric or Tygra-centric. But I assume that stuff is coming later (soon?) so I'm not that worried.
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(Anonymous) 2011-10-29 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)so I'll wach this show
not only because of what i said before, i wanna see the whole being eaten alive by a giant vagina dentata thing ^.^
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But yeah, definitely a good way to relaunch a show. I wish I could say the same for Scooby-Doo (can't stand the new one).
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I remember that Scooby-Doo actually got a good reboot in the 90s. Thirteen Ghosts legitimately scared me a couple times when I was a kid, and I liked the rebooted animated movies.
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
(Anonymous) 2011-10-31 12:32 am (UTC)(link)Re: Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
no subject
I like the character designs and voice acting in Mystery Incorporated and appreciate the gesture of attempting a darker, edgy take on the franchise. I think my biggest beefs with the show are certain characterizations and the focus on romance. I actually like Fred better in this version (his trap obsession is pretty funny), and Daphne and Shaggy are tolerable enough. It's Velma's characterization that was off-putting for me. I'm all for sassy, but she's shown to be controlling of Shaggy and callous towards Scooby. I probably would've liked her better if she was at least friendlier towards Scooby, like in most previous adaptions. Also, Scooby gets consequentially shafted in favor of the teens. Although he has his moments, I felt he was just kind of there).
My original statement is a little too strong. On whole, I can see where the positive reviews come from. If anything, I'm disappointed, because I was excited when I heard this show would be less campy and more story-oriented. I wanted to like this version, but this show just didn't do it for me. It feels more like a teen drama than Scooby-Doo to me. Still, I'd give it a chance if you're up for it.
Man, I probably shouldn't have mentioned Scooby-Doo. Apologies for the wall of text and off-topicness.
hmmmm
(Anonymous) 2011-10-31 03:07 am (UTC)(link)(I'm on a gliched small screen laptop so reading text is a bit of an issue atm, my apologies!!! :x )
Re: hmmmm
hmmmm pt 2
(Anonymous) 2011-10-31 03:17 am (UTC)(link)Re: hmmmm pt 2
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I definitely will get to it soon now that you hyped me up for it!! Avatar, Soul Eater, MLP all checked. ;)
Since we are on the subject... I stumbled upon this today thanks to a friend, if you haven't seen this already:
ThunderLOLcats
http://tinyurl.com/3wlsu8d
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FYI
I can barely remember the original series when I was younger (I was born in the mid-late 80's) but of course I've gone back to it and I really love the way this new reboot is portraying the original. Just like you said, it ANSWERS ALL QUESTIONS. And in the best way too! ::squee::
lol! I also remember snarf being an annoying talking scaredy cat in the original. Now I think he's the most adorable thing ever! Maybe because he's mute now, go figure.
Thanks again!! I might very well be throwing some fanarts around. :> :> :>
Re: FYI
I love your fanart and would shamelessly love for you to draw Thundercats stuff. :)
Re: FYI
Re: FYI
Re: FYI
THE BEST
I love love love how you got their personalities across in their faces and KITKAT ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER!!
(*hugs you*) This is so awesome. Thank you!!
Re: FYI
I am glad that you like them!! My very first feel in sketching them. Yaaaaay! Kit and Kay were fun to draw. I figured that's the kind of silly pose they'd do. ;)
*Hug*
More fanart coming soon.
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(Anonymous) 2011-11-04 02:30 am (UTC)(link)no subject