Integration

[Pravus Prime]

It's funny, had you asked me before the revival where ThunderCats fit in, I would've lumped it in with the standard 80's fare, with He-man, Transformers, and the like. Having seen the series though, I would argue to the last that it does not belong in that same category. While I wouldn't necessarily place it in with series like Robotech/Macross, Tekkaman, or the like either, it probably belongs somewhere between the two. It's got mythology and story, but it doesn't get bogged down in it or in being serious.

I'm a big believer in that the better the villain, the better the series, and Mumm-Ra is a great example to exemplify this belief with. Nearly all of my favorite episodes are Mumm-Ra centric ones, and unlike so many other villains, he actually has a winning record in straight combat against his enemies as well as in getting his plans to execute properly. He never suffers from my oft mentioned Villain Decay that so many of his peers suffer from and then gave him his own Moment of Awesome in Mumm-Ra Lives! Part 5 when Mumm-Ra revealed he no longer had his weakness to his reflection, and that's just one of many examples. Truly Mumm-Ra elevated this series.

Then you have the eponymous ThunderCats themselves. Each of the original cast were great ensemble and solo characters that each brought something to the table and could interact with both each other and the environment in interesting and fresh ways. Though the same could not be said of Pumyra and Ben-Gali, Lynx-O and Snarfer both fit in quite well to the series, adding to the cast and their interactions.

If I had to choose one word to describe the series, I would probably pick inconsistant. Not that it should only be viewed as derogatory. That inconsistancy kept the series fresh, you never knew what you were going to get and that made the series a lot more fun. We could have a Snarf and Panthro centric episode with a few mutants, or a Mumm-Ra and Lion-O centric episode, or full casts on both sides episodes or anything in between. We had all sorts of locations on Third Earth and Thundera that were interesting, from the Forest of Silence to the Caves of Cold to keep the settings fresh. Also, just where to place this series as I mentioned, is hard, as it does not fit in with it's peers, making it inconsistant if one were to lump them in the same group for reasons other then when they were made. At the same time, there were also the less desirable inconsistancies, such as episodes like Crackers Revenge. Fortunately with 130 episodes, there's a lot of good episodes to enjoy against the less desirable and easily skipped ones. Similarly, while this series has some absolutely beautiful animation sequences, sometimes it's got some pretty poor ones too (though as a whole, it's better then several other shows).

It can't all be roses though, and for me the detriments of the series lay in some of the Overgard characters/plots, the Lunataks (save Chilla), and the Ancient Spirits of Evil. They tended to sour my enjoyment of the series, but that may be largely personal preference. One element that I fully expected to place in here was the Sword of Deus Ex MacGuffin-- Err, Sword of Omens. Let's face it, it had whatever abilities the writers wanted it to have, from flying Lion-O about, to tunneling through rock, undoing curses, bringing the dead back to life, whatever. However, I didn't mind it oddly enough. I think the music helped.

It would be criminal for me to sum up this series and not pay special attention to the music of the show. This series has by far one of the best soundtracks and took the time to actually develop leitmotifs for all the central characters is astounding. This series badly needs a Soundtrack CD to be made available.

I never expected going into this that I would end up liking the old series far more then the newer one. Mostly due the mythology and ensemble cast interactions, the old series has such a feel to it that works, while the new one seems to be trying far to hard to be their own show and do their own thing. Maybe it's more me, but the original series has so much to it's story that they could've retold this series using modern elements to flesh out the interesting concepts that the original series only barely touched upon and restructed to be more of a storyarc then we got. Imagine a codified history of first and second Earth that was gradually revealed over the course of the series, including origins for the Berbils and the Warrior Women. Imagine Mumm-Ra being built up over time with idea like the one in Dream Master being a 7 episode storyline. Having the mutant society of Castle Plundarr with upheavils and political plays between the various species (as well as consistantly remembering that there are scores of mutants rather then 4).

This was a great series, I already feel a little withdrawal at not having new episodes of ThunderCats to watch anymore. I'm glad Bandai is doing their best to give us a Classics Line, I'm looking forward to them all and will be enjoying then more then I ever would have before.

Thanks to all of you who have read this thread and stuck with me as I rambled on about this series. I was shocked when I noticed the other day that this is one of the most read threads in the forum, having more views then the feedback for 3 of the new series episodes (and 20 away from a fourth!) and is the second highest views for any thread here that isn't a feedback for an episode of the new series.

I think that's everything, I guess there's only one more thing to say...







ThunderCats Ho!