Thundercats: Roar is on the way!

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Sat May 19, 2018 10:37 am

Apparently so. Looks quite fun I reckon

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/tv/cartoon- ... 58449.html

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Sat May 19, 2018 10:58 am

Oh f*** off with the calarts syndrome already.

Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sat May 19, 2018 10:22 pm

It's already seriously upset a fair few fat thirty-somethings who seem to think kids TV shows should be carbon copies of everything they watched as a child (because they turned out to be real winners), which means I'm all in favour of it.

IIRC Thundercats tried the fan-friendly broody update thing and it was so unpopular it was cancelled in about eight minutes.

Brendocon 2.0 · Post by **Brendocon 2.0** » Sun May 20, 2018 10:26 am

Yep. Any attempt to market the toys to the collectors market has died on its arse and the "serious" cartoon reboot was a spectacular flop.

If the brand wants to exist in the modern market it needs to reinvent itself for kids, as the nostalgia thing clearly isn't going to work.

It's just a shame that doing so meant going round the house of everyone who remembers the 80s, stealing their DVDs and deleting their memories.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Sun May 20, 2018 12:22 pm

Or they could've just come up with a brand new IP.

Instead we just get another Schroedinger's reboot; it's simultaneously for fans and not for fans.

And I don't even like Thundercats!

Brendocon 2.0 · Post by **Brendocon 2.0** » Sun May 20, 2018 12:31 pm

Well it's a good thing you were on hand to poll every single child in the world to find out if they like it or not then.

New IPs are an entirely separate matter. If people want Thundercats to be an ongoing thing, this is what it needs to do. If it doesn't work, fine. They gave it a go. The target demographic for this don't give a shit about what it used to be in the 80s.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sun May 20, 2018 12:50 pm

Looks a bit like a cross between Teen Titans Go! and The Powerpuff Girls. Not bad. I'd be willing to give it a watch, see what it's like. I tried rewatching the '80s cartoon, back when the DVDs came out and yeah...its aged, man. Time to move on (theme tune is still ace though).

I did enjoy the reboot from a few years ago, but yeah, it was a bit up it's own arse. The animation and that episode about the wee tree folk were superb though. I think that was trying to mimic the successful He-Man reboot, but got it a bit wrong.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Sun May 20, 2018 2:33 pm

Skyquake87 wrote:Looks a bit like a cross between Teen Titans Go! and The Powerpuff Girls. Not bad. I'd be willing to give it a watch, see what it's like. I tried rewatching the '80s cartoon, back when the DVDs came out and yeah...its aged, man. Time to move on (theme tune is still ace though).

I thought it was okay at the very least - in it's first season. I remember being impressed by some aspects of it like some degree of continuity and not using the Sword of Omens as some kind of a cheap deus ex machina. The second season in the other hand was just one great steaming pile of feces.

This new one looks like the animation equivalent of funko pops.

Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sun May 20, 2018 7:08 pm

Brendocon 2.0 wrote:If people want Thundercats to be an ongoing thing, this is what it needs to do.

Yeah; and the thing is if it takes off there'll be a chance of some trickle-down for the TC equivalent of the Geewuners, just like there has been from the Bay films or those dippy films with the same names as the Marvel characters. Certainly more than they're getting now, which is nothing.

That said, I'm not sure how much Thundercats fans have a problem (I also don't care), most of it seems to be from the general "Child of the eighties" spackers, most of whom are bemoaning how crap kids' TV is now when they're only aware of it whenever something they watched three episodes of in 1987 gets rebooted.

I love Teen Titans Go, and I've loved it even more since I realised how much the "cartoons about Batman should be dark and serious" neckbeards hate it.

And I'd agree that the only tolerable bit of the original Thundercats show was the theme tune and titles.

Post by **Denyer** » Mon May 21, 2018 6:35 pm

Young Justice getting a third season has promise -- S2 was rather grim and too bound up in overall arc but hopefully it'll get back to the heights of S1.

This Roar thing might be fun taken as a fan-made YouTube deal -- presented in those terms it'd be viewed more charitably. The intro vid did manage to convey enough enthusiasm that you might be convinced not to herd the creators and that guy's topknot into the sea.

In terms of adult fanbase the reboot was great, the short-lived MOTUC-style figure line was decent, but Thundercats evidently struggles to find an audience (even with plenty of people who remember the cartoon being better than it was). If nothing else it keeps the line active, like the new Turtles after the better reboot before it, or Scooby Doo will continue to get lighter series after the great Mystery Incorporated take. It's cool that there's anything for the older audience every so often.

Post by **Cliffjumper** » Tue May 22, 2018 12:11 pm

Denyer wrote:Young Justice getting a third season has promise -- S2 was rather grim and too bound up in overall arc but hopefully it'll get back to the heights of S1.

Eagerly awaiting a Firestick to catch up on the show.

This Roar thing might be fun taken as a fan-made YouTube deal -- presented in those terms it'd be viewed more charitably. The intro vid did manage to convey enough enthusiasm that you might be convinced not to herd the creators and that guy's topknot into the sea.

I feel the topknot is doing sterling duty as a lightning rod.

(even with plenty of people who remember the cartoon being better than it was).

YouTube. That's the problem. People watch the title sequences and 'remember' all these shows as balls-to-the-wall action-adventure with spiffing animation, rather than 22 minutes of telegraphed moral lessons with the child association characters Learning A Lesson with a perfunctory inconclusive scrap tacked on the end. Honestly, it should be some law that if you claim Thundercats/Transformers/MOTU/GhostBusters etc. were classic shows on the internet you then have to sit down and watch them.

Do love me some Mystery Incorporated, with its' arcs and Fred actually doing stuff.

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Thu May 24, 2018 7:48 pm

I was on Facebook and someone had posted an image with the Transformers done in a similar art style (mostly like as a joke but it's Facebook so who knows) and everybody was clutching their pearls and saying the typical "stop ruining my childhood heroes" to which I replied "If a single image ruins your childhood heroes then you don't deserve childhood heroes." I will probably catch holy hell for it but I don't give a damn about the feelings of idiots anymore.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Thu May 24, 2018 8:21 pm

Besides which, your childhood heroes are still there - immortalized in plastic, shiny discs and other ephemera.

...i hate the the world is getting like this and the film Idiocracy is slowly becoming reality

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Fri May 25, 2018 1:31 pm

Skyquake87 wrote:Besides which, your childhood heroes are still there - immortalized in plastic, shiny discs and other ephemera.

...i hate the the world is getting like this and the film Idiocracy is slowly becoming reality

No kidding.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Fri May 25, 2018 2:08 pm

Skyquake87 wrote:...i hate the the world is getting like this and the film Idiocracy is slowly becoming reality

I think XKCD had a comic taking a shit on people making that claim, too.

As much as I loathe this new art style, I swear this show would seriously have to try to be worse than the second season of the original, which seemed to go out of it's way to wreck the few things in the first that I did like. At least the new one is free to create it's own rules, whatever those may be.

Also it has reminded me of another cartoon that was similarly ravaged on reveal; Loonatics Unleashed - a cartoon that I not only remember almost nothing about, but one I frequently forget even exists. And seeing the only people who do seem to remember it are some shippers on deviantart, I see no reason why Roar can't similarly become a footnote ten years from now, so there's no reason to get too worked up about it yet.

Post by **Warcry** » Fri May 25, 2018 3:11 pm

I'm not sure what to think about this. On the one hand, this looks terrible and I can't fathom why so many modern cartoons ape this lazy, sloppy art style. On the other hand, the original Thundercats show was so bad that I honestly can't see how this could possibly be any worse.

I have to admit that I don't understand why companies continue to try to revive flash in the pan franchises like Thundercats at all, though. Stuff like Transformers or TMNT or G.I. Joe or Power Rangers that have decades of success behind them, sure. But Thundercats was moderately popular for around two years, three decades ago, and there really doesn't seem to be many people clamouring to bring it back. Wouldn't it be easier to launch a new IP without all the baggage? Just like with Hasbro trying to push Jem or Rom or MASK or whatever...did anyone actually ask for this?

Post by **Denyer** » Fri May 25, 2018 7:27 pm

Warcry wrote:I have to admit that I don't understand why companies continue to try to revive flash in the pan franchises like Thundercats at all, though. Stuff like Transformers or TMNT or G.I. Joe or Power Rangers that have decades of success behind them, sure. But Thundercats was moderately popular for around two years,

Went on for ages over here, plus supported a comic that wasn't quite up there with Transformers or MOTU but had a bunch of specials and annuals tacked on.

Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon May 28, 2018 11:14 pm

Warcry wrote:Just like with Hasbro trying to push Jem or Rom or MASK or whatever...did anyone actually ask for this?

The Jem film is amazing; if for nothing else that they get Juliette Lewis in it and don't let her sing.

The thing is it seems very rare for these revivals to really take off. Transformers and MLP seem to be the only ones (and they, like Power Rangers or superheroes or Barbie, have more never really stopped anyway, just having the odd spell in the sun). The big hits of recent years - Frozen, Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, Shopkins, Pixar films - have all been new properties.

I wonder if it's an extension of Transformers' official output being packed with fanboys - whoever owns the rights or whatever is now being ran by some guy who loved Thundercats as a kid and is determined that kids today will love it.

Post by **Warcry** » Wed May 30, 2018 5:35 pm

Denyer wrote:Went on for ages over here, plus supported a comic that wasn't quite up there with Transformers or MOTU but had a bunch of specials and annuals tacked on.

Less so here, or perhaps I was just too young to feel the brunt of it? I had a few of the toys and enjoyed the show when I was a kid, but I don't remember any of my friends or the other kids at school being into it. And by the time I was old enough to start remembering what was in stores, I don't remember ever seeing much Thundercats stuff. Whereas I could buy He-Man stuff well into the 90s, even though it was probably old stock.

Cliffjumper wrote:The thing is it seems very rare for these revivals to really take off. Transformers and MLP seem to be the only ones (and they, like Power Rangers or superheroes or Barbie, have more never really stopped anyway, just having the odd spell in the sun). The big hits of recent years - Frozen, Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, Shopkins, Pixar films - have all been new properties.

I think you're right that there's definitely a difference between a "revival" and just the newest iteration of something that's been around forever. Some franchises have lasting appeal and others are really a product of their time. How do you sell, say, G.I. Joe in a world where global opinion of the US army is at a historically low tide and real-life terrorists are in the news practically every day? Robots that turn into cars is a concept that gives you way, way more freedom to reinvent yourself for new audiences.

It does make you wonder which of this generation of kids' shows will have staying power and which won't, though. Are our grandkids going to be watching the seventh iteration of Paw Patrol?

Cliffjumper wrote:I wonder if it's an extension of Transformers' official output being packed with fanboys - whoever owns the rights or whatever is now being ran by some guy who loved Thundercats as a kid and is determined that kids today will love it.

I think you're right on that. And hey, maybe they will. But I don't think that it being Thundercats makes that any more or less likely than if it was a completely different property with substantially the same scripts attached to a totally new franchise.

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 8:20 pm

Warcry wrote:Just like with Hasbro trying to push Jem or Rom or MASK or whatever...did anyone actually ask for this?

Because believe it or not there are fans of ROM, Micronauts, Jem & The Holograms, Action Man, The Visionaries, and M.A.S.K. and they have been wanting reboots/revivals of them as well.

IMHO the biggest mistake of IDW's "Hasbro Universe" was shoving all these characters and concepts into the IDW Transformers Universe. What I think they should have done is started a brand new separate universe with The Transformers, G.I. Joe, Rom, The Micronauts, M.A.S.K., and Action Man and made this line a more as an all-ages and/or "back to basics" with the heroes starting out as heroes and the villains being just evil bastards and then adding more complexity along the way as needed.

While leaving Optimus Prime, Transformers: Lost Light and Transformers: Till All Are One as a more "mature" line for older fans dealing with more complex subjects and themes and being a lot more violent in terms of action, and I would just let Larry Hama do whatever he likes with G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.

I kind of wished Disney won the rights to ROM and not Hasbro, since Rom was a part of the Marvel Universe for years even after the book was cancelled in guested in an issue of The Uncanny X-Men and because he's in it, they can't reprint it in TPBs or HCs due to Hasbro owning the character. I mean in the early 2000s they did a five part mini-series called Space Knights (IMHO it's not a bad series but I wouldn't call a great series either it was OK. The only reason why I bought and read it was because Jim Starlin wrote it even though Starlin is just doing a pay check job), which was about Rom's kids and they couldn't feature him by name in a flashback.