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Thundercats Roar

firefossil

firefossil

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Ok first off, click this to see the intro before I say anything about it.

I must say that this is an unusual case in where my initial impression from the stills was:
Oh no they Teen Titans Go'd Thundercats, another action series reduced to rote sitcom comedy, of an IP decidedly not known for that. At first glance its looked to me like the most formulaic aspects of thin line animation distilled to the bottom dregs. However the video, and a subsequent still featuring the villains as well:
Gave me a significantly better impression. While the initial still looked formulaic, the other and the video give me a sense of deranged animation and manic energy. The creators also promised that this show will in fact have action rather than being sitcom'd. Or this could end up being one of those "the intro is literally the best part". I'm willing to tentatively give this a chance.

What are people's thoughts?
 
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It doesn't look like a cartoon for me and as a 30 something person that is okay. Then again as a 30 something OG thunder cats wouldn't be for me either. As far as the Thin line animation, it has been over a decade since it came back, so I'm bored of it. I don't hate it but it does nothing for me anymore in any direction. I need some new stuff to really get me going.
 
I want to give it a chance. It seems like a lot of entitled manchildren have been getting worked up over it, though.
 
Arawn_Emrys said:
It looks like crap. But I doubt it's even possible for them to find a more annoying voice than the original Snarf.
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Yeah I just watched the first episode of the original Thundercats for comparison, and yeah I think people are forgetting about it having a terminal case of 80s kid's show. The stilted animation and dull combat sequences, the impossibly annoying animal sidekick, the incoherent sci-fi fantasy pastiche, the nonsensical plot and subpar character writing, etc etc, all as a thin veneer for selling toys.

It looks like Thundercats 2019, much like Thundercats 2011, has wisely decided to make Snarf into the semi-intelligent but pointedly non-speaking animal sidekick. Also it looks like he's a robot now. If you look at second 8 of the intro he has robotic arms coming out of a hatch in the back that he used to make is appearance, and in second 15 he has rocket boosters instead which he uses to tackle one of the Mutants. Seriously you gotta play the intro at like 0.25 speed to make out half of what's going on, its absurdly fast.
 
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They made Thundercats for kids in the 80s with bottom barrel production values, and now they're making it for kids in the 2010s with actual quality and effort. I don't see any issue here.
 
firefossil said:
Yeah I just watched the first episode of the original Thundercats for comparison, and yeah I think people are forgetting about it having a terminal case of 80s kid's show. The stilted animation and dull combat sequences, the impossibly annoying animal sidekick, the incoherent sci-fi fantasy pastiche, the nonsensical plot and subpar character writing, etc etc, all as a thin veneer for selling toys.

It looks like Thundercats 2019, much like Thundercats 2011, has wisely decided to make Snarf into the semi-intelligent but pointedly non-speaking animal sidekick. Also it looks like he's a robot now. If you look at second 8 of the intro he has robotic arms coming out of a hatch in the back that he used to make is appearance.
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Gonna be honest, I even had a couple of the kids books as a child in the 80s. Yes, those were a thing, although apparently so obscure I can't even find a picture online anymore.
 
Rook said:
They made Thundercats for kids in the 80s with bottom barrel production values, and now they're making it for kids in the 2010s with actual quality and effort. I don't see any issue here.
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Because people are upset to have a work about a space catboy with a magic sword be done in an animation style reflective of that degree of seriousness.

More seriously though a lot of people don't like the thin line animation style, this is a pretty extreme example, and its of a work that historically been on the opposite side of the scale regarding how stylized it is.
 
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firefossil said:
Because people are upset to have a work about a space catboy with a magic sword be done in an animation style reflective of that degree of seriousness.
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You can make almost any premise sound either comedic or severe depending on just phrasing and art style. The issue I have with it is that I don't see the point of rebooting the series in the slot they seem to be going for with this look and style.

More seriously though a lot of people don't like the thin line animation style, this is a pretty extreme example, and its of a work that historically been on the opposite side of the scale regarding how stylized it is.
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I for one am very honest about the fact that my issue with the style is purely a matter of taste. I don't even dislike it and harping ' but CalArts!' is still total bullshit. I just want animation that leans more to the other side of the range as well.
 
Triggerhappy said:
You can make almost any premise sound either comedic or severe depending on just phrasing and art style. The issue I have with it is that I don't see the point of rebooting the series in the slot they seem to be going for with this look and style.



I for one am very honest about the fact that my issue with the style is purely a matter of taste. I don't even dislike it and harping ' but CalArts!' is still total bullshit. I just want animation that leans more to the other side of the range as well.
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Especially since "Cal Arts Style" has never meant anything except "I don't like it"
 
Jcogginsa said:
Especially since "Cal Arts Style" has never meant anything except "I don't like it"
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Yes, I know, I've read the comments about it too.

That said, I lack the vocabulary to describe different style beyond 'disney' - 'anime' - and 'loony toons' so in that limited sense I am referring to the current, I guess, broad strokes direction that styles are gravitating towards?

Like, I like Steven Universe. But I like Steven Universe because its story and style mesh together really well. I don't see the point of creating a Thunder Cats like this.

I know that's because the grown nerd in me wants more adult oriented animation in the US and a 'serious' Thunder Cats seems like a missed opportunity.
 
Jcogginsa said:
Especially since "Cal Arts Style" has never meant anything except "I don't like it"
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Triggerhappy said:
That said, I lack the vocabulary to describe different style beyond 'disney' - 'anime' - and 'loony toons' so in that limited sense I am referring to the current, I guess, broad strokes direction that styles are gravitating towards?
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TV Tropes calls it thin line animation which lacks the implied perjorative of Cal Arts Style:
Nostalgia Critic said:
"You'll also notice that the designs of many of these characters is much more simpler than ones of the past. They do this 'cause it gives way to faster animation, while also allowing more time to focus on color, backgrounds, and of course, the story."
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TV Tropes page among others said:
Round eyes, simple designs, and a feeling of motion
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Its a style that's popular because in the age of digital animation and associated tools its cheap to make but acceptable in quality. However the inherent cost of the style is that you will always end up on the cartoony side of animation rather than the realistic one, due to lack of detail, and often end up stylized beyond that.

Triggerhappy said:
I know that's because the grown nerd in me wants more adult oriented animation in the US and a 'serious' Thunder Cats seems like a missed opportunity.
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They already did a 'serious' Thunder Cats, which was darker, dropped the silly sci fi stuff, and otherwise wasn't all 80s kids show. It didn't do very well.
 
You know what? I'll admit it, I don't like the art style. One of my biggest issues with Steven Universe is that the fights look *bad*, and this sure looks like the kind of thing with bad fight animation and choreography. But That's not an opinion i'm allowed to have, so fuck it.
 
My first thought when I heard and saw this reboot was "goddammit Cartoon Network, not again." I honestly believe they could choose a better art style than what their going for. Honestly, I won't make final judgments until the show officially comes out but so far it just feels like another CN cash grab.
 
I mean it wouldnt be the first time that cartoon network made a show with a somewhat similar art style and genre combination that had pretty good fights in it. I mean its art is nothing to write home about but OK K.O. has some pretty good action. Heres an example.
as far as cartoon fights this is actually pretty good. so if thundercats roar does something similar (maybe making the fight sequences a little faster) then it would be okay in my book. Plus in my opinion, art styles like this lend themselves a bit more to movement than something more similar to the original style.
 
Triggerhappy said:
Yes, I know, I've read the comments about it too.

That said, I lack the vocabulary to describe different style beyond 'disney' - 'anime' - and 'loony toons' so in that limited sense I am referring to the current, I guess, broad strokes direction that styles are gravitating towards?

Like, I like Steven Universe. But I like Steven Universe because its story and style mesh together really well. I don't see the point of creating a Thunder Cats like this.

I know that's because the grown nerd in me wants more adult oriented animation in the US and a 'serious' Thunder Cats seems like a missed opportunity.
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We had serious Thundercats and nobody watched it.
 
bioticgrunt said:
That was mostly caused by several different reasons range from scheduling problems to the show not being to people's tastes
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That last one is...well, I have been around and I saw how vocal people were about hating this show, sometimes on the same places where now a lot of hate for Roar comes from. Hell, I've seen them already recycling the same jokes they've made in mockery of 2011 show to mock Roar. For example, someone linked in a comment under my video on the topic comics mocking how new Cheetara has no personality, just a design made to appeal to kids (a dumb thing to post before the show is out). And I pointed out there was a fan edit mocking 2011 Thundercats characters when it was airing which pretty much used the same joke for Panthro (I still remember it even, every character would describe their personality in a way mocking them and it would end on "I'm Panthro." *beat panel* "Yuuuup").
BTW, my own, now few months old, video about this


Here is the thing. Every attempt ever at making Thundercats more serious was meet with hostility, with one exception. 2011 show was mocked. Wildstorm comics were universally despised. The only liked darker Thundercats story I've seen was a crossover with He-Man and even that wasn't that much dark, just had dark art-style and played villains more competently. While these responses might have been justified they still helped create an image fandom just doesn't want Thundercats to be serious or dark, even on a mid-level like 2011 show (He-Man/Thundercats is from 2016 so too late to affect this perception). A similar thing, but in the opposite, happened when we had fans of a certain show complaining about a more comedic adaptation of said show while the original show itself was hated by fans of the comics it was based on for also being too goofy and comedic. This created an image that fans of this franchise want only dark and serious things. Which, I believe, at least contributted to, well...
 
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The main issue I saw with 2011 Thundercats is that they literally threw out the writing team for the first two episodes (which were the ones that had interesting moral complexity with the lions vs. lizards) and replaced them with a different writing team that loved the tiger brother and apparently hated Lion-O.
 
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