ThunderCats (2019)

[Cloud_S]

Guess what's back since the cancelled 2011 reboot? THUNDERCATS!

Guess what's being bastardized? THUNDERCATS!

EW - Cartoon Network bringing back ThunderCats for new animated series


“I think the world that they built lends itself really well to comedy because of how silly and crazy and outlandish those ideas are and some of those settings are,” says producer Victor Courtright in the exclusive behind-the-scenes video above. “But at the same time, it wouldn’t be ThunderCats if it didn’t have super cool action elements because that’s what people came back to. It’s very much something that we want to lean on. So with the new show, we’re not walking away from the action in any bit. Every step we take towards comedy, we take two more towards really cool action scenes and explosions and lasers and actions effects.”

Make sure to leave an "angry" react on this behind the scenes video & comment (until they start deleting them, which I think they've started). I don't trust the manbun visionary behind it (he's a fan? yeah right... no fan would make this!).

 

[Shademp]

......I did not expect this.

 

[ChipNoir]

Oh for fucks sakes.

 

[Ite]

Overly frenetic, zany, faux-Craig McCracken/Rebecca Sugar/Pendleton Ward version of an overrated cartoon from the depths of the 80s nostalgia barrel?

 

[Shadowfox]

I'm equal parts 'What did I just watch?' and 'Curious to see how this'll come together.'

 

[Tennyo]

It's very different. I was never super attached to the original anyway so I guess I'm game

 

[Lestat]

 

[Strangelove]

isn't that basically what cartoon network does now, takes older action cartoons and reboot them into wacky comedies

or maybe that's just the stuff you see when you don't actually watch the channel and just randomly stumble across the stuff people are complaining about online

 

[looneymoon]

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I love the original "Thundercats" (still haven't seen the 2011 version) and this doesn't bother me any more than "Super Hero Squad" does despite my love of Marvel.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Yeah, I'm not sure what all the naysaying is about. I enjoyed the 2011 reboot just like I enjoy the new Voltron, but I don't see anything inherently bad about this. It looks like a genuinely fun time.

Also, why're you trying to stir up some sort of negative comment army? That's shitty, dude.

Lastly: What point is the face transformation trying to make? You could do the same thing with topically similar anime produced within the same decade and see even LESS variation depending on the ones you chose to morph like that, but that still doesn't make any actual comment about the shows the characters are used in. Similar animation styles and designs exist between multiple properties, so…?




X

 

[Lulcielid]

The problem some fans seen to have is how this iteration doesn't seen to "take itself seriously".

 

[Cloud_S]

Also, why're you trying to stir up some sort of negative comment army? That's shitty, dude.

X

I'm not. With what I saw, I assumed most felt the same way. Judging by the 19K "angry" reacts and the majority of the comments left... most do.

 

[looneymoon]

I thought the Cal Arts effect was a pretty well known meme. This show is just another example of it? I also thought it was a pretty well-known criticism that anime designs suffer from a lot of same-face syndrome

 

[Strangelove]

I also thought it was a pretty well-known criticism that anime designs suffer from a lot of same-face syndrome

did you mean hisashi hirai

 

[Shademp]

I'll admit, the same-face syndrome in Miyazaki films drive me up the wall.

 

[Lulcielid]

The same face critique never made sense, is like critiquing a bunch of white/black/asian men for having the same facial structure and features.

 

[looneymoon]

The same face critique never made sense, is like critiquing a bunch of white/black/asian men for having the same facial structure and features.

o_O no its not

 

[Strangelove]

a similar style from one creator or even studio is one thing, i think it's expected that you'd have a specific look. faces are going to have a similar look and at a certain degree of stylization/simplification the features are going to look alike (which i think is what happens with ghibli/miyazaki), though if you're doing a stylised cartoon look you can push the silhouette of the face in unique direction you can't get if you're sticking closer to realism.

but that gif is 5 shows created by 5 different people (idk if some share character designs) across different networks. i think most of those creators were from calarts too. jelly bean faced protagonist is to cartoons what 'dark haired teenage boy in waifu harem' is to anime.

(even though there will be other characters in these cartoons that don't have jelly bean faces and why not make them a protagonist and mix it up a bit.)

plus in addition to similar looks it seems to be going for the whole 'wacky comedy' thing cartoons seem to do a lot now. (i say 'seem' a bunch because i don't really watch them, i just occasionally wander and get lost in the cartoon fan corner of youtube.) back in My Day you at least had various shows with a variety of styles. you had your talking animals, the cutesy childrens stuff, the action cartoon toy commercials. but now you seem to have comedy shows with maybe a touch of action.

that doesn't make the old shows good. i've not watched thundercats since i was little, but watching other old cartoons as an adult is an experience. but a lack of variety isn't going to be a good thing. you're not going to find the next big thing if you're just following along with the current popular thing. which isn't a cartoon-specific thing (how many young adult adaptations are there trying to chase after twilight or the hunger games). what i'm saying is, you're all doing it bad.


lol like i know what i'm on about, what am i doing here.


although i thought the animation of that thundercats opening looked nice. i probably won't be watching the show, i'm not exactly itching for a reboot of anything and i'm not typically drawn to this type of show. but i thought the movement of the animation was alright.

makes me want to read this copy of the animator's survival guide more than watching the show.

 

[Russell]

That looks truely awful.

But being 33 I'm certainly not the target audience any more, if it had been a serious reboot I doubt many original fans would have watched it anyway.

Still to see Thundercats become, that...

 

[Shademp]

What frustrates me is that the 2011 reboot was good, close to being great. It compensated in some ways for the shortcomings of the 80s version. So the fall of the reboot always represents that partial failure to create the epic sci-fi fantasy re-imagining we TRULY want to see. We want an iteration of Thundercats that IS more badass than our kid eyes considered the 80s cartoon to be.

While I'm not worked up over this new comedy interpretation, it does remind me that I wish the 2011 reboot had been *slightly* better and been allowed to continue.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

What frustrates me is that the 2011 reboot was good, close to being great. It compensated in some ways for the shortcomings of the 80s version. So the fall of the reboot always represents that partial failure to create the epic sci-fi fantasy re-imagining we TRULY want to see. We want an iteration of Thundercats that IS more badass than our kid eyes considered the 80s cartoon to be.

While I'm not worked up over this new comedy interpretation, it does remind me that I wish the 2011 reboot had been *slightly* better and been allowed to continue.

1000x this. Especially with Voltron being so damn good, and them being VERY close to one another in that regard. That being said, a comedic-centric outer shell is how things survive on Cartoon Network these days. It's how we got things with MASSIVE depth like Adventure Time & Steven Universe to last as long as they have on the same network that iced all the other kickass iterations of things that were story-centric – so there's a pretty decent chance that it'll work well in that format.

Would I have preferred that Netflix or something else revive the 2011 version? Hell yeah. Am I salty about this new approach? Absolutely not in the slightest.




X

 

[Lulcielid]

Some slight disagrements with 2011 Thundercats.