Stream It Or Skip It: ‘ThunderCats Roar’ On Cartoon Network, Where The Classic ‘80s Cartoon Is Given A Funny, Trippy Reboot

Did you watch ThunderCats as a kid? Of course you did; it might have been cheesy and a bit too self-serious, but watching a group of cat people constantly defeat the evil Mumm-ra and other nasties was a fun after school watch. Cartoon Network is seizing on this nostalgia with ThunderCats Roar, the second remake of the original. This time, though, they go for the laugh, but that’s not the only thing that’s different.

THUNDERCATS ROAR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A picture of a beige and orange planet: “There it is… Thundera!” says a narrator, who describes how harmonious ad beautiful the planet is… right before the planet blows up. “But, alas… everything’s blown someday!” he says.

The Gist: One ship escapes Thundera, and it crash lands on what looks like a hospitable planet they later find out is called Third Earth. The group dismounts, but its leader, Lion-O (Max Mittelman) wants to show how much of a leader he is by exploring on his own. His second-in-command, Tygra (Patrick Seitz) advises against it, but Lin-O takes his pet cat/robot Snarf and goes anyway.

Back with the ship, Tygra, security chief Panthro (Chris Jai Alex), the speedy Cheetara (Erica Lindbeck) and annoying kids WilyKit and WilyKat (Lindback and Mittleman) run into a bunch of very friendly teddy bear-like creatures called The Berbils (Dana Snyder) who love to build. They’re very easygoing; even though the ThunderCats destroyed their village, they’ve already rebuilt it better than new and also gave the Cats a new headquarters. The only problem is Mumm-Ra (Seitz). The Berbils get hit by lightning anytime they mention his name, but they can’t seem to stop saying it.

Meanwhile, Lion-O is confronted by the mutant enemies that they had on Thundera; this is after he questions birds, eggs and chicks about their whereabouts. He uses the power of his sword, which he doesn’t quite have a handle on, as well as some weapons wielded by Snarf (before his batteries go dead), to fend off the mutants. But he’s saved when Mumm-Ra swats them away (as the ship blows up, we hear a faint “We’re alive!” so we know they’ll be back to fight another day).

But Lion-O finds out that Mumm-Ra isn’t a friend, as he opens up a portal to go destroy the rest of the Cats and the Berbils. But somehow Lion-O comes through, does his “Thunder…. Thunder… THUNDER!” chant to make his sword expand, and takes Mumm-Ra’s power away from him.

Our Take: So…. hmm…. What should a Gen X guy like me, who watched ThunderCats when I was a teenager during its original 1985-89 run, think of ThunderCats Roar? When I read it was going to be a comedic take on the classic original, I thought that we’d get some updated but similarly detailed animation like the original had, but perhaps the show wouldn’t take itself as seriously as the original. Little did I think that I’d get a trippy cartoon that looks somewhat like the original ThunderCats, but feels like a whole new show.

Producers Victor Courtright, Marly Halpern-Graser and Nate Cash, and EP Sam Register have experience with near-psychedelic Cartoon Network fare. What they’ve done with Thundercats Roar is not only make the self-serious characters like Lion-O parodies of themselves — Lion-O, for instance, is super-naive and very unsure of his leadership skills — but they’ve also applied an animation style that evokes wacky shows like SpongeBob, but only if you’re watching SpongeBob on weed.

The characters are more circles with eyes; there isn’t a ton of cat-like looks to them. Sometimes their eyes bug out, sometimes they have lips, sometimes they don’t. Limbs are very stretchy and flexible. The pacing of the show is frantic, without much time to breathe or consider a joke. It makes the original look agonizingly slow by comparison. But… The action is still there, and the enemies like Mumm-Ra are still going to have to be dealt with in each episode. It’s just that the Cats will be more… human?… than they displayed in the original series. And considering how stiff the original was, that kind of update is always welcome.

What Age Group Is This For?: There’s so much going on, we think it’s too intense for anyone under 9 years old.

Parting Shot: “THUNDERCATS! HOOOOOOO!”

Sleeper Star: We’ve always been partial to Snarf, and we like that he’s a robot cat here instead of the only source of comic relief, an ’80s sci fi cartoon convention that got really tired by the time the original show came around.

Most Pilot-y Line: Perhaps a touch more effort to make the characters look like the originals might have helped; it’s disconcerting to a fan of the original to watch these blobby characters called by the names made famous by the original show.

Our Call: STREAM IT, especially if you’re a 10-year-old who just wants a fun action/sci-fi show to watch. If you’re a ThunderCats fan, though, you may want to watch the trailer to gird yourself for what you’re going to see.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream ThunderCats Roar On CartoonNetwork.com