I’ve been a fan of the animated series ThunderCats since I was a little kid and now EW has the first look at a new iteration of ThunderCats coming to Cartoon Network.
ThunderCats Roar is the name of the new series from Warner Brother Animation and it will find a more comedic tone to the classic series that originally ran from 1985 to 1989. It will still feature the adventures of Lion-O, Cheetara, Panthro, Tygra, WiluKit, WilyKat and Snarf, but it will, according to the feature in EW, “lean into the inherent comedy of the world”.
Here’s the official synopsis of the new series:
Staying true to the premise of the original series, Lion-O and the ThunderCats — Tygra, Panthro, Cheetara, Wilykat, and Wilykit — barely escape the sudden destruction of their home world, Thundera, only to crash land on the mysterious and exotic planet of Third Earth. Lion-O, the newly appointed Lord of the ThunderCats, attempts to lead the team as they make this planet their new home. A bizarre host of creatures and villains stand in their way, including the evil Mumm-Ra, Third Earth’s wicked ruler who will let nothing, including the ThunderCats, stop his tyrannical reign over the planet.
“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.” Said producer Victor Courtright. I don’t personally remember there being that much comedy in the series besides Snarf, but he obviously saw something I didn’t. He goes on to talk about balancing the comedy and action by saying, “Every step we take towards comedy, we take two more towards really cool action scenes and explosions and lasers and action effects.”
I am aware that fandoms change with generations and I can’t say that my opinion about ThunderCats is the only valid one. So I leave it to you. Tell me what you think about this new iteration of ThunderCats in the comments below. Does this series look fun to you? Does it look like something you would watch weekly? Does everything that denotes animated comedy have to look like a hybrid of Adventure Time and The Amazing World of Gumball to be considered funny? Let me know.