ThunderCats, Ho! New Anime Series To Debut Next Year

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 12:31pm
  • 16 Comments
 
ThunderCats, Ho! New Anime Series To Debut Next Year  

Lion-O, Cheetara, Panthro and friends will return in 2011, as Warner Bros. Animation announced today it has begun production on an all-new ThunderCats.

The update of the popular mid-1980s cartoon will air on Cartoon Network alongside such other Warner Bros. series as Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the forthcoming Young Justice and MAD Magazine. The “21st-century reimagining” of ThunderCats is a collaboration with Studio4°C, the Japanese animation house whose credits include Tekkon Kinkreet, The Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight and Halo Legends.

“In addition to being Warner Bros. Animation’s first anime series, ThunderCats marks our most ambitious foray yet into fantasy,” WBA’s Sam Register said in a statement. “The realism and dynamic visual style we’ve achieved are sure to thrill viewers, and the cool weapons, vehicles and technology should help the show appeal to a diverse audience.”

Produced by Rankin/Bass, the original ThunderCats aired from 1985 to 1990 and inspired comic books, action figures and other merchandise, as well as a long-discussed, but yet-to-be-produced, CGI movie. (Warner Bros. acquired the rights to ThunderCats in 1989 when it purchased Lorimar-Telepictures.)

According to Warner Bros. Animation, the new incarnation is “a sweeping tale combining swords and science and boasting ferocious battles with the highest of stakes” that focuses on the story of Prince Lion-O’s ascension to the throne: “As the forces of good and evil battle each other in the quest for the fabled Stones of Power, Lion-O and his champions learn valuable lessons of loyalty, honor and mortality in every episode.”

I’m not sure what the “valuable lesson” of mortality is, but the refugees from Thundera apparently will learn it. Only once, presumably.

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  • Ken

    This makes me rather iffy. ThunderCats is my most beloved cartoon series of all time. I really hope Warner does them justice with this new anime.

  • http://twitter.com/KennethLivitski Kenneth Livitski

    This is excites the shit out of me but, at the same time, it also scares the shit out of me. That's a lot of shit.

  • http://www.corporate-sellout.com/ Thad

    I don't expect much from the Warner suits (take a look at the Thundercats DVD's and die a little inside), but it looks like they've got some talented people producing — I love Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Cautiously optimistic; waiting to see more art and credits.

    A bit redundant with comments I've made in other forums, but I think I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the folks who didn't live to see this — creator Ted Wolf, voice actors Bob McFadden and Earl Hammond, and, most recently and tragically, writer Steve Perry.

  • Summer

    I hope, hope, hope that this will be something good.

  • Derrick Roberts

    I am hoping he meant morality. With a high mortality rate, it would be a short series.

  • freetraffic

    I think we've heard this before with Voltron and it never happens. A movie is coming..a TV show is coming. Thundercats and this other series were shafted ouf of the so called 80's revival in the past decade. I'll wait, but I'm sure something will come up and throw a monkey wrench derailing the whole thing yet again.

  • http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/ Heather Massey

    I'm so there.

  • Leandro

    Según mi opinión, el secreto de esta serie, al igual que He-Man estaba historias llenas de magia apoyadas en la música, simpleza de argumentos, mensajes bondadosos… La 'He-Man' del año 2003 no llegó a ningún lado porque fue fría, con grandes pretensiones y sin magia. Esto es, sólo demostraron que tenían más teconología que en los 80, pero no mantuvo nada de la escencia de la original. Ojalá esta vez no pase lo mismo. Ojalá los nuevos realizadores dejen de fijar su atención SÓLO en los efectos tecnológicos y recuerden que están haciendo arte.

  • Leandro

    I think the secret to the success of these series – as in the case of He-Man – was in the stories full of magic supported by distinguishing music, simple arguments, good messages… The 2003 He-Man was a failure because it was cold, too ambicious and without magic. I mean, they only showed that they had more advances technology than in the 80, but they didn't forgot the essence of the original. I hope this time they don't ruin it. I hope the people in charge stop focusing ONLY on the technology and consider it is ART what they are doing.

  • http://www.comicsaredead.com comicsaredead

    I have to disagree with what you state was the reasoning for the 2003 MOTU being a failure…I think the purpose is due to the terrible handling of the action figure line. Without the toys these series are “glass half empty.” With the latest MOTU line it was near impossible to find any figure that wasn't He-Man or Skeletor. Every character had their own toy, yet they were typically one to a box and rest were He-Man, Battle Armor He-Man, Snake Armor He-Man…that is what destroyed the series. The toys would have kept the interest of kids, but who wants to play with only two characters when there was a whole plethora on television. The stories were excellent and the strict attention to continuity was near unmatchable.

  • http://www.facebook.com/saraaiden#!/group.php?gid=131214150223401&ref=mf Sara

    I have created a facebook website in protest of this..

    Search for: “Yeah I heard they are going to remake Thundercats….. and that sucks”

    Join the fight.

  • http://www.spinoffonline.com Kevin Melrose

    Why are you protesting the remake? It may be godawful, or it could be brilliant. Either way, it does nothing to change the '80s cartoon.

  • http://corporate-sellout.com Thad

    “I think we've heard this before with Voltron and it never happens.”

    There was a new Voltron series in 1998.

    Anyway, this seems pretty far along to be cancelled at this point — they've got a production team, an animation studio, and an approximate date.

  • http://corporate-sellout.com Thad

    Absolutely. The '02 MotU was superior to the original, but between Mattel's meddling with the toy commercial aspect and CN bouncing the airtime all over the place, it couldn't gain a hold.

  • http://corporate-sellout.com Thad

    Why? Masters of the Universe and TMNT have both shown that it's possible to do good remakes of cartoons from the 1980's. This has some good names attached to it, and I'm excited about the possibilities.

    It's not like the original series is pristine and unsullied. Have you tried watching it recently? I love Thundercats, but the last two seasons are pretty terrible.

  • http://www.gpscardvd.com/8-inch-2-din-gps-navigation-special-car-dvd-player-for-honda-crv_p30887.html 8 inch gps crv

    With a high mortality rate, it would be a short series.

 

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