So thunder Cats remake

[BitVyper]

and was otherwise an incredibly balanced, sensible, capable woman who I can never recall having been made into a damsel in distress.

Pretty much this exactly. She was mature, graceful, useful, level-headed, quietly wise, and all that stuff you said while still being feminine, which makes her pretty atypical of girls in media even now. She really fits none of the standard archetypes for action girls except in some minor superficial ways.

Cheetara and Panthro were, I think, very well rounded characters, and Panthro had dialogue that would be surprisingly good even today. Character designs aside, I don't have a lot of faith that they'll be done nearly so well in the new series, and that'll pretty much kill it for me.

But I'll still check it out, 'cause it looks like it at least has a shot at being good.

[synkr0nized]

I challenge all of you to go watch the originals and tell me that's not terrible. Like god-awful campy terrible. Did I watch the fuck out of some Thundercats as a kid? Hell yes. Do I still wear a Thundercats shirt semi-regularly? Most definitely.

But it is an awful show.
This "remake" or whatever it ends up being wouldn't have to do much to be better.



Fuckin' Ma-mutt.

[Flarecobra]

But the campyness was part of it's charm!

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by synkr0nized

I challenge all of you to go watch the originals and tell me that's not terrible. Like god-awful campy terrible. Did I watch the fuck out of some Thundercats as a kid? Hell yes. Do I still wear a Thundercats shirt semi-regularly? Most definitely.

But it is an awful show.
This "remake" or whatever it ends up being wouldn't have to do much to be better.



Fuckin' Ma-mutt.

I'm reminded of something one of my own characters said once: "I don't want any part of your 'better.'"

Or, to put it this way, you can make something "better" that is absolutely terrible because it completely destroys everything good and/or sacred from the original. They could have "better" translated "Kisama!!" as "You son of a bitch!!" rather than "You spoony bard!", but that would have destroyed an iconic line.

Thundercats was campy because it was a kids' cartoon. Watch ANY of those and they're campy. But aside from that, it had things that truly were awesome, like some really good characters when you got right down to it. Sure the writing was campy, but the characters really weren't.

[synkr0nized]

I get the impression you think I'm holding a children's cartoon to the kind of standards more meant for typical television and/or movie entertainment. Check it -- I get that they're campy and wholesome and easy to follow and all that (it's a shame they didn't seem to be written like many more modern children's cartoons that are easy to enjoy even as an adult). I'm just sayin' it's not a very great show that should be held up on some kind of pedestal that the idea of a remake threatens to collapse or something.

Compare it to other shows you may have watched when growing up, such as the following:
G.I. Joe
Transformers
The Smurfs
He-Man (ok wait this one is pretty similarly formulaic)
Scooby Doo
Rainbow Bright (if you're Fifth)

Do they all follow the good-guys-win formula? Sure.
Do they often have a throw-away/gag character like Snarf? Sure.
Is the acting going to win any awards? Probably not.

But Thundercats consistently delivered stale, wooden voice acting and repetitive, rarely varied plots (how many times can Muumm-Ra transform himself before the ancient spirits of evil give up -- oh wait they did, nevermind). I'm pretty sure Lion-o defeated everything in every episode by pointing his sword at it and yelling, "Thunder. Thunder. Thundercasts, hoooooooo!" I may have always known the Joes or Autobots would win, but at least there seemed to be more variation (and before you want to get into a "but here's a breakdown of all the episodes, etc." I am speaking based on memories of the shows, not an empirical analysis, because Jesus Christ); it helped to have a bigger cast perhaps.


As a bunch of teenagers/young adults/adults, I'm sure you're capable of looking at the show now and separating your appreciation and fondness of it from an objective look at the show with respect to what a remake may bring to the table.

At least it doesn't look like the awful Looney Tunes remake.




Also lol'ing at the "reminded of something one of my characters said once". Why not just "something I wrote"?



Also also the original Battlestar was campy and hokey, yet the remake sure seems to have been successful; I also don't remember it getting a lot of flak (though I wasn't a fan and wouldn't have been following that news anyway).

[Krylo]

I was gonna post something like that, Synk, but I didn't feel it was worth it.

Know, however, that I am about 90% behind you. I'm only not 100% behind you because all the old saturday morning cartoons* were similarly terrible compared to even children's cartoons of today. Or of ten years or so ago (Animaniacs and Freakazoid beat the shit out of Thundercats) A lot of people tend to think the opposite but that is sheer nostalgia talking.

Even going back and watching a few episodes of GI Joe was physically painful for me as I became embarrassed that I ever liked the show, even as a small child. And Thundercats? Just as bad if not worse.

*Exceptions include things like Looney Tunes and Gummie Bears, obviously.

[synkr0nized]

Probably true, Krylo. I haven't seen most of them in a while, though I have seen Thundercats more recently.


Also, yes, the WB shows are still quite terrific and in a different kind of league, I'd say.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by synkr0nized

Also lol'ing at the "reminded of something one of my characters said once". Why not just "something I wrote"?

When you have characters as well-developed as mine, it's easier to treat them like people. The stories basically write themselves at that point. Insanity? Perhaps. But damn does it ever give results.




On Thundercats, it was at least on par with the competition at the time. What it lost in wooden dialogue (nobody's arguing with that one) it more than made up for in concept, style, tone, message, and other areas. Heck, I think just the fact that all of the members of the team were individually capable was pretty worthwhile in itself. This is the only show I can think of where a pair of ten-year-olds were capable of whipping out enough tricks to stand on their own two feet until Power Rangers Turbo came out with Justin, which was significantly less awesome (nearly series-ending, actually).

I'm not speaking based on childhood memories, either. Or I am, but more recent ones, after I was older and not running around the walls pouring sugar down my throat and kids would have made fun of me if they'd known I was still watching cartoons, much less old ones like that.

Speaking objectively, definitely not the best thing ever. But speaking emotionally, a lot of its parts actually meant something, and still COULD mean something in modern society, where instead everything looks boiled down to marketable tropes right down to the character design and the tone has gone decidedly dark and edgy as if it's not the figurative Black Plague of this generation.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

the tone has gone decidedly dark and edgy as if it's not the figurative Black Plague of this generation.

And the original tone was?

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by EVILNess

Fifth your track record of judgment of awesome is spotty at best.

EvilNess - like the Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, but instead of global warming and pesticides, new-Panthro's shitty sideburns.

Originally Posted by synkr0nized

I am speaking based on memories of the shows, not an empirical analysis, because Jesus Christ

This is honestly some pretty weak shit to pull after literally issuing a challenge to everyone else to go rewatch the original Thundercats on the basis that their memories are wrong.

Especially when I've seen this exact same meme about how The Original Thundercats Was Terrible Go Watch It You'll See pop up, like, everywhere, since the moment things started coming out about this dreadfully unimpressive remake, I mean what is there like, a talking points email bulletin I'm not on, what?