Thunder Cats (2011) Re-evaluated Review

Okay so I reviewed the Thunder Cats 2011 Television show quite some time ago, actually I think I reviewed it back when I started this blog which has swallowed nearly roughly two years of my life? Yeah.. And I'm still not getting comments.. Comment readers damn you!

The review was actually quite brief because I'd seen only a single episode.

Naturally of course then since I've been watching and I've currently watched all until the most recent of episodes I can provide a more comprehensive review of this new incarnation of the Thunder Cats and what is that review going to say?

Well.. This is definitely not the 1984 Thunder Cats.. There are some things that are still the same of course, many names and the like but.. The series takes a lot with 'artistic creativity' and changes much of what we knew and loved of Thunder Cats.

First of all let me say that I don't hate the redesign of some of the characters, Thunder Cats has a very cool and unique feel about it where the clothing almost looks largely like a mixture of Medieval European and Old Chinese to me, I very much like it. The characters and designs largely seem true to their personalities and are very nicely done.. At least in most cases.. I'm not really that huge a fan of the new Mumm-Ra, in fact I quite prefer the older 80s Mumm-Ra.

Mumm-Ra of the 80s;

and Mumm-Ra of the 2011 series;

I don't know, it feels like they tried too hard to redesign him.. Like they changed whatever they could while keeping him looking vaguely like the original and just fucked it all up because the original wasn't broken and didn't really need a redesign.. This just ends up looking uninspired and forced to me and it's not just that, it's his voice actor too.

Now Mumm-Ra's original voice actor was Earl Hammond and Earl was a motherfucking ham of epic levels and proportions and I goddamn loved it. Mumm-Ra as I will and have noted would almost never introduce himself as just "Mumm-Ra", oh no.. Folks like A Pimp Named Slickback learned from motherfucking EEHHH MUMM-RA THEEEAAAA EEEEVAAARRRLIIIIVIIIINGUUUUH! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! Seriously, Mumm-Ra needs that hamminess, it's what made Mumm-Ra Mumm-Ra and awesome.. This new guy? He's Robin Atkin Downes and while he's not a bad voice actor per say he's a bad Mumm-Ra in my opinion.

Gone are Mumm-Ra's screaming over reactions over the most mundane of things and his obsession with carrying a goddamn Thesaurus around with him wherever he want (Putrid Pet, Miserable Mutants, Troublesome Thunder Cats and etc) and now he's just.. Meh.. Mumm-Ra no longer has fits of complete and utter ham senility and just laughs for like ten minutes straight at.. What again? Oh right his incredibly convoluted plan that makes no fucking sense no matter how you look at it.. Now he's just.. Sedated and boring..

I don't know, I really don't like this Mumm-Ra..

I also dislike Cheetara's redesign. Whereas she had previously been an athletic, realistically proportioned and respectable looking warrior she's now instead a big-breasted typical bimbo looking design that I hate;

Yeah, great.. Wonderful.. One of my favourite characters was butchered, believe me, I wasn't happy about this. It's worse when she flirts with goddamn everyone and causes a fight between Lion-O and Tygra over who 'gets her' because no one can tell who the fuck she wants to be with because she seems like she wants to be with EVERYONE.

And that brings me to another change they've done. Slithe? Slithe is no longer a Mutant evidently, he's a "Lizardman" and they've removed his trademark verbal tick "Yesssss?", I dislike that, it really bothers me.. Furthermore I haven't seen hide nor hair of Jackalman, Monkiman or Vultureman and that ticks me off because I don't know if we even will see them considering they were mutants like Slithe all from the same planet, Plun-Darr. Now? Not so much.. I just don't care for it..

I also am finding it a bit strange that many characters I've noticed such as what I assume was Snow Meow from Hook Mountain have been shown but not elaborated on but rather given what seemed to be a 'cameo' and then tossed to the side and I'm really hoping that this isn't going to be the trend for the series and that we'll actually get to see Hook Mountain, Snow Meow and Snowman in the future. Not to mention Hachiman, the Lunataks, the other Thunder Cats (Ben-Gali, Pumyra and Lynx-O) and any of the other characters from the original series that were so integral.

But you know one thing I do love?

The Motherfucking Kurgan.

Because yes, Grune the Destroyer is voiced by The Motherfucking Kurgan AKA Clancy Brown. Clancy Brown is awesome, I wish the man would send me an autograph.

All in all so far the series is pretty good, I'm noticing a lot of things I really dislike as I continue through it and I'm beginning to worry about where it's going to take itself but.. Y'know.. Can't judge until we actually see the end result so I'll just have to keep watching and hope it redeems itself and doesn't crash and burn.

UPDATE:

I've had to backtrack now and update this article after it was written, after recently having watched the most current Thunder Cats (2011) episode, "New Alliances", two new characters were introduced, Monkian and Jackalman.

I'll say this.. I like Jackalman, he's suitably crazy and feels very 'fun' in that 'He's psychotic and seems like he'd make a good drinking partner' sort of way and his redesign is pretty fitting comparing him to the old Jackalman. A little unique while not diverging from the original series design too much;

 Jackalman from the original series is above..

And Monkian from the original series who they really didn't redesign at all except in attitude and personality which honestly I really dislike because they made him more a bad ass than a goofy clutzy monkey man which was what made him awesome in the original.

Eh, I don't know. It's another case of I like one and I really dislike the other. I think they did a nice job on Jackalman but Monkian just feels.. Wrong..

I will say this much though.. I love the redesign and characters in this series of Wilykit and Wilykat. They're awesome and James and I both think they're quite like me in real life in that their personalities, special abilities and power seem mostly to be the ability to fuck with others heads, be crazy and Home Alone the shit out of their enemies.

I think personally they've done a very nice job of updating the looks of Wilykit and Wilykat without changing them too much, unlike other things/characters in this series I really can't complain about these two. They're quite awesome.

UPDATE!:

During the last half of the first season of the original Thunder Cats there were five episodes dedicated to the Anointment Trials of Lion-O in which he must prove his right and worthiness of the title of 'Lord of the Thunder Cats', these episodes consisted of as mentioned five separate episodes in which Lion-O must face his comrades in trials of skill against their strengths;

• "Day One: The Trial Of Strength," in which Lion-O had to out-do Panthro,
• "Day Two: The Trial Of Speed," in which Cheetara was his antagonist,
• "Day Three: The Trial Of Cunning," in which he had to outwit both of the "ThunderKittens," WilyKat and WilyKit,
• "Day Four: The Trial Of Mind-Power," which pitted him against Tygra, and
• "Last Day: The Trial Of Evil," wherein Lion-O discovered that Mumm-Ra was highly dependent on the sarcophagus inside which he had been mummified.

It's interesting to note that in spite of their changing it a bit and clearly shortening it because Wily Kit and Kat were both done with Cheetara in the same episode (I still fucking despise Cheetara in this. Her goddamn hips could cut a fucking diamond and she should basically be renamed 'Whoretara'. What happened to the respectable athletic Fighter Maiden girls could look up to? This Barbie blond slut bitch is what we're given now? Disgusting.) and in spite of the shortness of them and the fact that I'm still a little irritated by the overt teen angst which I'm confused by because who do they think their demographic is? The kids of today's generation who know nothing of a 1980s television show or the group driven to watch this show due to nostalgia? Get real guys, we're the nostalgia group.. Those of us watching Thunder Cats today are watching the 2011 Series because we enjoyed the original, that's your largest demographic.. Not the generations of today..

Anyway.. We got a little off.. It's interesting to note that in spite of their changing it a bit and clearly shortening that it's not all bad and it's really cool to see such a large part of the original story was known, remembered and adapted to this new series. A little more simplistically done but still, kudos says I. The feelings of wonderful nostalgia this provides makes it more than worth-while.

PS-

Ro-bear Berbils, I still fucking hate them with an undying motherfucking passion rivaling the power of the twin suns of goddamned hell scorched Tatooine. In both the original and the new show, FUCK A RO-BEAR BERBIL!

At least Snarf can't fucking talk..
 

Dinner:

Tonight's dinner is Niwatori Itame (Chicken Stirfry) and is a beautiful dish of Noodles, Chicken, Sweet Peas, Carrots and large whole Mushrooms all cooked in a spicy Ginger Japanese Savoury Yellow Sauce along with what must have been an amazing Mix-Berry Chocolate Chip Anpan (Sweet Roll)

I can say James ate this quite quickly so I think he liked it quite well, I personally tasted a little of it before serving and thought it was pretty excellent.