"Thundercats" News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

[TheVileOne]

I agree with the sentiment Triant, but unfortunately they are still running a business. I really enjoyed Thundercats and a large reason for that was it seems productions like this and similar ones are becoming more and more rare these days. I still haven't warmed up to Green Lantern in CG yet. The toys and merchandise for the show didn't sell and like 200x MOTU, with the show being a vehicle for the toys and merchandise and if the toys aren't doing well the show doesn't serve much of a purpose.

 

[Storm Eagle]

I think this might be proof enough that Thundercats has gotten the boot.

http://www.thundercats.ws/news/thundercats-cartoon-news-3/rip-thundercats-2011-2012-504/

 

[Lighthammer]

There's pretty strong information out there to say "Yea, it's gone", but I keep seeing people eluding to an "announcement" that was officially made. I can't find one.

 

[Checkerboard]

To be honest, I won't miss it. As much as I was looking forward to the show and as much as I like Thundercats, the execution was terrible.

I mean... In terms of animation/visuals it was phenomenal and almost seemed like a movie. Didn't see this kind of quality on TV in a long time. The character designs were pretty good too, although a bit childish for my taste, and even the audio side of things seemed ok. Music was fine - though there could've been more, voices were more less spot on and brought there characters to life and the sound effects didn't lack anything either. So yes, the presentation was basically ideal. I even liked the newly introduced races and characters. The world was nice.

Overall though, for me personally, it was a disappointment. Why? Well, in my opinion, what ruined the show was a huge lack of consistency - both in terms of story-telling and especially quality. Some moments in the series were spectacular, yet some were a flop. For example the fourth episode - IMHO the best one - was a masterpiece. Then there were episodes which were literally annoying and included scenes where I kept asking myself "What are they doing?!". Like, were those fights between Lion-O and Tygra really necessary? To me it seemed like the creators had no clue where they want to take the series next. At times it was even confusing. It felt like a 'hit or miss' approach to me. Simply too much stuff happening at once and too quickly. The whole show was like a huge question mark. I could go on and on, but I think you know by now what I'm trying to point out. Chaos.

I'm not saying the show is a tragedy, far from it. It was a pretty good "remake". As a show on its own though... average. I just simply expected much more. It was like this puzzle that you never finish, because you either lack the right parts or don't know where to put them or like when brother and sister are fighting over the remote. I honestly don't know if I want it back. Would be nice on one hand, another cup of modern nostalgia, but on the other... Nah. Would be better if Warner and CN focused on improving their current shows instead OR resurrected Swat Kats/Pirates of Dark Water.

P.S. The biggest highlights of the series were IMHO the visuals, Cheetara and "Legacy" - which even featured a nod to us older fans (Tigershark, Mon*Star).

 

[ChildHood90s]

This show accomplished what it set out to do, in a ways. To introduce the world to a re-imagined "Thunder Cats". Strange characters from the 80s series (like the Berbils) were updated and brought to life in this mature, episodic series. If another Thunder Cats comes along years later, the new crew will have this adaption of Thunder Cats to work from, instead of working mainly from the [dated] 80s series.

But yes, Swat Kats is in need of a reboot. I remember when CN started to air the original series (randomly!) in 2009. It was for, like, two weeks or something. That was so sweet.

 

[Light Lucario]

I think this might be proof enough that Thundercats has gotten the boot.

http://www.thundercats.ws/news/thundercats-cartoon-news-3/rip-thundercats-2011-2012-504/

Yeah, that pretty much confirms that the series has been cancelled. It's kind of a shame, but at the same time, I don't feel that sad about it because of how I felt about the series as a whole. The animation was wonderful and the fight scenes were usually handled quite nicely. The season premiere was terrific and showed how much potential the series had. Unfortunately, I think it rarely met with that potential again. The pacing for the first half of the season was way too fast. I still think it was ridiculous that they found the Book of Omens in the sixth episode after so much buildup and finding the other stones should have been saved for at least the mid-season finale. Lion-O, while being fairly likable, kept having to learn the same lessons over and over again, which got old after awhile. The Lion-O and Tygra rivalry wasn't as important as I thought it would be after the premiere. The other characters didn't get as much focus and development as I think that they could have. Part of the second half of the season felt pretty dull at times.

There were some good episodes throughout the season beyond the premiere. The episode focused on Tygra's backstory would probably be one of my favorite episodes of the series, but it really did come off as mostly mediocre, which was a shame since I was hoping for the series to be much better than that. I think that it would have been nice if it could have gotten a second season, if only so that they would have had a chance to finish the story, but at the same time, I'm not really heartbroken about this cancellation. I do hope that they'll be able to do another reboot of the series in the not too distant future that's hopefully handled better than this series was.

 

[TheVileOne]

Bandai USA made terrible merch for this show. I blame them. I will never forgive Bandai for screwing up so terribly with Thundercats.

WB/CN completely lost interest for the show after it premiered. Too bad.

 

[Brad12]

at the time not a lot of evidence pointed towards the shows cancellation especially since at comic-con the producers said they were still waiting to see what had happened. Though i knew it could've been cancelled, i still wasn't too sure hence there being no announcement that it had been not to mention that i'm pretty sure earlier in 2011 it had been said that the network had already ordered 52 episodes in the contract. But yeah that source does pretty much confirm it. The one thing that still confuses me is why they say it would take years to bring it back if it was to return. What do they mean? do they mean if they were to do another reboot or just another season in general? other than that, yeah total shame

 

[Light Lucario]

Bandai USA made terrible merch for this show. I blame them. I will never forgive Bandai for screwing up so terribly with Thundercats.

WB/CN completely lost interest for the show after it premiered. Too bad.

I don't think that Cartoon Network completely lost interest in the show after the premiere. They didn't have episode promos like they do for some of their other shows, but they still included it in the general promos for their Friday night action block. There was also a promo for when the series returned to let people know that it was airing on Saturday mornings. I think that they aired that promote quite a bit for the first couple of weeks when the series returned, although I think after awhile, it just aired right before the episode started. While Cartoon Network definitely could have given it more promotion, I don't think it's accurate to say that they completely lost interesting for the show after the premiere, especially when I think that The Secret Saturdays and Generator Rex are much better/accurate examples of shows that they clearly lost interest in after awhile.

at the time not a lot of evidence pointed towards the shows cancellation especially since at comic-con the producers said they were still waiting to see what had happened. Though i knew it could've been cancelled, i still wasn't too sure hence there being no announcement that it had been not to mention that i'm pretty sure earlier in 2011 it had been said that the network had already ordered 52 episodes in the contract. But yeah that source does pretty much confirm it. The one thing that still confuses me is why they say it would take years to bring it back if it was to return. What do they mean? do they mean if they were to do another reboot or just another season in general? other than that, yeah total shame

Honestly, I still think that there was much more evidence pointed towards the show's cancellation way before this source came up. Even the producers at comic-con saying that they were still waiting to see what had happened wasn't a good sign since with animated shows, they need to be aware of a new season being ordered normally before the first one finishes up so that they have time to work on it. The producer or executive producer had already moved onto another show, the toy line failed, the show was taken off the lineup right after the season finale and, unlike with shows like Mystery Incorporated, which was also taken off the lineup after its first season, there was no news of another season in the works. All of that definitely pointed towards the show's cancellation. There definitely wasn't much of anything pointing towards the show possibly getting renewed, especially compared to the signs of its cancellation. They normally don't make formal announcements about a show being cancelled. It's usually mentioned from someone from the creative staff answering the question for the fans. As for the fifty-two episodes issue, I'm pretty sure that was a rumor. If Cartoon Network had ordered another twenty-six episodes, then we would be getting a second season since they would have already put in the money for those episodes to be made.

I thought the comment about how it would take years to bring it back to the air was referring to another season being made. Maybe it would take too long to get another season animated and the storyline ready at this point. He could have been referring to another reboot, but I don't think that would take years to do, especially when other series have reboots in a relatively short amount of time.

 

[MetroSparkster]

I, at least, want this show to finish. I'm sick of seeing potential shows being cancelled without a proper ending.
Samurai Jack and Sym-bionic Titan are prime examples.

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

I'm actually kind of relieved, actually, to learn that the show is likely gone for good. I was pumped after watching the pilot, as were all my adult, cartoon-watching friends, but the show just failed to live up to the promise afterward. Yeah, ideally the show would resume and be absolutely killer, but based on what we actually got, I don't have tremendous faith that they'd get the ball rolling in the right direction. I don't want to get into that rut of watching and hoping the episode would impress, only to be let down.

 

[Knightmare]

Two things

1) Bandai was a horrible partner with this re-brand and dropped the ball several times, most older fans like myself were excited to be getting the classic versions of the character but then Bandai announced that the Thundercats Classics were going to be 8 inches instead of 6 inches which disappointed a lot of fans who dreamed of putting the classic versions of the Thundercats along side the 6 inch Masters of the Universe Classics figures. Then came the SDCC Lion-O which had a horrible paint job and then the regular Classics and the 6 inch and 3&3/4 inch versions of the new version of the Thundercats started hitting the toy shelves and they all had the same problem nearly every version of the Sword of Omens was "gummy" and hard to straighten out all of the figures had unpainted joints it was just horrible then all of the sudden Bandai announces that they were switching the Classics scale from 8 inches to 6 inches which meant that the priviously released Lion-O and Tygra weren't going to be in-scale at all with the rest of the original versions and fans were going to have to get them again and Bandai still didn't paint the joints. Also the distribution was horrible most stores in my area didn't get the first wave at all and the second wave didn't show up until the show was off the air.

2) As I said in the Young Justice thread the sad sad truth of it is that Cartoon Network just really doesn't care about dramatic or serious action cartoons, just look at the way shows like Justice League Unlimited, the 2002 Masters of the Universe, the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were all treated in comparison to the more comedic shows that get repeated air play and their re-runs shown all the time. It's sad but I'm always cautious when I see a new action series premiere on CN as I know it probably won't last.

 

[Silverstar]

As I said in the Young Justice thread the sad sad truth of it is that Cartoon Network just really doesn't care about dramatic or serious action cartoons, just look at the way shows like Justice League Unlimited, the 2002 Masters of the Universe, the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were all treated in comparison to the more comedic shows that get repeated air play and their re-runs shown all the time. It's sad but I'm always cautious when I see a new action series premiere on CN as I know it probably won't last.

Bandai did drop the ball on the toys (I never saw them anywhere, nor did I ever see them being advertised), but regarding the latter: CN doesn't prefer comedy over drama or serious action per se, they prefer shows which earn high ratings in reruns as opposed to those which don't, and the dramatic action cartoon reruns don't get the ratings that the comedy reruns do. Part of it is due to how current action cartoons tend to present their stories in an episodic fashion as opposed to making stand-alone episodes which have a greater replay value than story arc-driven shows, as the former can be re-run in any random order whereas a saga-driven show has to be run in chronological order so the overall story will make sense, and many people aren't as compelled to re-watch an entire arc once it's completed. This is why network execs prefer shows with stand-alone episodes to episodic shows. Comedy cartoons more often than not produce self-contained stories, which generally perform better in reruns and marathons.

 

[Light Lucario]

I'm actually kind of relieved, actually, to learn that the show is likely gone for good. I was pumped after watching the pilot, as were all my adult, cartoon-watching friends, but the show just failed to live up to the promise afterward. Yeah, ideally the show would resume and be absolutely killer, but based on what we actually got, I don't have tremendous faith that they'd get the ball rolling in the right direction. I don't want to get into that rut of watching and hoping the episode would impress, only to be let down.

That's a good point. While the idea of the show getting really better in the second season sounds nice, it could have easily continued on the same quality it was going with for the first season. I wouldn't have much faith in the show getting really better either, but I wouldn't have been against a second season somehow getting made, if only so that they could have a chance to finish the story. Still, I'm not too heartbroken about it because of how mediocre the show sadly turned out for me as well.

As for the toys, I do remember seeing a commercial for the action figures and the Sword of Omen toy a couple of times when the series first started. I also saw the toys at my local Toys R Us when my friend and I went down there for a Pokemon event, although I forget when that exactly was and I don't know how well they sold there either.

 

[Hordesman]

That's a good point. While the idea of the show getting really better in the second season sounds nice, it could have easily continued on the same quality it was going with for the first season. I wouldn't have much faith in the show getting really better either, but I wouldn't have been against a second season somehow getting made, if only so that they could have a chance to finish the story. Still, I'm not too heartbroken about it because of how mediocre the show sadly turned out for me as well.

As for the toys, I do remember seeing a commercial for the action figures and the Sword of Omen toy a couple of times when the series first started. I also saw the toys at my local Toys R Us when my friend and I went down there for a Pokemon event, although I forget when that exactly was and I don't know how well they sold there either.

I got most of my Thundercats at Ross and TJ Maxx. Being able to grab a handful of action figures for under $20 sure brought me back.

 

[FFmax]

So that's it then, is it so hard to get an action show to properly finish? I know the writing was a little shaky but I would have at least liked to see this story conclude, just when it got interesting too. Sigh, another action toon bites the dust, and all because of toys no less. I guess the only action shows we can have is DC shows.

 

[TheVileOne]

I don't think that Cartoon Network completely lost interest in the show after the premiere. They didn't have episode promos like they do for some of their other shows, but they still included it in the general promos for their Friday night action block. There was also a promo for when the series returned to let people know that it was airing on Saturday mornings. I think that they aired that promote quite a bit for the first couple of weeks when the series returned, although I think after awhile, it just aired right before the episode started. While Cartoon Network definitely could have given it more promotion, I don't think it's accurate to say that they completely lost interesting for the show after the premiere, especially when I think that The Secret Saturdays and Generator Rex are much better/accurate examples of shows that they clearly lost interest in after awhile.

Compared to other shows the advertising for the show was almost nil after the premiere. Those promos you mentioned were barely if ever in the rotation. I think they did lose interest in the show after it premiered and the lack of effort in promoting it is proof of that. And Andrea Romano agrees with me.

I had an idea things were bad when Andrea Romano told me about that last February. Thundercats Lair wouldn't hear of it.

Bandai USA was the worst possible company to license this show out to. They make subpar, lame products. Unfortunately Mattel turned the show down because of Voltron apparently. I thought things would be OK when I saw the prototypes but the final products were nowhere near as good. I'm not sure why people were saying they were "selling like hotcakes" at first. Maybe they sold OK early on but Bandai USA just made horrible toys. The Thundertank should've been a supremely cool vehicle that every kid wanted for Christmas instead it was a disappointing piece of overpriced plastic/garbage.

 

[Light Lucario]

Compared to other shows the advertising for the show was almost nil after the premiere. Those promos you mentioned were barely if ever in the rotation. I think they did lose interest in the show after it premiered and the lack of effort in promoting it is proof of that. And Andrea Romano agrees with me.

I don't know about the promo for when the show moved to the Saturday morning lineup, but I do remember seeing the general promo they had for their Friday night lineup that included clips of the series, as well as Mumm-Ra appearing first, airing on the block quite a few times. I don't know if Andrea Romano watches Cartoon Network regularly enough to believe that they didn't promote it after the premiere. Sure, compared to other shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show, the promotion for Thundercats was pretty weak, but it wasn't nonexistent. I still think that both The Secret Saturdays and Generator Rex are more accurate examples of shows that Cartoon Network lost interest in. They didn't promote a new premiere slot for these shows, they lost any repeat slots they did have by a certain point, The Secret Saturdays aired the rest of their episodes in an early morning death slot and the last few Generator Rex episodes haven't even aired on Cartoon Network yet, although they were put up on iTunes.

While promotion for Thundercats definitely could have been handled better, I don't think it was that terrible either, especially compared to other shows. At least they did promote the new timeslot for Thundercats and gave it a repeat slot on Sunday. That's still not great treatment, but that's better than some of their other shows, such as the two I mentioned earlier. Besides that, even if they had promoted it more, that may not have mattered in the long run considering how the toys sold. Plus, I don't know how well the ratings were doing, so maybe it appealed more to the older crowd than the target demographic. It wouldn't surprise me at least. Cartoon Network could have given the series more promos, but I don't think that was a major factor behind the show's cancellation. The toys not selling well most likely had a bigger impact on the show's future than anything else.

 

[Brad12]

Honestly, I still think that there was much more evidence pointed towards the show's cancellation way before this source came up. Even the producers at comic-con saying that they were still waiting to see what had happened wasn't a good sign since with animated shows, they need to be aware of a new season being ordered normally before the first one finishes up so that they have time to work on it. The producer or executive producer had already moved onto another show, the toy line failed, the show was taken off the lineup right after the season finale and, unlike with shows like Mystery Incorporated, which was also taken off the lineup after its first season, there was no news of another season in the works. All of that definitely pointed towards the show's cancellation. There definitely wasn't much of anything pointing towards the show possibly getting renewed, especially compared to the signs of its cancellation. They normally don't make formal announcements about a show being cancelled. It's usually mentioned from someone from the creative staff answering the question for the fans. As for the fifty-two episodes issue, I'm pretty sure that was a rumor. If Cartoon Network had ordered another twenty-six episodes, then we would be getting a second season since they would have already put in the money for those episodes to be made.

I thought the comment about how it would take years to bring it back to the air was referring to another season being made. Maybe it would take too long to get another season animated and the storyline ready at this point. He could have been referring to another reboot, but I don't think that would take years to do, especially when other series have reboots in a relatively short amount of time.

It's not that i didnt want to believe u or anything. It's just usually networks do announce when a show is axed. Many times they do that with shows on the CW. So with them not saying anything about the continuation of thundercats except that it was on hiatus, thats why i hadn't yet believed it was cancelled. Yeah the toyline didnt sell well. a drag (though i dont see y companies will at times base a shows performance off a toyline. If its because of money then wow...) and i did hear of the ratings dropping though i thought that happened more towards the end of the first season which would have the higher ratings weigh more than the low ones to save it. And i did hear that the producer moved on to another project that being Beware the Batman but the reason that wasn't enough proof is cuz Tony Cervone and Spike Brandt are the producers of both Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated and The Looney Tunes Show so if they can be producers of two shows then so can whoever produced Thundercats ya know? But other than that i hope you don't think i was trying to argue with u or anything. I just felt like there needed be more proof to confirm that it was done but now we all know for certain that it is :/

 

[Light Lucario]

It's not that i didnt want to believe u or anything. It's just usually networks do announce when a show is axed. Many times they do that with shows on the CW. So with them not saying anything about the continuation of thundercats except that it was on hiatus, thats why i hadn't yet believed it was cancelled. Yeah the toyline didnt sell well. a drag (though i dont see y companies will at times base a shows performance off a toyline. If its because of money then wow...) and i did hear of the ratings dropping though i thought that happened more towards the end of the first season which would have the higher ratings weigh more than the low ones to save it. And i did hear that the producer moved on to another project that being Beware the Batman but the reason that wasn't enough proof is cuz Tony Cervone and Spike Brandt are the producers of both Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated and The Looney Tunes Show so if they can be producers of two shows then so can whoever produced Thundercats ya know? But other than that i hope you don't think i was trying to argue with u or anything. I just felt like there needed be more proof to confirm that it was done but now we all know for certain that it is :/

I believe that they usually only make official announcements about cancellation for live-action shows, but not for too many animated series unless they're really popular. I'm pretty sure that Cartoon Network didn't make an official announcement for shows like The Secret Saturdays, Class of 3000 or Generator Rex being cancelled. They wouldn't be included in their list of returning shows at the upfront, but that's usually about it. When an animated series is cancelled, it's often someone from the creative team telling that to fans rather than the network where the series airs. Thundercats wasn't included in the list of returning shows at their last upfront and unlike Mystery Incorporated, there wasn't already confirmation of a second season beforehand. They'll base a show off its toy line for money and that is important when the main point of a show is to promote toys.

I'm not sure if being producers of more than one animated series is that common. Regardless, if the staff is moving onto other projects when the show's fate is up in the air, then I don't think that's a good sign. I didn't think you were trying to argue with me and I apologize if I came off too harsh in my responses, but I think that there were more signs pointing to its cancellation than not before this official confirmation.