ThunderCats [2011]

...reboots.

Some big production company has decided to dig up the grave of a childhood classic you loved 20 years ago and finally bring it back from the dead to make new episodes out of it, just like you'd always wanted. But because 20 years have passed since this show last graced the earth with its presence, times and trends have changed, and the only way new money can be sucked out of an old corpse is if it gets a modern makeover first. As a result, most reboots feel less like a lurching zombie of the old show, and more like a new mutant clone. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it explains why a lot of reboots end up feeling "off".

Then again, why even bother making a new one if it's just going to be the same as the original?

Although we've been remaking and reimagining stories since time immemorial, we hit a new level of Reboot Fever somewhere around the early 00s, when home PCs and internet access finally became "affordable" commodities. Production companies took notice of how lucrative it was to simply cast out a lure with nostalgia bait on the hook, and wait for the internet to blow up with rumors and engagement, all but paying for itself in terms of advertising. And with how easy it was to snag a director who loved the original property, it was just "good business" to prioritize reboots of every beloved classic from the 60s through the 80s above all else. For the frenzied rumor mill that is the internet, suddenly ALL of the old fan favorites were back on the discussion table. I even remember people taking bets on when this or that show would get its new reboot (and imagine how big the payout must have been when that short-lived ReBoot reboot finally came out in 2018).

80s-baby darling ThunderCats was no exception.

Much like the famous Akira bike slide, I want to see more animation homages to the famous Lion-o backflip.

Okay, before I jump into reviewing the actual candyfruit of the series itself, I want to preface it with a little insight on what happened to it. I'm assuming if you've bothered to read this review that you're at least aware of the status of the series. There are pieces of its troubled production history floating around the internet in interview snippets here and there, but I'm gonna streamline it all here to summarize why and how the show "failed" the way it did, so I can then proceed to talk about why I still love it so much regardless.

Skip ahead a bit if you just wanna hear my thoughts on the show itself!

You don't need Sight Beyond Sight to see what a big impact the whole ThunderCats franchise has left on me over the years.

So, long before the actual official reboot was released in 2011, there had already been many years worth of swirling rumors about ThunderCats getting picked up for a movie. Some of the more creative trolls out there made all kinds of fake promo art and fancasts, and regularly posted nefarious links to leaked trailers for a live-action ThunderCats movie that was DEFINITELY going to happen, and that was definitely going to be made for the Adult audience who grew up on the original series, which they also talked about like it was definitely made for Adults and not Kids. There certainly was an audience hungry for it, if nothing else.

But for someone like me, who frequently cites ThunderCats [1985] as one of my personal favorite and most formative childhood cartoon experiences, I really wasn't sure what to think at first.

It's not unreasonable to be afraid of change, but it is unreasonable to fear that the new will somehow taint the original.

I didn't NEED a new ThunderCats. I already loved the old one so much that I tried to track down individual episodes using Limewire after Cartoon Network stopped airing the series, and started rewatching the whole thing bit by bit over the years, as quickly as our old dial-up connection would allow. I didn't HATE the idea of a new ThunderCats either, but I WAS in my snooty 20s phase at the time, and I thought a lot of the reboots I'd seen thus far were terrible. I was still un-learning some inherited bullshit at that age and frankly had terrible opinions about nearly everything.

But all that aside, when I saw that first REAL official promo art posted online, a twinge of hope shot up inside me. I even remember buying a poster of it (that has since been ripped and lost to time in moves) out of sheer excitement. And when the first trailer for the new series finally premiered, I was successfully HOOKED.

No child nor child at heart can resist the Pied Piper's song forever.

Against my expectations, ThunderCats 2011 managed to take every little thing I loved about ThunderCats '85 and retooled it, redesigned it, and propelled it to new dimensions that '85 could only dream of ever achieving. Since '85 was designed from the ground up as a toy-making venture, and existed in an era where marketing was the only thing that mattered, whatever cool concepts the writers came up with for the actual meat of the show was never really fleshed out into anything bigger. Which is fine, adventure serials with no ongoing super-story are still one of my favorite genres of show to watch, even to this day. But 2011 sought to change this, and made a concerted effort to create a new paradigm for the world of ThunderCats with a contiguous story that didn't rely on the creation of cool new vehicles and playsets first.

Not that we shouldn't have cool vehicles and playsets anyway!

For all this to work as a proper "reboot", 2011 would have to work within the same scope of the original series, using the basic recognizable concepts of '85 as anchor points upon which to build something entirely new. Familiar faces and catch phrases were obviously a must for an attractive nostalgia lure, but in order to actually transform the reboot into something substantial, some radical changes were also in order. And in Cartoon Network's new era of loosened restrictions for what they were willing to allow on air (and I'm not talking about Adult Swim, or even Toonami, but regular-ass Cartoon Network itself), there was room now for something truly epic. Possibly even something to compete with their longtime rival Nickelodeon and their recent and massively successful epic, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

You wouldn't be able to tell by how things turned out, but yeah, I genuinely feel that ThunderCats 2011 was, at one point, poised for THAT level of greatness.

This is only from the first episode, and yes, the whole show was more or less like this. It would have been HUGE.

If you weren't there in the early 2010s, it was an absolutely batshit time to be a fan of non-anime action cartoons. We were all at once bombarded with a massive variety of action shows coming in from all sides. Cartoon Network struck a deal with DC Comics to produce Young Justice, Green Lantern, and Beware The Batman. Nickelodeon shelled out big bucks for a Teen-audience Avatar sequel series (The Legend of Korra). Disney's premium XD channel served up some extremely cool hidden gems that people often forget about, like Tron: Uprising and Motorcity. Even early Netflix, YTV, and Hasbro's "The Hub" threw their hats into the ring. It was an absolute feast for action/adventure fans that came completely out of left field, and I feel like - again, outside of Japanese anime - things haven't been quite that deliciously chaotic ever since.

It's plain to see how American cartoons in the 2010s were definitely spearheaded by people who grew up on anime.

Unfortunately, such a glut of powerhouse action cartoons didn't come cheap, and with Netflix just starting to uproot the system with on-demand streaming content vs the tried and true allure of Weekly Television Premiere events, many of these TV stations were NOT prepared for the blow that the "binge-watch" model (the only time I'm going to call it that, I hate that term) would deliver to their networks' bank accounts. Most of the newly created shows in this time period severely under-performed in terms of people watching, and were far too expensive to bail out. Case in point, the 6-year gap between Young Justice ending its run on Cartoon Network and being picked up again by other streaming outlets.

And caught in the middle of all that carnage was ThunderCats 2011.

Growing every day, getting stronger in every way, she'll take you to a place where we can find our roots, bloody roots.

As with most of its productions, Cartoon Network ordered one season for starters, 26 episodes in length. According to interview tidbits, the writers and directors had really banked on the series being good enough to guarantee a second season, and had enough material at least conceptualized to space it out over 52 episodes. But during the production cycle, as financial numbers started rolling in, it was clear that ThunderCats 2011 was failing to find its audience. And more importantly, it struggled to find two of the most vital elements of cartoon production that ensure a cartoon's continued survival: merchandising and syndication deals.

In a nutshell, syndication is the act of renting the rights to air a given show or movie on other TV networks, especially around the world. It's one reason American cartoons often struggle with seemingly random censorship rules, and why we care about whether or not the episode can be aired in stricter countries like China or Australia. If foreign networks don't pay for syndication rights (because of what they perceive as "objectionable content" or because it just won't find an audience), the production network loses a hefty sum of money in the process of making the show. And I have to stress this point because a lot of people still don't grasp it very well: animation is ludicrously EXPENSIVE. Losing money is a quick death sentence for any cartoon.

It doesn't help that money-hungry executives are always looking for new soul-sucking ways to make animation cheaper without losing its audience.

By that measure, it's not fair to say ThunderCats 2011 was "cancelled" as a TV series, since the original 26-episode order was completed as agreed. But because the show couldn't gain any traction, toy and merchandise deals failed, syndication deals failed, and the show's advertising and marketing got pushed to the backburner in favor of what DID sell. So as a result, even though plenty more story had been at least planned out, the show abruptly ended after episode 26. Thankfully it didn't leave our heroes dangling off a cliff or anything like that, but the larger story remained incomplete and unresolved, and the show has sat dormant ever since.

Okay, now that I've established the bittersweet nature of the series, let's move on from the bitter part and examine the sweet part, and unpack why I'm still so in love with it to this day.

Knowing me, you might assume it has something to do with the Big Titty Kitty Committee, but I assure you it's not JUST that.

2011 shows us exactly what can be achieved within the '85 framework by expanding on it and retooling it without sacrificing all of the elements that made the original so inexplicably cool. At its core, this is a show about merging high fantasy and science fiction with 80s anime-inspired furries and monsters, creating a strange hybrid mish-mash of stylish alien characters and cultures. Sometimes it's swords and sorcery, sometimes it's laser guns and mech suits. Most of the time it's BOTH, at the same time. No setting or concept is ever off the table in ThunderCats, the same in 2011 as it was back in '85, and it makes for an incredibly cool sandbox of a world to build stories in.

You can argue that this is a case of style over substance, but whoever said that one has to be more important than the other?

The big change in 2011 is one of setting and tone. In '85, the Cats crash land on Third Earth as refugees from their dying world who build a new home and make allies with the locals to help them fend off the tyranny of The Bad Guys. In 2011, the Cats are a ruling class with an impenatrable empire who have established themselves as "above" all the other races, presiding as colonizers and conquerors instead of heroes. When their castle is finally besieged by an army of mech tanks - war machines from a long-lost era thought to have been erased from existence - our young hero Lion-o goes from posh prince to pariah pauper and must go on a journey of discovery and atonement while searching for answers to understand and help mitigate this new war his people have caused.

Genuinely surprised this show never quite clicked with the furry community, though I guess the Cats more resemble Jellicle-style Cats than actual furries.

But while the framing has changed drastically, the actual substance of the show remains pretty much the same as in '85. The Cats spend their time journeying around the world, meeting new people and encountering new civilizations as they search for the truth about where the Lizards and other races got their impressive new weapons. It's a smart setup that allows the writers to explore a deeper level of storytelling without sacrificing the traditional episodic adventure of the week that defined '85. The overarcing plot burns slow and steady, allowing each episode to tell enough of its own story that they can stand alone on their own merits, like the Moby Dick-inspired Ramlak Rising, or the downright magical Song of The Petalars.

And the decision to hinge this all on technology being an ancient "lost art" is a neat touch, as it subtly reveals that the reboot series takes place in a far-distant future that only LOOKS like the far-distant past. This even ties back into '85's penchant for characters discovering random artifacts and broken machines hidden among long-decrepit ruins or locked away in booby-trapped towers. There's a certain timelessness to it that I was just really grateful to see transferred over from the original series.

I remember initially hating the idea of Tygra now preferring a gun over his trademark bolo whip, but given he was originally the "architect" of the '85 series, it tracks that he would also be fascinated with technology.

2011 makes excellent use of this story-within-a-story adventure format by reinforcing the idea that we're following a primary group of adventurers and heroes, but they live in a world that clearly does not REVOLVE around them. We get weekly glimpses into all the different peoples and cultures of the world without worrying about how it all ties into the Cats' story, because they're just ONE group of people, no more important than anyone else on the planet (even though the Cats historically THINK themselves more important). Learning and understanding this framing is definitely one of the show's most prominent themes.

Aside from being a very cool character, this is easily one of the sickest gifs in my entire collection.

And then there's 2011's new visual style. Stepping away from '85's more familiar comic book superhero roots, 2011 is reimagined in favor of a more anime-flavored approach (and just TRY to tell me that '85 wasn't also anime-esque in its own right), and it works in tandem with the whole open sandbox theme. Character outfits run the full gamut of classic nerd shit, from basic fantasy robes and JRPG-style armor to more contemporary soldier fatigues and skintight body suits, all occasionally spliced with cybernetics or sci-fi gadgets and weapons. And, true to the series' roots, the designs clearly draw influence from old-school anime and a wide variety of real-world cultures and styles.

Let's have a moment of silence for the hero Emerick, who accomplished more in one day than most folks do in their entire lifetime.

I also want to highlight the fight scene choreography and animation, because whether or not you're onboard with the rest of the series changes, you have to admit that the battles are visually exciting and the action is extremely fluid. Whether its a Final Fantasy-esque encounter with giant insects, classic 80s vehicle chases, or an otherworldly cosmic showdown, it's clear that the anime inspiration runs deep and works to incredible effect, especially considering the complexity of the show's visual style and how expensive these scenes must have been to produce. There's no shortage of imagination on display here, and I'm disappointed but not surprised the show never gets its flowers in animation circles.

It's rare to see a 2D animated show use smoothing and camera tracking to such great effect. Studio 4°C really knew what they were doing here!

On the other hand, if there's anything to be disappointed about in the new series, it's that familiar divisive staple of every reboot ever made: the new love triangle subplot. Normally I don't like to rag on this sort of thing because you either like romantic drama or you don't - and it really shouldn't be that big of a deal anyway - but while I'm generally in favor of it, 2011's love triangle feels a bit lackluster. I guess I can understand it from a storytelling point of view, giving the two non-blood brothers a woman to argue over, but it would help if any of the characters in question had stronger chemistry together. Then again, that's probably something that would have been fleshed out better in the nonexistent second season. I am genuinely sad we didn't get to see where Lion-o and Pumyra would have ended up, especially after her betrayal in the final episodes. Now THAT at least had some dramatic intrigue!

Listen, I know you want to make a "ThunderCats Ho" joke here, but I promise you it's not any funnier hearing it for the thousandth time as it was the first.

Naturally, the REAL disappointment factor of 2011 is that it spends so much time going from episode to episode that the bigger picture remains unresolved and leaves the show as a whole feeling very unfinished (which it is). But as a counterpoint, that same meandering episodic nature is also perhaps 2011's greatest strength. Not to sound like broken record, but what made '85 so charming for me was its ability to create memorable characters and concepts, even if they only appeared for a single episode, and that is definitely something 2011's writers understood and sought to capitalize on.

Rather than just tick all the boxes and make sure all the reimagined cameos from the original were present, the writers and character designers clearly put a lot of stock into their own original NPCs, carrying on the tradition of the world being not only bigger than our main characters, but bigger than the so-called big picture. One-off characters and conflicts like the Drifter and Duelist or the papermancy-themed Wood Forgers are what truly stand out about 2011, and in lieu of a final resolution, are actually - dare I say - even more interesting than the main plot itself.

Seems difficult to imagine in the modern era of linear narrative being worshipped above all else in popular media, but nothing satisfies MY hunger for storytelling more than a wandering adventure serial!

Sometimes a family is just two scorned princes, a druid/rogue hottie, a burly surly mechanic, and their litter of adopted orphan kittens.

Anyway, I strongly suggest tracking this show down and giving it a watch if you can. Whether or not you were ever a fan of the original, there is a boundless inspiration to be found in the reboot, and even though we're (at the time of writing this) 12 years past the point of ever seeing a proper continuation or conclusion, I think it's more than worth it to experience the ride for what it is. If Plot is your main interest in the shows you watch, you'll find yourself sucked in by the complex, layered story of this show, only to be ultimately sad that it never reaches a proper conclusion onscreen. But if you're like me and just enjoy the ride regardless of the destination, you'll love its commitment to telling incredibly cool short stories over such a wide variety of genres. There's so much to be found here, so much to explore. It would be a shame to let all this go to waste just because the Big Story suddenly drops off the face of the earth at the end!

Strongly recommended for fans of long-running and somewhat aimless adventure shows. If, like me, you grew up in the wake of exploration and culture-driven cartoons like Johnny Quest, The Pirates of Dark Water, or Mighty Max, or if you're just into action/adventure shows with recurring story elements like Gargoyles, The Secret Saturdays, or even Adventure Time, you'll LOVE ThunderCats 2011.

No matter which aspect you end up watching it for, I doubt you'll regret watching it.

And on one final note...

If you think I've had a lot of nice things to say about ThunderCats 2011 in spite of its circumstances and in spite of certain people's (bad) opinions, just you wait until I eventually get around to writing the third (and final?) part of this review saga: the inevitable deep dive into the much-maligned ThunderCats Roar (EDIT: it's up now!). Oh buddy, do I have a lot to say about that one too!