I have decided that sometimes, you just need to shake things up a bit, and so, I am going to start posting a bit more randomly. Not all the time, but if an idea comes to me, I’m just going to post about it and see what happens.
I am a child of the 80’s… or possibly the 90’s depending on at what age you start counting from. In terms of independence, then it’s the 90’s. But I digress.
In this series, I want to talk about things that I remember from my childhood, namely TV shows etc, that really should be brought back to life… on the silver screen.
To start with, I went for quite possibly the best cartoon from my childhood.
THUNDERCATS!! Who could have grown up in the 80’s / 90’s and not known this show.
To be honest, I am not only shocked but quite hurt that this has not been made into a movie yet.
Just looking at the poster I get all sorts of movie ideas in my head. Hey, maybe it’s time I try my hand at some fan-fiction, because this series needs to be carried on.
The original series of Thundercats ran from 1984 – 1989 and had 130 episodes. The series follows a group of Cat-humanoids who having escaped from their home planet ‘Thundera’ awaken from a state of suspended animation to find themselves alone, crash landed on ‘Third Earth’. This planet is basically our planet, but set in the future. Human kind has been wiped out by the main villain in the series the Ancient Egyptian mummy Mumm-Ra. (This guy was a seriously scary dude when I was a kid) 
Thundercats brings together major elements of both the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres, yet never looses that every so universal appeal of Good versus Evil. Unlike a lot of TV shows, where episodes merely that, Thundercats had a definite underlying continuation. Yet at the same time, you do not necessarily have to watch the episodes in order. Within the first season, we even go through a sub-storyline where the hero, Lion’O, needs to face a series of trials in order to claim his place as leader of the group. This actually sees him battling his own ‘teammates’ the Thundercats, before finally facing off against Mumm-Ra.
The role of Mumm-Ra is unusual because he is a villain whose origins are unrelated to the Thundercats. He was already on the planet ‘Third Earth’ and it was the arrive of the Thundercats that upset the balance of his world.
I haven’t seen this show in years, and I know they ‘re-launched’ it last year (2011) and I do want to see it, but, I don’t think another cartoon could satisfy me. A movie however… that is a different ball game.
I know there was a movie in 1985/6, but that was more or less a long episode. What I want to see is a real movie, a la Transformers.
There were rumors that a movie was being developed, but sadly along came SpeedRacer, which was such a flop on a commercial level (I must admit I have not seen the movie, and have no idea about the original series it was based on) that the plug was automatically pulled on all other active ‘live action’ projects at the time.
There is a wonderful fan made trailer available on YouTube which was lovingly made one frame a time, using cut shots of other movies edited to fit the Thundercats look. Brad Pitt as Lion’, Vin Diesel as Panthro etc. It was great fun and shows just how awesome a live action Thundercats film could be.
I don’t think there would be a dry eye in the house, or no spine left un-shivered the first time we would hear the immortal lines “Thunder…. Thunder…. Thundercats….. HO!!” and see the Sword of Omens do its thing.
Just take a look at some of these images below and see for yourself how awesome Thundercats was.
This just has to be made into a movie. I know that they have tried and failed with taking cartoons into Live Action movies before (Scooby-Doo for example) but hell, with Thundercats you cannot fail.
It is time to introduce these Space-Cats to a new generation, besides, with the mix between Sci-Fi and Fantasy that the series conveys, you a striking in a market that is always popular.
I have just realized however, that I could have made a valid argument for this great show being made into a cartoon in a much smaller post. (see below)
VS 
Who in their right mind, would look at this and say “Gee, one of these things is a movie waiting to be made… I think its Battleship.”
Between Battleship and all of the re-makes and re-make re-makes out there, the next time someone in Hollywood has an original idea, there is a chance their head may explode.
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I agree. Thundercats was a daily staple for me as a kid. Transformers, GI Joe, Thundercats, and He-Man were a kid’s life back then. They’re the only ones (on my list of greats) not to have their own theatrical movie made. It’d be killer to see what a good director and budget could do.
I would love to see it, and hopefully, one day, it will happen.
Jayce and the Wheel Warriors is a personal favorite of mine that I honestly believe should have made it’s way onto the silver screen. Who wouldn’t like a plot about a kid who is separated from his father, a father that created plant machines that take over the galaxy and then teams up with a wizard, space pirate and is able to pilot his own funky vehicles to combat the plant machines….
Surely Oscar Gold right there 🙂
I had never heard of this, but it does indeed sound awesome. I may have to check it out.