Thundercats:

This is an old article pending revision.

In the 1980s there were many series that starred comic book characters and also superheroes in science fiction genres. One of them is called "The Thundercats". Before you think that The Thundercats does not have any comic books that it is based from, there are in fact comic books of The Thundercats. (There are actually comic books of lots of things). They were of course made in 1985, around the same time that it was being made for animation. The story of The Thundercats is created by Ted Wolf.


The Thundercats was produced by Rankin-Bass productions. You might be surprised since many of their other productions does not resemble The Thundercats. Beginning in the 1960s, numerous holiday specials were made, both in stop motion and in animation. They were not drawn the same as The Thundercats, which like many superhero cartoons, were drawn to be more slightly anatomically correct. This can be explained because animation was provided by Pacific Animation Corporation, which was being developed in Japan. This series had space age pop music and superior picture and color quality as well as some toon-shaded and CGI animation. 60 additional episodes were made but this time over a span of 3 seasons with added characters and story lines.



65 episodes were produced for the first season, (which is very impressive compared to how some cartoons only make 13 episodes each season). A movie named "Thundercats - HO!" was made after that. The title of the movie later became very well known. After that, similar to the Gatchaman saga, there was a second half of the series made to follow up on the series. New stories would begin where others had ended. (Also, the starring Gatchaman characters had costumes designed after birds which is slightly similar to The Thundercats series being designed similar to...cats)The series is about a civilization called Thunderians who are destroyed except for a small group of people. Their home planet Thundera is destroyed by Plun-Darr, and the escapes are found, and also destroyed. They are named after different species of cats, and their names are somewhat obvious. These people are called Lion-O. Lion-O's name obviously describes that he is similar to a Lion. He is voiced by Larry Kenney. Tygra is named after the tiger that is voiced by Peter Newman. Jaga was a Jaguar and is voiced by Earl Hammond. Panthro is named after the panther that is voiced by Earle Hyman. Cheetara is a cheetah and she is voiced by Lynne Lipton. WilyKit is also voiced by Lynne Lipton. WilyKat is voiced by Peter Newman.



There are several villains in this series, such as inhabitants from Plun-Darr. If the characters in the series are based on cats, the villains are going to be based on dogs. One of the groups of villains are "Jackalmen". Other groups of villains are Lunataks, Reptilians, and Simians.



A new movie is being planned as of 2007. It will NOT be made by Rankin-Bass, but instead by Warner-Brothers. Warner Brothers did not have anything to do with the original series except for being involved with distributing it. It was technically distributed by Lorimar Telepictures which is now a specialty division of WB.