Moreover, he was cute and helpful on the journey, making him immediately more interesting and sympathetic than the original. The new Snarf provided more laughs in less time than the old one ever did. He still filled the comic relief role, but the jokes only took up a few seconds of screen time rather than serving as unwanted filler that dragged out an already painfully formulaic episode.
Snarf went from annoying sidekick to cute pet in the vein of Ryo-Ohki from the Tenchu Muyo! series (although Snarf never turned into a spaceship). The 2011 show fixed Snarf in one of the most elegantly simple ways possible: it turned him into a non-speaking character. His speech patterns were obnoxious and he was so useless that they actually had to have episodes devoted to corner cases where he could save the day in order to justify his existence.
He existed mainly as comic relief, and he just wasn’t funny. Perhaps the poster child for this lack of quality is Snarf.
Sure, those who grew up in the 1980s have great memories of it, but it doesn’t hold up well. Fixing SnarfĪ lot of fans of the original ThunderCats don’t want to admit it, but the show wasn’t all that good. There’s a lot to love about the 2011 ThunderCats series, but here are the elements that got me hooked after just a few episodes. Thus, the show was canceled after only one season.īut what a season it was. Sadly, all of that awesome got countered by poor marketing and Cartoon Network’s tendency to sabotage shows that don’t sell new toys. It got a different kind of reboot in 2011, with an epic storyline, excellent quality art, top-notch voice actors, and some truly terrific storytelling.
ThunderCats Roar isn’t the first time Cartoon Network has tried to resurrect the franchise. However, it does make me fondly remember that brief time in 2011 when ThunderCats was awesome. Personally, I don’t care about it, as ThunderCats was always sillier than fans like to remember. Items of clothing featuring the ThunderCats logo and DVD boxsets of the original series have enjoyed a resurgence in recent years as nostalgia for the former children's favorite has grown.The news of a new, silly-looking ThunderCats reboot has many fans of the 1980s franchise gnashing their teeth in anger. There were also several comic book series produced: Marvel Comics' version, 1984 to 1988 and five series by Wildstorm, an imprint of DC Comics, beginning in 2003. have had the rights to the series from that point on. In 1989, Lorimar-Telepictures was purchased by and folded into Warner Bros., whose television syndication arm would eventually assume distribution of the show Warner Bros. The series was originally distributed by Rankin-Bass Productions' then-parent company Telepictures Corporation, which would later merge with Lorimar Productions in 1986. Seasons 2, 3, and 4 followed a new format of twenty episodes each, starting with a five-part story.
Season 1 of the show aired in 1985, followed by a TV movie entitled ThunderCats - HO! in 1986. The animation was provided by Japanese animation company Pacific Animation Corporation whose artists later went on to join Studio Ghibli. The series, for which Leonard Starr was the head writer, follows the adventures of a group of cat-like humanoid aliens. Story: ThunderCats is an American animated television series that was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions debuting in 1985, based on the characters created by Tobin "Ted" Wolf.