Animation fans alot of animated shows debut all the time but so few of them get alot of hate just based of the announcement video alone. However this show got alot of hate from many myself included just based of the announcement video and well the first two episodes have been released by Cartoon Network and well I thought that i'd give you my thoughts on them so here are my first impressions of Thundercats Roar.
The plot of these two episodes are the Thundercats (Lion-O , Tygra , Cheetara , Panthro , WilyKit and WilyKat) escape there home world moments before it explodes and find themselves on a new planet where they must contend with the Mumm-Ra. In terms of what I thought of the plot it's pretty thin all they do is establish what the set up for the show is going to be and while that does make sense it doesn't really work for a two part episode.
Starring in this episode is Max Mittelman as Lion-O and WilyKat , Patrick Seitz as Tygra and Mumm-Ra, Erica Lindbeck as Cheetara and WilyKit , Larry Kenney as Jaga , Trevor Devall as Slithe , Andrew Kishino as Jackalman , Jim Meskimen as Monkain and Dana Snyder as Vultureman and the Berbils. This is honestly a pretty good cast if your a fan of anime there are alot of actors you'll recognise in this cast and they were the ones that made me excited the most.
In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it honestly wasn't that bad but at the same time I felt that it could have been better. The acting in the episode was alot better then what I thought it was going to be just based of the announcement video I assumed that pretty much everything about this show was going to suck and so I was shocked to see that the acting was OK at best since I assumed it would suck.
Now the closest company I found that might have done the animation is Warner Bros. Animation and I don't think I need to say what they've worked on since there really well known. I will say that the announcement video doesn't do the animation justice since from that video you'd assume that the animation was going to be like Teen Titans Go but it's honestly more like OK KO since it's that same amount of energy and even the art style is very similar to the art style from OK KO.
I honestly really did like the animation it was a lot better then what it had any right to be in my opinion. It was very high energy when it came to the action sequences but at the same time I would fully understand if people chose not to watch the show based of the character designs since they are kind of off putting but when you see them in motion they do kind of work for the style that this show is going for.
Now when the show was first announced there were alot of people comparing it to Teen Titans Go and in some respects I can see where they are coming from. However I have to say that just because TTG was at the time a fairly bad show doesn't mean that any show that looks like it might be bad doesn't mean that you should compare the two since these shows are different in every way possible so i'd say judge it by it's own merits and not by another shows.
Just by going of this episode and this episode alone (yes i'm judging both episodes as one) i'd say that this show is going to be more action packed then any CN reboot right now. Which was honestly something that I found to be rather refreshing since CN usually don't do action heavy shows and when they do they usually don't last long or just get lost in the schedule so it's nice to see an action heavy show airing on Cartoon Network.
There's shockingly alot of I want to say references but I dont think that's the right word here but either way it's clear that the creators have a lot of love towards the 1985 original Thundercats. Since as you can see by many of the above pictures the designs are very similar to the original show and they even use a cover version of the original theme song over the end credits which is thought was nice little touch.
Now this is technically an action comedy and so it only makes sense to talk about the comedy in the episode. I honestly thought that this episode could have been alot funnier alot of the humour looks like it's coming from how dumb they've made Lion-O which is funny once but when you repeat the joke it starts to become less funny and so i'm hoping that as the show progresses there are more and more actually funny moments in the show and that they don't just repeat the same joke over and over.
Like I said before this episode is really action heavy and so it does make sense they I talk just a little bit more about the action. I honestly thought that the action in the episode was really fun it was as over the top as you'd not only expect but also want from an animated action comedy on top of all that you get to see the Thundercats use alot of their gifts (I don't think powers is the right word to use here) which only added to the fun in my opinion and yes they made a lot of great changes to Snarf which i'm not going to go into detail about.
Overall this debut set of episodes were honestly really fun and they did a good job of introducing all of the main characters. However I would have liked it if they set up what the story for the show was going to be just because right now I don't have an itch to want to watch anymore of the series but who knows maybe they'll drop hints of the story when the show premiers in Febuary (now all we have to do is wait for Yabba-Dabba Dinosaurs! to finally debut admit it you all forgot about that show) since this show is only just starting i'm not going to give it a rating but I will say check out the episodes and judge it for yourselves.