The pilot was really good, but it fell apart real fast. Everyone else but Wilykit just dumps on Lion-O for no reason, while he is also kind of a brat. Tygra was a tech expert even though Lion-O was the only royal that was curious and interested in tech. Cheetarah teases Lion-O, but then suddenly we learn she loved Tygra. Pumyra's motivation for betraying the heroes was unbelievably flimsy. Lion-O has to learn a moral in many episodes only to relearn it again. Mumm-ra can just stand out in daylight even though that was an established weakness, etc.

There's some great ideas mixed in there, and that's even evident in the season 2 plans. But good god, there was a lot wrong in the show writing-wise that most people don't bring up.

 

The animation there is technically pretty impressive.

The art style is still ugly and derivative. The humor is still just as derpy as the character designs. Kinda makes all that effort in the animation seem like a waste.

 

Humor and ugliness are subjective. Not my taste, but neither are any of the other CN shows that are ridiculously successful. Derivative is an odd criticism to level at this incarnation of Thundercats in particular though. It's CalArts to be sure, but 2011 was straight up riding that Anime Ja Nai trend and the original had 2 Rankin Bass toons that looked so much like it and we're so closely related they folded them into 2011. Thundercats, He-Man, Bravestar, fucking Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos. Every one of those 80s action toons looks the same.

 

If you think those 80s toons actually look alike, I can already tell we're not going to have a productive conversation

 

Credit to Ismael Bergara of Studio Yotta, but yes I'd say this:


All shares as much resemblance as all the CalArts shows look alike. There was an aesthetic that was dominant in the 80s, there's a different aesthetic that's dominant now, and they're just as derivative of their contemporaries.

 

Top row is almost all from the same show, and 75% of them were all animated by Toei

 

Yet they were animated better then that roar preview today.

With that said there were other shows with other looks.

Yes hanna barbera and filmation and sunbow had all had their animation styles but at least the action shows animated good or bad looked human and not like mutated road kill like the gumball shows. Gumball look works fine on comedies but action shows are iffy. The show needs good scripts to get past the mutant face shaped human that looks like they are from a episode of milton the monster.

 

This is peak OK Boomer.

 

Don't worry. Bad looking animation in action cartoons are ageless. (just ask clutch cargo and hammerman!) With that said I don't mind the gumball style if it's done right or has a good script but a show where lion-o talks about his "magic pointy stick" and mumm-ra is reading a paper on the john does not make me see it as a great thundercats show.

Transformers animated and others in that style shows you can still do this look and do well with good scripts. This show just looks like trash script wise. Worse is it could be studio ghibili great animation and with crappy scripts still suck.

 

That's because they all have human faces. They weren't going for a "style." And they still look different.

 

A replication of realistic proportions is still a stylistic choice. And yes, they are different. Just like Gravity Falls is different from Star Vs is different from Steven Universe is different from Thundercats Roar.

I don't like the CalArts aesthetic, but to call out the stylistic choice for being "derivative" while not once lobbying the same criticism toward the original or the 2011 series is disingenuous. All 3 series look like the most popular aesthetic of the era they were produced in. None of them is stylistically innovating.

 

Speaking of disingenuous, I'm looking at the other animated shows of 2011 and struggling to identify all these shows with the same look that supposedly dominated.

Just for reference, that was the same year Gumball came out.

 

All right, who do we got here. First person who names all 25 correctly gets to take an extra 1/2 hour lunch on Friday.

Here's what I've got:

• First row: We've got Lion-O, Qucksilver, Tygra, Bengali, and that's not Claudus at end end, is it?
• Second row: I've got absolutely nothing on the first four. But that's He-Man at the end of the row.
• Third row: That's Dusty, Flint, and then I have no idea who the other three are.
• Fourth row: I think that's Bravestarr at the beginning, and then I've got nothing on the other four. And what does that guy have in his mouth? I'd kind of like to see the whole image. Is he smoking something?
• Fifth row: I haven't a single clue who any of them are.

Well, at best I got 9/25 right (or 36% on this test). How about that, it's like being back in high school again.

 

Third row middle is Matt Tracker of MASK. The one to the right of him is also MASK

 

This was my reaction to Thundercats Roar:

 

Really? I'm seeing plenty of little differences in face shapes, expressions, tones and details. And if this is the same artist, doesn't that mean your kinda cheating?

 

Fifth Row-The fifth picture is Riot from JatH.

 

WTF did I just watch?

If you're a toddler, you might like it. This makes Teen Titans Go and She-Ra look like Citizen Kane or Gone with the Wind.

EDIT: You can watch the first two episodes on the Cartoon Network app and the CN website.

ThunderCats Roar! | Watch Full Episodes | Cartoon Network

 

It looks like Cartoon Network weaponized the Ebola virus.

 

i think we all knew this was going to be an insulting unwatchable pile of trash....at least we weren't disappointed....