Thundercats Archive

Summary Judgement:  Week six adds new depth to the Thundercats mythology while telling the best story the series has seen since its premiere.

I don’t know what the writers were on when they penned this episode, but I want to bottle it and sell it on a late night infomercial featuring Vince the Slap Chop guy.

*Spoilers Ahead*

Titled “Legacy”, this episode answers some of the questions that came our way after last week’s revelation that the ancestors of the Thundercats worked for Mumm-Ra.  While the other cats are sleeping, polishing their guns or babysitting at the foot of the Tower of Omens, Lion-O is inside trying to decipher the Book of Omens’ secrets.  The young lord of the Thundercats suspects that the book isn’t magic, but rather a form of technology in need of a power supply.  After fiddling with what look like input ports on the bottom of the book, the tome zaps Lion-O unconscious and sucks up his soul.

Inside the book Jaga-Wan Kenobi – told you he would be back – explains to a confused Lion-O that the book is a fusion of both magic and science.  Jaga also reveals that clues to the the cats’ future lay in their past.  To find that knowledge Lion-O must make like it’s Quantum Leap and explore the history of the Thundercats through the body of his ancestor, Leo.  Of course, Leo isn’t just any old alley cat.  He’s Mumm-Ra’s number one henchman.

On the bridge of Mumm-Ra’s pyramid-starship, Lion-O, as Leo, uses the Book of Omens to help Mumm-Ra track down the “Warstone” or as it’s known to Lion-O, the Eye of Thundara.  This younger and more vigorous looking Mumm-Ra wants to unite the Warstone, along with three other “magic” stones already in his possession, within the hilt of the Sword of Plun-Darr.  Doing so will forge a weapon of unstoppable power.

As the ship approaches the planet that houses the Warstone, we peel back another layer of the Thundercats’ mythology.  When Mumm-Ra orders the troops mobilized for the invasion, we discover that the cats aren’t just his henchmen, they are also his enforcers.  Decks upon decks of Mumm-Ra’s ship are filled with pens that contain anthropomorphized animals: lizards, dogs, elephants, vultures even…wait for it…Tiger Sharks.  That’s right, Tiger Sharks, anybody who was born before 1982 knows what I’m talking about.  The cats control the other animals through collars that explode if the wearer steps out of line.  It takes a lot of balls for a cartoon to put the slavery card out there in such a flagrant way.

Despite appearances otherwise, Leo is actually part of a resistance movement against Mumm-Ra.  A well spoken Jackal and a fat Lizard take advantage of a slave riot to gain some face time with Leo and his girlfriend who is very obviously a Shetara ancestor.  The Jackal and Lizard explain that none of the other animals trust the dissident cats.  Pre-Shetara promises that if the animals unite against the loyalist cat guards, the rebel cats, specifically Leo, will deal with Mumm-Ra.

Leo/Lion-O returns to the bridge in time for the second cameo of the episode.  As Mumm-Ra drones on about every animal having its uses, one of his monitors displays an image of MonStar.  MonStar was the antagonist of another Rankin/Bass 80s IP, Silverhawks.  While there are no other overt Silverhawk cameos in the episode, I have to admit that I held out hope that they might show up to fight Mumm-Ra by the end of the episode.  I swear I’ll get giddy like a school girl if the writers somehow work a proper Silverhawk crossover into the show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But back to the story.

Just in case people weren’t paying attention to the animal UN in the previous scene, Mumm-Ra does some further foreshadowing, reminding Leo that the other animals hate the cats and Mumm-Ra equally.  Shortly thereafter Captain Tigus, Tigra’s ancestor, signals that he has procured the Warstone.  Earger for his prize, Mumm-Ra dispatches Leo/Lion-O to retrieve the bauble.  En route to the hanger deck, Leo/Lion-O and Pre-Shetara detour to a crawlspace where a triad of cats have just forged the Sword of Omens.  Sword in hand, Leo/Lion-O liberates the stone from Tigus, who vocally doubts the success of any rebellion.  In a grand display, Leo/Lion-O joins the sword with the stone – how very inverse Arthurian.

The battle that ensues makes the previous episode’s Mumm-Ra/Thundercat fight look like a garden party.  There was a distinctive anime feeling about the fight as Mumm-Ra pulled a Tekkaman style transformation into an armoured space knight thing.  Though, I could also call it a Silverhawk inspired change since the writers are blending properties within the Rankin/Bass creative gamut.

Having used the Warstone to deprive Mumm-Ra of a second power stone at the start of the battle, Leo/Lion-O carries out his own transformation.  He succeeds in holding his own against Mumm-Ra even when the battle explodes through the hull of the ship and into deep space.  During the course of the battle Leo/Lion-O finds the time to drop the force fields on the animals’ pens and deliver a stirring “Unite under our banner despite the fact we’ve been dicks” speech.  Apparently that was good enough for the slaves as they took to roughing up any cats loyal to Mumm-Ra.

With the combined power of the Eye of Thundara and second power stone, Leo/Lion-O is able to strip Mumm-Ra of his remaining stones.  With Mumm-Ra reduced to his decrepit form, Leo/Lion-O merges all of the stones with the Sword of Omens’ gauntlet.  The victory is short lived as Mumm-Ra escapes into a sarcophagus and the crippled ship falls into the atmosphere of the recently raided planet: a little world known as Third Earth.  As Leo/Lion-O and Pre-Shetara make out through the ship’s plunge into gravity, Lion-O is pulled out of his ancestor and again faces Jaga-Wan inside the book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaga explains that after the crash the animals formed the basis for the civilization that we saw during the first episode.  Given what we know of Third Earth’s animal hierarchy, it would seem that some hallmarks of the old regime persisted under the Thundercat empire.  Though that can  be explained away as a result of the loss of the three power stones.

Returned to his body, Lion-O now understands that finding the Book of Omens was only the first part of his journey.  His task now is to use the Book of Omens to find the lost stones.  But more importantly, the lessons of the past taught Lion-O that defeating Mumm-Ra will require more than a weapon.  To succeed, Lion-O must unite all of Third Earth’s animals against their common foe.

I’m calling “Legacy” a turning point for the series.  While I enjoyed “Journey to the Tower of Omens”, it didn’t have to do much work to win me over after two episodes that seemed divorced from the overall story arc.  “Legacy”, though steeped in back story, focused the plot and added a definitive richness to the rebooted universe.  Moreover, it seemed like the pacing of the story finally felt appropriate.  Although the philosophy was scaled back, the narrative felt complete without the need to rush a resolution for the sake of closure.  The challenge now is to keep the momentum going without the next three episodes using formula n to find stone x, y and z where n is the number of minutes it takes to “Thundercats, Ho!” the bad guy into submission.

Episode Score: +4.5

Series Score to Date: +3.25

Summary Judgement:  Finally, Thundercats gets to telling a story that matters.

Week five begins with the Thundercats searching for the Tower of Omens, the mythological resting place of the Book of Omens.  Just to change things up, I’m going to take the pro/con approach to this recap – which I know is a wee bit late.

*Spoilers Ahead*

Pro: With the quest to find the Tower of Omens stalled, Panthro takes the piss out of Lion-O as he fails to gain sight beyond sight from the Sword of Omens.

Pro: Shetara lays some guilt on Tigra for joining Panthro in the Lion-O bashing.

Huge Pro: An awesome flash back from Mumm-Ra offers back-story that isn’t obvious from the previous episodes.  Not only were the Thundercats once a space faring race – a fact in-line with the show’s original canon – but they were also Mumm-Ra’s hired muscle.  Moreover, the Thundercats stole the Eye of Thundara from another race at Mumm-Ra’s bidding.

Pro: Mumm-Ra jumps into his chin sarcophagus, which turns into a high octane dune buggy.  Time for the boss to take care of business on his own.

Pro: Shetara tells Lion-O to open his mind and “relax” so that he can master sight beyond sight.  I wager 300 Quatloos that Shetara is going to have an end-season brush with death after admitting her feelings to Lion-O.

Con: Thundercubs making kissy faces at Lion-O and Shetara.

Pro: Lion-O saying, “We weren’t kissing, I was just trying to get my sword to work.”  Everybody say it on the count of three, “That’s what she said!”

Con: Shetara’s subsequent info dump “The Book of Omens was hidden so that it might never be found.”  Why go to all the trouble of writing a book if you are just going to abandon it in a tower and let everybody who built said tower take the secret of its location to their graves?

Con: Tigra bitching and moaning. “We have to just get lucky and hope that we stumble on to it?”  I wouldn’t normally have a problem with Tigra being a naysayer except for the fact that Snarf stumbles upon the entrance to the Tower approximately eight and a half seconds later.

Pro: Before getting to the resting place of the Holy Grail tower, the cats must endure a series of ordeals that would haunt Indiana Jones’ nightmares.

Con: Once again Lion-O uses “whiskers” as a curse.  That’s like me saying “beard” as a swear.

Pro: The Thundercubs actually do something useful when they pick a lock that saves the cats from plummeting to their doom.

Pro: Only the penitent cat shall pass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pro: Ghost Jaga, still residing within Mumm-Ra’s lantern, messes with Slithe.

Pro: Mumm-Ra torturing ghost Jaga within the lantern.

Con: Upon entering the next ordeal room, the Thundercubs screw things up and almost drown Panthro in the process.

Pro: The writers created some decent tension by threatening to kill off one of the core members of the team.

Pro: Panthro’s inability to swim leads to his saving the day, despite the cubs reverting to their past state of uselessness.

Con: The cats fourth challenge is by far the episode’s most blatant lift from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

Pro: Lion-O finally figures out sight beyond sight after a little more hand holding from Shetara.  The Tower of Omens reveals itself and the cats pile on in.  While the cats are busy patting Lion-O on the back for his brilliant leadership skills, Mumm-Ra walks in and sets the stage for an epic battle.

Pro: Mumm-Ra calls Jaga, “Nothing but a vapour in a jar.”

Pro: Panthro kicks Mumm-Ra in the face before talking about himself in the third person.  “This old bag of bones is no match for Panthro.”

Pro: Mumm-Ra does the “Ancient spirits of evil” speech.  Upon transforming he shoots lasers out of his mouth and knocks Panthro into a wall.  Also a pro, bad-ass Mumm-Ra looks like something out of H.P. Lovecraft’s nightmares.  It’s now a race to see who will get to the pinnacle of the tower first and claim the book.

Pro: Mumm-Ra is not quite the wiener that I remember from the 80s.  He easily dispatches both Shetara and Lion-O during a battle at the top of the tower.  The old bag of bones also gets a great piece of dialogue.

Mumm-Ra: You are much like your father.

Lion-O: What do you know of my father?

Mumm-Ra: Only that I killed him.  Ha ha ha ha.

Pro: Mumm-Ra tortures Lion-O, Emperor Palpatine style.

Con:  In a move that screams “Oh, no.  We wrote ourselves into a corner” Jaga, still inside the cursed lantern, makes like the Matrix of Leadership and lights the Thundercats’ darkest hour.  Jaga’s supernova act somehow drives Mumm-Ra away.

Pro: Shetara cradles the shattered ruins of the lantern.  Apparently, saving Lion-O came at the cost of Jaga’s soul – I suspect he will be back later in Obi-Wan Kenobi form.  Still, he’s dead for now so add one more corpse to the show’s impressive body count.

Pro: Lion-O opens the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy Book of Omens to reveal…nothing.  There’s nothing written in the book.  Promise of things to come next week? I think so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall this was a great episode.  After two back-to-back episodes that seemed to aimlessly unfold, this one had a real sense of purpose about it.   If I weren’t a week late writing this recap, I’d say that Thundercats has finally left me with a “can’t wait for next week” feeling.

Episode Score: +4

Series Score to Date: +3

Summary Judgement: Not the best episode to date.  The very existential build-up is spoiled with simple optimism and a grand Deus ex Thundercat.

*Spoilers ahead*

“Song of the Petalars” isn’t the worst twenty-two minutes of television that I have seen.  While it stands out as the weakest of the four episodes to date, it’s still a decent attempt at story telling.  It’s also the most existential piece of North American animation that I have seen in quite some time.

The plot picks up with General Slithe and the lizard army in pursuit of the Thundercats.  Only a day behind the cats, Slithe orders his troops to triple their pace.  Meanwhile on planet “lets break the tension from the previous scene” WilyKat dares WilyKit to kiss some sort of giant frog thing.  The scene is annoying, obnoxious and I can’t imagine it appealing to anybody who has a mental capacity greater than that of a parsnip.  Away from the noise of the cubs, Lion-O is pensive bordering on nihilistic as he ponders his next move.  Shetara, in a supportive and potentially romantic gesture, lays her hand upon Lion-O’s reminding him that he has her support and that all the Thundercats have hope for a better tomorrow because of him.  Thus do we learn the theme for this week: hope.

Before anything else can transpire, Snarf, like some sort of insane Pokemon, alerts Lion-O to the approaching lizard army.  Rather than fight a suicidal battle, Lion-O orders a retreat.  Tigra does not like this idea.  Indeed, Tigra reminds Lion-O that “Thundercats never retreat” and that hope is born of action.  Defiant Lion-O then rebukes his brother by pointing out that their father took action and he died for his trouble.

Escaping into a dome-like bramble patch, the cats come upon the Petalars – a race of pint size bipedal plant creatures.  Unaware that the Thundercats are watching them, the Petalars have gathered to witness the birth of a new seedling while one of their elders withers and dies.  Turning to the seedling, the elder plant says that, “Life is a precious gift, and not one you can keep forever.”  Then she dies.  How very apropos.

Remember the 80s, when nobody ever died in cartoons?  I’ll give Thundercats top marks for not holding back on the realities of life.

Using the Sword of Omens as a machete, Lion-O carves a door into the Petalars encampment.  Although the tiny plant creatures are terrified at first, one of their youngest, Emmerich, is overwhelmed with curiosity.  Through Emmerich, the Thundercats learn that the Petalars are not native to the brambles.  A great wind fell upon their native “garden”, casting the entire Petalar civilization adrift.  Having spent generations living in the Briar Woods, the Petalars are searching for the legendary Cliff of Winds so that they might find a way back to their garden.  Thinking that the cliff might offer a way out of the Briar Woods and away from the lizards, the Thundercats join with the Petalars.

Emmerich quickly takes to emulating Lion-O, wanting to be both a great leader and a warrior.  Though a little cliché, Lion-O encourages the boy to enjoy his childhood, stating that he will miss it when it’s over.  Shortly into a lesson in sword play, Emmerich and Lion-O are attacked by some sort of hybrid toucan/pterodactyl thing.  Grabbing Emmerich, the beast flies off into the distance.  Lion-O makes chase as the boy falls to the ground.  When Emmerich emerges from the brambles, he meets Lion-O not as a boy, but as a teenager.

A confused Lion-O turns to Shetara, who then drops a philosophical bomb on the audience.  She quotes Mr. Spock an anonymous Thundercat philosopher: “Time is relative.” The Petalars live out their entire life in the course of a single day.  As the march to the Cliff of Winds continues, the camera pans through the growth of new seeds and the withering death of elderly plants.  It’s all very circle of life, but in a much more forthright way than one would expect from a “children’s” cartoon.

Meanwhile, General Slithe and his army have tracked the cats to the Briar Woods.  Despite clear cutting through Third Earth’s forests with mech’ mounted rotary saws, Slithe’s forces are unable to slice through the Briar’s thick vines.  Impatient for his victory, the General dispatches a team of lizards into the Briar to try and flush out the cats.

Pondering the Petalars short lifespan, Lion-O muses on how anybody can ever make a difference in the world with kingdoms and empires constantly rising and falling.  A slightly older Emmerich offers his wisdom to Lion-O, stating that life offers many chances for a person to make their mark in the world.  It’s a bit of a cheap answer to an age old philosophical question.  Despite the cop-out, Lion-O seems stirred by the words.

As the troupe of plants and cats approach what Emmerich believes to be the entrance to the Cliff of Winds, Slithe’s recon squad strikes.  The bushwacking lizards quickly overwhelm the cats.  Calling upon his fellow Petalars, Emmerich rallies his people to the cats’ aid.  Armed with pollen power, the Petalars blind the lizards, allowing for a truly epic moment that sees Lion-O backhand a lizard with the Sword of Omens’ pommel. A few more lizards get the piss knocked out of them before anything cold blooded is left to rot as the cats continue onward.

When Slithe’s team does not return with the cats in tow, the General deems his lost troopers expendable and orders the Briar Woods burned to the ground.  What a dick.

Inside the woods, the cats and plants continue through the brambles. Having followed an ancient Petalar map to the supposed location of the Cliff of Winds, they find yet another dead end.  Enter Lion-O’s pessimism.  “Maybe there is no Cliff of Winds.  Maybe the map is a lie.  But why?”

Paging Admiral Adama.  Admiral Adama to the false hope ward please.

When Emmerich suggests that the map was created to give his people hope, Lion-O rebuts with another hard question, “Is that all hope is, an illusion?”  Good question, Lion-O.  Unfortunately, there’s no time to explore that idea with the flames from Slithe’s arsonists closing in. However, the fire produces an unexpected result; its updraft creates a wind that is strong enough for the Petalars to take flight.

As one might expect, when it is Emmerich’s turn to take to the sky Lion-O finds him transformed into a withered old husk.  Saddened, Lion-O apologies for not being able to get Emmerich home.  With his final words – so many final words in this episode – the old plant tells Lion-O that life is about the journey, not the destination.   And then he dies surrounded by tearful Thundercats.  Upon witnessing the death of his friend while the remainder of the Petalars take flight for their voyage home, Lion-O reverses his previous policy of tactical withdrawal and orders a very suicidal attack on the Lizard army.

How the hell does, “Life is about the journey” translate to “go ahead and get all your subjects killed.”  Was the Book of Omens replaced with the Zapp Brannigan book of leadership when I wasn’t looking?

““Thundercats don’t retreat”, Lion-O proudly proclaims before an obligatory thunder, thunder, thunder, Thundercats HO!  Yes, they don’t retreat, except for when they do.  The change in mood is all a little too convenient.  While Emmerich’s life and death have all the emotional gusto of a Russell T. Davies’ written episode of Doctor Who, the existentialism went away far too quickly.  At least in last week’s episode Lion-O was able to see a clear line between a good leader and a pathological one.  This week felt too convenient.

Anyway, the cats proceed to mix it up with the lizards.  They’re holding their own until the ‘mechs open up on them with energy weapons.  Huddled together, Tigra and Shetara offer a cursory pre-death salute to Lion-O’s courage.  Right, courage, that’s what constitutes leading one’s team to their death.

Seriously, why did the two of them think this battle was a good idea? What about the Book of Omens and Jaga’s last orders?

Just as the lizards are about to make their kill, one of the ‘mechs explodes, then another and then a third.  A silhouetted vehicle, which is obviously the Thunder Tank, devastates the lizard army.  The mystery vehicle comes to a stop in front of the cats.  Concealed in shadow, the driver stands alone.  One last very stupid lizard jumps on to the side of the vehicle before attacking the driver.  Without flinching, the driver nunchucks the lizard right in the face.

““Who are you,” asks a nonplussed Lion-O.

““The name’s Panthro.”

So on the positive side Pathro’s back.  On the downside, the episode could be looked at as a bit of a throwaway that resolved itself with a Deus ex Thundercat in the 11^th hour.  How would I have done it differently?  All the elements of a solid story were there.  The writers simply needed to change the order around so Panthro saves the day at the start of the episode and Lion-O is left exploring hope in the complex way that he first approached the subject.

Episode Score: +2

Series Score to Date : +2.75