Thundercats (2011) Early Impressions

The new cartoon is up and running and so far 8 episodes have aired on Cartoon Network. What's the series like? Well I have to say its pretty damn good.

The animation style is modernized to look very Japanese Anime-like. Which all in all is not a bad thing and you get used to the stylized looks of the characters. There's plenty of references and nods to the old Rankin Bass series and even the sister series Silverhawks and Tigersharks.

The story line thus far is pretty much all setup and unsurprisingly so as they need to introduce these characters to the new generations. For older viewers like myself that hearken from the 80's version the story is satisfyingly and surprisingly grown up.

8 episodes in and it shows a very different Thundera and setup for the characters. Instead of crash landing in a distant planet this all takes place in their homeworld. Their city is still destroyed though this time its by Mumm-Ra, and their species all but wiped out (at least so far) forcing the young team of Thundercats on a journey to find not a new world, but an ancient artifact that can help them fight (if I may take a line from He-Man) "The Evil forces of..." Mumm-Ra.

So far the show has shown very good writing and animation, though editing has some issues in recent episodes. Lets hope they can work at that to make the cuts and flow of the story a bit less jarring at times.

Overall a great start to a revamping of an 80's classic. Worth watching if you are a fan of the original.