Customer Reviews

Thundercats - Season One, Volume Two

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I love Thundercats. The stories are well written and well animated. Unfortunately, WB released these episodes without any restoration.

The good news is that I get to watch them on DVD. Once again, the box art is really cool. The DVD art is awesome as well. I guess that is where the money went into releasing this series. No inserts this time. Will we ever see Season 2? One can only hope.

Fans should be pleased with this sets special features as they are much better than part one. We actually get to see interviews with people from the show including voice actors. They even talk about the outtakes, which I was very happy to see verified.

More continuity issues as the famed Anointment Trials are broken up onto a few discs and are never back to back so if you want to watch them all in a row, prepare to skip around.

Hopefully enough people buy this so that other episodes are released and possibly restored one day.

I want to first say that I love Thundercats. Along with gi joe and transformers, it ranks as one of the greatest cartoons of the '80s. The reason for my 1 star review has nothing to do with the show, but instead with the dvds. For such a price it really is highway robbery.

The episodes look like they were taken from tv. No remastering or enhancement, you can still see white marks and scratches. Also, as mentioned in another review, the background music is missing from some episodes. Along with that, the menus are sorely lacking. They're very short and without any imagination or flair. Except for the main menu, all the submenus are just still images from the show.

And don't fall for the specials. There is a 25 minute documentary with some of the voice artists and producers, but it felt rushed. Not all of the voice artists were interviewed, and with such a show, I'm sure they have enough material for a full 60 minute documentary. One further complaint, no chapters in the episodes. The entire episode is just one big chapter. At least rhino was able to split the episodes into scenes.

I would swallow my pride if this cost 19.99 or thereabouts, but not for this price. The lack of detail and quality just shows all over this release; don't you just hate corporate greed.

It is now time to complete the first season of Thundercats- the cartoon story of a long-running battle between good and evil, as our heroes the Thundercats use the power of their mystical sword of Omens to defeat the supernatural powers of the evil mummy Mumm-Ra and the troublesome mutants.

There are various highlights but the most important to the Thundercats saga are Lion-O's annointment trial days as he earns the right to be Lord of the Thundercats. On Day 1 he challenges Panthro's strength, on day 2 he challenges Cheetara's speed, on day 3 WilyKit and WilyKat's cunning, day 4 Tygra's mind power, and day 5 is the big one as he challenges his most powerful enemy Mumm-Ra. It is the first time we see Mumm-Ra destroyed- he was destroyed several times throughout the series before the Thundercats finally decided to leave him in existence and deal with him when it became necessary. I remember seeing the trials for the first time back-to-back but they are spread out between various episodes here. I think that's how it was originally broadcast. Other highlights include mutant Monkian confronting Mumm-Ra, the sword Excalibur defeating the sword of Omens and the introduction of Mumm-Rana. There are so many highlights here which nostalgic fans will be very happy to revisit. It is also the last time we see the adventures of just the original Thundercats, for new Thundercats are introduced at the beginning of Season 2.

This boxset has 1 special feature- Thundercats Ho! The Making of a Pop Culture Phenomenon. In it Executive Producer Arthur Rankin Jr. shares secrets from the show.

For those new to Thundercats this holds up very well with current television cartoon series- the animation may indeed be average but the action and adventure is top notch. And to nostalgic Thundercats fans, again we say HO!

I know the dvds arent remastered are anything like that, I am just happy that Tcats are out on dvd. I dont problems with my sets, I wasnt missing any soundtrack on the first volume.

Yes, they could have been remastered and all that, but like I said, I am just excited to be able to watch them again, the tapes i had them on are getting old, pushing 18-20 year old VHS tapes, that quality was getting bad.


Just a side note to some, the Annointment Trials were originally broadcasted once a week for 5 weeks (the other 4 days were other new episodes), so the DVD is in the original broadcast order, they were rerun back to back in the subsequent reruns of the show.

An MSRP of $65 is insulting for a program (while absolutly great) that has single track mono sound and a direct video transfer with no touch-up work done to restore artwork that is 20 years old. Volume 1, episode one, had a minor glitch at the 3:15 marker with an overall terrible transfer, and episode two had no soundtrack... Volume 2 looks to be as haphazardly thrown together, which is an absolute shame for such a great show!

For those that are praising the release, I would at least recommend you read the posts made about the first volume of Season One. And for the individual who said they were digitally remastered, I think you are mistaken because they did not remaster anything on the first release. Secondly, there was the issue of missing soundtrack on the English language track on one episode, a few seconds of shaking on the first episode and the obvious rip of the broadcast tapes for this release. It looks like they took a VHS-DVD recorder combo and hit record on the original and with the price they are charging for such a lousy release, I would hope they don't make the same mistake twice. I contacted Warner Bros concerning the first release and all they did was ask for mailing address. This was over a month ago so it was probably just to send more junk in the mail. Now, seeing how people have made their own DVDs of this and sold it, it is really a huge chance to trust a made copy so if you are obsessed with the series like I am, odds are you will buy it anyway but for the money we are being charged, I hope they do better than the last time.

This cartoon is just amazing. It immediately took off when it first appeared on tv in 1985. I was 12 so a bit older but still very impressionable and was amazed with the series.

I don't know much about the technicalities of cartoon animation cause I still love scooby doo even though they go past the same spot about ten times as they run away.

But I do know, Thundercats stories have great morals. Very good topics and lessons for all to learn. I am a Christian and would let my children watch this cartoon. I plan on getting the whole series to own.

Simply an amazing show. I think it's great!

If you like this you may also be interested in the ORIGINAL He-man cartoon animation series. He will defend himself from evil. Never aggresively harm another person and helps out his enemy's that are in danger. Very good morals in this cartoon as well. And again with a valuable lesson to learn for all who watch.

I love the Thundercats. I remember watching it with a passion, when I was a kid along with G.I. Joe and Transformers and the appeal has lasted into adulthood. If you're nostalgic and want to re-experience a great cartoon (despite highly glaring reality issues (i.e., Thundercats breathing and talking in space)), then this is a great buy as a series.

However, the massive problem I have with this is the order of the episodes. It's the worst possible thing you can do to a boxed set, considering that you're creating the boxed set for nostalgic fans. Do the producers of these boxed sets actually think children are looking for Thundercats cartoons? That's about as likely as a 30-year-old looking for Felix the Cat cartoons.

Basically, this volume deals with Lion-O's trials to officially become the Lord of the Thundercats. These trials take place back to back, which is highly obvious due to:

1. The Thundercat's missing their logos after each defeat (Lion-O wears them now)
2. The mutants having conversations about the trials
3. Lion-O being physically tired from previous trial levels

If you watch the dvds, though, you'll quickly find that the trial episodes are split up between the disks--about one episode per disk. The episodes are so badly reordered that the season narrative looses any sensibility. (For instance, in Episode 5: The Demolisher, Mum-Ra specifically uses video from Episode 10: The Rock Giant, to convince the Demolisher to fight Lion-O. The video in question is of Lion-O defeating the Rock Giant.) This happens time and again and not only is it annoying, it's insulting. It's like watching seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer out of order--the narrative just doesn't make sense.

1 star for the absolute worst boxed set ever and I've seen the TMNT (2003) and original FOX X-Men boxed sets (not new) so that's saying something.

Awesome!!!

A work of art. Better than most of the cartoons out today.

Buy this boxed set, it is worth every dollar.

I don't care about extra features or remastered "special editions" of these classic cartoons... I just want the great experience I had 20 years ago as I remember it, all over again!!!
I bet all of these people complaining about the poor original quality of Thundercats are the same geeks who were mortified by George Lucas' changes to the Star Wars movies, as they demanded the original versions! These people are walking contradictions! And about the company...
Warner Bros did make good on their promise to correct the mistake of disc one: they reissued disc one (via mail) with music restored to the second episode to whoever signed up for it. I received mine, checked it out, and it was great. They have restored my faith in them. Volume 2 should be awesome!!!