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When word got out that Cartoon Network would be reimagining the classic 1980s cartoon Thundercats in 2011, fans were simultaneously excited and nervous. The excitement centered on the reality of seeing new adventures with characters like Lion-O, Panthro, Cheetara and Tygra. But the word “reimagining” raises huge red flags. What exactly does it mean? Well one of the show’s producers, Michael Jelenic, released a few small details that should ease fan trepidations. Read all about it after the break.
MTV spoke with Jelenic (with a nod to Collider), who is best known for his work on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He talked about the passion of the fans, the animation studio and more. The most important thing he talked about, though, was exactly how the show was going to be “reimagined.”
One thing is that I tried to simplify the mythology a little bit. It’s a pretty complicated backstory that borrows from a lot of other sci-fi stuff, like Superman and Star Wars. In developing this, I wanted it to be a little more simple. In the other version, there’s something like three different planets involved, and they all converge onto one planet, and nobody’s really connected. I just wanted to bring that all together. It’s reimagined in that way, but at the same time, we’re going to see the characters that we love.
He also confirmed that Snarf would be in the show and will not talk. Thank god.
He won’t be going, ‘Lion-O, why don’t you do this?’ We just having him say, ‘Snarf! Snarf!’ That’s a way to get him in the show without annoying every single person who hates him. It’s funny, because people are always like, ‘I hate Snarf! Wait. you’re not going to put him in? That’s terrible!’
Finally, though we’ve seen the below rendering of Lion-O, we don’t really know how the new show will look in comparison to the classic cartoon. So, here’s a brief description.
I think when people see the final character designs, people will think it’s a different take, but it will feel very familiar to the old series. The colors aren’t quite as bright as they were. It’s a little darker take, but you’ll recognize everybody.
Don’t forget to check out our original article to read the initial press release with all kinds of addtitional information.
So Thundercats fans, what do you think? Is Jelenic saying the right things and do you think the show will be as cool as the original?
Source: /film