NN REVIEW: Thundercats: Old Friends

Another step in the right direction for Thundercats. Episode 5, titled "Old Friends" introduces us to a new team member while giving some back story on our villain.

Meet Panthro. The badass that badasses refer to as badass. A once loyal soldier of the king, Panthro turned up at the end of last week's episode and saved our heroes from certain death. In this episode we got to see a little bit of Panthro's history and his relationship with a formidable foe.

At the start of the episode we learn that Panthro's ThunderTank runs on what is called Thundrillium and he is out of it. Unfortunately the closest place to get some is a lizard infested mine where Grune is harvesting the Thundrillium for Mumm-Ra's army. Remember Grune? The cat that betrayed everyone in the battle that led to the king's death in the series premier? Ya, he and Panthro are old buddies.

And that leads us to the second story in this episode. Grune and Panthro initially met on the battlefield as soldiers and became inseparable. From the get-go we see that Grune strives to become king and somehow upset the establishment, while Panthro needs only a strong king to serve in order to feel fulfilled. Eventually the two are sent out on a special mission to find the fabled Book of Omens. Seeing the back story between Grune and Panthro was great and it did an excellent job of introducing us to Panthro while giving us the reasoning for Grune's eventual betrayal of his kingdom. Although it was a bit unfortunate that Grune was so clearly anti-establishment from the beginning. Literally almost right after we meet him in battle he is complaining about what they have to do. But it was still a great back story for the episode.

Back in present time, Lion-O quickly discovers that Panthro will not follow him blindly simply because he is the new king. Lion-O must earn his respect. I'm glad that Lion-O now has another member of the team that will challenge him and force him to mature as a character. His development has to be done slowly and it has to seem like he is being shaped by those around him and I think they have set this up perfectly with Tygra and Panthro. Eventually they break into the mine and are forced to confront Grune and his lizard crones.

I won't say much more since I don't want to put in any spoilers. But all in all I thought the episode was pretty much on par with what I've come to expect from the show. Nothing particularly earth shattering (actually that's not true) but also nothing that made this a poor episode. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing some more flashbacks from this show so as to learn more about the history of our characters and what has made them the way they are.

4/5

NN REVIEW: Thundercats: Song of the Petalars

Tonight the 4th episode of Thundercats aired called Song of the Petalars. After last weeks episode, Ramlak Rising, I'm glad that the show managed to get back on track. Last week we saw less of Tygra than I expected after how vocal he was in the series premier but this week he was once again clashing with Lion-O. I think this rivalry needs to continue as it did in tonight's episode because it can provide a believable process for both Lion-O and Tygra to develop and mature as the series progresses into hopefully darker territory.

Tonight's episode centered around an interesting plant species called Petalars. These Oddish like creatures experience their entire lives in a single day. Although the plot wasn't air tight it did provide an engrossing story that ended up teaching Lion-O that hope was essential to success. The main Petalar that we followed, Emeric was incredible. Starting out as an inquisitive little flower petal, we saw him live his entire life in one episode and although it only spanned one day, Emeric became a wise, endearing friend to Lion-O. I was a little worried at first when I saw the Petalars because I think Thundercats can be the kind of cartoon that is a little more mature than most. Somewhat like Avatar, it should be able to appeal to both older and younger audiences, so seeing the flower people at first made me skeptical as to how childish this episode would be. But the story ended up being pretty moving and very well told.

The episode concludes with Lion-O and his companions in a hopeless situation but then a certain someone comes to save the day. Now, the old show was a bit before my time so I never got to watch it, but it sounds like if you're familiar with the old show, this character's appearance will be a pretty exciting moment for you. As for me, I'm pumped to see what this new badass brings to the group!

All in all I think Song of the Petalars was a much more engaging episode than last weeks and I hope it's more like what we will continue to see from the show.

4/5

TELEVISION: I'm usually a dog person.

But I just finished watching the premier of the new Thundercats show and I must say it was pretty stinkin great! It's very hard for cartoons to appeal to both a younger and older crowd at the same time but Thundercats does an excellent job of doing just that. Obviously Thundercats wants to attract some older viewers who grew up watching the old show but also grab the younger demographic of new viewers to introduce them to Thundera. In the series premier we meet our protagonist Lion-O who is heir to the throne of Thundera but spends most of his time fiddling with technology that no one believes in. The episode does an excellent job of presenting this world of Third Earth and creating a fearsome antagonist while giving us reason to root for Lion-O and his companions. I won't spoil anything for those who want to watch it, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good solid cartoon. Thundercats will air on Cartoon Network, Friday nights at 8:30 eastern.