But he never seems to question his right to the throne when the time comes, though it is implied that he would be a more enlightened king if he still had a kingdom. Lion-O rebels against this when he saves two lizard prisoners from being lynched by the cat citizens of Thundera, and in his friendship with a dog who supplies him with ancient technological artifacts. The cats' religious order (of which Cheetara is a warrior/acolyte) supports and defends the king, and does not seem to question the existing order. There seem to be implications of a race/caste system underlying their society. Do the cats rule at the expense of other species? (The lizards, who become the recurring bad guys on the trail of our heroes, insist that they are fighting for their own liberation.) Also, the royal family are lions, so Lion-O inherits the crown instead of his adopted brother, who is a different species. It’s possible that Warner Bros., seeing the risk that a movie production would pose, funneled the ideas of the canceled movie project into the animated series.For kids old enough to analyze these things, there is a lot to talk about in the backstory established in the pilot. Coincidentally, the story of Lion-O’s ascension to power echoes that which Sopocy initially drafted for the previously planned movie version. Animation and Cartoon Network were teaming up for an anime-style ThunderCats series, which was planned as an origin story for Lion-O, tracing his journey towards princedom. In 2010, it was announced that Warner Bros. As a result, the poor box office performance of TMNT - it grossed only $54 million domestically on a budget of $34 million - could have swayed the studio against the production of the former.Īnother possible reason for the cancellation of the remake is the studio’s shift from the big screen to the small one. Previously leaked test footage of ThunderCats, in fact, confirms stylistic similarities to TMNT. Studio execs would have looked at TMNT’s success (or, more correctly, lack thereof) as a blueprint for ThunderCats, both in terms of production value and critical reception. This important to note because, at the end of the day, a studio has to make films that make money. After all, in the same year as their ThunderCats announcement, the studio released TMNT(2007), incidentally a CGI-animated feature based on an '80s franchise about a group of animal-like humanoid heroes. didn’t think a CGI-animated feature based on an '80s franchise about a group of animal-like humanoid heroes was a lucrative investment. It is, in short, possible that Warner Bros. That being said, when it comes to understanding the possible reasons why the canceled ThunderCats movie never happened, it's always a safe bet to follow the money and medium. Kongdirector Adam Wingard at the helm - the ultimate reason for the initial project’s cancellation is up for speculation. has, over a decade later, announced that a different ThunderCats remake is actually in the works - this time, with Godzilla vs. Moreover, there was no official word on why the project was shelved. Plans for it were canceled in 2009, despite ThunderCats concept art making it out to the public. never officially gave the planned ThunderCats remake the green light. Related: The TMNT Movie Reboot Should Learn from the Forgotten 2003 TV Showĭespite the franchise’s evident popularity, however, Warner Bros. The planned adaptation that was first announced in 2007 would have been an origin story similar to the original pilot, "Exodus", following Lion-O as he became the leader of the Thundercats and doing battle with Mumm-Ra. The series is one of many franchises in the 1980s that has undergone numerous reboots and has spawned a line of toys, a series of comic books, and a fervent following. There, the team battles against an evil sorcerer named Mumm-Ra whose goal is to eradicate the Thunderians species. ThunderCats tells the story of cat-like humanoid alien-heroes-with fittingly cat-like names, like Lion-O and Cheetara-who, after the destruction of their home planet Thundera, must flee to another planet called Third Earth.
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