In a distant galaxy, the world of Thundera is in crisis. The planet's structure has become unstable and is near collapse. With their destruction imminent, Thundera's denizens--known as the Thundercats--escape in a spaceship and plot a course for a new home. While in transit, the Thundercats are attacked by evil mutants and their craft is irreparably damaged. Jaga, the eldest Thundercat, sacrifices himself in order to pilot the ship safely to its destination: Third Earth. On this new planet, the noble band of survivors bravely faces off against vicious mutants intent on destroying them. Make way for exotic creatures, mystical powers and action-packed battles of good versus evil in the exciting saga of the Thundercats! In these first-season adventures from the dynamic animated series, the Thundercats adopt Third Earth as their new home and encounter alien beings galore - some friendly, some looking for a fight! And while they brave their strange surroundings, their young leader Lion-O struggles with his new responsibilities as head of their founding civilizations.

CRITIQUE

Thundercats is a classic cartoon show that I remember quite well as I saw it a lot during my youth. The appeal of the show is definitely the characters but also the action that’s fun to watch. The stories are usually quite good with decent drama and the occasional “messages” dropped in here and there. Like I said, the action is good, and the animation looks pretty good for its time (it was the mid-80s). Also valuable to the enjoyment of the show is the cool music.

For this review I was given the show’s first 12 episodes on DVD which are discs 1 and 2 of the six-disc set. Thundercats: Season 1 - Volume 1 features the first 33 episodes of 65 total shows (Volume 2 comes out in December). I’ve probably seen half of these many years ago, and surprisingly the show holds up quite well today. The 12 episodes I watched were good (obviously some are better than others), and overall I had a good time revisiting the Thundercats.

Disc 1:

1 – Exodus

2 – The Unholy Alliance

3 - Berbils

4 – The Slaves of Castle Plun-Darr

5 – Pumm-Ra

6 – The Terror of Hammerhand

Disc 2:

7 – Trouble with Time

8 – The Tower of Traps

9 – The Garden of Delights

10 – Mandora the Evil Chaser

11 – The Ghost Warrior

12 – The Doomgaze

THE VIDEO

Warner Bros. presents Thundercats in the show’s original fullscreen aspect ratio. The video doesn’t seem to be remastered and therefore the quality of the picture looks very average, somewhat VHS quality but a bit better.

THE AUDIO

Warner Bros. presents Thundercats in English, Spanish and French Dolby Digital Mono. This is an average transfer that gets the job done. Speaking of quality, the second episode (The Unholy Alliance) is without music if you listen to it in English (opening and closing theme is still there), yet the Spanish and French dub tracks include the music.

THE EXTRAS

Feel the Magic, Hear the Roar: ThunderCats Fans Speak Out - Wil Wheaton of Star Trek: TNG and other loyal Super Fans give their memories and support to this animation classic. At only 7 minutes, this featurette is not only pretty short but also quite useless when you consider the statements given in the interviews are obvious (stuff you already know about the show – who the characters are, etc.) and the participants sing the theme song (don’t know what they were thinking - it plays kind of weird). This featurette, which also plays several clips of the first few episodes, is located on disc 1.

This is the only extra, which is a disappointment. I would’ve liked to see something on the show’s music or voice acting.

FINAL THOUGHT

Fans of the show should definitely pick up this favorite cartoon on DVD. However, the set is a bit pricey if you consider the (lacking) quality of the video and extras, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find this DVD for about $35-40. The casual viewer is probably better off renting this set.