Thundercats was a cartoon that was released in the US in 1985. It was a favorite amongst all kids when I was growing up. A total of 130 episodes were aired out of which few were aired on Television Maldives (TVM). But the episodes that were aired, were awaited for with barely contained impatience. I remember that back then, in every household there existed one or more Lion-O, Cheetara, Panthro, Tygra, WilyKit and a WilyKat. Snarf would also be included if necessary. Those who were fast enough in choosing got the good guys, whilst the ones a bit slow to react to the choosing game, gets left with the evil characters. Some even went as far as to shape a Sword of Omens from some plywood lying around the house. Good times!.

Even though, back then the conversations in a cartoon didn’t interest us much, the concept of good vs bad/good winning over evil reached out to us. The theme remained central that the thundercats would come under attack from the mutants mainly lead by the mini-skirt clad Mumm-Ra who wants the power of the Sword of Omens and to destroy the Thundercats so that he could rule the Third World. (sort of reminds me of Maumoon!)

Based on the fact that the cartoons were produced in the 1980’s I would say the animation is pretty good. Am currently watching all the episodes that were aired, and only now do I understand that behind the fight between good and evil, their lies a good background story as well that continues development throughout giving insight into what life was like before the Thundercats came to the Third World.

There is talk that a Thundercats movie might be released on 2010, however the videos on YouTube doesn’t shed much light onto how ‘awesome’ this movie would turn out to be. If WarnerBros. does decide to release one, I hope that it doesn’t diminish the joy that we had back in the 90’s when a rare episode of Thundercats would be aired on TVM that had us all hyped up for the rest of the week!