10 '80s Cartoons that Need ThunderCats-Quality Reboots

By Jay Barish in Cartoons, Daily Lists
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 7:59 am
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It's official -- the new, long-awaited ThunderCats cartoon is a hit, the rare reboot that not only looks better, but might actually be better than the original. Taking the original, clunky tale of cat-people living in relative peace in paradise and turning it into a anime-style hero's journey along a path of revenge, the new ThunderCats tweaks the familiar aspects of the show just enough to make them actually make sense together, and knifes enough people in the back so as not to make everyone's survival a foregone conclusion. While Masters of the Universe gave a slightly darkened update a whirl a decade ago, and Voltron is attempting to do the same now, ThunderCats is now the gold standard, and there's a long list of 1980s cartoons that would give their right Snarf for a similar treatment.



10) Dungeons & Dragons

When it debuted in 1983, Dungeons & Dragons was slapped with a warning against its violent content. But in these days of Camelot and Game of Thrones, I think we can do better. I'm not saying make Bobby the Barbarian into a savage killing machine, or have Eric the Cavalier partake in unrepentant whoring, but picture the most realistic outcome of putting teens in a primitive fantasy world where killing is often the only recourse, and all of the Lord of the Rings-meets-Lord of the Flies scenarios that would result, and tell me that wouldn't be a smash hit. However, if Snarf isn't allowed to talk in the new ThunderCats, than Uni the Baby Unicorn should be silent, as well.

9) The Real Ghostbusters

Let's face it, there will never be a third Ghostbusters movie. But maybe there can be a third Ghostbusters animated series! The Real Ghostbusters told some truly epic stories, thanks to writer J. Michael Straczynski, even if none lasted past the half-hour mark, and while Extreme Ghostbusters passed the torch to a new generation, there's just no substitute for the four original members. ThunderCats has successfully de-aged most of its characters, so I say why not de-age the Ghostbusters, making it so they started the company in their mid-20s? Then, slowly escalate the threats to New York City over the course of the season, while simultaneously revealing the past traumatic incidents that triggered each member's interest in the afterlife. And the best part is that you might actually get Bill Murray to participate, since voice-over work seems to be all he's willing to do anymore.

8) C.O.P.S.

Central Organization of Police Specialists may have been outfitted with cutting-edge technology, but it was largely unnecessary, given the complete and utter idiocy of Empire City's criminal population. Led by a James Cagney impersonator, this evil cadre of morons was unable to make any of their plans last beyond a single episode, and it was more or less a given that the doofuses would be busted by either the cop with the robot dog or the cop with the flying Segway. Therefore, just as the lizard men of the new ThunderCats have been shown to be infinitely more effective than the mutants of the original series ever were, any successful C.O.P.S. reboot (if such a thing could, in fact, exist) needs to increase both the intelligence displayed and threat posed by the Crooks. Also, as with the new ThunderCats, a balance will need to be established between the animation quality of the opening sequence and the rest of each episode.

7) TaleSpin

The original ThunderCats made anthropomorphic animals cool, and the reboot made them even cooler, but what about slightly less anthropomorphic animals, like the ones in TaleSpin? Yes, they wore clothes, and yes, they flew planes, but Baloo basically had the same physique he had as an actual bear in The Jungle Book, and Louie was pretty much a monkey in a shirt and hat. Could any TaleSpin reboot make furries as happy as the new ThunderCats does? I think so. All we need is some pulp-fiction intrigue to go with the pulp-fiction adventure the show did so well, the occasional knife fight between Baloo and a shirtless Shere Khan, and more female characters who aren't voiced by Sally Struthers. Nothing drains the sex appeal out of a Talespin ....

6) Bravestarr

One of the most striking things about the new ThunderCats is the show's lush anime look, which is head and shoulders above the original show's occasionally choppy animation. And since anime has been referencing and glorifying the Western for decades (see: Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, etc.), it's high time those highly skilled animators took on a real cowboy cartoon. Sure, Marshall Bravestarr may live on the planet of New Texas, have Native Kryptonian -- er, Native American superpowers, and ride a talking cyborg horse from an ancient race of talking cyborg horses, but it was definitely a cowboy show. With the gritty Western series Deadwood and the sci-fi Western series Firefly as thematic forebears, and the new ThunderCats as an artistic role model, the trials and tribulations of a settlement on the untamed frontier of space will never have looked so good.

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