Thundercats Roar

About

Thundercats Roar is an upcoming reboot of the Thundercats animated series which aired in the 1980s. The series is being produced by Warner Brothers and will air on Cartoon Network. After its trailer was posted online, it generated backlash as the trailer seemed to promise a much more family-friendly tone in the reboot than in the original, and fans noticed the show's animation seemed to employ the "CalArts" style, a style used in shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe, that in itself has drawn criticism from animators and fans.

History

On May 18th, 2018, Warner Brothers uploaded a trailer for Thundercats Roar, along with some behind-the-scenes interviews with the producer, Victor Courtwright (shown below). The video was widely disliked, gaining just over 400 likes and 4,200 dislikes within three days of being uploaded.

Backlash

After the trailer was posted online, social media users expressed their distaste for the concept, animation, and direction of the reboot. Twitter user @LakelPruitt,^[1] a professed fan of the show, tweeted that the reboot ruined his childhood, gaining over 210 retweets and 600 likes (shown below, left). User @TheyCallMeTXT^[2] mocked Courtwright's appearance and the concept, gaining 70 retweets and over 160 likes (shown below, right).

Other Twitter users joked about the reboot by imagining other shows being rebooted with the art style. Twitter user @flipskip1 parodied the recently popular Captain America Detention meme by drawing Captain America in the style, gaining over 8,700 retweets and 35,000 likes (shown below, left). Twitter user @speedosausage tweeted a parody of The Simpsons drawn in the style, gaining over 1,700 retweets and 9,000 likes (shown below, right).

The trailer also drew backlash on YouTube. For example, user MimHeadroom posted a rant against the trailer, gaining over 23,000 views (shown below, left). User Just Some Guy did the same, gaining over 26,000 views (shown below, right).

However, there were some social media users who felt the reactions were overreactions. For example, Twitter user @skullmandible posted several GIFs of the 80s era of cartoons people were fondly remembering and saying was better than the current CalArts-style, showing blatant errors in animation while making a point that the nostalgia people felt towards the era ignored some of the era's realities (example shown below). The reactions were covered by The Daily Dot,^[3] Forbes,^[4] and Fansided.^[5]

Search Interest

External References