if you don't know, now you know-ThunderCats Ho!!

UPDATE!  Thanks to Bleeding Cool for passing on the deets of ThunderCats scribe, Todd Casey dropping us a real-deal, official image of those fab, four felines that trended and RT'd more than I coulda imagined om Twitter yesterday...looks like more of the same today.

Guess 80's chic is still the shit, huh?! Prince should so do the opening soundtrack.  Utter sickness.

10:40 AM                                                                                                                                                                1/25/2011
 2011 will go down as the year that Japan fully takes over the animation game (for many, this took place in the 90's) with Studio4°C (The Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight) anime house bringing ThunderCats to the Cartoon Network later in the year.  Thanks to the sneaky ninjas at Thundercats Lair we get to see the first image of the re-visioned anime from The London Toy Fare:

Similar to how Madhouse rocked a fab take on Iron Man (jury is still out on Wolverine)-- we get a more youthful, stylized refresh of Lion-O, Tygra, Cheetara and Panthro.  You gotta love those handlebars on Panthro!!  According to various forums the mood and theme will be much darker and mature in tones like that of most anime out there. 

ThunderCats is executive produced by Sam Register (“Teen Titans,” “Ben 10,” “Batman: The Brave and the Bold”). Michael Jelenic (“Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” “Wonder Woman”) and Ethan Spaulding (“Avatar: The Last Airbender”) are the producers. The series marks a creative collaboration between Warner Bros. Animation and Studio4°C, one of the most vibrant animation studios in Japan.
Debuting in 1985, the ThunderCats roared onto the broadcast air waves and created feline frenzy with their band of cat-like heroes from the planet Thundera. Behind their fearless leader Lion-O, the ThunderCats strove to protect their new home on Third Earth and their headquarters, Cat’s Lair, from the Mutants of Plunn-Darr. The ThunderCats pop culture phenomenon had its paws sunk deeply not only in television, but also toylines, apparel and comic books. Twenty-five years later, through the Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Bandai America collaboration, the beloved brand is poised to make a new audience of kids feel the magic and hear the roar once again.

Well, of course being at an ahem...toy convention..how about the figs, weapons and is that the ThunderTank?! from the craftsmen of Bandai based on the new animation!

Though I will be passing on most of the figs (I am maxed out on shelf space for a new toy-line) the Sword of Omens-- that extends from knife to sword!-- will be swinging around my man-cave fo sho.  Until we get some actual footage of the new ThunderCats, here are the Madhouse (easily, my top Anime studio) teasers on the frontmen of Marvel-- Iron-Man and Wolverine:







This post was written by:
big O

Read the full story

WTF moment of the week- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Flipping channels during a nice hangover this weekend got me stuck on Disney XD for a few hours and no, I wasn't catching up on the latest Zeke and Luther (why do I even know this??)  To my surprise, all 20 Avengers: EMH! micro-episodes were being aired sequentially in anticipation of next week's premiere on Wednesday (5:30P/8:30E).

I caught a few of these web teasers when they started 2 months ago, but spending time and catching all of em was enough to fill a 30 minute spot on the DVR every Wednesday.  Each of the micro-episodes focused on one of the major players that will be apart of the Avengers cast.  The animation, voice-acting and thematic direction is solid and has enough mature undertones to keep the "big kids" tuned in.  What got me instantly

hooked and intrigued was in the Captain America webisodes-- that was played as an archive by Kang the Conqueror-- highlighting Steve Rogers origin and role in leading the Allies against the Red Skull and Hydra.  The freshest moments was a scene with the Howling Commandos about to lead an assault and none other than Logan was included.  Cap asked for Logan to get some recon and boom-- we get that lovely SNIKT!

But even cooler was when Bucky and Cap were on the tail of Red Skull (jump to 4:10 in the vid below) and we get some geeky-fab foreshadowing into who we most likely will be seeing in later episodes of the Avengers.  I so love how many of the great modernized story threads/concepts from comicbooks are being applied to all of the mediums-- be it TV, film, toys and videogames.  Avengers Assemble!!

This post was written by:
big O

Read the full story