Right alongside Masters of the Universe and Transformers, the ThunderCats were a staple of weekday afternoon animated viewing in the ’80s. The feline warriors from the planet Thundera were a toy and cartoon sensation. And for a whole generation of kids, they made the phrase “ThunderCats, HO!” iconic. As a tribute to the classic series, YouTube creator Mike Booth has recreated the original ThunderCats TV series intro using the 3D animation software program Blender.
You can view the cool (and kinda creepy) results down below:
This recreation, which uses the original ear worm of a theme song, is beat-for-beat like the original. “The ThunderCats have been a love of mine since I can remember and the intro is something I thought would be a fun challenge to recreate and keep my interest while I was learning the software,” said Booth in the video’s description. Currently, Booth isn’t planning to continue making anymore CGI ThunderCats. At least in the immediate future. But further down the road, he has some ideas.
“I’ve got no plans to make anything else like this… for a few years, at least,” Booth said. “I will at some point make a ThunderCats short film, making use of some of the years of notes I’ve kept for a feature trilogy, but I’ll wait until the software reaches a point where I can film a performance on my camera and just drag and drop it onto my 3D characters.”
In the meantime, Booth has released a side-by-side comparison between his version and the original.
If this video has put you in a nostalgic mood for the adventures of Lion-O, Panthro, Cheetara, and Tigra, then you’re in luck. Hulu just dropped both the original 1985-89 version of ThunderCats on their service, as well as the underrated 2011 reboot from Cartoon Network. And if those don’t put you in a ThunderCats state of mind, then might we suggest the awesome voice over bloopers from the original series. Because those just never get old.
Featured Image: Mike Booth
