Thundarr the Barbarian

Honestly, one of my favorite saturday morning cartoon shows from the early 80's. This Kirby-spawn only lasted 2 seasons... perhaps because of the fact that Thundarr often referred to his ally the sorcereress Ariel as simply "woman"... oddly enough, more often than not Ariel was the sole member of the group who saved their buns from the fire. Lots of great dialog. Possibly inspired by the role-playing game "Gamma World" (which is, sadly now out of print)... Basically when you are 11 years old and a post-apocalyptic barbarian with a lightsaber (read as "Sun Sword") and a cool Chewbacca substitute named "Ookla the Mok" show up on a Saturday morning world of Smurfs and Superfriends you think this is really cool!

'Thundarr the Barbarian' has been one of my favorite cartoons for years, holding a place beside 'Dungeons and Dragons', 'Heavy Metal' and 'Pirates of Dark Water'. I started watching it when I was about 8 years old, and it was the coolest cartoon out there. You had a post-apocalyptic world full of mutated creatures and awesome sorcery. You even had the occasional army of robots. What's not to like? While Thundarr did refer to the females as 'woman', it was always amusing to me. He was the epitomy of what a barbarian would and should be; big and dumb. And Ariel just plain rocked! She could do anything from creating bridges to levitating Ookla, no small feat. Even though she was a sorceress, she always seemed to take the logical route in a battle, like locking Gemini's face plate shut so he couldn't shoot rays from his eyes. Ookla the Mok was like a cross between Chewbacca and a lion, and had one of the weirdest horses I ever saw! The animation was great and it inspired me to want to do animation. The show gave me an interest not only in animation and magic, but also in science. Everything about it was cool, and even now I enjoy the episodes so much, I have them on tape. It's really a shame that more weren't made. Demon dogs!

OK what do you get if you cross Conan the Barbarian with Star Wars with the end of the world? Thundarr the Barbarian, that's what. OK, so like... guys come on. This show was like the most awesome concept of it's time if not of the last thirty years. So what if it had to be sold as Saturday morning tripe for eight year olds... IT ROCKED and still does. I was only like three or four years old when I saw this show for the first time and I remember watching it religiously. My Saturday mornings were not complete if I did not get to see Thundarr kick some butt. I am just now getting around to re-collecting (ie downloading) shows. The owner's are kinda of dumb not to release it on DVD... they would absolutely make a lot of money. More over... they should re-create the show and get the franchise rolling. Thundarr will be just as good in near-apocalyptic 2005 as it was in near-apocalyptic 1980. Well, they might have to change the cataclysm from 1994 to like a later date... but I'm sure they they can figure it out in another time traveling episode or something. And if not that.. movie rights guys? Hello... every comic book and lame super hero is being turned into a live action film these days...

I'll never forget the first time I saw Thundarr. My mom actually watched it with me out of fear it my be some new wave of cartoon that would prove too mature for my still immature sensibilities. I won out and got to keep watching as the action proved not to much for me to indulge in. Thundarr was a fresh landscape for me. I hadn't really immersed myself in the "Post-Apocalptic" genre of scifi but this and a little Mad Max soon got me on my way. The stories were fantastic and though I am an animation snob now in my adulthood, back then I could really care less about the nuances in quality. It was just good ole fashion fun. I will say this though I remember very few of the actual episode story lines I remember a sense of sadness for the characters after the show ends. The idea that these rag tag warriors would be forever traversing the Earth, fighting for their lives and the lives of others and with the possibility of never knowing peace or true joy seemed very likely. I guess I was still too much the idealistic scifi dreamer to realize this was the only world Thundarr knew and would live in until society advanced beyond the means they existed in.

....even if it did borrow a lot of concepts from the popular Star Wars movies. Thundarr with his Sun Sword (lightsaber), wise cracking Princess Ariel (Princess Leia) and a large hairy, growling companion, Ookla the Mok (Chewbacca).

All these aside, it was still a great series. I liked how the items that are so common in our world, become totally new things in the Devastated Future World. It was also kind of interesting to see the new landscapes and realize that they were actually standing in ruined Los Angeles, Washington D.C., etc.

It was somewhat hampered by the cheap animation common to Cartoon Series of the day. I would love to see the series re-made with today's animation techniques. I'm sure it would be even more astonishing.