Arok le barbare

'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!

The year 1980, from out of the void of Saturday morning tv comes a runaway show, hurtling between the Superfriends and the latest Scooby Doo revamp. It's a show of savagery, super science, and sorcery. But this show burst its bonds to fight for freedom. With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage and his fabulous Sun Sword against the forces of boring cartoons. He is Thundarr the Barbarian!

Thundarr was the greatest adventure cartoon of its day. Combining great characters with an imaginative setting and incorporating designs from such masters as Alex Toth and Jack Kirby, it transcended the usual Saturday morning fare. It boasted writing from comic book greats Steve Gerber and Martin Pasko, and direction from Doug Wildey, creator of Jonny Quest. The only strike against it was the strict guidelines from network censors tended to hamstring the action; but, the creators found interesting ways to deal with the handicap.

Thundarr is the big dumb barbarian who punches first and asks questions later. Ookla is the leonine biped who growls and smashes things. Ariel is the Asian sorceress with a knowledge of the lost past and is the voice of wisdom and reason.

The world is a post-cataclysmic Earth, with long dead cities and devastated lands. It is populated by humans, mutants and evil sorcerers/scientists. There are giant, savage beasts and monstrous war machines. What's not to like?

The late 70's/early 80's cartoon adventure shows were a pretty tame lot. The Superfriends had moments, particularly Challenge of the Superfriends, and Filmation's Tarzan and Batman shows were pretty entertaining; but nothing could hold a candle to Thundarr. It was so imaginative and so much fun you had to watch it. Sure it borrowed/stole from every sci-fi idea under the sun, but so did Star Wars and other works of print and celluloid sci-fi. There are no original stories; just retellings. Yes, the Sun Sword looked like a lightsabre and many of the villains conjured up Darth Vader, but Flash Gordon had flaming swords in the 30's and Vader bore close resemblance to the Lightning, from the serial Fighting Devil Dogs.

One of my great pleasures is watching the episodes on tape, along with Jonny Quest and Batman, the Animated series. All are great adventures, put together by master craftsmen. Too bad all cartoons, and even live shows, don't reach this level of quality. Now where's the DVD collection?

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.

Thundarr was one of best cartoons that has ever been made. I had to clean up my room every Saturday morning before I could watch it but it was worth it. At 32,I try to let the kids experience the things I grew up with. And they love them.Thank you for the memories and please bring them back.Is there any way these cartoons like Thundarr and the Herculoids be brought back to TV? Can we start a petition to these rolling? I would love my son be opened up to these cartoons I loved so much.Some can teach lessons that can be valuable in life. Remember how conservative Ariel was? How she was so calm in a crisis and Thundarr was so gungho. The love I have for this cartoon is extreme. Thanks for listening.I thought this cartoon was lost to the hands of time.Sometimes I look at the things that is on today and wonder where in the world do they get this stuff. They could teach a thing or two about friendship because they would never leave one another behind and that is #1 rule of being a friend.