Arok le barbare

Ahh, another Saturday morning gem. I liked (and still like) cartoons from my childhood like this one because they never talked down to kids. This series was a post-apocalyptic sword-and-sorcery epic, and it was treated exactly as such. There was some great animation and the post-apocalyptic backgrounds were just amazing. And Thundarr had the ultimate weapon--a sunsword! I really like the fact that there were no cute sidekicks here. There was Ariel, the sorceress, who was the smartest in the bunch. And then there was Ookla the Mok, one of the most awesome sidekicks ever to fight for the cause of good. You just had to admire his "horse" as well! Cartoon Network aired this one for a while, and I wish they would air it again.

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?

In the fall of 1978,long time collaborated animated partners Joesph Ruby and Kenneth Spears set out to beginning their own animated production studio after there long term success with Hanna-Barbera. There years with Hanna-Barbera were absolutely brilliant as the team produced a string of hits including "Wacky Races","The Herculoids","Space Ghost", "Scooby Doo","The Hair-Bear Bunch","Speed Buggy","Jabberjaw","Josie and the Pussycats",which proceeded throughout the decade of the 1970's. All of that was about to change when the team produced there own production company....Ruby-Spears Productions.

The company would produced shows like "Fangface","Plasticman","The Heathcliff and Markaduke Show",and the best ever made,"Thundarr The Barbarian".

"Thundarr The Barbarian",was without a doubt their greatest achievement ever conceived and it was a winner with the kids on Saturday Mornings and a big hit in the ratings as well during the three years that it had kids in total amazement as part of ABC-TV's Super Saturday Morning Line-Up during the 1980's. However,Thundarr would come out two years before Arnold Schwarzenegger came out with "Conan",but this show just by itself was one action-packed a minute Saturday Morning cartoon show with surprises and unexpected twists at ever turn,in other words the greatest adventure cartoon of its day. "Thundarr" was part science fiction,part superhero,and it got most of its material from the Star Wars films. Combinating great characters with an imaginative setting and incorporate designs from such great animation masters as Alex Toth and Jack Kirby(whom were also behind the designs for several Hanna-Barbera cartoons including "Jonny Quest","Space Ghost" and others),it was totally different from the usual Saturday Morning fare.

It also boasted some brilliant writing from comic book greats Steve Gerber and Martin Pesko,and some breathtaking direction from director/animated artist Doug Wildey,the creator of the "Jonny Quest" television series and one hellvua musical score from composer Dean Elliott,whom was behind a lot of theme-oriented Saturday Morning animated series and specials,and still is to this day. As for the story line,well Thundarr is the big dumb barbarian who punches first and asks questions later plus takes out the villains and supercreatures with his sunsword. Ookla is sort of the Chewbacca character here and is the leonine biped who growls and smashes things in his path. And Ariel is the Asian sorceress,who was the smartest in the group,could levitiate things at will and had a knowledge of wisdom and reason.

The world is a post-cataclysmic Earth where man's own civilization is cast in ruines with long dead cities and total devastation across the land. It is populated by humans,mutants, and evil sorcerers/scientists and villains with powers far beyond the imagination. It had some far-out creatures that were awesome as well. This show had it all...What's not to like about giants,savage beasts and monstrous war machines and gigantic spaceships from other worlds? This was a kid's show.

During the decade of the late 70's/early 80's cartoon adventure shows were pretty tame with the excess amount of violence added,which some of them were not to be seen especially with the strict guidelines from the censors whom made sure that these shows follow them. With some of the shows that were out back then.....The Superfriends had their moments until the producers changed the formula with the course of the show with The Challenge Of The Superfriends which was particularly good; Godzilla was a good show,but it was very tame with the giant lizard doing good and fighting the forces of evil,and the one where they had this knockout blonde whom the censors says it was too explicit,but it was tame too with a female Tarzan character...Remember Jana Of The Jungle? Even Filmation's Tarzan and Batman,not to mention here as well the He-Man shows were pretty entertaining as well;but when it came to delivering the goods,nothing could hold a candle to Thundarr. It Rocked!

Thanks to Cartoon Network's sister station,Boomerrang,you can watch these classic episodes everyday!!! It's too bad that nowadays they have The Superfriends shows out of DVD,but where is Thundarr The Barbarian??? This show was the standard of shows that came out during the late 70's/early 80's but Ruby-Spears Productions,whom would give us shows like "Turbo Teen","Goldie Gold and Action Jack","Mister T","Alvin And The Chipmunks",and the animated shows featuring Hulk Hogan,Chuck Norris, and even Sylvester Stallone's character "Rambo". Check it out!!!!

....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.

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.