This will always be my most favourite out of all the classic Saturday morning animated shows of the 1980s, as it was the only one that I ever made that special childhood connection with and took to heart. It must have been right at the tail-end of the 80s when I saw the few episodes on TV that I did, the rest were on dusty old beloved VHS tapes that I picked up over the years. It was definitely enough for it to greatly capture my imagination though, and I was always very thrilled and entertained by the rich and unique world of the show and all it's varied and colourful heroes and villains and I still love and have a special place for it today, it's one of those animated shows that can take me right back. When I eventually got the whole series on DVD I was surprised by how well it held up for me and how much fun I still had watching the many episodes that I never got to see as a kid. I find the style of the show to still be pretty cool and impressive, especially the iconic intro song that always got me all amped-up to watch it! I love how it was set on a planet that could be an alternate version of Earth that's eons into the future, based on how it was named "Third-Earth" as well as how most of the native races are recognisable as humanoid versions of Terran animals. That fantastically strange world had something for just about anybody, it had futuristic technology and robotic races like the bizarre Berbils, who while most fans always seemed to unanimously hate them, I always thought they were cute as weird buttons! They had those things side by side with medieval style villages and magical fairy folk and axe-wielding savages and cyborg pirates and gigantic monsters and ancient demons. It may have been very episodic in nature but not to the downright painful degree that other popular animated shows of the time were, they did try out some story arcs like Lion-O's Anointment and Mumm-Ra Lives, and I enjoyed the vast majority of the episodes, even when things started to get just a little crazy when the Lunataks showed up and the exploded home planet of Thundera began putting itself back together! Some of my favourite episodes are "The Tower of Traps" because it's such an atmospheric little tale and it has a poignant ending, "The Garden of Delights" for the hilarious blatant drug addiction metaphor, "Mongor" because a demonic purple goatman who feeds on the power of dear is awesome, "The Book of Omens" as it's the only time Mumm-Ra asks Lion-O to save him, and "Shadowmaster" for it's the only time that Mumm-Ra secretly helps out the Thundercats, if only for his own benefit! The Wildstorm comic books beautifully carried on the story after the series ended and I'd highly recommend them if you're a fan of the show. It had its moralistic themes but they weren't mercilessly preachy and rubbed in your face all the time. I loved how the Thundercats could get their hands dirty and fight if they had to, but were fundamentally peaceful beings, their idealism and innocent outlook and diplomatic attitude was something good and positive for little kids to be watching. I think the animation is fine enough, to me it also holds up just fine, it has a certain look and style to it. In some sequences it looks to be inspired by Japanese anime. And now on to my favourite animated villain of all time. Poor Mumm-Ra during the intro, screaming in insane frustration at being eternally thwarted and foiled in his evil schemes! I love that crazy old demon mummy, he was always so much fun to watch, and he was pretty scary too with his corpse-like blue skin, red eyes, sharp teeth and infectiously demented laughter! The way he looked and sounded, coupled with the macabre visuals of his black pyramid lair was almost chilling. He was so evil yet absurdly lovable too that I sometimes wanted him to win! No matter what the Thundercats did to banish him he always came back, even if he and his whole pyramid were completely destroyed the Ancient Spirits of Evil could just bring it all back out of nothing, and thanks to his sarcophagus time was certainly on his side... And what an amazing trademark insane laugh Earl Hammond had, the man did a truly phenomenal voice acting job as the bandaged ranting fiend that still puts most animated villains to shame to this very day, how he man erode his voice-box while cranking out those booming commands and hoarse roaring cackles at such incredible pitches is beyond me! It was truly one of the all time great voice performances, let nobody ever dare to forget the magnificence of the mighty Mumm-Ra!!! He was possibly the most memorable thing about the show, hell one could even say that he made the show. I never even got tired of seeing his transformation sequence in practically every single episode where he was freakishly beefed-up and had his power level greatly increased and had a much cooler design yet was strangely never all that more effective in his evil ways, it was so epic! This to me is a timelessly wonderful series that I still love to revisit every once in a while for old time's sake. I mean yeah it was a product of its time but Thundercats was still a very great and special show that stood out from the rest, it was one of a kind and still is. I don't think they'll ever be its like again. My thanks to everyone involved who pulled such a terrific and legendary animated series together. Too awesome to be forgotten. I can still feel that Thunder!!! x