Cartoon Network's revival of ThunderCats just got a lot more clear as Warner Bros has released the first official image from the series, which is set to hit sometime this year. The series will be a collaboration between the studio giant and Japan's Studio4°C, who were responsible for stylized animated adaptations like The Animatrix, Halo Legends, and Gotham Knights. After a promotional poster was released last year that depicted gritty, menacing imagery of ThunderCats leader Lion-O, the assumption was that the series was headed towards a darker, more realistic tone in concert with that image.
However, what we're seeing is something quite different than expected. It appears to contain updates of the characters from the classic 80's series in wide-eyed, pastel-colored anime style. However, even within the seemingly more lighthearted motif, lies what appears to be a clever reinvention of the franchise.
What's immediately apparent, is that Lion-O has been reinvented from the tall and buff character from the original series to reflect his youth. Of course, in the classic show, Lion-O was quite literally a child in a grown man's body as the result of a snafu in the suspended animation pods during the group's long trip from their destroyed planet of Thundera. In this new iteration, we will more likely focus on Lion-O's journey in earning his place as the group's would-be ruler and the woes from his coming of age.
[via G4TV]
