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'Thundarr the Barbarian' early 1980-82 animated series

jefferiestubes8

jefferiestubes8

Commodore
Commodore
I had forgotten about this show until today when a io9 article How Hollywood is destroying my postmodern love affair with 80’s pop culture had a embedded video of the intro. direct video link here.
Thundarr the Barbarian is off limits! If you make a Thundarr movie I will hunt you down and shove the Sun Sword where the sun don't shine.
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background if you are not a Generation Xer it was a fantasy-based adventure "part science fiction,part superhero,and it got most of its material from the Star Wars films." It was pretty cool and if you can tell from the intro to the show video above it is surely fantasy & scifi stuff more than Conan the Barbarian.
Thundarr the Barbarian is a Saturday morning animated television series, created by Steve Gerber and produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. The series ran 2 seasons, 1980–81 and 1981-1982.
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Reruns of the program appeared on NBC's Saturday morning lineup in 1983.
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Thundarr the Barbarian is set in a future (A.D. 3994) post-apocalyptic wasteland divided into kingdoms or territories—the majority of which are ruled by wizards—and whose ruins typically feature recognizable geographical features from the United States
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Thundarr and his companions Princess Ariel (a formidable young sorceress) and the Wookiee-like Ookla the Mok traveled the world on horseback, battling evil wizards who combine magical spells with technologies from the pre-catastrophe world.
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via Wiki
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181262/

Thundarr was somewhat similar to Conan but the movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan the Barbarian (1982) came out 2 years later even though Conan was created in 1932 via a series of fantasy stories sold to Weird Tales magazine. .
Of the 21 episodes that were created no movie franchise was made of Thundarr the Barbarian.

Thundarr the Barbarian only 1 episode:
Thundarr the Barbarian - "Secret of the Black Pearl" (30:28, on Disc 2) was released on DVD as part of Warner Home Video's Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1980s compilation series. The DVD set, containing the single Thundarr episode among other shows, was released on May 4, 2010

Now "Conan" The film has a tentative 2011 release date, and would be a film reboot of the Conan films with Jason Momoa as Conan.
imdb listing: Conan (2011).


I could see Hollywood trying to make Thundarr the Barbarian into a franchise with CGI similar to Clash of the Titans and Conan remakes.


related:
an older TrekBBS thread: lovin THUNDARR
 
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You know, if they ever make the movie, I doubt they will advertise it as:

"From the creator of HOWARD THE DUCK!"
 
The opening sequence to this show, with the burnt-out husks of New York and the cracked moon, is one of my most vivid childhood memories. I'm not sure what that says about my childhood, or my personality, but there it is. :vulcan:
 
This was one of my favorite cartoons in it's day. Being a player of TSR's Gamma World added to my love of this classic.
 
"Lords of light!"

"Demon dogs!"

Thundarr was everything the 80's HE-MAN cartoon should've been...except, He-Man and the Master of the Universe shouldn't have been on a post-apocalyptic Earth.

The downside to THUNDARR is that it installed a deep prejudice against wizards in a generation of impressionable kids.
 
nevermore said:
The opening sequence to this show, with the burnt-out husks of New York and the cracked moon, is one of my most vivid childhood memories.
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Mine too.

As is Gemini, the creepy villain who could change faces. His evil face really freaked me out.

The episode that really interested me was one where Thundarr went back in time and met a kid from the present day. It was a very bittersweet episode - knowing that the kid would surely die when the apocalypse destroys the Earth a few years later. (Pity they didn't have Thundarr try to figure out a way to warn people in advance - maybe they could have shot down the comet that destroyed the world, before it got there?)

For that matter, how does a comet destroy the Earth *when it doesn't even hit anything*? :confused:
 
I remember it. Great show. We even had a Thundarr coloring book where the villain actually raises the Titanic.
 
Mr. Laser Beam said:
nevermore said:
The opening sequence to this show, with the burnt-out husks of New York and the cracked moon, is one of my most vivid childhood memories.
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Mine too.

As is Gemini, the creepy villain who could change faces. His evil face really freaked me out.

The episode that really interested me was one where Thundarr went back in time and met a kid from the present day. It was a very bittersweet episode - knowing that the kid would surely die when the apocalypse destroys the Earth a few years later. (Pity they didn't have Thundarr try to figure out a way to warn people in advance - maybe they could have shot down the comet that destroyed the world, before it got there?)

For that matter, how does a comet destroy the Earth *when it doesn't even hit anything*? :confused:
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As depicted in the opening, that comet was HUGE, easily Moon sized. As it passed directly between Earth and Moon it caused a gravitational shift that triggered worldwide earthquakes and volcanic eruptions (and broke the moon apart).
 
Two thousand years later, wizards employ sorcery and “super science” to terrorize the descendants of the catastrophe. Fortunately Thundarr the Barbarian and his friends Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel enjoy nothing more than helping strangers and fighting those awful wizards. So they ride horses across the burned and desolate world, having adventures and seeing the sights. I suppose my favorite part of Thundarr was its introduction that depicted volcanoes and tidal waves wrecking the cities of earth.
 
Mr. Laser Beam said:
^ What is it that we see being pulled away from the Earth in that opening scene? The ozone layer?
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Possibly...It looks like maybe the cloud layer, implying a ripping away of atmosphere, which would jibe with the arid/semi-arid nature of large tracts of the Thundarr Earth. It could also represent a fracturing of the Van Allen Belt, I suppose.
 
Re: 'Thundarr the Barbarian' intro

jefferiestubes8 said:
simiarajose9 said:
I suppose my favorite part of Thundarr was its introduction that depicted volcanoes and tidal waves wrecking the cities of earth.
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You must be a fan of the disaster movies depicting major Earth destruction like
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
2012 (2009/I)
Armageddon (1998/I)
The Core (2003)
:)
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I'm surprised no one has made a fake trailer/live action Thundarr opening using clips from those and other movies. (Maybe they have and I haven't seen it.)
 
Mr. Laser Beam said:
nevermore said:
The opening sequence to this show, with the burnt-out husks of New York and the cracked moon, is one of my most vivid childhood memories.
Click to expand...

Mine too.

As is Gemini, the creepy villain who could change faces. His evil face really freaked me out.

The episode that really interested me was one where Thundarr went back in time and met a kid from the present day. It was a very bittersweet episode - knowing that the kid would surely die when the apocalypse destroys the Earth a few years later. (Pity they didn't have Thundarr try to figure out a way to warn people in advance - maybe they could have shot down the comet that destroyed the world, before it got there?)

For that matter, how does a comet destroy the Earth *when it doesn't even hit anything*? :confused:
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That was a bittersweet story, though maybe her brief adventure made the kid a better survivor. And the opening describes the event as a 'rogue planet' not a comet.

The show had quite a pedigree, comic-book-wise. Martin Pasko, Gil Kane and Jack Kirby---which prolly explains why Gemini resembled Darkseid so much. Check the end credits when it plays on Boomerang (11PM EST right now). A lot of talent backing it up. In Secret Wars 2, a Gerber-alike complained about having to write cartoons, and became a villain named Thundersword, and I think Gerber gave his blessing to it.

I always maintained the extremely fannish theory that Thundarr's world was Second Earth to the Thundercats' Third Earth, and that maybe Thundarr faced Mumm-Ra early in his career--maybe even being the one that first killed him, forcing him into the state we saw on the later series. IIRC, the moon on TC was also split asunder--maybe an homage.
 
It was also inspired by a book of the same name (subtitled "Man of Two Worlds")published by Leisure Books back in 1971.
I still have the book on my bookshelf, maybe I'll re-read it?
 
I just rewatched the opener. That wasn't a comet! That was a run away planet. The announcer says it.
 
I used to love that cartoon. I used to use my Bespin Luke Skywalker as Thundarr.

Thundarr....Star Blazers....only two SW movies......The start of the Reagan era.....the birth of old MTV......a magical era that will never come again!!
 
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