Animation-loving sci-fi fans got lucky last year with Cartoon Network's meditative yet kinetic ThunderCats. This year, they're going to need to wake up earlier to catch it.
Season two of ThunderCats' Miyazaki-like reboot begins Saturday morning as an appetizer for the uneven hour-long DC Nation block. Its impressively dark star is Greg Wiseman and Brandon Vietti's Young Justice, at least until *Beware the Batman'*s CGI intrigue arrives in 2013.
Like Young Justice, ThunderCats spent its debut season last year as accessible but intelligent prime-time animation for an all-ages demographic. There's been little official word from Cartoon Network on how that worked out, but their move to a morning slot is probably a heroic giveaway that ratings weren't stunning.
That's too bad. Despite some drags, like the too-long action sequences in the clips above and below from Saturday's episode "New Alliances," ThunderCats is sometimes an able stand-in for the late, great Avatar: The Last Airbender. (The highly anticipated sequel of that series – The Legend of Korra – finally premieres April 14.) In whimsical, philosophical episodes like "Song of the Petalars" and "The Duelist and The Drifter," the ThunderCats reboot respectfully bowed down to pop-cultural icons like Sergio Leone and Hayao Miyazaki.
Check out a refresher of its ambitious debut season at bottom. Then screen the new ThunderCats clips and let us know in the comments if Lion-O 2.0 can still shine the second time around.
