The Corner Penthouse

Thundercats is a 130-episode Rankin-Bass Productions/Lorimar-Telepictures animated series that aired in syndication during the 1985–1989 television seasons. Thundercats follows the adventures of a group of catlike humanoid aliens from the planet Thundera. When the dying planet meets its end, the group is forced to flee. While en route to their new homeland, their spaceship is attacked by the Mutants of Plun-Darr, causing them to make an emergency landing on Third Earth. The Thundercats become friendly with the natives of Third Earth, who help the cats when the Mutants find out where they are and attack again.

Warner Brothers has released the complete series of Thundercats on DVD in two different configurations. The first time was as four separate six-disc volumes in 2005 and 2006. The second time was as a "complete series" set consisting of twelve re-authored discs in 2019. (Amazon purchase links for all of these releases, and a discussion of the other individual releases, appears at the end of this review.) This review will look at both of these releases so you'll know which to buy and which to avoid.


Even though these four box sets were released separately, I'm looking at them as one entire "complete series" set. This set contains all 130 episodes, in the proper 1.33:1 aspect ratio (4:3 format), on 24 discs. Each episode is contained in one chapter, which is one of only two issues I have with this set. Each disc is single-sided, dual-layer, locked to Regions 1 through 4 (assuming that all discs share the same specs as the first one). Discs are labelled "1" through "6" in each Volume 1 set, and "7" through "12" in each Volume 2 set. Episodes are given PLENTY of space to breathe, as you can see in the configuration listed below. The episode titles are listed on the back of each individual two-disc case.

• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 01 - 6 episodes + 1 featurette
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 02 - 6 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 03 - 6 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 04 - 5 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 05 - 5 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 06 - 5 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 2, Disc 07 - 6 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 2, Disc 08 - 6 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 2, Disc 09 - 6 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 2, Disc 10 - 6 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 2, Disc 11 - 4 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 2, Disc 12 - 4 episodes + 1 featurette
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 01 - 5 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 02 - 5 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 03 - 6 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 04 - 6 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 05 - 6 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 06 - 6 episodes + 3 featurettes/music videos
• Season 2, Volume 2, Disc 07 - 6 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 2, Disc 08 - 5 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 2, Disc 09 - 5 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 2, Disc 10 - 6 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 2, Disc 11 - 6 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 2, Disc 12 - 3 episodes + game

The video is in pretty good shape, with strong colors and tight lines, but it clearly has not been restored. Likely, this is as good as the show will ever look, barring any costly restoration. Audio gets the job done, as well, and is presented in English, French, and (for Season 1 only) Spanish. Subtitles are available in English and French only for Season 1, and Spanish only for Season 2.

As far as edits are concerned... Five Season 1 episodes are missing title cards: "The Unholy Alliance", "Spitting Image", "The Thunder-Cutter", "Dimension Doom", and "The Evil Harp of Charr-Nin". Furthermore, "Exodus" (the first episode) is the syndicated version, which is missing the "lost series intro" and a few extra scenes that were included on Family Home Entertainment's (F.H.E.) Thundercats: Exodus VHS release, which includes the first four episodes - "Exodus", "The Unholy Alliance", "Berbils", and "The Slaves of Castle Plun-darr" - edited together into a "movie" of sorts. The VHS version of "Exodus" not only has the "lost series intro" at the start, but also these deleted scenes: The mutants are explained a little bit more, one being that they are indeed a different species, and before they formed their alliance to get the Sword of Omens, they fought battles with each other quite commonly on Plun-Darr (8:50-9:00); Slithe was a bit more informed and ruthless (9:26-9:48); the mutants don't trust each other (10:52-11:19); WilyKit had more fun in the deleted scene with the boarders; and Jaga questions the boarders on where Slithe is (12:11-12:31). You can watch/download a 640x480 transfer of the VHS on the Internet Archive. There are a few other things cut for time, but these are the highlights only. I don't think much (if anything) was deleted from the other three episodes. (Thanks to Matthew Jordan for the VHS information.)

The original release of Season 1, Volume 1 contains the episode "The Unholy Alliance" on Disc 1 which lacks the music score, and only contains the dialog and sound effects. Back in 2005, Warner Brothers set up a replacement program - noted here and here - so buyers could get a new Disc 1 that replaces the deficient version with the correct version. Unfortunately, since that was 15 years ago, Warner Brothers is no longer offering the replacement disc. Thankfully, the aforementioned Exodus VHS has the complete soundtrack - voices, effects, and music score.

Each Volume contains some bonus features, which are featurettes, music videos, and a set-top game.

• Season 1, Volume 1: Feel the Magic, Hear The Roar! Thundercats Fan Speak Out! (7:07) - Wil Wheaton and other loyal fans give their memories and support to this animation classic.
• Season 1, Volume 2: Thundercats Ho! Creating a Pop-Culture Phenomenon (21:38) - Executive producer Arthur Rankin Jr. and other cast and crew members share secrets from the show.
• Season 2, Volume 1: The Music of Thundera (8:32) - Composer Bernie Hoffer and The Rembrandts reveal the inspirations behind the music.
• Season 2, Volume 1: The Rembrandts Thundercats Theme Song Music Video (2:57)
• Season 2, Volume 1: Bernie Hoffer - Live! (1:14) - The Thundercats theme song performed by its composer, framed by trivia about Mr. Hoffer.
• Season 2, Volume 2: Thundercats Ultimate Adventure Challenge - This set-top game is very involved, requiring an extensive knowledge of Thundercats minutia and lots of disc-swapping and episode rewatching.

I want to briefly discuss the "Ultimate Adventure Challenge" game, because I've never seen one of these DVD set-top games that is as difficult and involved as this one is. You start the game on Disc 12 by answering trivia questions and picking the location on a map that corresponds to a clue. The name of each location is done using the highlighter to write the text over the map image, and it's not easy to read yellow text on a light background, which makes this harder than it needs to be.


If you pick the wrong answer/location three times, the game is over, though you get the three lives back at the start of each of the three levels. Also, each location is only used once, so if you keep track of which locations you already "visited", you could suss out a possible correct answer from those that remain. At certain points in the game, you have to find objects. You do so by swapping discs, turning on a special subtitle stream on the episodes, and then re-watching them to find a special "icon" that appears on the screen. This will give you an "object code" to use in the game on Disc 12. Once you have that code, pop Disc 12 back in, and enter your Jump Code to get back to where you left off in the game.


That's WAY too much work for a DVD set-top game. Thankfully, ThundercatsFans.org has a walkthrough and a list of jump codes. Sadly, the walkthrough is missing a few steps/answers, so I have provided a COMPLETE WALKTHROUGH on Page 2 of this blog post (look for the page link at the end of this review). Your reward for playing the game are three brief videos that appear throughout the game, and a slightly longer one upon winning the game where the cast and crew talks about the Mumm-Ra character and voice actor Earl Hammond. You can go directly to this last video with jump code 0314. These videos, assuming they aren't excerpts from the Thundercats Ho! featurette, weren't ported over to the Complete Series set.

Each disc has a colorful widescreen menu featuring artwork from the show, and the show opening video playing in a small window, with menu options Play, Episodes, Special Features (usually telling you which disc they're actually on), and Languages.


The discs are stored in three individual two-disc cases, with each set of six discs (three cases) put inside a paperboard box. Some print runs of the box (all four volumes) have lenticular covers, and some do not. The total width of all four boxes side-by-side is a little under 7.5 inches, which is a considerable amount of shelf space to consume. Currently, there exists six-disc DVD cases that are the same exact size as these old two-disc cases, though I don't know if they were around back in 2005. If they were, Warner Brothers should have used them, or even two three-disc cases, instead taking up so much space with these lesser-quantity cases. This space-hogging storage is the other of the two issues that I have with this set.


While not perfect, it is a decent set for fans of the series.




This set contains all 130 episodes, in the proper 1.33:1 aspect ratio (4:3 format), on 12 discs. Each episode contains five chapters, placed at the commercial break spots. All discs are single-sided, single-layer, locked to Region 1 (assuming that all discs share the same specs as the first one). Discs are labelled "1" through "6" in each Volume 1 set, and AGAIN "1" through "6" in each Volume 2 set. This is completely different from the original sets of discs, which treated each season as one complete set of 12 discs, split into two box sets. Episodes are given NO space to breathe, with as many as 12 episodes CRAMMED onto one disc, as you can see in the configuration listed below. Warner Bros. chose to RE-AUTHOR THE DISCS in order to lessen the number of discs that need to be produced in half. The episode titles and breakdown is listed in a small 4.5"x5.75" fold-out booklet placed loose inside the case.

• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 1 - 11 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 2 - 11 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 3 - 11 episodes + 1 featurette
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 1 - 11 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 2 - 11 episodes
• Season 1, Volume 1, Disc 3 - 10 episodes + 1 featurette
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 1 - 11 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 2 - 12 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 3 - 11 episodes + 3 featurettes/music videos
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 1 - 10 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 2 - 10 episodes
• Season 2, Volume 1, Disc 3 - 11 episodes

Warner Bros. used the same episode masters in this set, including the music-less copy of "The Unholy Alliance". You would think they would have used the corrected version of the episode, but I'm guessing that the team who made this set didn't know of the error and replacement disc, and just used the original content as is. Thankfully, unlike their reauthored Josie & The Pussycats set, there are no noticable jittery frame rate errors. Video looks decent, but given that DOUBLE the amount of episodes are being crammed onto each disc, the quality is not as good as the original 24-disc set. Audio is now limited to English only. Subtitles are available in English (except Season Two, Volume Two), French (except Season Two, Volume Two), and Spanish.

Surprisingly, all of the video bonus features from the original set were carried over. The only thing lost is the "Ultimate Adventure Challenge" game. The game itself is no great loss, especially since it required an extra subtitle stream on the last 31 episodes and lots of disc-swapping, though it did feature new voice over from Larry Kenney. Sadly, the videos from it, assuming they aren't excerpts from the Thundercats Ho! featurette, weren't ported over to the Complete Series set.

Each disc features the blandest, most generic "white text on a black background" widescreen menus with the "poster image" shuffled off to the side. The episodes are listed on each main menu screen (split onto two screens), with the option to turn the subtitles on and off buried under the Subtitles option.


The discs are stacked atop each other inside a 1.5" thick plastic keep case, with the six-page disc holder not attached to the case. The plastic case is stored in a slipcase. CBS/Paramount is known to use these horrible cases, in which it is very hard to remove the discs, but this is the first time I've seen Warner Brothers use it.


If that wasn't enough, Warner Bros. even got really lazy when assigning labels to the discs. The original set had the show title in the disc labels ("THUNDERCATS_S1_VOL1_D1"), while this new set just uses generic numbers ("7000085540_1").


While this is not a complete disgrace like the reauthored Josie & The Pussycats set, it's still a far cry from the original set. The only changes they made for the better was in the placement of the chapter marks, and the space-saving packaging - though it fails in that regard by using that horrible case instead of two six-disc cases (one per season) placed inside a slipcase. Since six-disc cases that are the same width as a normal case currently exist, and with each disc being stored on its own page with no overlap, two of those would be 1.25" in width together, which is .25" less than the 1.5" thick horrible case they used for the set.


OTHER RELEASES
To make things really confusing, these four "Volumes" and "Complete Series" sets are not the only Thundercats (1985) releases that Warner Brothers put out. As stated, each original volume contained six discs, with a total of 24 discs for all four volumes (the full series). Warner Bros. re-authored them to be three discs per volume, with a total of 12 discs for all. Not only did they use these new discs in the "Complete Series" set, but they also used them in new "repackaged" versions of the original volumes. To make this really confusing for buyers, these new 3-disc "repackaged" versions use near-identical artwork as the original 6-disc volumes, only the small print in the banner at the top of the cover has been altered to now say "3-disc".


From what I can tell, these new volumes are in single three-disc cases without any outer slipcase. While that makes it easy to tell the difference in person, it's a lot more confusing when buying online, as you may only have a stock photo without seeing the case itself. If you couldn't read the text on the top of the covers above, would you be able to easily and quickly tell which is the original 6-Disc release and which is the Repackaged 3-Disc release?

To further add to the confusion, Warner Bros. also released the first two original discs as "Season 1, Part 1" on July 12, 2011.


Finally, be aware that there was a short-lived Thundercats reboot series in 2011, drawn in a more angular anime style. All 26 episodes of this series have been released on Blu-ray in a two-disc set titled "ThunderCats: The Complete Series". Yes, that's the same name as the DVD set of the 1985 series, which will lead to more confusion in online listings. The 2011 series isn't available in a "Complete Series" DVD set, but if you want it on DVD, you'll have to buy three individual releases: Book 1 (8 eps), Book 2 (8 eps), and Book 3 (10 eps). The series only lasted one season, so don't go looking for any "Season 2" books.

In conclusion, if you want the best available version of the original 1985 series, buy the four "Volume" DVD box sets:

• Season 1, Volume 1 (Red Banner) (UPC: 012569705173)
• Season 1, Volume 2 (Blue Banner) (UPC: 012569705210)
• Season 2, Volume 1 (Yellow Banner) (UPC: 012569753526)
• Season 2, Volume 2 (Purple Banner) (UPC: 0012569805774)

For more information on these original DVD releases, please visit ThundercatsFans.org.

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