Classic Cartoon Countdown #9: Thundercats

This week's Classic is one that I think everyone will remember more clearly than last week's. Thundercats was a cartoon of the afternoon variety (as opposed to the Saturday morning kind). It was about a group of cat-people who lived on a place called Third-Earth and were always battling against a villain named Mumm-ra who lived in a coffin-looking box inside a pyramid.

The Thundercats themselves did their best to provide a character for everyone. There was the main hero type Lion-o who had the sword that when he yelled "Thundercats, Thundercats, Thundercats, Hooooooo!" it would send up a signal for all the other Thundercats to come running. Also he could use it as some kind of binoculars/telescope/mystic viewer thing where he would look through the hilt and be able to see either far away or maybe something that wasn't even in view.

After Lion-o there was the older mentor type (Panthro), the girl (Cheetara), the kids (Kit and Kat), Tygra (the sidekick), and of course the annoying talking animal (Snarf).

It seems like these guys were always getting into sticky situations where Mumm-ra had lured them into some kind of trap and then they'd have to get out of it. Generally Lion-o's magic sword came in handy in these situations.

One memorable series of episodes was when Lion-o had to pass a series of trials to prove that he truly was worth to be the leader of the Thundercats (Snarf excluded of course) and had to take on each of his fellow Thundercats and best them at their own strengths.

Look for a few honorable mentions to show up next week (but definitely not before I have my committee meeting on Wednesday afternoon).

Here's the countdown so far:

#10: Underdog
#9: Thundercats