Thundercats Tuesday - (Day late ,again) - TC #125, TC #126

Here's a batch for Show #125, and #126. This is a special posting for me since I wrote "Shadowmaster" and designed him and his shadow creatures. It was a thrill to see my script and designs come to life. Enjoy.

Thundercats Tuesday - ( Continued ) - Thundercats Storyboard and Episodes Reviews.

Thundercats Tuedays, returns.  This video features Thundercats storyboards, cel art, and screenshots of the two episodes I wrote, "Shadowmaster" and "Well of Doubt". I was also the Thundercats series art director for the last 30 episodes, designing all the secondary characters for the last 30 shows. I also reviewed storyboards, work pictures (animation dailies), and final cuts.

An 'Extra Feature" is review quotes from the highly recommended 'Hear the Roar - The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Hit 1980's Series Thundercats' by David Crichton for the complete story.

I plan to revisit my Thundercats Tuesday blog posts and turn them into videos, just the the fun of it, an increase exposure for sharing.

Thundercats Tuesday - Odds and Ends - The Shadowmaster script and Storyboards, and Well of Doubt Storyboard samples.

As promised here's some odds and ends for Thundercats Tuesday, in the form of a picture of my original story outline, first draft and recording script for TC #125 "Shadowmaster".  You'll note the original title was "Day of the Shadowmaster".  Things always change during production. Followed by a small sample of storyboards pages from 'Shadowmaster" and "Well of Doubt". 

 Here's a note the production team wrote about how the planned to handle the Brute the multi-faced Shadow beast in the show.

The storyboard artist was Shigeru Ohmachi.  A web search shows he worked on The Spiral Zone animation series from the 80s. I've have friends who work on that show on the U.S. side.  I'm sure he worked on a lot more. An interesting thing about the storyboard is how loose the style is in comparison to storyboard produced today.

 Here another storyboard sample form TC #129 "Well of Doubt".  Storyboard art by Tameo Kohanawa, who's online search states he work as a director on several anime series.

So, that the week's post.  These are the only storyboards saved, of course because I wrote them.  Also each board is like 70 pages of 11" X 17" paper, so they take up a lot of room.  To be honest, at the time no one thought any one would be interested in them out side of  production team.  So, thanks for your interest, Thundercats fans.   I'll see what other odds and ends I can dig up.  Enjoy.

Thundercats Tuesday - TC 124 -126, Ma-Mutt's Confusion, Shadowmaster, and Swan Song.

This week's Thundercats Tuesday, features TC# 124 - 126, and includes a personal milestone and highlight of mine.  TC # 125, Shadowmaster was my first scriptwriting assignment.  Plus, I got to design the new characters for the episode, including, of course the Shadowmaster character.  My original plot outline for the story was totally overwritten.  (I'll touch on that, later in this post)  Only the  smart editing of the talented Peter Lawrence, story editor, saved me from embarrassing myself.  I'm eternally indebted to producer, Lee Dannacher, and Peter for giving me the chance to write for the Thundercats.

Let's start with TC# 124 - "Ma-Mutt's Confusion.

The Babylonian Barbarian Boiler is my all time favorite Thundercat prop design.  The scene of Mum-Ra running back and forth with the bucket reminds me of the famous Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice scene from Fantasia.

 TC # 125 - "Shadowmaster"

 The original plot for the Shadowmaster had enough story elements for three shows.  I introduced a parallel group of Thundercats-like heroes, in the ShadowRealm, called LightLancers.  The LightLancers were defeated,  and disbanded by the Shadowmaster, and their world plunged into darkness.  The lone dispirited LightLancer at first challenged Lion-O, but Lion-O enlisted him to defeat the Shadowmaster.  In doing so, The Lion-O helped the LightLancer regain his power to regroup his companions and restore the land.  This sub-plot was in addition to the main Claudus storyline.  So, yeah, there was no way this could fit in a 1/2 hour show.  Thanks goodness for Peter's editing.

 Brute the Shadow beast was an example of over designing a character.   The multiple heads was a little much for the time the Beast was on the screen.  I'm happy the animation team give it a shot.

 I always wondered if many Thundercats fans caught my homage to Star Wars with the final scene of the episode with Claudus and Jaga, just like the Darth Vader and Obi Wan shot at end of The Return of the Jedi.

TC # 128- "Swan Song"

Swan Song saw the return of Two-Time, the two-head robot, and his flying ship Domedown.

Only four more episodes to go.  But find some extra item to keep Thundercats Tuesdays going.  Enjoy.