TV Review: The New Thundercats

I never watched the original show from the 80s, but when I was growing up I always wished that I could. During the years it was popular, we lived in Saudi Arabia and the only way to get your daily dose of cheesy cartoons was to tape them when you went back to the States and then import them in your carry on luggage. We had Rainbow Brite and Sesame Street, but no Thundercats.

I heard that they were doing a "reboot," so The Husband and I checked it out. We saw the two-parter pilot episode as well as a second episode whose storyline reminded me of Moby Dick.

We have passed judgment on this cartoon. Our verdict: "Meh." It's not horrible, but it's not super great, either. And I have serious issues with the fact that the female characters are hyper-sexualized. Wiley Kat is like, nine, right? So why the heck does she need to wear an off-the-shoulder number? She wears less fabric on her whole body than Tygra has on one of his shirt sleeves. What possible reason could she have for that? I don't even want to talk about Cheetara.

I'm sure a lot of people will call me a prude or something, but you have to admit there is something inherently Ferengi (link is to Memory Alpha. Scroll down to "Role of Women") about the fact that the male characters look very comfortably dressed for the weather (no skimpy underpants made of leather this time!) while the female characters do not have that privilege. Unless their body temperatures run a few degrees warmer than the guys, I'm sure they're probably a little bit cold.

This is an issue I've been noticing a lot recently on TV and in the movies. I think it reinforces a negative idea that women have to be super attractive and wear a size four in order to be worthwhile human beings. It makes me very sad.