Thundarr The Barbarian (4 Disc)

So, there are only two reasons for you to be reading this review. Either (A) you are a big fan of the classic Thundarr cartoon and you want to know if this DVD release will live up to your expectations, or (B) you just stumbled across this item and you have no idea why there are so many 5 star reviews for a cartoon that you've never heard of. So, I'm going to break this up into two sections. Feel free to just read the review that you can relate to... Cuz who has time to read a review that talks about stuff that you already know? Never heard of Thundarr? Okay, picture this: You're 8 years old, it's Saturday morning and you're sitting in front of your TV eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes. After a few hours of Casper, Scrappy Doo and something called "Fred & Barney Meet the Schmoo" (not kidding), suddenly you're bombarded with images of the Earth being torn apart by earthquakes, tidal waves and general destruction. Then a voice basically tells you that 14 years from now, you, your friends and everyone and everything that you know will be dead. How's THAT for a cure for attention deficit disorder?? That was basically the premise of Thundarr. The world has been destroyed and thousands of years later, life evolves, only now the world is some bizarre mix of dragons, mutants, wizards, robots, aliens, werewolves and descendants of the human race. I won't get into the specifics (there's alot of cool info on wikipedia and other sites) but lets just say that this cartoon was DECADES ahead of it's time. Just about everything that you can compare it to actually came AFTER Thundarr. Not only was this show original (forgiving the few things they borrowed from Star Wars), but as a Saturday morning cartoon? A cartoon with no talking dog or grinning monkey or wacky sidekick? This was a show where characters were actually threatened with death-- most of the time the word "doom" was used instead, but the intent was still there. This was a show were every episode featured recognizable landmarks that were now in burnt out, rusted, bent up, post apocalyptic ruins. In between all the other sugar coated, generic crap of the early eighties, how the heck did this show get on the air?? Well, somebody correctly assumed that kids (and teenagers) were smart enough to understand these stories... solid well written stories full of action, cool villains, excellent voice work and AMAZING cinematic music. No need for goofball characters or a half hour "lesson" to be learned. And no last shot of all the characters all standing around laughing like idiots. Okay, I think that happened on ONE episode of Thundarr... but hey, you gotta lighten the mood some time. This was a very different type of Saturday morning cartoon. And for the most part it still holds up. Character designs still look good, the animation doesn't make you cringe, and the stories are still interesting. In comparison, another early 80s cartoon, Spiderman and his Amazing Friends (which I used to love back in the day) is pretty much crap now. Old episodes of that show still air a few nights a week and they're just goofy now ("Video-man??? WTF?) But Thundarr is still, to this day, one of the boldest, most mature shows to ever hit Saturday morning. And yes, if you love animation, you need to get this DVD. As for you Thundarr fans, you're probably wondering the same thing that I did when I heard that this kick @$$ show had finally been released on DVD. I was thinking "what's this recordable DVD crap? Where's the REAL official release?" Well, rest assured, this is actually really well done, and if I didn't know any better, I would think this was any other professionally made DVD. I'm not a big fan of the cover art, but otherwise, it looks pretty good. The first menu you see is really generic but when you get to the episode list, you see the original title screen from each episode. That's pretty cool. So far, these appear to be the complete episodes-- no missing scenes or new replacement music. As someone else said, this is as good as it gets until Hanna Barbera figures out that we really need a remastered deluxe version of this series. There are some specks and dust that show up on several frames here and there (especially noticeable when I'm watching this on my PS3) but it's not enough to ruin the experience. This show will always be one of my favorite old school animated cartoons. Thundarr and Dungeons & Dragons were two of the few cartoons that were consistently well done, from one episode to the next. Several guys from Marvel Comics (including the King of comic illustration, Jack Kirby) originally worked on this show behind the scenes and you can see their dedication in every episode. Well, besides "Trial by Terror"-- I don't know if everybody was smoking weed or what, but that one episode looks goofy and cheap. And the evil wizard looks like a tool. But every other episode is 4 or 5 star. A friend once told me that any rich jerk can drive a BMW, but it takes someone who loves cars to drive a fully restored 67 mustang. I'll add to that, anyone can say that they love Transformers and GI Joe, but someone that REALLY has an appreciation for old school 80s animation knows, appreciates, and owns the complete series of Thundarr. So don't be a jerk. Get some Thundarr!

Yes, you see it. Five stars. Why five stars? Is this perfect? Was Thundarr the best animated series ever? Well the answers are no, it's not absolutely perfect and no, while it is among my favorite animated shows ever there are a couple that I'd be able to name off the top of my head that I do love a bit more dearly - but when you hover over rating four stars it says "I like it." Hover over five and it says "I love it." I cannot tell a lie in a review, thus I must click five stars. I. Love. This. Show. I watched the hell out of Thundarr The Barbarian when I was a kid. This was one of my Saturday Morning favorites. I don't think the image of the cruise ship sticking up out of the ground ever left my addled mind. Sorcery and super-science found their way into my imagination, and as I got older I discovered games like Dungeons and Dragons (another favorite cartoon, incidentally) and Gamma World and used a lot of what I recalled from Thundarr in those games. The animation is typical of the Hannah Barbera fare from this time period, but it has the same eerie beauty - especially in the background paintings - as some of the classic art from the old Scooby-Doo and Herculoids shows where the character designs were simple, but their world had amazing detail. The voice work in this show is quite memorable, with the late Bob Ridgely as Thundarr tossing out lines I still use in conversation to this day, like "Demon Dogs!" and "Ariel! Ookla! RIDE!" I have watched the entire series twice over now with my son, who will be four in June. He's probably the only kid in his preschool who knows who Thundarr, Ariel and Ookla are. He's also a big fan of He-Man and She-Ra, and watches the D&D cartoon with Daddy. I really appreciate the fact that this DVD boxed set allows me to spend part of my Saturday Mornings reliving my own childhood Saturdays with my son. The show holds up for me where some others don't - I can still watch it and enjoy it just as I did when I was in the single-digits of age. My only complaint is that there was a "Making of Thundarr" feature contained on a cartoon compilation disc that had only one episode of Thudarr on it, along with Mr. T. and several other cartoons. Why wasn't it included here?

I felt like a kid on Christmas when I received this package. I can clearly remember sitting in front of the TV on Saturday morning eagerly waiting for this show to come on, this was the highlight of the weekend. Not your typical Saturday morning cartoon as this seemed more geared towards teens or probably adults. A few comical moments lightened up the tone, but to me it harkened back to the 60's ( Johnny Quest or Speed Racer ) when cartoons weren't dumbed down for children. ( Snorks or Smurfs ) If you've never had the chance to see this cartoon it has everything you could want. Science Fiction, Sorcery, Mutants, Monsters, action, comedy and decent plots. ( for a cartoon ) Thundarr the Barbarian an escaped slave, ( I don't think they ever mentioned who enslaved him ), escapes captivity. With a magical sword called the Sun Sword he brought action to the Saturday morning screen like no other. Together with his cohorts Princess Ariel a sorceress and Ookla the Mok ( think giant mutant Sasquatch like being? ) had all sorts of amazing adventures together fighting the villainous protagonists each week. Sadly Thundarr lasted only 2 seasons and saturdays were a bit more bleak until the Japanese cartoons made their triumphant return to our shores ( Voltron and Robotech ). Oddly enough Thundarr wasn't cancelled due to poor ratings, it had very good ratings for a cartoon, but the network and parental groups were concerned about it's impact on the youth. If you like more adventurous themed cartoons I recommend adding it to your collection. There is a video on YouTube called Lords of Light : The Thundarr the Barbarian Story that gives a behind the scenes peek at Thundarr. Watch the video and maybe the intro to the cartoon to see if this is something that might interest you. Probably my favorite cartoon of all time. Thank goodness it's available on DVD, it's something that I can treasure and reminisce about the countless Saturdays of my youth.

Thundarr the Barbarian is a post-apocalyptic animated adventure series created by comic book legends Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby that debuted in 1980. The opening narration says it all: The year, 1994. From out of space, comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Man's civilization is cast in ruin. Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn. A strange new world rises from the old. A world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice. With his companions, Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword, against the forces of evil. He is Thundarr, the Barbarian! The animation is excellent and really stays faithful to Jack Kirby's designs. These combined with the eerie backgrounds really paint a vivid picture of what this wild new version of Earth is like. The villains are especially well done though the theme of evil sorcerer comes up quite a bit they still manage to make each one have a unique style or motif. The real fun of the show is the trio of heroes traveling around what was once the USA and defending the weak and innocent from evil warlocks, vicious tribes of mutants and other bizarre enemies. The interplay among Thundarr, Arial and Ookla and how they interact with their environment and others is the heart of the adventure and really makes you root for them to win. The stories are well written with a lot of action, humor, horror elements and scary/cool plot twists. It perfectly combines the sword and sorcery genre with post apocalyptic science fiction fare. About the only thing I disliked about the series was it ended after only two seasons. It really should have gone on for more season. If your a fan of science fiction, sword and sorcery stuff or even just a comic book fan this series is perfect.

It is a really great cartoon too watch. The animation is similar too the animation off the scooby doo where are you show. It is basically coanan the barbarian and he-man and the masters off the universe mixed together. It is a awesome cartoon every cartoon fan must watch at least once.

I'll forego the usual, "What is Thundarr?" bit, assuming that most who are interested already are aware. In brief, the early 80s were a great time for fantasy cartoons. Between He-Man, Dungeons & Dragons, Thundercats and others, it was a good time to be a kid who loved fantasy. Of those series, Thundarr stands out as an excellent entry. It is a children's cartoon but in the vein of pulp literary works such as Burroughs' John Carter of Mars or Lin Carter's Thongor. Often described as Conan meets Star Wars, this cartoon resonated with kids all over the United States. This set finally makes it available on DVD for all those who still harbor nostalgia for those days. The set, for a print-on-demand product, is aces. The quality of the transfer, both video and audio, is outstanding and it's great to have this classic series available in a very nice 4-disc DVD set. The cartoon itself holds up surprisingly well, and is still fun to watch after all these years. The only down-side, and the one thing that keeps me from giving this five stars, is that it is truly a bare-bones release. There are no special features available at all. While I suppose this is probably standard for sets like this, I can't imagine it would've cost the company all that much to add a documentary or some commentary tracks. In fact, there is already a wonderful documentary entitled "Lords of Light: The Thundarr the Barbarian Story" which is available on YouTube. It would have been easy to package this along with the episodes to make a first-rate product. For those interested, the documentary can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBrZik5qD-Q Had Warner Brothers chosen to include this documentary and/or possibly a commentary or two, I would give this set five stars. As it stands, the lack of special features costs it a star, but the transfers are outstanding and if you're a fan of 80s Saturday Morning Cartoons or even science-fantasy of the post-apocalyptic/planetary romance variety, you are cheating yourself if you don't pick this up. Well worth the purchase price.

LORDS OF LIGHT!!, This set is done very well. No fluff. They give you 21 episodes in all. 13 from season 1, and 8 from season 2. They are not done in seasons however, that is my own research results for the proper installation of the episodes, and show information in my iTunes menu. The Thundarr The Barbarian Set is made up of every episode that is available. The picture format is in Standard (square box), Sound is Dolby Digital Mono, which was the only one available for TV of that time. The image quality is OUTSTANDING. The menus for episode selection are very plain and simple, after the obligitory warnings, you get a choice of VIEW ALL EPISODES, or, CHOOSE EPISODE with little title screen shots to select from which is my preference, You get the episode title screen, with the awesome Thundarr openning song and credits, thats it. It comes as one DVD case with 4 DVDs 3 with 5 episodes and 1 with 6. The DVDs are black with yellow lettering showing title, disc # and a little WB logo. No subtitles, no language selection, just American Saturday morning Thundarr cartoons, as they were aired in 1980-81. With shipping, and taxes, mine came to approximately $32 USD, and they are worth every penny. Thundarr is not on iTunes, and Netflix doesn't have him either. He isn't on YouTube (yet) or any other ad infested torrent site. I was very pleased, and if you were born in the mid 70's, putting this cartoon on transported me right back to Saturday morning 1980,...Aahhh, what a wonderful feeling. So, order your Thundarr while they are available, because from what I understand, these copies are BURNED PER ORDER, because they didn't have the demand warranting a full release, and I beleive Joe Ruby and Ken Spears (the creators) are battling it out with Hanna Barbera, and Ted Turner as well, so who knows how much longer these historical masterpieces will be able to be bought so easily. Hope this review was helpful..."DEMON DOGS!!!"...."LORDS OF LIGHT!!!"

Brings back memories of Saturday morning cartoons. Thundarr the Barbarian has so many catch phrases: :”Lords of Light!", "Ariel! Ookla! Ride!" And “Demon dogs!” Thundarr screams everything. Storyline hold up better than most 1980s shows.

One of the few shows I liked as a kid that are still enjoyable. The writing is great, the plots are inventive, and the backgrounds especially are great. It looks amazing on Blu-Ray, and THERE IS NO REGION CODING, by which I mean I am able to play it on a Region B device.

Comme aucun éditeur français ne s'intéresse à Arok le barbare (Thundaar The Barbarian), j'ai dû me procurer ce DVD en anglais. Surtout quand on sait que les dessinateurs Alex Toth (Creepy, Eery) et Jack Kirby (X-Men) étaient de la partie sur ce dessin animé (source livre Genius, Animated: The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth). D'ailleurs, Arok le barbare, Ookla l'humok (Chewbacca ?) et la princesse Séléna ont bien inspiré Les Maîtres de l'univers. Merci pour cette édition DVD !

The DVD set is perfect. I loved Thundarr when I was a kid. I am happy that I can share this series with my little daughter.

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classic cartoon series.