Thundarr the Barbarian

Plot synopsis:
Thundarr the Barbarian is set in a future (c. 3994) post-apocalyptic wasteland divided into kingdoms or territories — the majority of which are ruled by wizards – and whose ruins typically feature recognizable geographical features from the United States, starting in New York City and working itself to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Mount Rushmore, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.. Other episodes with recognizable settings are located in Mexico, while one is in London. Another notable feature of this future Earth is that the Moon was broken in two pieces. The shattered moon and the ruins of the former human civilization were caused by the passage of a runaway planet between the Earth and the Moon in 1994, which, from scenes shown in the opening sequence, caused radical changes in the Earth's climate and geography. However, by the time period in which the series is set, the Earth and Moon seem to have settled into a new balance. Earth is reborn in a world of "savagery, super-science, and sorcery".
The hero Thundarr (voiced by Robert Ridgely), a muscular warrior, whose companions include Princess Ariel, a formidable young sorceress, and Ookla the Mok traveled the world on horseback, battling mostly evil wizards who combine magical spells with reanimating technologies from the pre-catastrophe world. Some of these malevolent wizards enlist the service of certain mutant species in doing their bidding.
Other enemies include The Brotherhood of Night (a group of werewolves who could transform others into werewolves by their touch), the cosmic Stalker from The Stars (a predatory, malevolent cosmic vampire), and various mutants. Intelligent humanoid-animal races include the rat-like Groundlings, the crocodile-like Carocs, and talking hawk and pig-like mutants. New animals that existed include fire-shooting whales, a giant green snake with a grizzly bear head, and mutated dragonflies and rabbits.
Thundarr's weapon of choice, the Sunsword, projects a blade-like beam of energy when activated, and can be deactivated so that it is only a hilt. The Sunsword's energy blade can deflect other energy attacks as well as magical ones, can cut through nearly anything, and can disrupt magical spells and effects. The Sunsword is magically linked to Thundarr and as such, only he can use it; however, this link can be disrupted.
Comic book writer-artist Jack Kirby worked on the production design for the show. The main characters were designed by fellow comic book writer-artist Alex Toth. Toth, however, was unavailable to continue working on the show, so most of the wizards and other villains and secondary characters that appear on the show were designed by Kirby. He was brought onto the show at the recommendation of comic writer Steve Gerber and Mark Evanier.
The series was the creation of Steve Gerber. Gerber and friend Martin Pasko were having dinner in the Westwood area one night during the time Gerber was developing the series. Gerber commented to Pasko that he had not yet decided upon a name for the Wookiee-like character the network insisted be added to the series, over Gerber's objections. As the two walked past the gate to the UCLA campus, Pasko quipped, "Why not call him Oo-clah?" Pasko later became one of several screenwriters also known for their work in comics, such as Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, to contribute to the show. After writing several scripts, singly and in collaboration with Gerber, Pasko became a story editor on the second season. Other writers included Buzz Dixon and Mark Jones.

Tags: good versus evil, psychedelic

Review:
'Thundarr the Barbarian' has been one of my favorite cartoons for years, holding a place beside 'Dungeons and Dragons', 'Heavy Metal' and 'Pirates of Dark Water'.
I started watching it when I was about 8 years old, and it was the coolest cartoon out there.
You had a post-apocalyptic world full of mutated creatures and awesome sorcery.
Ookla the Mok was like a cross between Chewbacca and a lion, and had one of the weirdest horses I ever saw!
A grown up cartoon for its time..
I'll never forget the first time I saw Thundarr.
My mom actually watched it with me out of fear it my be some new wave of cartoon that would prove too mature for my still immature sensibilities.
I will say this though I remember very few of the actual episode story lines I remember a sense of sadness for the characters after the show ends.
The idea that these rag tag warriors would be forever traversing the Earth, fighting for their lives and the lives of others and with the possibility of never knowing peace or true joy seemed very likely.
I guess I was still too much the idealistic scifi dreamer to realize this was the only world Thundarr knew and would live in until society advanced beyond the means they existed in..
Great Saturday Morning Show.
This had to be one of the best animated shows of the early 1980's.
The plot was pretty simple; a barbarian, a witch and a mutant creature known as a mock travel across the United States a thousand years after a disaster destroys most of the world.
They go around fighting wizards and other assorted creatures in hopes of bringing order back to the world.
This main thing I loved about this show was the fact that it wasn't like most of the animated shows at the time that felt they had to give a weekly ethics lesson.
I think this show will always stand the test of time and will always be recognized as a great action/adventure series..
The year 1980, from out of the void of Saturday morning tv comes a runaway show, hurtling between the Superfriends and the latest Scooby Doo revamp.
With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage and his fabulous Sun Sword against the forces of boring cartoons.
He is Thundarr the Barbarian!Thundarr was the greatest adventure cartoon of its day.
Combining great characters with an imaginative setting and incorporating designs from such masters as Alex Toth and Jack Kirby, it transcended the usual Saturday morning fare.
The only strike against it was the strict guidelines from network censors tended to hamstring the action; but, the creators found interesting ways to deal with the handicap.Thundarr is the big dumb barbarian who punches first and asks questions later.
Ariel is the Asian sorceress with a knowledge of the lost past and is the voice of wisdom and reason.The world is a post-cataclysmic Earth, with long dead cities and devastated lands.
What's not to like?The late 70's/early 80's cartoon adventure shows were a pretty tame lot.
The Superfriends had moments, particularly Challenge of the Superfriends, and Filmation's Tarzan and Batman shows were pretty entertaining; but nothing could hold a candle to Thundarr.
Sure it borrowed/stole from every sci-fi idea under the sun, but so did Star Wars and other works of print and celluloid sci-fi.
Yes, the Sun Sword looked like a lightsabre and many of the villains conjured up Darth Vader, but Flash Gordon had flaming swords in the 30's and Vader bore close resemblance to the Lightning, from the serial Fighting Devil Dogs.One of my great pleasures is watching the episodes on tape, along with Jonny Quest and Batman, the Animated series.
Too bad all cartoons, and even live shows, don't reach this level of quality.
This series was a post-apocalyptic sword-and-sorcery epic, and it was treated exactly as such.
There was some great animation and the post-apocalyptic backgrounds were just amazing.
And then there was Ookla the Mok, one of the most awesome sidekicks ever to fight for the cause of good.
All of that was about to change when the team produced there own production company....Ruby-Spears Productions.The company would produced shows like "Fangface","Plasticman","The Heathcliff and Markaduke Show",and the best ever made,"Thundarr The Barbarian"."Thundarr The Barbarian",was without a doubt their greatest achievement ever conceived and it was a winner with the kids on Saturday Mornings and a big hit in the ratings as well during the three years that it had kids in total amazement as part of ABC-TV's Super Saturday Morning Line-Up during the 1980's.
However,Thundarr would come out two years before Arnold Schwarzenegger came out with "Conan",but this show just by itself was one action-packed a minute Saturday Morning cartoon show with surprises and unexpected twists at ever turn,in other words the greatest adventure cartoon of its day.
"Thundarr" was part science fiction,part superhero,and it got most of its material from the Star Wars films.
Combinating great characters with an imaginative setting and incorporate designs from such great animation masters as Alex Toth and Jack Kirby(whom were also behind the designs for several Hanna-Barbera cartoons including "Jonny Quest","Space Ghost" and others),it was totally different from the usual Saturday Morning fare.It also boasted some brilliant writing from comic book greats Steve Gerber and Martin Pesko,and some breathtaking direction from director/animated artist Doug Wildey,the creator of the "Jonny Quest" television series and one hellvua musical score from composer Dean Elliott,whom was behind a lot of theme-oriented Saturday Morning animated series and specials,and still is to this day.
As for the story line,well Thundarr is the big dumb barbarian who punches first and asks questions later plus takes out the villains and supercreatures with his sunsword.
Ookla is sort of the Chewbacca character here and is the leonine biped who growls and smashes things in his path.
And Ariel is the Asian sorceress,who was the smartest in the group,could levitiate things at will and had a knowledge of wisdom and reason.The world is a post-cataclysmic Earth where man's own civilization is cast in ruines with long dead cities and total devastation across the land.
It is populated by humans,mutants, and evil sorcerers/scientists and villains with powers far beyond the imagination.
This show had it all...What's not to like about giants,savage beasts and monstrous war machines and gigantic spaceships from other worlds?
This was a kid's show.During the decade of the late 70's/early 80's cartoon adventure shows were pretty tame with the excess amount of violence added,which some of them were not to be seen especially with the strict guidelines from the censors whom made sure that these shows follow them.
With some of the shows that were out back then.....The Superfriends had their moments until the producers changed the formula with the course of the show with The Challenge Of The Superfriends which was particularly good; Godzilla was a good show,but it was very tame with the giant lizard doing good and fighting the forces of evil,and the one where they had this knockout blonde whom the censors says it was too explicit,but it was tame too with a female Tarzan character...Remember Jana Of The Jungle?
Even Filmation's Tarzan and Batman,not to mention here as well the He-Man shows were pretty entertaining as well;but when it came to delivering the goods,nothing could hold a candle to Thundarr.
It Rocked!Thanks to Cartoon Network's sister station,Boomerrang,you can watch these classic episodes everyday!!!
It's too bad that nowadays they have The Superfriends shows out of DVD,but where is Thundarr The Barbarian???
This show was the standard of shows that came out during the late 70's/early 80's but Ruby-Spears Productions,whom would give us shows like "Turbo Teen","Goldie Gold and Action Jack","Mister T","Alvin And The Chipmunks",and the animated shows featuring Hulk Hogan,Chuck Norris, and even Sylvester Stallone's character "Rambo".
Thundarr was one of best cartoons that has ever been made.
I had to clean up my room every Saturday morning before I could watch it but it was worth it.
And they love them.Thank you for the memories and please bring them back.Is there any way these cartoons like Thundarr and the Herculoids be brought back to TV?
The love I have for this cartoon is extreme.
Thanks for listening.I thought this cartoon was lost to the hands of time.Sometimes I look at the things that is on today and wonder where in the world do they get this stuff.
....even if it did borrow a lot of concepts from the popular Star Wars movies.
Thundarr with his Sun Sword (lightsaber), wise cracking Princess Ariel (Princess Leia) and a large hairy, growling companion, Ookla the Mok (Chewbacca).All these aside, it was still a great series.
I liked how the items that are so common in our world, become totally new things in the Devastated Future World.
It was also kind of interesting to see the new landscapes and realize that they were actually standing in ruined Los Angeles, Washington D.C., etc.It was somewhat hampered by the cheap animation common to Cartoon Series of the day.
I would love to see the series re-made with today's animation techniques.
Honestly, one of my favorite saturday morning cartoon shows from the early 80's.
perhaps because of the fact that Thundarr often referred to his ally the sorcereress Ariel as simply "woman"...
Basically when you are 11 years old and a post-apocalyptic barbarian with a lightsaber (read as "Sun Sword") and a cool Chewbacca substitute named "Ookla the Mok" show up on a Saturday morning world of Smurfs and Superfriends you think this is really cool!.
Post Apocalyptic Barbarian.
When combined together the possibilities are just endless.This is one of my favorite animated shows of all time, and it's another childhood relic since I was a kid from the 80's; when I saw this show it just blew my mind and still does to this day.The combination of the post apocalyptic sub genre and fantasy I think is a beautiful combination and it's one I honestly don't see much.
The only other ones I can think of are the movie Ralph Bashi's "Wizards" and the pulp comic book series "Mighty Sampson" which may have been a partial influence to this cartoon due to the uncanny similarity.The characters their not deep their simply there to serve their functions.
But lets face it were all in this for the adventure and action and this show delivers well on both.I really love the animation, sure it old but sometimes old fashioned can still be the best way to go and it has a retro charm for me.
The character animation is good but it's really the background animation that impresses me the most.It's a bit unnerving seeing how much of our world is in ruin because it also means a lot of culture that we thought would survive forever hasn't.
For example, in one episode Thundarr sees a movie poster of "Star Wars" and Thundarr has no idea what the heck it is, let alone what a movie even is.
It was a little disturbing but that little moment just shows how the things we take for granted once their gone their gone forever, which made me treasure things I love like "Star Wars" all the more.However at the same time despite the ruin it also means new possibilities have opened up like with the film Ralph Bachi's "Wizards" we see there is magic back in our world along with some advanced technology which is scarce but still around all the same.
These things just created a sense of broadness and made me wonder what more this world holds.And the action is great and choreographed solid.
I really like seeing the team just go on adventures and kick some asses that deserved to be kicked.
Of course the highlight of the action is that Sun Sword which is obvious a rip on the light saber but all the same awesome, just seeing Thundarr using it to cut all things like butter and even block lazer bolts, you were almost indestructible with that sword.
Along with seeing both Thundarr and even the Chewbaca like character Oo Loc both use their brute strength and force and Arial with her mystic powers which is also cool.I would love to see a revival, where may'be we can have a little more depth on the characters as well as a developing plot line concerning on of the villains.
As well as may'be even more depth into the ruined world, where it could take place further in the future and we would see what kind of technological advancements were made which could advance the plight of the villains but also question whether we were already on a way to ruin.
Let alone an explanation where Thundarr got his sun sword, may'be he stumbled onto some ancient ruins and this was a mystical object from their society, I don't know something along those lines, but all the same the idea should be considered.Overall, if you have a knack for retro toons then this show is one to check out, this series has plenty of thunder.Rating: 4 stars.
I was six years old when this series first aired in 1980.
As I was already an avid fan of Star Wars, and had recently been introduced to the works of JRR Tolkien by my sisters (who took me to see the Ralph Bakshi animated film "Lord Of The Rings", which I also loved), Thundarr The Barbarian was the greatest thing I think I had ever seen on television at that time.The stories were interesting, the action was compelling, and the characters were very well written.
Thundarr was your stereotypical "Sword & Sorcery" barbarian, who was big on muscles and courage, but lacked patience and an education.
Princess Ariel was the brains of the outfit, and unlike most female characters in these types of shows was far from the typical "Damsel In Distress".
Her knowledge of Pre-disaster Earth often comes in very handy, and her vast repertoire of magic spells makes her a match for nearly any evil wizard they may face.
As I live in Canada, the official Thundarr DVDs are not available for purchase here.
They can only be purchased through Warner Brothers' website, and they only ship orders to locations within the United States (so glad they think so highly of their other fans from around the world).
However, I was able to purchase some very high end bootleg DVDs of the show back before the series was available through Made- To-Order sales, so I am able to enjoy the series on a regular basis, despite WB's stupid shipping policies.
The whole world will be better for it.I have also been doing my best to introduce this great series to a whole new generation of fans.
I have also written a screenplay for a live action film adaptation, which I plan on trying to get produced..
Classic 80's Saturday Morning TV.
For those that call it a Conan knockoff, note that this came out several years -before- the Conan movie.It was essentially a mash-up of Conan-esque characters from Robert E.
Howard's books in a post-apocalyptic setting.
The most hilarious part has to be Thundarr's pathological hatred of wizards and his 'Princess' Ariel (Sorceress) companion.Like a lot of these morning adventure gems (I'd include the late 1970's Filmation Rotoscoping efforts like Tarzan and Buck Rogers) this one never made it to DVD, so your only legitimate source is to catch it on something like the Boomerang network.
OK what do you get if you cross Conan the Barbarian with Star Wars with the end of the world?
Thundarr the Barbarian, that's what.
This show was like the most awesome concept of it's time if not of the last thirty years.
So what if it had to be sold as Saturday morning tripe for eight year olds...
I was only like three or four years old when I saw this show for the first time and I remember watching it religiously.
My Saturday mornings were not complete if I did not get to see Thundarr kick some butt.
Thundarr will be just as good in near-apocalyptic 2005 as it was in near-apocalyptic 1980.
Well, they might have to change the cataclysm from 1994 to like a later date...
but I'm sure they they can figure it out in another time traveling episode or something.
every comic book and lame super hero is being turned into a live action film these days....
Mind you....that isn't a bad thing.Spice it up with more sci-fi and give him regular companions and we have Thundarr.
Which is a cool name by the way.The apocalyptic intro seems more frightening as a 10-14 year old.
(Which I was at the time.) But it sets a great stage.
However, it also suggests a lack of faith in the project.This was on a little later in the morning on Saturdays so it was probably aimed at older kids.
Princess Ariel seems like an American anime at times.
Only smart.Thank you Cartoon Network/Boomerang for bringing it back..
Conan...I mean Thundarr!!!!
So he wore fur and he was Conan but named differently and he rode around on strange looking horses long after a comet destroyed earth and left us in a new Hyborian Era...But, he also had a best friend who was like Chewie from Star Wars, but had a face kind of like that angry Timi thing from Space Ghost and they hung out this princess who was all legs.While they were fighting mutants who also cohabitant the earth and occasionally their adventures take them underground where they find the ruins of subways and realize that there once was a more advanced civilization.And if that doesn't convince you to watch it, then the fact that Thundarr has a lightsaber shaped like a hand-and-a-half should.And the little kid in me is drooling.
bring me my supper!The flippant, sneering "cheers" comment is unexpected because Morak seems to be poking fun at the Saturday morning cartoon convention of evil leaders and their mindless followers!