The WB ThunderCats movie script - discussion

Please note that the script has been taken down due to legal reasons, please do not re-post links to the script or talk about sharing it. However feel free to discuss the points made in this thread.



Hey all,

Note that we've just uploaded what we are certain is the ThunderCats movie script as written by Paul Sopocy for Warner Bros.

You can read about the script by going here:

http://www.thundercatslair.org/cartoon/special/moviescript/sopocy_script.html
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My thoughts after having read the script:




WARNING - mild spoilers below

















WARNING - mild spoilers below























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Well I finished reading the script yesterday evening and really enjoyed it. This would have been a very good movie if it was made right. There were some things I would have liked to see changed, I thought that although the final confrontation with Mumm-Ra was very cartoon accurate that it was a bit of a cop out and I'd have rather had a different conclusion in that battle. It's easy to cast stones though as I couldn't think of a better conclusion myself.

I loved the changes made to the mutants back story and the political manipulations orchestrated by the Everling one. Very Palpatine-ish. The twist on Mumm-Ra's back story was masterful and there are little homages paid to the best elements of the cartoon throughout. Yet this is a modernized tale and Sopocy paints a mesmerizing canvas of Third Earth one that I'd have loved to see developed.

Not enough was made of the Cheetara / Tygra love interest but I suppose more could have been done onscreen.

The elimination of Snarf was a good move in my opinion and the little hat tip to the Berbils was nicely done. Monkian's line to Cheetara around p. 36 was menacing, hilarious and shocking all at once. Great moment in the script for sure.

Overall I'm saddened that this movie was never made and think Sopocy would have delighted old fans and new with this telling. He walked the line between honouring the cartoon and telling a story through a movie. One we'll have to just keep on dreaming about, because for now, the Eye of Thundera remains closed.


My nitpicks:
1) It's hard to swallow that Jaga's spaceship's instruments can determine whether a planet can support life from great distances but that they had no way of warning him early enough that S-s-slithe's space ship was coming in for an attack
2) Line's where 'human' is substituted with 'cat' didn't feel right to me, such as Claudus' line to Grune that he's not fit to call himself a cat. I'd have preferred him to use the word Thunderian here instead
3) That Lion-O doesn't get that Pumm-Ra = Mumm-Ra after all he learns along the way is hard to believe. I suppose he was under the magician's influence to a degree but I didn't buy it while reading
4) I had a hard time picturing how it would be pulled off on-screen when Kaeli and Lion-O are hiding in the armaments of the floating city
5) It's spelled 'ThunderCats' not 'Thundercats' (but don't worry Paul lots of people make this mistake)

It's actually Slithe that says that to Cheetara, not Monkian, and somewhere else on this site, you've quoted Jackal-Man said it.

I quite enjoyed reading the script.

The spelling mistakes for the 'Wiley's' were quite annoying though, if they're going to make a script, then get the spelling of the characters correct.

Where was the reference about the Berbils? I completely missed that.

The storyline of the Arks though and Thunderians coming to Third Earth was not good in my opinion. None of that happened in the TV series, didn't all Thunderians die except for the ThunderCats? I think Claudus should have died though, just like he did originally.

Not enough about their own personal weapon usage if you ask me. Kat & Kit used their power stones enough though, but I felt we needed more action sequences from Cheetara's staff, Tygra's Bolo Whip & Panthro's Nunchuck's. Just more action sequences in general from the other Cat's.

Not enough Cheetara running also, we always need her running!

You're right yes it was S-s-slithe who says it. Guess I was reading it too quickly!

The Berbil's reference is early on just after the crash landing... you'll find it ;)

The Arks coming to Third Earth was part of the first episode but they were blown out of the sky by the mutants. I liked this part actually, I don't think that just because it was different to the cartoon that it was bad.

For instance I loved that Grune was Mumm-Ra. For a movie story this was a very clever turn.

I stopped reading after the mention of skin, not fur, in the first few lines of the script.

Please give me a cartoon series faithful to the original, and I would be happy. Anything else, I can live without

MGP

Leave out the romantic stuff. I am of the Lion-O & Cheetara camp as it was hinted at in the cartoon. (Sixth Sense and a couple other episodes.) And I know there are other fan universes that pair her with Panthro and Tygra. I'd rather her be herself than the Thundercats "Ho" the Wildstorm comic book made her out to be.

Skin :confused: Purple skin? :sneaky: Arrrgh! Glad this one is on hold.

"grizzlor, post: 25992" said:

For instance I loved that Grune was Mumm-Ra. For a movie story this was a very clever turn.

On that note I won't bother reading methinks! If you can't stay true and expand on what is already there then it has no interest to me.

Grune the Destroyer and Mumm-Ra are NOT the same person. That is the stupidest thing I've heard come from the script. Thank god it never got made ;)

Methinks some of my fellow fans are clinging a little too strongly to tradition. Can a modern movie mean to appeal to a wide audience stick that closely to the cartoon canon?

Neil, have a read with an open mind and I think you'll find the script worth spending some time on.

Tradition is important. A movie could have started as did LOTR, with a short backstory consistent with canon, then gone into a new adventure on Third Earth, rather than what appears here to be a reboot.

MGP

Personally I feel like this script was done by someone who was merely looking at a cheat-sheet for the original series. I made it to about page 104 so far, but plan to finish it later. The major problems I have with this script are below, the first two I can almost overlook, but the last one just kills the whole script for me. For if something cental to the story can be so far away from what is considered cannon to the original story, then I can not take the rest of the script seriously. And if I can't take the script seriously, then the script is a failure to me. Now don't get me wrong, had this been made into a movie I would have gone to see it, but I would have been disappointed at the end product. Plus Snarf is a central character, it seems wrong to not have him in there somewhere...

MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS BELOW:

Original Series: Mutants are from the Planet Plundarr and are called Plundarians. Script: They are native to Third Earth

O.S.: Ratilla wields the Sword of Plundarr, is defeated by Jaga, and the Sword of Plundarr is thrown into a volcano which causes Thundera to explode. Script: Ratilla is killed by Slithe, and Thundera's Sun dies.

O.S.: The Sword of Omens cannot be used for evil. The Sword cannot be used to fight/attack a fellow Thundercat. Script: Grune uses the Sword of Omens to kill Lion-O's mother in cold blood!!!

Tradition alone is not a good reason to do something. It has no importance in itself unless it has intrinsic value to justify its ongoing observation.

I think what makes this script work for me is that a cartoon series can be 130 episodes. A movie has to stand on its own in approximately 90 minutes and has to be told on a big screen to a different kind of audience.

So what if it veers off of the original cartoon, even in major ways. This is a retelling of episodes 1&2, it is not a replacement of that precious bit of cartoondom.

Frankly a movie audience would HATE a rehash of episodes 1&2. Wouldn't we all be complaining here if we were to read a rewritten version of those two episodes? Do you think it'd work for you?

Only die hard fans like us would care about whether Ratilla's sword fell into a volcano and caused the end of Thundera. If that was part of a modern day movie the audience would be like: "What the hell? That is patently ridiculous." Frankly the less time spent with rat people in a movie the better. TMNT did enough of that for me.

When I read this script I didn't come at it from the angle of a life long fan, I read it in the context it was written. As a major movie production aimed at a 2010 audience who want to see something more relevant than a 1.5 hr word for word retelling of an old cartoon. As much as I love that cartoon that is not what I'd want to see at a movie theater.

I am reading through the script and as the other members have mentioned,it detracts so much from the original concept and i don't know why or what purpose it serves.There is so much initial input as well as ground to expand without alienating the main material that they could rely upon easily, for me it goes as simple as that, make a faithfull Thundercats story presenting, above all maintaining the elements which made the cartoon top-notch and just improve using the modern day animation techniques the whole designs,it's really redundant trying to figure out complex scenarios as well as unrelated ideas. The loosely connected Wildstorm comics, especially Gilmore's the Return and Lyman's Dog's of War even though they introduced many new and generally unexpeced points like Cheetara holding a grudge against Lion-o,an enslaved Thundera,Wilykat's slow corruption or Mumm-ra joining forces with an old Lion-o who later offered him as an "elixir of youth" draughts of potion from the Geyser of life from episode Trouble with time and revealed that he was the mastermind behind Lion-o's acceleration of aging process, seemed to be more "ThunderCats realistic" and in line with a potential future, paying homage and also referring to the 130 episodes series.I fell for Mumm-ra allying with Lion-o rather than Mumm-ra and Grune being the same or Grune using the Sword for evil! Grune particularly is one of the most interesting characters of the whole saga, a noble ThunderCat once general in command of Thundera's army,whose great grandfather was Lord of the Thundecats(we shouldn't forget that), turned into an evil Thunderian. Additionally the episode 'Ghost Warrior" is considered by many fans as one of the best if not the best of the whole series,so a little respect wouldn't be bad with the way the characters are handled.
Conclusion: i would have read happily this story for fan-fiction and fan-service but wouldn't give credit for more that that.
Reboot Yes, Reconstruct No.
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Pave the way for something new but without cancelling the values of past.

We should all be open-minded and expect a few changes after so many years, moreover be aware that movies are not only Die-hard fans oriented but some lines shouldn't be crossed. While reading it, i really couldn't understand how these changes bring something new or intriguing to any fan young or old.

Who says that the movie would have to "retell" the first episodes? Why couldn't the movie tell the story of Thunderian refugees returning home? The cartoon ended as this was just beginning. Or start by doing a dream/flashback of Thundera's destruction and flash forward/wake up to a new adventure.

And FYI, to begin with the Original Series only shows us Thundera exploding, it is not until much later we find out about the Sword of Plundarr. Point is, it is pushing this farther and farther away from the original.

Let's compare to the Transformers movies. Both the original and new movies match on the names of the good guys and bad guys, Autobots and Decepicons. Both groups come from the planet Cybertron in both versions. Granted the forms they take vary, tank/big gun vs flying jet for Megatron, and cab over semi vs the model that is the normal now. And Bumblebee is a VW Bug in one and a Camaro in the other. Small changes between the two, but the MAIN parts are in line with the original.

Now look at this script vs the original content. You can not expect people who know even a little about the original to believe the Eye of Thundera, embeeded in the hilt of the Sword of Omens to allow itself to be used to murder anyone, much less the Queen of Thundera.

Some artistic liberty is allowable, but do not disgrace one of the core parts of the original and claim it is fair game for a change.

After reading about this script update, I remembered reading a Thundercats script which has been on my hard drive for the past 2 and 1/2 years now. I just checked and it is from June 2007. And looks like it was the exact same script just without the watermarks.

I had read only few pages back then and remember that the person (Seth Lockhart) who passed it to me was at that time pitching his own Thundercats script to the same producers at WB, but he was supposedly sidetracked for Paul Spocoy's script.

His script treatment was meant to be much more faithful to the series than Spocoy's script. Again I never really gotten to reading the whole thing.

Anyways here are the files (Scroll down to the DOWNLOAD NOW button).



[url=http://www.filefactory.com/file/b02ba3e/n/ThundercatsOriginTreatment.pdf]Thudercats: Origin by Seth Lockhart, Evan Kilgore

Thudercats II: Exodus by Seth Lockhart, Evan Kilgore, Michael Sean Conley

I really feel stupid for not submitting this is to TCL back then, when the Thundercats movie buzz was pretty high. But that time I wasn't sure if the script was legit, also didn't want any legal problems from WB.

I agree with Grizz. I liked the script. It was a mature clever updating of the THundercats mythos.

People should be more open minded. We had thundercats in 1985. Allow the mythos to change and grow. I would have been extremely bored with it if it was just a retelling of everything in the original 1-2 eps. You can't recreate that, it was perfect the way it first was done. Re-doing it would just being disappointing.

Seems some people just want to complain if anything is changed. If you are so frustrated with changes being made, don't watch/read/or look at anything but the original 1985 series.

I loved the grune / mummra change up. Thats was a sweet change.


Nit-picks for me;

-didn't like Lion-o's trick, pretending to be mummra, was lame.

Hate it.

The ending was stupid for one thing.

Unless I read too fast, and I don't think I did - there was no mention of Lion-O having dramatically aged, while still with the mind of a 12 y/o.

I have no problem with Tygra x Cheetara - it's better than the usual Lion-O x Cheetara pairing, but if that had happened, I wouldn't have minded either. :)

Ummm Wileys?
1. Wily
2. ThunderKittens/ThunderKids/ThunderKits/Kit & Kat

WHEN have they ever been referened to as anything else? Any CASUAL fan would know that, let alone a ThunderCat otaku !

Jaga searching for sustainable planets - I can live w. that.
Sending the data to a planet that SHOULD HAVE BLOWN UP AND KILLED EVERYBODY (except when the planet reforms later :D:D:D:D:rolleyes:) hours / minutes ago is just RETARDED.

If they wanna take certain ideas and run with it afterwards, that's fine. Just establish the ThundetCats the way they are SUPPOSED to be established.

Panthro purple? I can see where they get the idea... in the later episodes, he does have a purplish tint, but only if you blatanly compare the early episodes to the New Thundera ones.

OH - and New Thundera ? It was never called N.Thundera til when the planet reformed itself.( :rolleyes::D)

I'm glad this turd didn't pass (if it IS in fact real). I can see WHY.
I'm glad it's on hiatus.

Also - doesn't it seem like a short script to anybody else?
And another thing:
It doesn't say "shooting script" so this must be a first draft/working-script that wouldn't have been the final script anyway.

:lionomad: I'm glad this is on hold. Lion-O would throw up on this script it's so bad.
Get some REAL ThunderCats fans as consultants. Jeez....:rolleyes:

PS: Tygra -First time viewers/people new to Tcats are going to come away from this movie seeing Tygra as a jackass.
While I don't mind some of his interactions w/ Lion-O, they're slightly askew.
Monkian kissing Wilykit is not something he'd do, either.








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"blackiecats, post: 25995" said:

Grune the Destroyer and Mumm-Ra are NOT the same person. That is the stupidest thing I've heard come from the script. Thank god it never got made ;)

I didn't catch that somehow in the script. But yeah - that IS ridiculous!

The second part (Exodus) of the other script is been giving problems on the server, have uploaded it twice already. Will upload it soon on another site.

EDIT:
Link updated.

I still don't understand why any true ThunderCats fan would find this to be a "good" script. Some of the changes are ok, but some (one really) just flat out kill the point of making the movie.

Changes that are OK by me:
Jaga would have survived the trip to Third Earth if not for the attack by Slithe at the end.
Jaga can only appear to Lion-O in the one spot where Mumm-Ra tried to use the Sword of Omens.
Grune killed Lion-O's mother.
The Thunderian refugees waited before leaving Thundera.
The Thundertank was brought to Third Earth in the cargo bay of the ship.
Mumm-Ra had to obtain the Bloodstone in order to transform.
The Pumm-Ra disguise is used against Lion-O not Cheetara.

Changes that leave me feeling a little uneasy:
No Snarf.
The Thunderian refugees go to the twin earth and Claudus leaves the ThunderCats on Third Earth.
Pumm-Ra and Grune are "easily" mistaken for each other even though one was a Puma and one was a Sabertooth Tiger and the ThunderCats would have seen Grune before his exile from Thundera.
It will take months for the arks to reach the ThunderCats, yet within 2 weeks of Lion-O using the Sword of Omens, Claudus walks off a ship and says he chose to leave Thundera after sensing Lion-O use the Sword...
Slithe is mortally wounded and falls to his death in the river below, yet he comes back from the dead to work on the chain gang at the end.
Three cables are destroyed, but there are only two to be repaired? (Mighty fast repair time).
Slithe is a "toadman"; toads are amphibians, NOT reptiles.

Changes that make me feel outraged at the sacrilege that is called the ThunderCats Script:
The Sword of Omens does not care if it is used for evil deeds.

<sarcasim> Hey, while we're rewriting everything else about the story, let's make the Sword of Omens a Lightsaber instead of a real sword (the Eye of Thundera can open up to ignite the Lightsaber). The ThunderCats can walk on four legs instead of two, and have long elegant tails. Slithe can carry a Tommy Gun. Jackalman can be the Mutant Leader. And the ThunderCats actually landed on Mars, not Third Earth.</Sarcasim>

I dind't even realise Mumm-Ra was Grune. How very silly I am. Well, i don't like that idea AT ALL, that's just retarded.

Plus, one of the main concepts of the original was that the Sword of Omens couldn't be used for evil, having Grune kill Lion-O's mother with it was just inexcusable.

Slithe being mortally wounded and then back into action in the next scene was retarded also.

Why did Claudus leave all the ThunderCats on Third Earth whilst they all went to the planet? I didn't understand that part

:cheetaramad:

Let's be careful in the use of the word "retarded". Besides it being disrespectful, Sarah Palin may come and getcha!

All your comments are exactly why they'll never make a movie. I'm surprised they agreed to make statues.

Be more open minded.