Thundercats Ho! or Ho Hum?

Thundercats Ho! or Ho Hum?

Warner Bros. Animation is betting audiences still have an appetite for 80’s cartoon revivals as the Thundercats returns in 2011 to Cartoon Network in a new animated show.  The humanoid cat-like aliens are being groomed to attract tween to young teen audiences with a more mature anime-style design.

Thundercats has fleetingly appeared in media in the past years aside from the occasional t-shirt and tweens are unlikely to have even seen the original series.  Do the Thundercats contain the power to capture the hotly-contested attention of young audiences or will they fall to the legion of live-action tween sitcoms-stay tuned!

Thundercats Attribute Scores

Using E-Score Character Kids we looked at how 6-12 years olds perceive Thundercats.  71% see the Thundercats as ”a hero” 36 points higher than the animated character average (71% vs. 35%).  Thundercats were seen 10 percentage points higher than average for ”cool” (44% vs. 34%) and 15 points higher than average in ”exciting” (39% vs. 24%). Also, Thundercats earned a ”brave” score more than double the average for animated characters (58% vs. 27%). Thundercats awareness among boys is 20%, 18 points lower than animated character average but substantial despite limited use.

Looking at the attribute scores we can see a strong moralistic component to how current younger audiences view Thundercats.  In the original show each episode would focus on a value or moral that allowed for their victory against the evil Mumm-Ra.  Thundercats virtuous characteristics have carried to current young audiences and carved out an identity despite limited exposure.  E-Score Character Kids has the ability to measure characters despite any lapsed exposure or obscurity.

Source: E-Score Character Kids 6-12

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