<![CDATA[io9: thundercats]]> http://tags.lifehacker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: thundercats]]> http://io9.com/tag/thundercats http://io9.com/tag/thundercats <![CDATA[Thundercats Concept Art Shows The Furry Warriors That Could Have Been]]> If you enjoyed the amazing fan-made Thundercats trailer, with Brad Pitt as Lion-O, feast your feline eyes on Thundercat concept art for Jerry O'Flaherty's film that never was.

Movieline acquired a collection of beautiful concept art from the mooted Warner Bros. movie, including this lovely still of Third Earth. Head over to Movieline to view the rest of the art.

The only actor to really vocalize their cat ambition Tyrese Gibson, who would make a great Panthro, let's hope these images rally the Hollywood troops into making this a reality.

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<![CDATA[20 Best (And 20 Worst) Pets In Science Fiction]]> When humans finally conquer space, we'll still want to keep other creatures as pets. Some science-fiction pets are among our favorite characters, but others, you just want to flush out the airlock. Here's our list of the best and worst.


BEST:


Spot, Data's Orange Tabby Cat from Star Trek: The Next Generation
Who: Data's number 1 friend that didn't wear a Devo-esque visor on his face.
Why he's awesome: He's probably one of the only cats in the universe that has an infinitely advanced AI at his beck and call.
Bonus points: Anything that pisses Riker off is a big plus in my book.

Willis the Bouncer from Robert Heinlein's Red Planet
Who: A sound mimicking furry ball that every kid should have as a friend.
Why he's awesome: In a 1960's era future, when a dog just won't cut it, the only way to really impress the kids at school is with an alien that doubles as a soccer ball. And here's a clip from the Fox miniseries adaptation.

R2D2, Star Wars
Who: The yin to C3PO's (annoying) yang that brings logic and light to any situation through a series of flickering lights and bleeps.
Why he's awesome: He's a moving trashcan that manages to be more likeable than most of the Star Wars palz extended cast.

Porthos, Captain Archer's Beagle from Enterprise
Who: Easily one of the more tolerable characters on Enterprise. Mostly because he didn't talk.
Why he's awesome: He's a beagle! How can beagles not be cute? Also, I feel like after the unfortunate Scotty related transporter incident, he deserves a nice memorial.

Ampersand, Y the Last man
Who: The world's ending, every man is dead, you're an aspiring escape artist pining away for your lost girlfriend and you're all alone. What do you do? Have crazy monkey antics with your favorite jungle friend with a punctuation mark as a name.
Why he's awesome: Not to spoil too much, but he may or may not be humanity's key to getting the XY's back in action.


Lockjaw
Who: Marvel's own alien bulldog and member of the non-human branch of the Avengers.
Why he's awesome: He's super strong, can eat anything and once latched onto the Thing.

Dog the Robot from Half Life 2
Who: Alyx Vance's No.1 go to robotic buddy who helps when your path is blocked by other dimensional beings or just wants to play fetch with your grav gun.
Why he's awesome: He's a giant robot with the personality of a dog. Do you need more?

Pen Pen, from Neon Genesis Evangelion
Who: A genetically altered super smart penguin that lives with Misato Katsuragi during the Angel apocalypse.
Why he's awesome: While the series has moments of intense despair and darkness, you can always count on jerky, anime humor involving naked people and penguins to brighten your day.

K-9 from Doctor Who
Who: Dr Who's multi-generational robotic canine companion.
Why he's awesome: He's gotten a series of spinoff stories and was even parodied on South Park.

Nibbler from Futurama
Who: Nibbler is part of an ancient race of Nibblonians who protect the universe from giant glowing brains that make everyone stupid. Er, Stupid-er.
Why he's awesome: He can eat about 1,000 times his body mass to, uh, produce dark matter.

Gaspode, from Terry Prachett's Discworld series
Who: A talking dog with human intelligence that attempts to bring "Hollywood" to Discworld.
Why he's awesome: He's an endless source of snarky remarks and regularly uses his speech to manipulate humans when he needs food.

CJ-7
Who: A puff ball with a body that guaranteed to produce family friendly fun times.
Why he's awesome: CJ-7 can help you repair torn relationships with certain parental figures and bring people back from the dead.

Einstein, Doc Brown's dog from Back to the Future
Who: You might be under the impression that a certain Family Ties alum might be the Doc's best time traveling friend in this series, but you'd be wrong. This adorable little terrier follows Doc whenever her goes.
Why he's awesome: As long as you ignore the craptacular animated television series, Einstein is always cute, helpful and never obnoxious.

Ein, Cowboy Bebop
Who: A super brained corgie that gets stranded on the Bebop.
Why he's awesome: Although they never really get into it in the series, Ein is a "data dog" that possesses super intelligence that allows him to answer phones and steer cars.

Bubastis, Ozymandias' lynx from Watchmen
Who: When you're a super genius David Bowie impersonator with the world at your fingertips what do you do next? You create a genetically engineered psychedelic colored lynx as a companion.
Why he's awesome: He takes one for the team for the sake of furthering an evil plan for his master.

Gizmo, Gremlins
Who: The main furry faced protagonist of the Gremlins series.
Why he's awesome: While I'm pretty much a fan of all the gremlins, I can't deny the greatness that is Gizmo channeling his inner Rambo.

Seymour from Futurama
Who: Seymour is a part of one of the most tear jerking episodes of Futurama involving Fry recounting the story of the most loyal dog that ever lived.
Why he's awesome: Did you see the last scene? He's the most loyal dog that ever lived! Also, we can rest easy knowing that alternate timeline Fry gave Seymour a great life.

Bronx from Gargoyles
Who: Bronx is the dog version of the Manhattan gargoyle clan. During the whole series you only see one other gargoyle beast, but unlike Budeka, Bronx gets a whole episode devoted to him befriending an Amish kid.
Why he's awesome: Gargoyles are already pretty high on the cool supercreatures scale, but add a dog personality to the mix, and you've got gold.

Roach from WALL-E
Who: They weren't lying when they said that after the world ended there would be nothing left but cockroaches. Fortunately, the end of the world also gave them charming personalities!
Why he's awesome: Making me want a roach as a pet is an epic win in my book.

Kevin and Dug from Up
Who: Kevin is a rare, brilliantly colored giant bird that Carl and Russell accidentally find in Paradise Falls. Dug is sweet golden retriever with a collar that allows him to talk.
Why they're awesome: It takes a lot to make slapstick giant birds funny, but Pixar does a magnificent job. And Dug? He's exactly what I imagine an actual talking dog to sound like. SQUIRREL!

WORST:

Tribbles from Star Trek
Who: Fuzzy, purring little meat pets that take over the original Enterprise.
Why they suck: Pets rocks were bad enough, why would they think that a massively multiplying furry pet rock would be better?

ALF
Who: Alien puppet that takes over a really lame sitcom in the 80's. If ever you want to torture someone without the use of waterboarding, show them and episode of ALF… or Small Wonder.
Why he sucks: Look me straight in the eye and tell me you didn't scream in horror when you saw that clip.

Snarf, Thundercats
Who: A fat alien cat that ends every sentence with an annoying "snarf!" sound.
Why he sucks: Is he a lizard or a cat? I'm going to go with meth induced demonic lovechild.

Teddy from A.I.
Who: An animatronic intelligent Teddy Rucksbin from the future that accompanies David in a search for the Blue Fairy.
Why he sucks: Ok, now I understand that some people might take issue with Teddy's position on the worst list but he's a toy that's alive. That's pretty much the worst nightmare of most 8-year-old kids. And me.

Slimer from Ghostbusters
Who: A green ghost that terrorizes the Ghostbusters team by covering everything in slime.
Why he sucks: For those of us born in the mid 80's and watched the Ghostbusters cartoon first, we expected to see cool ghost antics when we finally saw the movie. Instead, we were greeted with a grotesque blob that was pretty evil.

Div-x from Penny Arcade
Who: You might remember the Sony Dix-X player, an ahead of its time technical marvel.
Why he sucks: According to Penny Arcade Comics, he's a foul-mouthed drunk that's teetering on the edge of killing us all.

Pets from Children of Men
Who: When the world's gone infertile, people turn to animals to provide comfort in the end of humanity.
Why they suck: I have nothing against the animals in Children of Men, personally, but seeing all the dogs, cats and birds cluttering people's homes can be an ominous image.

Selacious Crumb from Star Wars
Who: He's a little fox-lizard thing that hangs out with Jabba the Hut and laughs at all his lame jokes.
Why he sucks: Everybody hates the skinny jerk in the corner with the stupid laugh.

Gleek from Superfriends
Who: The alien monkey pet of the Wondertwins.
Why he sucks: Usually if he was featured in Superfriends, you could count on him popping out to end the episode on a lame joke.

Independence Day Dog from Independence Day
Who: If you're like me then you probably laughed at the idea of a ball of flame chasing a golden retriever down a tunnel.
Why he sucks: Was it really necessary to have a slow motion explosion behind a dog? And wouldn't all that heat ultimately cook them all in that storage locker?
Then Again:...he's immune to explosions. And that's pretty cool. Dodging fire like that, he's like a canine Neo. Maybe he should have been best?

Space Buddies
Why they suck: I'll just point you in the direction of this.

Queequeg, X-files
Who: A Pomeranian adopted by Dana Scully and eaten shortly after by the legendary Big Blue.
Why he sucks: He was found snacking on his previous owner.

Krypto
Who: Superman's dog. Enough said.
Why he sucks: I hate pet versions of superheroes. Also, why does he need a cape?

Muffit from the original Battlestar Gallactica
Who: Caprica used to have a variety of tracker dogs but sadly, none of them survived the Cylon attack. Instead a group robotic dogs are created to replace them.
Why he sucks: Is he an ewok? A fuzzy, metallic gremlin on meth? You decide.

MAD Cat from Inspector Gadget
Who: Dr. Claw's chortling fat feline.
Why he sucks: He's the quintessential evil cat meant to taunt the hero. Plus Dr. Claw regularly beat the crap out of him and he seemed to be ok with that.

Frank the Dog from Men in Black
Who: An alien stool pigeon using the guise of a small pug.
Why he sucks: He made me remember "Who Let the Dogs Out" existed.

Gir, Invader Zim
Who: Invader Zim's mentally disturbed robot helper that was given to him as either a joke or sabotage. Probably both.
Why he sucks: Yeah, yeah Gir is really cute, but he's amoral, evil and would gladly watch you die a fiery death while bursting into a fit of giggles.

Astro, The Jetsons
Who: The Scooby Doo knockoff of the 21st century.
Why he sucks: It might have worked with the Scooby Gang, but there's only room for one charismatic dog with a speech impediment ‘round these parts.

Lamar, Half Life 2
Who: The neutered headcrab that resides in Dr. Isaac Kleiner's laboratory.
Why he sucks: Crabs are rarely a good thing. Head crabs are a double whammy of bad.

Joshua from Dark Angel
Who: A transgenic dog-man with an affinity for painting and crappy comedic timing.
Why he sucks: There was only one good thing that came out of season two of Dark Angel and that rhymes with Smensen Shackles.

Honorable Mention: Blarp from the Lost in Space remake.

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<![CDATA[Brad Pitt As Lion-O, Hugh Jackman As Tygra? This Is A Live Action ThunderCats I Support]]> It's only a matter of time before there's a ThunderCats movie. So do it right, Hollywood — as imagined in this trailer with Pitt, Jackman... and Vin Diesel as Panthro.

This fake trailer from Wormy T is raising the bar pretty high on a ThunderCats movie, but dream a little dream with me. Wouldn't Pitt Be wonderful as Lion-O? Excellent job on the fake trailer, let's hope it convinces someone other than Tyrese Gibson into campaigning harder for this movie.

But remember, there have been rumors, and cat model heads leaked into the press, that seem to tell us it's not time to give up hope yet.

There have been other fake live-action ThunderCats trailers, but none so great as to actually Cat-ize Vin Diesel.


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<![CDATA[The Thundercats Are In Good Hands... And Evil Claws]]> After the Thundercats journey from Thundera to Third Earth, they have to face a whole range of evil mutants from the planet Plun-Darr. So the long-awaited Thundercats film will have to feature a whole array of scary mutant freaks for Lion-O and friends to battle, or we'll be terribly let down. So it's good news that God Of War concept artist Charlie Wen is working on the Thundercats movie, as you can see from our grotesque gallery of his God Of War art.

[Charlie Wen via ComicBookMovie]

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<![CDATA[The Silverhawks Will Defend Us From Economic Limbo]]> How can you not love a team of heroes introduced in a series premiere called, "The Origin Story" that features a conflict on the planet of Limbo? The first season of Lorimar's follow-up to Thundercats hits DVD tomorrow, and there's no time like the present to pick it up. Preserved in steel, "partly metal, partly real," the Silverhawks were gliding portents of our economic future — when viewed for what they stand for, of course.

As a follow-up to the hit Thundercats and the accompanying bonanza in toy sales, Lorimar went ahead with Silverhawks. The campy style actually ages quite well, and the themes of economic regulation and corruption in the corporate sector, well, they resonate.

J. Larry Carroll, the show's producer, later created the CBS procedural Diagnosis Murder, and penned a Stargate episode, "Hathnor". The show's interplanetary setting owes a lot to The Silver Surfer, and its unique world lends it just a little originality, most conspicuously in the vast assemblage of villains the heroes have to toy with.

After they sacrificed their human bodies, the Silverhawks are under the grip of the bald, officious, and poorly voiced Commander Stargazer. Their primary nemesis was the devastating Mon*Star, commanded a ferocious army of signifiers referred to conspicuously as a "mob."

The evil Yes Man's villainy is pernicious and long term, and involves handing out loans and flying places on golden parachutes. Like Dick Cheney, Yes Man has a long and dangerous tail/penis. Mo-Lec-U-Lar and Windhammer are the titans of energy, wild, but mightily powerful.

Even Mon*Star has trouble controlling the behavior of the titans of industry. Buzzsaw and Hardware command the technology and weapons sectors, and they're rapidly spiralling out of everyone's control. Pokerface and Melodia are the twin industries in dire need of regulation: gambling and digital rights management. I suppose Mumbo Jumbo ("the strong man") would be their lawyer.

The irony is that the series itself was an expression of capitalist desire, trying to capitalize on a trend while it was still hot. And out of all such gestures of greed, good may yet rise:

You can find parts two and three of the pilot here and here.

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<![CDATA[Tyrese Gibson Wants To Be A Thundercat]]> Tyrese Gibson is jumping to don the skin tight catsuit for a Thundercats remake. In an interview for the new Death Race movie (where he plays killer convict Machine Gun Joe) we got a chance to ask Gibson if he could remake any film what would it be? In mere seconds Tyrese Gibson leaned forward and said, "Thundercats." Click through for more on Gibson's desire to kill like a cat, plus Luke Cage news.

Gibson couldn't stop smiling when talking about the 'cats. But he didn't have a specific Thundercat in mind, explaining that there were a lot of options. When pressed to ask if there was more Hollywood talk about this cartoon remake Gibson said, "I'm just looking into that."

He has also been linked to the superhero character Luke Cage. His Cage update was very non-commital, "we'll see what happens. There's a lot of anticipation and things that need to happen," (including the tweaking of the classic yellow-shirt uniform). Let's hope it comes together soon, because according to Gibson he's also on standby to play B.A. Baracus in John Singleton's remake of the A-Team.

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<![CDATA[Stare Into The Faces Of The New Thundercats!]]> We only have a few precious spoilers for you this morning, but they do include an alleged first look at the mighty leonine heads of the Thundercats, from their CGI movie, which IMDB says is coming in 2010. Also, there's a new plot synopsis of the City Of Ember movie, starring Bill Murray and coming Oct. 10. Also, there are some more unreliable Doctor Who spoilers, and a new Lost clip. And you'll never guess who showed up at that funeral home on Lost! Click through to be spoiled.

Thundercats:

Here's a model of what the heads will supposedly look like in the new CGI Thundercats movie, which appears to be using some kind of motion-capture and supposedly stars Hugh Jackman, Jessica Simpson and Michael Clarke Duncan. [TGISFW]
attachment.jpg

City Of Ember:

A new one-sheet for the City Of Ember movie came out, featuring a detailed plot synopsis of the Bill Murray adaptation of a young adult novel set in a post-apocalyptic underground city. Here's the synopsis:

For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights - underground. Built as a refuge for humanity and powered by a massive generator - this city will only sustain for 200 years. Now Ember is falling into darkness as the generator fails, and the dazzling lights begin to flicker and fade.

Despite growing concern for the future of their beloved city, Ember's students find themselves confronting the next step in their lives. A rite of passage for all graduates, it is Assignment Day, the day on which the Mayor himself will stand before the graduating students as they choose, by lottery, how they will spend their lives working for their society. Lina, praying with all her might to be a messenger, is appalled to be assigned to the Pipeworks, the vast network of pipes underneath the city. Her classmate, Doon Harrow, who wants more than nothing else to work in the Generator, panics when he pulls the messenger assignment. The Pipeworks isn't the Generator, but it is close enough and Doon offers to swap assignments with Lina. She is thrilled and grateful and eagerly changes jobs. Thus, an unlikely friendship is born, one that, as it blossoms, will change the course of all the lives in Ember.

Lina takes easily to the job of messenger and finds herself zipping all over Ember, delivering important missives to even more important people, including the mayor himself. At home she cares for her aging and forgetful grandmother, and her baby sister Poppy. When an old metal box is discovered in their closet, Lina's grandmother is overjoyed. Completely sure that the contents of the box are of the utmost importance, she is completely bereft of any memory as to why.

Lina manages to jimmy the lock open, and discovers some cryptic and decrepit papers inside. Unable to piece the papers together, Lina resolves to decipher their meaning and enlists Doon's help.

As blackouts in the city become more frequent, Lina and Doon realize that the information inside that box could lead to the salvation of their city and their fellow citizens. Now racing against the clock, the two follow the clues, cleverly maneuvering around corrupt politicians and unsavory characters hoping to keep them from their goal: restoring the light in the CITY OF EMBER.

[IESB]

Doctor Who:

Another set of probably bogus spoilers for the last two episodes of Doctor Who season four. Former British Prime Minister Harriet Jones becomes a super-Dalek (as in other recent spoilers). And Rose's alternate universe collapses, dumping Rose, Jackie and Mickey back in our universe. And the Sontarans fight the Daleks. And the Doctor's daughter Jenny is in it. And the Master is manipulating everything from behind the scenes. But Donna is secretly controlled by the Racnoss, those spidery creatures. And Dalek creator Davros is helping the last Dalek (from the Great Depression episodes) create a new race of Daleks. And the Doctor gets split into two Doctors, one of whom goes with Rose. (That part we actually did have pictures of the filming of, at least.)

I apologize to anybody who's not a raving Doctor Who fanatic, who might be struggling to make sense of the above paragraph. The fact that you need a PhD in Who to understand them, by itself, makes the above spoilers highly unlikely. Although you do never know. [Sunny Tyler]

Lost:

Lost was back filming scenes in the funeral home where Jack visited the mystery coffin at the end of season three. And the only Lost star to be seen there... was Desmond! Is he in the coffin? Or was he paying his respects? [Spoilers Lost]

And here's a sneak peek from Thursday's new Lost episode:

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