# Thundercats Roar
Thundercats Roar is a 2018 Warner Brothers reboot of the 1980s Thundercats cartoon whose May trailer drew massive backlash for its cutesy animation and family-friendly tone[1]. The ratio of 4,200 dislikes to 400 likes within three days sparked a wave of parody art dragging the show's so-called CalArts style, which became the online shorthand for everything fans felt was wrong with modern Western animation[2].
## Origin
On May 18, 2018, Warner Brothers uploaded the official Thundercats Roar trailer to YouTube along with a behind-the-scenes interview featuring producer Victor Courtwright[2]. Within three days the trailer sat at roughly 400 likes against 4,200 dislikes, and the comments filled with complaints about the chibi redesigns and comedic reframing of Lion-O and the gang[1].
The backlash spilled onto Twitter the same day. Fan account @LakelPruitt tweeted that the reboot ruined his childhood, pulling over 210 retweets and 600 likes[3], while @TheyCallMeTXT mocked both Courtwright and the concept, picking up 70 retweets and 160 likes[6]. YouTube rant videos followed quickly, with MimHeadroom and Just Some Guy each pulling tens of thousands of views dissecting the trailer frame by frame[2].
- **Platform:** YouTube (trailer) / Twitter (viral backlash)
- **Creator:** Warner Brothers (show); backlash art by various Twitter users including @flipskip1 and @speedosausage
- **Date:** 2018
## Overview
Thundercats Roar is Warner Brothers' comedic reboot of the 1980s action cartoon Thundercats, developed for Cartoon Network with a softer, gag-driven tone and a flat, bean-mouth art style that fans immediately lumped in with the so-called CalArts look of Adventure Time and Steven Universe[1]. The backlash itself turned into the meme: within days of the trailer dropping, Twitter artists were redrawing other beloved franchises in the same rounded, pastel style to show how awful it would look if the format spread[3].
The parodies run on one joke: take a serious or iconic character, flatten the proportions, add dot eyes and a tiny jellybean body, and present it as a Cartoon Network reboot pitch. Captain America, The Simpsons, and various anime leads all got the treatment[5]. The term CalArts style became such a lightning rod during this stretch that animators and critics pushed back, pointing out that nostalgia for 80s cartoons glossed over how shoddy a lot of that older animation actually was[4].
## How to Use
The parody format is simple: pick a character known for being gritty, iconic, or hyper-detailed, then redraw them in the Thundercats Roar / CalArts house style. Common conventions include bean-shaped bodies, dot or bead eyes, open-mouth smiles, flat shading, and bright pastel backgrounds. Captioning the result as a fake Cartoon Network reboot announcement is typical.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Thundercats Roar?
It's Warner Brothers' comedic Cartoon Network reboot of the 1980s Thundercats cartoon, and the online backlash and parody art that followed its May 2018 trailer[1].
### Where did Thundercats Roar come from?
The trailer was uploaded to YouTube on May 18, 2018, and racked up roughly 4,200 dislikes against 400 likes in three days, kicking off the viral backlash[2].
### What does Thundercats Roar mean?
Online, the name became shorthand for a nostalgic franchise being rebooted in the flat, bean-mouth CalArts style associated with shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe[4].
### How do you use Thundercats Roar?
Artists typically redraw a gritty or iconic character in the show's rounded chibi style and caption it as a fake Cartoon Network reboot, as @flipskip1 did with Captain America[7].
### Is Thundercats Roar still popular?
The parody wave was mostly a 2018 moment, but the name is still cited in animation discourse as the go-to example of fan backlash against the CalArts style[5].
## References
1. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2018/05/20/thundercats-roar-looks-very-different-to-the-original-series-and-fans-arent-happy-about-that/]()
2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afaithTQSaI]()
3. [https://fansided.com/2018/05/18/thundercats-roar-angry-twitter-reacts/]()
4. [https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/thundercats-roar-backlash-calarts/]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thundercats-roar]()
6. [https://twitter.com/TheyCallMeTXT/status/997556217567416322]()
7. [https://x.com/i/status/997616996744216577]()
8. [https://twitter.com/LakelPruitt/status/997544299096031232]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/thundercats-roar
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