In 1985, Thundercats were on the move, answering the age-old question, “what would it be like if a cohort of feline-humanoid hybrid aliens crash-landed on a sparsely populated Earth under the thrall of an agitated sorcerer mummy?” For four years, the series inspired kids to swing their own Sword Of Omens toys and hope that the Eye Of Thundera would magically thrust them into adulthood, adding 100 pounds of chiseled muscle. But the show had more practical messages, too: For instance, the writers tried an unconventional tactic to interest children in hygiene, by introducing weaponized soap in the season one episode “Mandora: The Evil Chaser.”
A signature element of the original Thundercats was the excellent voice work. The video below—captured by Lynne Lipton, who voiced Cheetara, and posted by audio engineer Larry Franke—this video puts faces on the show’s immediately recognizable baritones. While the brief clip is pretty grainy, it’s worth watching to see Earle Hyman belting out Panthro’s lines from the series finale, “The Book Of Omens.” Equally awesome is Earl Hammond’s Mumm-Ra proclaiming, “I choose to go into the book… motherfucker!”