Before the Thundercats’ return was given a green light by Warner Bros. as a newly imagined anime-inspired animated series, the studio was pursuing the idea of relaunching the franchise up on the big screen. Rather than sit around and wonder “what if” that film adaptation may have looked like, newly leaked test footage from the project has hit the web via Flixist and is more than worth a look.
It’s hard to argue this is fan-made given the introductory Warner Bros. logo and effort put into the over 2-minute reel of animation. Feel free to run it past any legitimacy test you can think of and I suspect you’ll come away satisfied with the result, though not necessarily how the Thundercats are being portrayed.
The footage starts with Lion-O bashing his seemingly indestructible Sword of Omens against some rocks. While he’s strutting his stuff, Evil Mutant Leader Slithe sneaks up behind Lion-O and… whoops… the Sword of Omens goes tumbling down a huge crevice. Lion-O could have used a little “Sight Beyond Sight” before that mishap.
At this point the test footage gets really weird. Lion-O finds himself clinging to life against a rock face and Slithe when forced into hand-to-hand combat. Before going for the kill, Slithe decides to give Lion-O a friendly lick across the face. Wait, who is the feline here in this picture?
For now this project is indefinitely shelved and Thundercats will live on in your living room instead. Based on how Lion-O is awkwardly realized in the footage below it’s probably for the best.
