Review- Thundarr The Barbarian Ep 1: Secret of the Black Pearl

“In the year 1994, From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Human’s civilization is cast in ruin! Two thousand years later, Earth is recivilized with A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the forces of evil. He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!”

And with those words we are pulled into the post-apocalyptic world of Thundarr the barbarian.

Let’s go!

And we open in the swamp as we get our first look at the world, ruins and leftover things from ‘our’ modern world. Here comes Thundarr, Ariel and Ookla on their horses ss the try to get out of the swamp as quickly as possible, attacked by a creature they change course and hear a person moan in pain and we get to see a group of rat people or Groundlings dragging an old man toward their cave, wanting a pearl from him but he refuses to give it. And we get to see the first use of Thundarr’s lightsaber..err..sunsword as he attacks, with Ariel using magic and Ookla his strength to run the groundlings off saving the old man who had the black pearl with him. A magical device that once belonged to Gemini the sorcerer. He was taking it to the people of Manhat (manhattan)

The Groundlings contact Gemini and tells him about losing the pearl and that its on its way to Manhat. We see the runis of what was once Manhattan, now almost completely recovered by nature. Ariel creates a light bridge to get to the village Thundarr is attacked by the Groundlings, riding motorcycles no less, who faces them all down since there’s only 50 or so.

Gemini has been watching it all in his scrying pool and gathers his knights ot handle it personally…and we get to see why he’s called Gemini as his head spins around and shows he has 2 faces, one more kindly the other evil. Ariel explains that the world was once different than now and Manhat was once a great city filled with people.

In the subway Gemini captures Ariel and threatens Thundarr and Ookla, using his magic he tries to attack them but the pearl counteracts the magic, Gemini runs away as Thundarr and Ookla go back to the surface where they are promptly attacked by the knights who are in a helicopter..the knights it turns out are robots and dont last long before they’re defeated. Thundarr and Ookla take the helicopter as they figure out how to fly it as they travel. Not particularly the smartest way to do it, but hey, its a cartoon.

At Gemini’s home, a futuristic building, in the swamp Thundarr gets inside to find Ariel but meets Gemini instead. As they get ready to fight Ariel uses her magic to lock Gemini’s helmet covering both his faces. Ookla, barely able to fly the helicopter crashes it due to anger issues. On their horses the trio head back to Manhat with the pearl.

Talking with the villagers of Manhat, they are attacked by Gemini who brings the ruined Statue of Liberty to life. Thundarr, Ariel and Ookla attack Liberty but cant hurt it due to its size, Thundarr uses the black pearl on the statue which cancels out the magic and seemingly destroys Gemini as well. The villagers say they’ll try to make more pearls if possible as our heroes ride off into their next adventure.

A quick intro of the world and characters that just drops you into it with only the opening introduction of the series to prepare you for whats coming. Not a deep story but it gives you everything you need to know about each character and what they can do and what the world is now like. Fun show. Does it hold up with a modern look at it? Kinda. Animation is typical for that era, and especially for Hanna-Barbara/Ruby-Spears detailed but fairly cheap. But the designs are wonderful really has that 80’s feel to it that some might not like but in the context of the series is great. I’ve not see n these in a long time, probably since I was a kid and they’d come on in reruns and I have to admit I still got that excitement I’d get then even if I can see all the things wrong with them and with a somewhat jaded eye compared to the modern animation used today..but still, its such campy fun reliving this series.

Comment? Question?

Till next time…

#ThundarrTheBarbarian #PrincessAriel #OoklaTheMok #Sunsword #PostApocalypic #SciFi #Fantasy #Action #Adventure #Animation #SecretOfTheBlackPearl