Peter Lawrence
Reviewed by: Zack Ramadan (aka thezaxfactor)
The special five-part adventure continues. I wonder how Tygra and Pumyra are doing...
When we last saw Mumm-Ra, he was fleeing the Great Beneath in a fantastic mood. He was laughing maniacally, throwing insults around, and altogether certain that his victory would soon be absolute. But now he's come down off that high, and he's pretty darn pooped.
Returning to the pyramid, he takes Ma-Mutt into his arms and receives a barage of dog-kisses. Ma-Mutt, he says, is his only friend, his only worthwhile ally. Awww. That's pretty sad. While Mumm-Ra overcomes his exhaustion, he has a mission for his puppy. Even though it is only a matter of time before the New Thundera disintegrates, they mustn't forget that Tygra and Pumyra remain on Third Earth. They, too, must be dealt with.
Noting that, between New Thundera and Third Earth, Mumm-Ra and Ma-Mutt are split too thin, they will need help. Ma-Mutt's mission, therefore, is to find Captain Bragg's Circus Train and free the Mutants. For some reason, Mumm-Ra seems confident that they will be able to take care of Tygra and Pumyra. I'd offer about fifty instances evidencing the opposite; but, hey, Mumm-Ra's always been a cock-eyed optimist.
Orders in paw, Ma-Mutt leaps into the cauldron and, goodness gracious, he transforms into a ball of fire. Off he flies, Third Earth-bound.
Back in the Great Beneath, Lion-O, Panthro, and the Kittens are still hanging around. The Kittens assure Jagara that she needn't get all worked up over the out-of-control Gyroscope. "Panthro will fix it," they say. "He can fix anything." Panthro's not so confident. He says it will take him time to figure out the Gyroscope's technology, which is all new to him. Lion-O reminds him that time is in short supply.
Ma-Mutt, meanwhile, has reached Third Earth. He transforms back into his canine self and doggy paddles through space. Then, squinting, he eyes the Circus Train. Apparently Captain Bragg has come back to Third Earth for another visit. Lucky Third Earth. Ma-Mutt formulates a plan, a very clever plan for a dog. He transforms into Mandora (Electrocharger and all). It's an imperfect disguise: his fangs persist, and the visor on the helmet is red instead of yellow. No matter. Captain Bragg's a moron; he won't notice.
Muttdora pulls up alongside the train and peers in at the Mutants. I'm not even going to address the whole breathing in space issue; this five-parter doesn't make scientific sense from any angle. Anyway, the Mutants think she's there to confirm that they're still locked up, and are most surprised to hear Mumm-Ra's voice pass her lips. Apparently, Muttdora is chanelling Mumm-Ra, who tells them to "look lively:" their moment of glory has come.
Muttdora then zooms up to the front car and tells Captain Bragg to pull over. Pull over where?! It's outer space! When Captain Bragg and Cronan question her demand, she says that it's just a "routine freight check," which is dumb, since this is a circus train, not a freight train. Once he's pressed BASH and stopped the train, Muttdora leaps onto the roof and opens the top hatch. She tells Bragg to join her.
As Captain Bragg climbs the ladder, he maintains that they've done nothing wrong. Cronan wants to call his lawyer. Muttdora laughs at the lame joke, and the laugh gradually shifts from a Mandora laugh to a Mumm-Ra laugh. "Too late for that, I'm afraid," replies Muttdora in Mumm-Ra's voice. Quick as thinking, she pulls her Boomazlang (that is what it's called, right?) from it's holster and whips it at Bragg and Cronan. It wraps them tightly in red cord, and they fall off the roof. Apparently, they're close enough to Third Earth to end up caught in its gravity, and they continue freefalling. Once they're gone, Muttdora transforms back into Ma-Mutt and pilots the train back to Third Earth.
At the old Cats' Lair, an alarm is beeping. Pumyra enters the control room and signals Tygra at the Tower of Omens. There's an unidentified vehicle entering Third Earth airspace, and it's triggered the alarms. Tygra tells Pumyra to relax once he sees the images. It's just Captain Bragg bringing the circus to town. He hangs up on Pumyra, and she slumps back in her chair not quite satisfied that everything's all right.
The Circus Train has come to a landing outside Castle PlunDarr, and the Mutants are glad to be home, even though they don't know how or why. They soon spot Ma-Mutt, who melts the facade of the car with his doggy heat vision. The bars come crashing down, and the Mutants fall out of their cage, only to get up and do a happy dance. Seriously, a happy dance. "We're free, we're free," they shout.
A red glow reflects off their faces, and Mumm-Ra's voice corrects them from offscreen: "Not quite yet, my Mutant friends." In front of them, a larger-than-life hologram of Mumm-Ra has appeared. If you look closely, you can see that it's pouring out of Ma-Mutt's mouth...odd. Mumm-Ra says that for their freedom they are indebted to him. He orders them to do away with Tygra and Pumyra.
In the Great Beneath, Bengali has appeared out of nowhere. Last we saw him, he was with Cheetara, Lynxo, and the refugees, headed back to the Lair. Anyway, he's forged a new regulator, and Panthro screws it into place. At first, the Gyroscope responds positively: it stops precessing and, for a moment, it looks like they're in the clear. Of course, Bengali's new-fangled regulator just isn't good enough, and pretty soon sparks are flying. The new regulator explodes, sending everyone tumbling backward. The Gyroscope starts banging around as well, and the camera shakes up and down as new tremors rattle the planet. Jagara says that these new solutions won't work; they must get the original regulator back.
Mumm-Ra is watching, of course, because everytime someone mentions the regulator, he has to remind us that he has it.
Jagara continues, saying that without the regulator, the planet is doomed. The Gyroscope is really going wild at this point. One of it's diagonal braces, which we've come to associate with the Valley of Stone Giants and the New Lair, presses into the ceiling and warps under the strain.
At the Lair, the tremors and gravity changes begin. Everything that wasn't tied down starts to fly upward, or at least come loose. Snarf and Snarfer are hanging on for dear life. Then gravity switches back to normal, and the Lair Head, which was loosened, slides off its platform and starts to crumble. Snarf and Snarfer fall into the courtyard and make a run for it, but Snarf isn't fast enough. The upper lip and nose of the Lair Head fall right on top of him: he is pinned directly under the philtrum, and only his head and arms are visible. He falls unconscious. Snarf, dead?! No way!
Snarfer runs up to his uncle, calling him Uncle Osbert. Snarf is just awake enough to chastise Snarfer for calling him that, and Snarfer apologizes. Snarf says it's okay, and then passes out again. Snarfer is terrified.
In the Great Beneath, the Eye goes a new brand of crazy, warning Lion-O that Snarf's in danger. Once he's seen the situation at the Lair, Lion-O excuses himself and runs as fast as he can from the Great Beneath. Once above ground, he HOs, and the signal whooshes past the Thunderstrike. Lynxo notes that it's pinpointing the New Lair, so they follow it at full burn.
The signal arrives at the Lair and envelops Snarf in its radiance. His eyes open and flash golden. Snarf temporarily sustained, the signal fades. Lion-O then HOs again, and lightning streaks down from over the Churning Rocks, striking the Sword of Omens. The blade grows to a ridiculous length, and then takes flight, pulling Lion-O behind it. Lion-O surpasses the Thunderstrike, and we can see that the blade is at least twenty-five feet long. I guess that's supposed to make him go faster?
He arrives at the Lair and rushes toward Snarf. He's really worried, we can hear it in his voice. When the ThunderStrike lands, he calls to Cheetara, who rushes over as well. Several beams are sticking out at odd angles from under the Lip, and Cheetara, Torr, and Oswald all try to use them for leverage. Lion-O, Egbert, and Snarfer try to lift from the bottom; but it's no use. Snarfer despairs.
But Lion-O won't hear it. He keeps pulling upward on the boulder, growling and grunting. His arm muscles actually grow, and a golden light fills his eyes. It's clear that he's doing all the work as the boulder finally rises high enough for the others to pull Snarf free. It's unbelievable, but strangely touching.
Back on Third Earth, the Mutants have dusted off their vehicles and are preparing to attack Hook Mountain. Their strategy: do away with the ThunderCats' allies. That way, when they go after Tygra and Pumyra, there will be no one to save them.
At the Tower, sensors show Tygra an image of Captain Bragg and Cronan still in freefall in the upper atmosphere. How are they not burning up?!
The Mutants are nearing Hook Mountain, and open fire. Snowman retalliates, icing Monkian's Skycutter and causing him to crash. He then tells Snowmeow to run to Cats' Lair and get Pumyra. Snowmeow obeys, and the Mutants do their best to subdue him. Of course, they're horrible shots.
Tygra, meanwhile, radioes Mandora. He tells her that they have a 1523 in Space Sector 4: Captain Bragg and Cronan freefalling. Mandora acknowledges and heads off to deal with this 1523. I'm sorry, but why in Jaga's name would the police code have a number associated with someone freefalling through a planet's upper atmosphere?! And how would Tygra know it?!
At the Lair, Snowmeow practically tackles Pumyra. He indicates that he wants her to follow, and she agrees to, once she calls Tygra.
High in the sky, Captain Bragg and Cronan are still falling. Cronan cracks a joke, of which Bragg disapproves. Suddenly, Mandora's Boomazlang zooms in from offscreen and cuts their bonds. Bragg, of course, thinks that this is Muttdora again, and despairs. But Mandora proves herself, flying under them and catching them on the back seat of the Electrocharger. Bragg realizes that she must be the real Mandora. Mandora calls him "Bozo" (ha!) and says that she likes the way he thinks, whatever that means. She tells him to hang on to his hat, which he does as they zoom away, a storm of Cronan's feathers in their wake.
Snowmeow is now headed back to Hook Mountain, but he's not alone. Pumyra follows in the HoverCat, and Tygra in the ThunderClaw. Snowman is doing his best to defend against the Mutants, but it's not easy. Slithe then spots the ThunderCats headed for Hook Mountain, and the Mutants turn to face them. Tygra's whip lashes out and strikes Jackalman's Skycutter, shorting out its controls and turning it into a big crackly mess. It crashes.
Pumyra whips a strange pellet at Slithe's Nosediver with her sling, trapping the vehicle in a translucent bubble. Vultureman descends, flying too near to the ground for the Cats to follow. Suddenly, he notices Snowmeow directly ahead, and before he can pull up, the snowcat has run his claw from one end of the fuselage to the other. The Flying Machine comically falls to pieces, and Vultureman is left clutching only the control stick. He lands upside-down in the snow.
The bubble containing Slithe and the Nosediver hits the snow and starts rolling downhill. Looking up between his legs, Vultureman sees the giant snowball rolling toward him and tries to outrun it. Monkian stands stupified further down the hill, and Vultureman jumps into his arms. The two of them are caught up in the snowball, which then flies off an icy ledge.
Jackalman, brushing himself off from the crash, looks up to see the snowball coming right at him. He dances around in place with his arms out, like it's a fly ball and he's going to catch it. It catches him instead, and then proceeds to bounce and roll down to the mountain's bottom. It comes to a stop right next to the Circus Train, which Bragg presumably picked up from Castle Plundarr.
Mandora says that she believes these creatures belong to Captain Bragg, and he offers her "a thousand thank-yous." Cronan makes it a thousand and one. Bragg then offers her two free, complimentary tickets to his Circus, should she ever be off duty one night. She declines, saying that she, like Inspector Gadget, is never off duty.
Once Mandora has left, Bragg thanks the ThunderCats and notes that he is in their debt once again. Cronan jokes that Bragg will "never cough up, though." Tygra and Pumyra assure Captain Bragg that there is no debt, that it's all "part of the service." Snowman, meanwhile, is growing impatient, and tells Captain Bragg to take the Mutants away. Snowmeow gets the point across better, shoving the giant snowball into the Mutant's Circus Train cell. Bye-bye, baddies! See you on Way Out Back!
Back at the New Lair, which is an absolute mess, the Whisker arrives. The Kittens jump out to greet Snarf, who is now all bandaged up, and very much among the living. He's sporting nothing more than a sling and a bandage round his head, which seems unlikely. Shouldn't his legs be crushed? Snarf says that all the fuss is unnecessary: Snarfs have thick skulls. He then pokes his head and proceeds to screech in pain. What a goofball.
Panthro explains that they patched up the Gyroscope's control system as best they could, and that the Gyroscope is stabilized for now. Bengali, his eyes switching from red to blue to red, notes that it's still just a quick fix. New Thundera will be a lost cause unless they can recover the regulator from Mumm-Ra.
Oh, what was that? Did somebody say "regulator"? Cue the cauldron. Mumm-Ra's watching, as we might expect. He agrees with Bengali, saying that New Thundera is a lost cause, because they will never recover the regulator. Then he does something unexpected: he throws the regulator into the cauldron, and it melts! No more regulator! I'm sorry, ThunderCats, but I for one am glad to see it gone. Finally this plot is getting interesting. See you tomorrow for the conclusion. Something tells me Mumm-Ra's going to lose...
Lion-O's eyes lighting up as he frees Snarf. It always makes me think of someone shoving the little toy power ring into the small of his back.
The whole scene, beginning to end, of the Mutants being defeated on Hook Mountain. Not that I don't feel bad for them, but it all just syncs up so nicely with the big snowball and everything. Comedy gold.
"Ah, Ma-Mutt, my only friend." Mumm-Ra
Captain Bragg: Wait a minute, you're the real Mandora.
Mandora: I like the way you think, Bozo. Now hang on to your hat.
"We Snarfs have thick skulls." Snarf. Oh, double entendre.
The Gyroscope presents a strange new technology that not even Panthro can quite get his head around.
Ma-Mutt can channel Mumm-Ra's awareness.
The next time you're plummeting through the ionosphere, and the 911 operator asks you what your emergency is, just say "1523! 1523!"
Third Earth is in Space Sector 4, which is presumably analogous to Way Out Back's Sector 5.
Snarfs have adamantium skeletons.
The Sword's blade can grow to mammoth lengths, which apparently aids in high-speed flight.
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Captures from Return to Thundera Part IV
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