First Look: Footage From Abandoned CGI 'Thundercats' Movie

Five years ago, Warner Brothers was thinking of taking the cult 1980s cartoon series Thundercats and developing it for the big screen. They had a director, a script and everything. But now it's 2011 and while there's a brand new Thundercats television series coming soon, the movie never saw the light of day. There's evidence a lot of work was done on the project though. Movieline released some concept art from the abandoned film in 2009 and now Flixist has now found some footage that looks just like those images. Connecting the dots, it seems like this is test footage from the Thundercats movie that will never be. Thundercats fans are going to want to check this out. And you can, after the jump.Thanks to Flixist (with a heads up to Bleeding Cool) for the footage. Check out those concept images on Movieline as well.

After watching that footage, I'm kind of glad this movie didn't get made. No offense to the animators. I think the footage itself, of a young Lion-O battling Slithe, looks very fluid and impressive. But what I loved about Thundercats was watching the whole team, in their prime, dealing with the villains. The last thing I wanted to see was an origin story with all the characters not looking how I remember them until the very end of the movie. And though the cartoon series is supposed to be an origin as well, at least it's in smaller doses and the sequels come every week. With a movie, there's never a guarantee you'll get to see the second part.

What do you think about this footage? Do you think it look legit or more like a really talented fan who slapped on a WB logo? Do you think the Thundercats will ever see the big screen or are they better suited to television?