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Stephen Perry Reviewed by: Purrsia  "Safari Joe does it again!" You know this guy has an ego on him when he congratulates himself like that for landing his ship. The man attached to that ego is Safari Joe, big game hunter of the galaxy, and he's come to Third Earth to hunt the ThunderCats. His faithful and mechanical companion, Mule, unloads the holojector. It's a device that projects an image of Safari Joe's prey while Mule explains the strengths and weaknesses of the intended victim. The first to fall are the Thunderkittens. They're flying through the forest on their space boards when Safari Joe shoots their boards, causing them to crash. He easily bags them up and tosses them into cages made of Thundrainium. The cages, in fact, have the names of the ThunderCats on them -- how personalized! Back at the Lair, the adults are aware that a ship landed, but thanks to a force field around the ship, they can't see anything. Cheetara goes to find Lion-O to tell him of this occurance, and she locates him in a storage room playing kick the bucket with Snarf. Lion-O races up to the control room, tries to use the Sword to see, and it too fails. Tygra and Cheetara decide to go out on foot to check it out. They, of course, are Safari Joe's next victims. Preying on their weaknesses, he first turns his gun on Cheetara. Instead of bullets, jet propelled bracelets fly out of the gun and attach themselves to her ankles and wrists. They actually suspend her in the air and she is powerles to run anywhere. Next, it's Tygra's turn. And in a weird sequence of events, Tygra is trapped in a hole that fills with water -- of course, Tygra can't swim so he's defeated. Weak, I know...but how much can you really do in 22 minutes? Panthro goes out next, concerned that the Thunderkittens cannot be found. He's in the Tank, but Safari Joe manages to capsize it. Joe's next move is to capatalize on Panthro's fear of bats and shoots an energy bat to attack him. For whatever reason, this makes Panthro basically just pass out. Lion-O is back at the Lair and worried. But never fear, Jaga appears and explains what Safari Joe is up to. Empowered by the knowledge, Lion-O struts out of the Lair...only to fall into a hole. However, he's wise to Safari Joe's plan and manages to leap out without being shot. For whatever reason, Lion-O summons the 'Cats even though he knows they're imprisoned. Maybe he's contractually obligated to send up the signal once an episode, heh heh. When blackmailing Lion-O into surrendering didn't work, he strikes up a "deal" to get Lion-O to fight without the Sword. Lion-O agrees and throws the Sword aside, but leads Safari Joe into the Lair for the hunt. Lion-O almost succeeds in sneaking up on Safari Joe when he tumbles down along with a pile of boxes in the storage room. Lion-O is almost captured when Snarf sends a bucket sailing into the side of Joe's bald head. He drops his gun, causing it to shoot all its ammo. The bully was caught! The ThunderCats freed! In the end, they let Safari Joe take off in his ship. But, they made him promise not to hunt anymore and changed Mule's work directive to make sure he adheres to the promise. "Be nice or I'll make your tiger friend into a rug!" -- Safari Joe, putting a stop to Cheetara's taunts and warming the hearts of ATB members everywhere ;) "Eye of Thundera object defies analysis" -- Mule, when the holojector blew up while trying to figure out the Eye. "Since you have nothing to fight with except your strength and wit, you don't stand a chance." -- Safari Joe, repeating what the anti-uber tool crowd has been saying for years about Lion-O! "Might as well go in with teeth beared and fur flying." -- Panthro, after he figured silent running in the Tank was pretty pointless. This is one of my fave eps because it revealed many ground breaking facts about the 'Cats -- namely, their weaknesses. Cheetara, in addition to maintaining top speed for only short distances, is vulnerable to lightning and energy bolts. Tygra can only swim while invisible. Panthro is afraid of bats -- apparently, any kind. So no giving him bat-shaped cookies for Halloween -- he'll pass out! PKELL: Obviously this has become a fan favorite and I'm not surprised.
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- The plot is very similar to Mongor (villian shows up & hunts the Thundercats one by bone) but the fact that Safari Joe is a big game hunter makes him the perfect adversary for the animal like Thundercats. The big game hunter was indeed used in other cartoons like He-Man and Transformers (Prime Target is one of my favorites for that series), but the character fits in perfectly with the TCats.
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- Safari Joe is really a treat. Everything from his design to his voice is just dead on perfect, and they did a great job creating this character.
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- I would argue that this is one of the top ten best of the series. Stephen Perry: Thanks ... I wrote it. Gawd ... 25 years ago? I reprised Safari Joe in a Marvel Comic I wrote -- Timespirits #4 -- reprint due out this fall from image in a graphic novel format. Check it out. His name is rex tandem. leppardra: Frankly I enjoyed this episode. I would have liked to know why Tygra can swim only when he's invisible and why Panthro faints dead away at the sight of a bat, real or otherwise (maybe Safari Joe's energy bat had some Thundrainium mixed in?). This story also belies Snarf's self-proclaimed cowardice. He's quite gutsy here. Caswin: Even as a kid, I just plain loved Safari Joe's voice actor. In my experience, if you just put enough energy into a role, the rest will follow - and he had plenty. rocco: When tygra is about to fight safari joe how come tygra not going invisible that moment. he would had beat safari joe easy and how come swins good in fireballs of plun darr, Also how did safari joe put cheetara and tygra in they cages at the same time wish they would have showed that part 5 of 9 comments (part 1) [ » ] [ * ]
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The Show
