Interview with Larry Kenney on Thundercats

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination. You are watching Optobotamus. Ho!

Welcome to the interview that will be featured

on the Team Bottomless Variety Hour podcast and

Tooncast Beyond. I am one of your hosts, Steve

John Mike, and joining me is Opta Bottomless.

Hello, sir. Hello. And returning to the Geekcast

Radio Network is the one, the only Lord of the

Thundercats, Larry Kenny. Hi, Larry. How are

you? Hi, guys. How you doing? Hey, I thought

you were never going to call me again. I'm glad

you did. Wait, before we get going here. of the

bottom of where i know that name from seems to

me i just recently did a a voice uh... clip for

for up to block you you know i really did you

got married in there i did i did and a good friend

of mine kevin actually uh... yeah i i don't know

how well he knows your what he he mentioned that

he has some contact with you and he was very

worried rosemary knows all the voice actors was

really worried yeah yeah kevin and i went to

different high schools together oh wow at different

times Awesome, awesome. He's like, I can't do

much for you for your wedding, but we actually

got married on the 11th. And he's like, but I

got something that I'm gonna try and do for you.

He's like, there's no promises, but let me see

what I can do. And then he sent it to me and

I was just absolutely floored. And right after

that, I sent you a message thanking you. So to

be able to thank you personally is a great honor.

And it's hilarious because Mike here for a birthday

present scheduled, because my birthday was yesterday

of all days. And as a birthday present, he involved

me in this interview itself. So I'm just getting

totally googly -eyed over here. It's wonderful.

When Paul's friend Kevin had gotten that from

Rosemary, I was like, well... I've been meaning

to email Larry. So I was like, I'm not going

to be upstage. So here, we would love to talk

to you about the new Thundercats series. What

date is easy? What date's best date for you?

And it just so happens to turn out that it's

the day after Paul's birthday. That's fantastic.

And now here we are all together. How about that?

Small world, isn't it? Yes, it is. Very small.

I'd sure hate Lake Hilton half to paint it, I'll

tell you that. So what do you guys think of the

new series? Is that my answer? Maybe I shouldn't

have asked that question. Paul, what do you think

of the new series? Being brutally honest, I'm

not a very big fan of the animation style. Goodbye.

Yeah, the anime look, I've never been a big fan

of that in terms of cartoons or anything just

in general, but the storylines and everything

that's going along with it, I'm absolutely enthralled

with it and it's easy for me to overlook the

animation that I don't like because I'm so entertained

by the story that's going along. I'll buy that.

There, see? Did I save myself with that one?

I don't know, I wasn't really listening. Well,

listen, everybody likes, not everybody likes

everything and not everybody likes everything

about a particular thing, you know. I mean, there

were people who didn't care for certain aspects

of the original series. So, you know, that's

what makes the world go round, you know, different

strokes for different folks. I really, I don't

like, I don't know what it is. I've seen plenty

of animes that have come over from Japan and

all that stuff. I've seen the anime style. I

just think this style that they're using on the

Thundercats 2011 series is... the the western

style now or whatever i mean that's that's just

the way it is it it it's one of those styles

yes i know they send it over to japan or to wherever

just know certain studios over there overseas

to animate it but there's a huge difference between

what they're doing in in thundercats twenty eleven

versus what they didn't like ghost in the shell

or yeah you know whatever else uh... the voice

cast is great i'm sorry to interrupt you guys

are much more familiar with other shows and series

and styles of animation and animate than I am,

so I can't really compare it to anything else.

I like it, I like the new style, but again, I

don't know what other things look like. How did

you become involved with the new series? Did

you just go in and audition or did the producers

say, hey, we want the original Lionel? The second

one. The folks who were involved with it, first

of all, everybody who's on the Warner Brothers

crew, from the writers to the illustrators to

the directors, even Sam Register, who's the president

of Warner Brothers Animation International, Universal

or whatever. We're huge, our huge Thundercats

fans, huge fans of the first series. And so they

called my agent and asked to talk about me being

in the new show. I didn't even know there was

a new series until I got a call from my agent

saying, there is a new series, Warner Brothers

is beginning a new series and they'd like you

to be in it. So that was the first thing that

I had heard. And in the ensuing time, I've been

to two or three Comic -Cons with some of the

folks. We've done panels in San Diego and San

Francisco and different places with some of the

writers. And every Comic -Con, when they're asked,

they tell the audience that I just told you that

they were huge fans of the series. And from the

very beginning of the project, their goal was

to bring the spirit of the original series, the

original characters, the original story to maintain

that and just give it a new look and a kind of

updated style and bring it into the 21st century.

And I think they've done a great job with that.

Yeah, they have. I completely agree. It's one

of those things where Mike and I had talked about

this previously that it's different enough. It's

a different enough Storyline from the original

series that it's for all of us old fans of the

old series We're able to watch this and it's

just not a rehash of the old stuff. It's something

completely different and new I mean we were talking

about some of the differences that I mean, I

think I jokingly said that It's weird how Lionel

and tiger in this are kind of like stepbrothers

Whereas in the original series they weren't and

And all these different new elements that they're

throwing into the new series that it's like oh

wow and we were talking about this before we

got you on here just today that Chitara has a

decision about who she apparently is wanting

to be romantic with and That was that was throwing

me for a loop when I first saw him like wait

a minute That's not right. That's not the way

it's supposed to be Alright, Larry, let me paint

you guys a picture here. Uh -oh. Would you rather

have fully animalized naked Chitara from the

old series or would you rather have the new series

one just trying to, you know, make a pass at

you? I mean, both series have always portrayed

Chitara as kind of a sex pot. I hate to say that,

but... Well, as I said at the San Diego Comic

Con at the panel that... As far as I'm concerned,

Chitara was the original Thundercats hoe. So

I'm not surprised at all by the way she's catting

around, you know. And of course, you know who

the new Chitara is. It's Emanuel Chiriki, who's

a lovely young woman and one of the panels I

think. Well, in fact, it was in San Diego where

They showed, for the first time, showed the first

episode to the audience and the panel. They showed

that before we walked out on stage. And of course,

we were all backstage just with our fingers crossed

and wondering, are we going to get bottles tossed

out when we walk out there? Because nobody had

seen outside of the studio had seen anything

about the new series. And that audience was totally

packed with people coming on Art and Cesar who

are diehard fans they waited a lot for hours

and hours to get those tickets you know yeah

and um when we were backstage listening to the

cheer and the roars that went up we could tell

they were they were lolling it but uh i forget

who didn't know we had we had a rear entrance

all staked out to get out of that building if

we had just in case yeah just in case nice that's

hilarious now Wait Here's I'm kind of random

when it comes to stuff. So I'm going off of Mike

here and he's gonna hate me for this but wait

when they came to you and They wanted you to

do plot us and as why you know his father Did

you? How did that make you feel? I mean, where

did you want to be a larger role in the series

or were you happy? Which is that smaller little

bit? Well, first of all, let me just say that

from the very first time I got that email from

my agent, I called Robin Stetcher back. Robin

Stetcher is one of the top agents that Don Buchwald

and associates him. I've been with him for, oh

gosh, 40 years. She was an agent back while we

were recording the original Thundercats. I think

she was an agent's assistant. But she used to

come to the recording sessions all the time.

She loved watching us do that show. And now she

is, as I said, pretty much running the office

at Don Bookwell and Associates. And so she's

the one who emailed me. She's the one that they

contacted and emailed me. And she said, call

me. And I called her. She was as excited as I

was that there was a new series. But she said,

I think I know how you feel about it. But tell

me about doing it. But tell me. And I said, well,

the first thing you're going to have to do is

get a copy of the script. for any scripts that

they have that they want me to be involved in.

And we went to synopsis, or maybe I could talk

to them. I just wanna see what they're gonna

do with the show. I said, because, you know,

for 30 years now almost, I've had people writing

me about how much Thundercats meant to them,

as all of us in the cast and crew have, get an

email. We talked to people on the street and

at Comic -Cons and things on Facebook who love

the original Thundercats. And not just as a show

they like to watch when they were kids, people

have written me that, we may have talked about

this last time, how much it meant to them growing

up, you know. And I know that Thundercats, maybe

more than other shows of that genre, I don't

know. But I don't care about the other shows.

I know that Thundercats, in this regard, I didn't

mean that. But I'm very protective of what anybody

does with Thundercats, or certainly what I do

with any new Thundercats project, from the fan's

point of view. Warner Brothers owns the rights.

They can do anything they want with it. Nobody

could have stopped them from making the biggest,

craziest, dumbest show in the world that everybody

hated. They own it now. They bought it. I found

out from reading the scripts and everything and

talking to them that they were going to make

the kind of show that I knew the fans would like

and be happy about. So I said, OK, I'll do it.

And it turned out to be great, I think. But your

question actually was, would I rather have had

a bigger role? Of course, that would have been

nice. But I understand, even from the very beginning,

first of all, I think it was a tremendous, wonderful

homage to the And it got a nod to the fans of

the original show. Oh, I agree entirely. I got

goosebumps when I first heard you. Because up

until this, I try to stay spoiler -free when

it comes to things like this. And like I said,

I just turned 33, so I grew up with Thundercats.

And I knew they were making a new series. I tried

not to get any information because I didn't want

to get my hopes up because I'm like, after this

long, come on, I mean, it's not gonna be that

good. That was my first initial take. I mean,

I'm like, cartoons nowadays suck. So as soon

as I saw it, and as soon as you came in, and

I heard the voice of Klaunas, I'm like, oh, I

seriously got goosebumps. I seriously got goosebumps.

And it was absolutely amazing. It was at that

point I could pinpoint it and it was that point

when the animation that I didn't like initially

just completely went away and I was What was

being said and the story that was told and oh,

that's great Well, I think it was a very clever

way for them to do it. First of all, like I said

I think it was a very a very Noble thing that

they did and a good idea To have me, you know

or anybody from the you know Could have been

one of the other people from the original cast

or all this or whatever I think that was maybe

their way of saying to the fans, and partly,

you know, it's going to be the old show that

you liked, you know. But I think mostly because,

like I said, all these guys and women who are

working on the, who are producing the show, are

tremendous fans of Thundercats, and they wanted

to make the show, you know. And what a convenient

and serendipitous way to do it, have me play

Lionel's father. I'm older now, my voice is a

little older now, and it fits perfectly, you

know. So people have asked me, in fact, I don't

know if you remember, but when there was talk

of Warner Brothers doing a movie, well, Warner

Brothers had actually announced they were going

to do a ThunderCats movie a few years ago. They

had hired a director and a script writer and

everything, and then I still thought that's what

was going to happen until I got this call from

my agent. There were petitions online, Thundercats

websites, petitioning Warner Brothers to make

me be Lionel again in the movie. But as I've

said to people, first of all, they wanted to

make a new Thundercats, a new series. They wanted

to be a new Thundercats, okay. They kept the

spirit and everything of the original. But what

would be the point of having it sound exactly

the same with the same actors? We're not all

still alive, for one thing. And as you mentioned,

one of you guys, you weren't too crazy about

the new animation. What would be the point of

animating it the same way? You know what I'm

saying? What would be the point of spending a

lot of money on the same show? Right. You already

did it. Yeah. It's been done once. I remember

there's a great quote one time from Liza Minnelli.

Of course her mother was Judy Garland. And Liza

Minnelli was doing a concert at the Radio City

Music Hall. And as the applause died down after

one of her songs, somebody in the balcony yelled

aloud, sing over the rainbow. And the crowd went

nuts and cheered, and she had to wait for it

to die down. And she just said very simply in

the microphone, it's been sung. In other words,

what would be the point? There's a big difference,

though, between getting the entire original cast

doing the same original animation versus this

new style and bringing yourself or Peter Newman

or even Earl Hyman In as guest roles. I mean,

yeah, sure, you know You're gonna have you know

this new direction as as as Paul said is an entirely

new direction entirely new story You were only

in what the first seven episodes I think first

three actually I died in the third one. Yeah,

but then I but then I came back And by the way,

just a month or so ago, they called me back out

to Warner Brothers Ranch in Burbank. And I do

a, I hope it's okay for me to tell them. They

don't listen to this anyhow. Well, they're already

getting ready for a DVD. And so they had me do

this. They had me come out there for this little

short. It's about I think three minutes long.

It's going to be a part of the DVD package, whenever

that comes out. And it's a little cartoon, if

you will. You know, like in the movies, there'd

be a cartoon with the movies. Right. And it's

just Claudus, Snarf, and Lionel as a baby. He's

in a diaper. Oh, sweet. It's kind of a flashback

to when Lionel was a baby. And I can't give you

any of the details, except that it... What it

kind of does is explain the genesis of how Snarf

became Lionel's watcher and protector and everything.

It's very cute. It's very funny. Now what do

you think about the differences between the old

Snarf, Bob McFadden voiced, and the new Snarf

being more of a pet? You know, there's always

a running joke when you go to Comic -Cons or

anytime you're talking to ThunderCats fans in

a group. There are people who found Snarf annoying

and hated Snarf. And there are people who just

thought he was the cutest thing in the world.

So I guess they're trying to bridge the gap by

keeping Snarf in the show, but not letting him

talk. When I first saw it, I was like, oh, they

took, because again, I'm an original watcher.

I'm an original show fan and I watched it and

I appreciate what they did differently with it

in the new series, but I'm watching it. I'm like,

they basically took Snarp, which was always kind

of Lionel in the original series. It was his

protector. It was his guardian. always was going

around with him. It was, I don't want to say

it was his best friend, but he was always there.

And now they relegated him to a pet. And I was

just like, that's, that's, it was weird for me.

But I was one of those kinds of people that I

was annoyed. I mean, okay, that's over and done

with. Get rid of that. And it was, it was an

annoyance for me. But now he's, he's like super

cute. And there's girl fans out there that just

get goo -goo over whenever Snarf makes an appearance

in one of these new episodes. It's funny to watch

because they just want to pinch his cheeks. He's

so gosh darn cute. Well, there you go. That's

another difference. And I mean, honestly, who

in today's age could have given the nursemaid

role what Bob McFadden did with it. I mean, I

honestly don't think, out of all the voice actors

I know about, out of everybody that is up and

coming, I don't think anybody could have really

embodied, even a newer version of the nursemaid

role, could have done what Bob did. Bob was the

best. And maybe that's why they made the change.

Maybe when it came time to say, okay, who's going

to play Snark? I just said, you know what? We

can't do it. Who are we going to find is going

to be as good as that? So maybe they just said,

let's change and make him not talk. Who knows?

I don't know. Listen, I get asked a lot of questions

like this at different places, and I'm not trying

to be evasive, but it's true that we're actors,

those of us who can't speak, we're actors, and

we read the lines they write, and they direct

us on how to read them and all that kind of stuff.

Basically, that's our job, you know, we don't

write the stuff we don't and there's very little

time when you're recording these things very

little time for discussion about Why did you

have him do this? And is he ever gonna do you

just it's time to work, you know, we got it done

get it out and So I don't know it much more than

anybody else does as to why they did this why

they did that How long ago did you do the DVD

special feature recording? Oh, it was just maybe

about six weeks ago, something like that. Yeah,

about six weeks ago. Okay, because TV shows on

DVD .com lists season one, book one, coming out,

it was released October 18th. That's obviously

couldn't be this one. Wait a minute, I did it

six weeks ago, about October 18th, wasn't it?

Yeah. So are you saying it's out already? I'm

seeing a news story here on a website called

TV Shows on DVD basically saying that there's

a package art and a trailer. It basically says

Season 1 Book 1. It is the first... Season 1

Book 1, October 18th. The two -disc package will

cost $19 .97 and contain the first eight episodes.

Well, there you go. Second week of October. Maybe

the first week. I don't recall wait a minute

You know what it was September. It was September.

Ah Well, there you go. Ladies and gentlemen the

Season one book one eight episode DVD of Thundercats

2011 Has a special feature with with Larry. There

we go. Awesome. You guys figured that out. You

guys are good Yeah, see that? See what I was

just saying? I was just saying I don't know much,

anything more than you guys do, and there you

go, you proved it. You knew more than I did.

Well, you know, if I had a Sword of Omens here,

I could have used my sight beyond sight, but

I don't have a Sword of Omens, so... You know

what? Frankly, it wouldn't do you any good. See,

now you're... Come on now, you know better than

that, because you know that Sword of Omens only

works for the person who owns it, who it belongs

to, and that's why I know. Well, you can wave

it around all you want. Toys R Us would argue

with a Lion Oak. I threw $20 down. I have my

own sort of omens right here hanging on my wall.

Yeah, good luck trying to make it give you sight

beyond sight. Yeah, I can't see too much. I got

about five more minutes. Okay. So, are there

any more flashbacks coming up in like maybe next

season? Do you know if they're going to call

you back to do any more flashbacks with Claudus?

I honestly don't know. I mean, they... How can

I explain this? I'm sorry to keep answering your

questions with the same answer. Well, at the

Comic -Cons, they say this, but that's how I

get my information. Right, right. When the fans

in the audience ask questions of the writers

and the directors and things like that, and I

listen to it, and then I remember, that's how

I get my information, because other than that,

maybe except for having a beer after the panel

with these guys, I don't have discussions with

them, you know. But it has been asked, will Claudus

be back in future episodes? And Dan, one of the

writers said, with a kind of wink, he said, well,

I can't tell you for sure, of course, but he

smiled at the camera and said, keep watching.

It's possible. I think the final question for

this little interview that we're doing with you

will be, tell us about what it's like working

with the new cast as far as... I can't. I have

not done that. Oh, you didn't work? It was an

ensemble? Nope. And I was so disappointed because

from the very first time they flew me out to

Burbank at Warner Brothers Ranch and a lovely

little boutique hotel right across the street.

And I was so excited. I even had gone online

and looked up the names. found out some things

about them so I'd be able to act like I had known

them. I walk into the studio and I figure, well,

I'm the first one here because I see the studio

with a six microphone arranged the same way we

used to have them arranged when we recorded it,

in a kind of a sunny circle. The copy stands

were there. And I'm chatting with the couple

of... the engineer and a couple of the lighters

and for the longest time and then finally when

I'm says well maybe we should get started and

go on in and I said oh I thought we're gonna

wait for everybody else and he said no they're

they're not working today. The three times that

I went to LA I walked in and stood in an empty

studio, a huge studio with six microphones and

I was all by myself. I was very disappointed.

But I did meet, I have the sentiment, Emmanuel

Tricky, who's the new Chichara, and Matthew,

who's the tiger. I have not met Will Friedle,

although we've emailed back and forth, and we

plan to meet the next time I go out there. But

yeah, I was hoping to be able to work with the

rest of the cast, but it didn't happen. Maybe

in the future. Yeah, there's one episode I think

it's the episode where panthro comes back or

it's like like within the story Supposedly panther

had died and he's not actually dead. Well, you

know, it's it's one of those twisters and he

comes back in the next episode He's sitting there

fixing the thunder tank. Yeah And they threw

in the outtake. It was like, oh, blasted semiflange

broke again. The audience went crazy at that.

I know. So they said, that darn semiflange. And

I'm laughing like crazy when I was back there.

Well, there's a lot of little things they've

thrown in like that, if you notice. People were

even saying, did I see a robber burble just for

a second? And they said, yeah. You saw a quick

shot of a robber burble. And somebody even said,

I could swear I saw one of the silver hawks in

there. Yeah. Yeah. And they said, yeah. So the

person said, does that mean? And now I'm hearing

that there's all this discussion about it. All

the buzz from the silver hawk show. Does that

mean that the silver hawks will someday meet

beyond the Thundercats? And again, they just

said, well, you have to keep watching to see.

Yeah, yeah. That's driving down this. It is animation

after all, so anything is possible. Yeah, that's

that's one of those that's one of those little

teaser things that's been driving me nuts ever

since it was There was a scene where they showed

Oh Mon star Mon star that's where the reference

was and it was spot -on to how it looked in the

original Silverhawks and I think I think that's

neither way of doing that, you know, because

part of it is like, you know the semi -flinch

thing that obviously was another little mod because

they they know that that's become famous on the

outtakes on the internet, and everybody knows

about the samophones thing. So for them to put

that in there is kind of, to me it's saying to

the audience, here you go, that's for you. All

right Larry, before we let you go, do you have

anything coming up that you'd like to promote

or anything that we can look forward to? As a

matter of fact, next Saturday at 2 p .m. Here

in my home, we're having my grandson Bonham's

third birthday party. I just wanted to mention

that. Oh, did you mean professionally? Yes. Unless

you're inviting us all to his birthday party.

Come on, there's going to be enough kids as it

is. I'm there. Not really. I'm still doing commercials.

I've got a new one that's been on for a few weeks

for Dawn Detergent. where after almost 50 years

in the business, I'm playing a sponge. You might

watch for it. He's a doctor. A sponge is a doctor.

And he's saying to this woman sponge, something

like, I don't know, you've got a lot of grease

build up there. You're going to have to use New

Dawn. That'll take care of it. I've seen it,

actually. It's hilarious. Yeah, that's me doing

the... My third sponge on the left. So that's

my career now. That's what it's come down to.

I'm playing Dr. Sponges. Well, and birthday parties.

Birthday parties, yeah. We would like to thank

Mr. Kenney for taking the time to chat with us

in this special TBVH and Tooncast Beyond interview.

We'll ask you to hold the line and we'll be back

after this. Let me show you what it's capable

of in the proper hands. Uh -oh! Catch! The book

told that it was the Thundercats, our ancestors,

who first defeated Mamla! It was the Thundercats

who brought law and order to a world of warring

animals! And it is now the Thundercats who are

strong enough to maintain this fragile peace.

Concentrate! There you go. 33 years and you finally

get to talk to Larry Kenny. Happy birthday, dude.

is one of them, and it's an absolute honor. I

cannot thank you, Mike, for doing this, and I

can't thank him enough for also doing it. It

just absolutely blew me away. Yeah, he's a really,

really awesome guy. It's nice to talk to him

again. As I said in the very beginning of the

interview, this will be featured both on the

Team Bottomless Variety Hour RSS for the podcast,

and it'll also be on Tunecast Beyond as well.

I might actually, I might actually listen to

my own podcast this time around. That's terrible.

So funny. Anyways, all right. So we are the goddamn

Optobotamus and I am TFG1Mike. And that's it.

There you have it. Larry Canning, ladies and

gentlemen, guy that needs no introduction. So

we will catch you next time.