The forgotten one
ThunderCats: Exodus (The Movie)
The first four episodes cut together and sold on tape in both Britain and America. It carries an introduction made for the video release that has never appeared anywhere since, and most film databases do not know it exists.
- Year1985
- Runtime75 minutes
- FormatCompilation feature, VHS
- TerritoriesUnited Kingdom and United States
- Built fromEpisodes 1 to 4
- WriterLeonard Starr
- DVD or Blu-rayNever released
- StreamingNot available
The story
What happens
Thundera is dying. The ThunderCats flee aboard a flagship with the Sword of Omens and the Eye of Thundera, pursued by the Mutants of Plun-Darr, and Jaga takes the helm so the others can sleep out a voyage no one expects to survive.
They wake at Third Earth. Jaga is gone. Lion-O has aged into a man while the capsule kept him a boy in mind, and the survivors meet the Berbils, build the beginnings of a home, and discover that Mumm-Ra has been waiting for them in his pyramid all along.
Built from
The 4 episodes behind it
Every part has its own page here, with the full synopsis, production notes and screencaps.
The version question
What the tape has that the episodes do not
Exodus runs the opposite way to ThunderCats Ho!. Where the later tape cuts material out, this one puts material in. Several sequences exist only on the videotape.
The lost introduction
The tape opens with a character and plot introduction carrying substantial unique animation that has never been released again. Fragments of it were later recycled into three season one episodes, but the sequence as assembled here exists nowhere else.
Jaga wakes Lion-O
An opening exchange in which Jaga sends Cheetara to wake Lion-O, including WilyKat’s line that Jaga is always right and Panthro’s retort that if he were, he would have left WilyKat behind.
Slithe in the sword chamber
An extra beat between Slithe and Jackalman as they close on the Sword of Omens, ending on Slithe’s line that the outcome would suit him just fine.
WilyKit locked in
WilyKat shuts WilyKit inside a suspension capsule, which is why she is absent from Jaga’s farewell. Without it, her absence in the episode version is unexplained.
Voices
The cast
- Larry KenneyLion-O, Jackalman
- Earle HymanPanthro
- Earl HammondJaga, Mumm-Ra, Vultureman
- Lynne LiptonCheetara, WilyKit
- Peter NewmanTygra, WilyKat, Monkian
- Bob McFaddenSnarf, Slythe
Where to watch
Out of print since videotape
There is no legal way to watch this cut. It has never been reissued since videotape, and the Warner Home Video DVD sets carry the four separate episodes rather than the feature edit. The 1985 series itself streams on Hulu, including through the Disney+ bundle, and can be bought on Amazon Video and the Apple TV Store.
Worth knowing
Where the record is shaky
- The record of what the tape adds comes from fan documentation rather than a studio source. The videotape itself is the corroborating artefact.
Questions
About Exodus (The Movie)
Is Exodus (The Movie) the same as the first four episodes?
Almost, but not quite. It is those four episodes cut together, and it also carries an introduction and several short scenes that were not in the broadcast versions. In that sense the tape holds slightly more ThunderCats footage than the episodes do.
Can I buy ThunderCats: Exodus on DVD?
No. It has never been released on DVD, Blu-ray or any digital format. It exists only as a 1985 videotape. The DVD box sets contain the individual episodes, not this edit.
Why is this film missing from IMDb and most databases?
It was a videotape compilation rather than a broadcast or theatrical release, so it never generated the kind of listing record those databases are built from. Only the ThunderCats fan wiki and Letterboxd carry it at all.