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ThunderCats: "Exodus" - The Lost Intro!
For a lot of ThunderCats fans, one of their most vivid memories is the first time that they saw the ThunderCats pilot - this pilot was available in two forms, firstly broadcast with the episodes "Exodus" and "The Unholy Alliance" cut together to form an hour-long special, and also as an official home video release, which featured "Exodus" and "The Unholy Alliance" along with footage from the following two episodes, "Berbils" and "The Slaves of Castle Plun-Darr".
Whichever version of the pilot they saw, for many fans one of the most striking aspects of it was a special 1 minute 45 second introductory sequence, introducing the audience to the series' main characters and to the concept. This sequence (dubbed "the lost intro", due to its absence from the stand-alone episode version of "Exodus") has never been officially released, and so consequently a lot of fans haven't seen it for many years - however, we are proud to now be able to present it to you here at TCL!
Click here to view the video! (16.5 MB)
Note: This is the version of the intro that was released on UK home video, and features different footage when introducing Panthro to the footage seen in the US version!
  
A lot of fans were disappointed that this "lost intro" was absent from the ThunderCats DVD boxed sets released by Warner Bros - the reason for this absence is because the sequence was, sadly, never part of the stand-alone version of "Exodus" that was released for syndication, and was only ever part of the ThunderCats pilot.
  
Narrated by the great Earl Hammond, this video is exciting for a great many reasons, the most obvious one being its comparative rarity when compared to the episodes themselves. Another reason is because this intro actually marks the first appearance for many sequences of animation (such as Lion-O looking through the crossbars of the Sword of Omens asking for "Sight Beyond Sight") that would go on to become recurring footage for the remainder of the series. Also, the intro features several sequences of animation that were never actually used in full as part of any other episode, although several of them were utilised in the episode "Lion-O's Anointment First Day: The Trial of Strength".
  
We hope that you enjoy this exciting look at a piece of ThunderCats history!
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