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He-man and The Masters of The Universe!!! One of my favorite cartoons in the 80s, He-man stood the test of time, becoming a classic and even inspired new cartoons of He-man, even a movie and now we have a controversial show, Masters of The Universe: Revelation, which had a lot of fans triggered. I have seen the new show on Netflix and I'm gonna give my review later in this point. Warning, spoilers ahead. But before we do that, let's go back in time as to why this show is so special.
He-man and The Masters of The Universe, is located on a planet of Eternia, where magic and technology coexist peacefully for the most part. He-man and his friends, Man-at-Arms (Duncan), Teela, Orko and the Sorceress among others, help defend Eternia from the villainous Skeletor and his allies, Beastman, Evil-lyn and Trapjaw from gaining control of the planet and learning the secrets of Castle Gray-skull. Speaking of secrets, He-man's alter ego is Prince Adam who only shares his secret with Duncan, Orko and the Sorceress. King Randor and Teela have no idea about Prince Adam's secret identity and they were both condescending and disappointed in Adam at times, especially King Randor, who wishes that his son Adam was more brave and courageous as He-man, not realizing that He-man and Adam is the same person. However, Adam's mother Queen Marlena may know Adam's secret as it was hinted in an episode, The Rainbow Warrior.
Ah the 80s, where consumerism was taking off. And what I mean by that is the manufacturing, promoting and buying toys. Fast fashion today had nothing on toy manufacturing, Mother Earth be damned! He-man like other cartoons, started out as toys, so why not make cartoons and promote the toys at the same time? Marketing genius! The He-man action figure was released by Mattel in 1982 and the creation of the cartoon series followed thanks to Filmation. He-man and The Masters of The Universe became syndicated in September 1983, making it the first syndicated cartoon show based on a toy line (Wikipedia). The show has become so successful that it began to show worldwide, even in Trinidad and Tobago!! Compared to the comics of the toys, the show was not allowed to promote violence, including sword fighting which was rather strange to me. What's the sense of having a sword if you can't use it to fight and defend yourself? He-man's spinoff series, She-ra: Princess of Power, (no, not that travesty) suffered the same fate as sword violence was not allowed as well.
Lack of violence aside, the series is pretty good and there were some standout episodes such as, Teela's Quest, House of Shokoti pt. 1 &2, The Origins of The Sorceress, The Problem with Power where someone died (supposedly) in the episode and the aforementioned The Rainbow Warrior. Each episode also has morals at the end of an episode which actually makes sense in the real world. The show was eventually cancelled and its sister show She-ra: Princess of Power to appeal to young girls. Not to mention the pretty She-ra dolls for girls to play with. Again, marketing for kids.
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He-man and even She-ra has been cemented in pop culture of the 80s and beyond so much so, there were many reboots of the cartoons. Shows such as futuristic The New Adventures of He-man in the 90s, the 2000s He-man and even a movie and cult favorite Masters of The Universe was created. She-ra on the other hand was rebooted only once and sadly it wasn't all that. I highly recommend watching the Netflix documentary, Power of Grayskull for more history of the show. Speaking of Netflix, it's time for my review of the new He-man series, Masters of The Universe: Revelation.
After all that bacchanal with the all those fans who basically bombed the show (I bet some of them didn't bother to watch it to begin with), I've decided to watch all 5 episodes and honestly, it wasn't even that bad. Unlike that mess called She-ra and The Princesses of Power, Masters of The Universe: Revelation by Kevin Smith, is a continuation of the original series, instead of completely changing the whole premise of a series, which is something that I can appreciate.
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It's start with usual, He-man and his friends battle to defend Eternia from Skeletor and his goons. Teela gets promoted to Man-at Arms (or is it Woman-at-Arms) and Duncan is ready for retirement. The Sorceress asks for help from the heroes and they show up to stop Skeletor from invading Castle Grayskull. Well drama really started where He-man had to save Castle Grayskull from Skeletor and to do so, he had to split the sword in half, eliminating himself and Skeletor but not before turning back to Adam. Teela was shocked and even pissed at her father Duncan and Cringer for keeping Adam's identity a secret. Even King Randor was pissed and banish Duncan from kingdom and threatens to execute him if he returns. I wasn't expecting all of this bacchanal already and the show barely started. Teela went into self-exile, shaves her hair and befriended Audra and they both went on many adventures and I'll stop there. Please check out the show, it's really good. I really appreciate classic characters such as Clamp Champ, Stinkor, Scareglow and Roboto were added to the show. Also the animation is gorgeous and if you think that it looks familiar, it was done by Powerhouse Animation, who also created Castlevania and Blood of Zeus. With that being said, here are my critiques.
Teela is mad annoying in the show. I understand that she was upset that Duncan and Adam kept the secret from her but I really think she was being irrational. So was King Randor. After all, they were always disappointed in Adam so I'm not surprised that he would keep it a secret. The transformation to He-man, reminds me too much of Sailor Moon. Evil-lyn's voice was too soft for my liking. I missed the harsh and powerful voice of Evil-lyn in the original, voiced by the late great Linda Gary. I'm going to ruffle some feathers but I really don't think it's necessary to change King Graskulls' race even though he is fine as hell. I find that they should have kept King Grayskull as is and create a black warrior-king. I mean they added the token black friend, Audra as Teela's best friend, so why not do the same with King Grayskull? Also, Teela's voice actor, Sarah Michelle Gellar was a mismatch in my opinion. Other than that, the show was pretty good. I'm praying that Mr. Smith and crew will not make Teela a new He-man. Please don't! She was supposed to be a new Sorceress as it was stated in the original episode, Teela's Quest. I guess we'll have to wait and see in season 2.
I really think the reasons that the fans were upset were false advertising and a female lead. I really understand the false advertising part. In the preview, He-man was large and center, and with his friends, ready to defend Castle Grayskull! The part that Adam died made fans, extremely upset! How dare they kill off Adam? Maybe if they added that part to the preview, the fans wouldn't be as upset, at least be transparent about it. Teela, being the lead character really triggered some fans, accusing Kevin Smith of creating a too woke show. Mr. Smith naturally told them to grow the fudge up! Other than the advertising part, I really don't think that it's a big deal to be so triggered. Don't these so-call fans realize that female characters play a major role in the He-man franchise? Well hopefully, season 2 will be better, once everyone calmed down.
He-man will always be a classic! No matter, how times it has been rebooted, He-man and The Masters of The Universe, is one of the cartoons that stood the test of time and thank you Filmation for making such a gem. Until next time, By the Power of Grayskull!!
