Return to Eternia: The New “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”
This is the first of the little mini-series of articles on re-made shows from our childhood. Starting off is a re-make of one of the best shows ever made - “He-man and the Masters of the Universe”!!
For the purposes of this review, I watched the premier movie “The Beginning” of this new series (which equals the first 3 episodes) as well as the forth. Okay, I tend to hate these show remakes (recall my transformers rants) but I am actually quite pleased with the new MOTU. It actually does what the other shows all tried to do - takes the original formula of the series and builds upon it without taking out the good stuff. Like, the new Transformers shows all based around people for some reason… who the hell watches Transformers to see people? But this new He-Man is essentially done with all the best elements of the original (I’ll get to what they are soon) in a format that is almost anime like - including all the necessary background stories that got left out the original. What background stories? I’ll tell you!
Necessary Background Stories:
- the story starts off this time with the explanation of how king Randor became King of all Eternia. Turns out he was once a Captain of the Eternian army, and he kicked a lot of ass and was overly loyal to the “Elders” who held all the power of Eternia. After they disappeared, Randor was put in charge.
- now, the elders turned all their power and knowledge into a big orb, and hid in Castle Grey skull (which got a bit of a renovation, but not too much). It is this orb that gives He-Man his powers. Now that is explained! It’s not just a magic sword!
- now the biggest necessary background story - the reason the Elders disappeared - Skeletor. Only, back then, he wasn’t known as Skeletor! His name was Keldor… and he had a face!!! SEE!!!
His face gets burned off by some kind of acid he throws at Randor, but Randor makes backfire. In his suffering, Randor and the other Masters banish him to the “Dark Hemisphere” and leave him there, entrapped. Now not only does Skeletor have an explanation for having a skull head, but he also has a reason to hate Randor! It all makes so much sense!
- He-Man then comes about because Skeletor, as well as his horde, find a way to break out of their prison and start messing things up pretty good. It all works into a nice little package! While the old story was fun: Adam finds a sword, (seemingly for no reason) and becomes He-Man. Clever.
However, it’s not all new stuff. They had to keep most of the original series to make it good… just give it all a bit of a make-over.
The Direct Comparisons
- The Intro. The first essential thing is the opening theme, in which Prince Adam explains the story line for those who have lived under rocks their whole lives. We all know the story, but here’s a refresher, just cuz I want the excuse to type it all out: (heh)
I am Adam, Prince of Eternia, defender of the secrets of Castle Greyskull.
This is Kringer, my fearless friend.
Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic sword and said:
“By the Power of Greyskull!”
“I have the POWER!!!”
Kringer became the mighty Battlecat,
And I became He-Man - the most powerful man in the universe!
The show does still start out this way, only now in a way that keeps it more well hidden. We get “I am Adam, Prince of Eternia and defender of the secrets of Castle Greyskull. This is Kringer, my fearless friend. Fabulous…” BOOM!!! And then Skeletor attacks! Nice opening. Keeps the classic in there, but makes it a little less obvious.
- Prince Adam. Speaking of making things less obvious, we get to one of the better changes. Remember when Adam was basically just He-Man in a pink shirt? Why didn’t anyone notice that?! That always bothered me. Anyways, in the new one Adam is actually a relatively scrawny 16 year old (who happens to be voiced by the same dude as Leonardo from the original TMNT series) and He-Man is, of couse, a large Uber-Warrior. Difference made! Also, Adam’s wardrobe has improved dramatically.
Would He-Man really wear that pink shirt?
Much better!
- Skeletor. At first I was worried that Skeletor wouldn’t have the old charm of the original. I figured he’d just be evil - like he was in that live-action movie. But no! He’s full of one liners, and gags, and he’s always smacking his lackies! Plus - his voice is almost identical to the original (another worry I had). It’s great. He’s gotten quite the makeover as well:
I still don’t know which one is scarier…
- The Horde. The horde is the exact same as before! All your favourites are there: Trap-Jaw, Beastman, Tri-Clops, Clawful, Mer-Man, even Evil-Lyn. And of course, all the guy cronies are still idiots. So, getting blasts from Skeletor’s Havoc Staff are quite called for.
Aww... ain't they cute?
- The Masters. Like Skeletor, He-Man has his cronies too, 'cept they're given a classier title of "Masters of the Universe". There’s Man-at-Arms, Orco, Teela - they’re all basically the same.
Man-at-Arms still has no sense of humour; Kringer's still scared of everything; there’s still that weird thing going on between Teela and He-Man; and of course, Orco is still the lovable magical dolt, that every good show needs.
Really, could you make Orco better than he already was?
However, a few of them have changed. Ram-Man used to be a midget essentially, which I always thought odd, cuz he’s one of the strongest - not something that really gets associated with the little people. So yeah, now Ram-Man is friggin’ huge. He’s like a giant. Another cool twist is that while Stratos (the Hawkman) still looks identical to the way he did, he now sounds exactly like Sean Connery (and how can THAT be bad! The 007 tie-ins will be so easy now!).
There’s only one real bad change that I noticed. While Kringer is as he should be, Battlecat has undergone some major changes, the first of which being his armour:
What can I say? I liked it better back when Battlecat resembled a triceratops. But that’s not even the major fault. The bigger one (and many around the world have actually made a petition to change this back) is that Battlecat can no longer talk! I loved the solid advice that Battlecat would despense every now and then! I mean, when a big green and orange armour platted saber-toothed tiger starts logically planning a rescue, what’s not to love? Hopefully that will be remedied sometime in the near future.
- Dialogue. He-Man dialogue is a special thing. It’s full of the dumbest one liners ever. Literally, in the original, every line said in battle was a one-liner. In the new one, there’s considerably less, but they are still there, and they’re still just as good.
ex: Skeletor accidently throws his sword in lava, and when he says, “Return” it does come back, but it’s just the hilt and the melted stump. So, He-Man sees this as a golden opportunity for a joke at the blue-one’s expense and says, “You should return it… for a refund!!” Do they really have a refund system in Eternia? I wouldn’t think so, which makes it all the better.
The New style
As I mentioned, this new MOTU is done much in the style of a good anime (kinda like Escaflowne, actually). What does this mean in the grand scheme of the show? Well, basically, there IS a bit of an underlying storyline (it deals a lot with Adam coping with the fact that while no one really likes him, everyone loves He-Man). But, this doesn’t take away from the fact that in every episode Skeletor has a new invention that can easily be destroyed by He-Man and giant monsters with the same flaw.
It also means that the animation itself is far superior - which is kinda a drawback in a way. I loved the choppy stupidity of the old one, as many others did. I mean, they really only had 5 shots of He-Man that they used all the time: He-Man standing, He-Man running, He-man holding sword, He-Man throwing something huge, He-Man jumping (which also doubled as “He-Man Flying”). I just miss the simplicity I guess…
The best part of this new style is the fact that now they have awesome sword fights! I mean, in the old series they had these huge swords, but they never really used them in battle - they used rocks, or complicated yet flawed machinery. In these first episodes of the new one, at least 5 really good sword fights took place between various characters. The best of which being the ultimate battle: He-Man vs. Skeletor.
It was quite the good one, and I highly recommend it to all.
So, all in all, I quite like the new MOTU. It’s not quite as memorable as the original, but it has done what many others series’ have failed to do in the remakes: it manages to capture a fair chunk of the original magic and fun, and adds to it. Plus, the new toys are friggin’ kick ass! Kudos to those responsible!
Stay tuned to the articles section in the near future! As I mentioned, this is the first of a series of reviews! Coming up next: the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Will it hold up as well as the new MOTU? Only time will tell. After that, I dunno… probably Wuzzles: The Next Generation or something…. Sigh.
