News He-Man anime series from Kevin Smith coming to Netflix

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Enterprise is Great, Aug 18, 2019.

  1. Relayer1

    Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

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    Genuinely mystified that stuff like this and Thundercats is well regarded.

    Guess I'm not the target demographic...
     
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  2. Mach5

    Mach5 Admiral Admiral

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    Teela is a great character with the most intriguing background story that was never sufficiently explored, so I'm certainly looking forward to this.
     
  3. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Christina Pickles, the sorceress, was was Monica's mum on friends.

    I wonder if they triggered each other (with Masters of the Universe PTSD) on the Friends set?
     
  4. valkyrie013

    valkyrie013 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Left off? It's been 35 years! Please tell me who remembers 35 years ago cartoon? I watched it as a kid, if they do a new cartoon.. Go for it.. But .. I don't remember Jack from it!

    Also.. If it's not made in Japan.. It ain't anime.. Now anime style.. Sure..
     
  5. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    There are some borderline cases where the writing is American but the directing, storyboarding, etc. are done by Japanese creators, and those do tend to be regarded as basically anime (e.g. The Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight, and Batman Ninja).

    Still, it's weird. "Let's indulge our nostalgia and do a direct continuation of that thing we watched as kids, but let's completely replace its style with the very kind of animation that directly competed with it when it was on and probably contributed to its studio's demise."

    I wonder how they plan to approach the voices. Of the original cast, only John Erwin and Alan Oppenheimer are still around; would they try to get back the original He-Man and Skeletor/Duncan/Cringer/BattleKat/etc., or just recast everyone with celebrity voices?
     
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  6. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    "unresolved storylines" - ????????

    Like a lot of people here I haven't watched this since I was a child but I do not remember it having particularly complex story-lines that would need any sort of unpicking...
     
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  7. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I think the "unresolved storylines" just means this will focus more on the mythology and expand upon that rather than being the usual "and that's how Orco learned not to trust strangers with candy" standalone type episodes of yore.
     
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  8. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Do we know that it's going to have an anime style? That seems to be putting a lot on one word of a press release, and it's being done by Powerhouse Animation which is based out of Austin, Texas and from their online site looks to employ a lot of hipsters (well, it is Austin, after all). The focus on Teela doesn't seem to be in line with a reaction against She-Ra, at least, I think it's worth giving it a chance before dismissing it out-of-hand.
     
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  9. Kai "the spy"

    Kai "the spy" Admiral Admiral

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    Short interview with Kev at PowerCon:
     
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  10. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    I watched the original series run way back when, and just a few months ago rewatched thanks to the He-Man Official youtube channel.

    - Teela being the Soreceress' daughter was touched on, but then Teela was made to forget for her safety.
    - The Queen acted like she might have known Adam was He-Man in one episide, but it was never mentioned again.
    - The intelligent Sword Of The Ancients merged with He-Man's Sword Of Power, but nothing was ever done with it again.
    He-Man's Sword looked exactly the same afterward and never spoke again.
    - The obvious: Teela being too stupid to ever figure out Adam was He-Man. They could be hundreds of miles from anywhere, Adam would run off and He-Man would appear. Did she think he could teleport?
    - How could Skeletor talk so well without lips or a tongue?

    Probably other minor things, but yeah, not tons of continuity to build from. Still better than another reboot.
     
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  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    We know that Netflix is promoting it as an "anime series." That implies they intend to give it an anime look and/or have it directed and boarded by Japanese artists, but it's too early to say for sure. If not, though, it's a weird choice to bill it that way on the poster. I gather that Netflix is investing heavily in anime these days, but it hasn't previously used that label for home-grown animated shows.
     
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  12. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The studio that's doing this did Castlevania for Netflix, so until some actual art for the show comes out I think that's the general ballpark for the artstyle we can expect.
     
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  13. Booji

    Booji Commodore Premium Member

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    Well, that's good news since the animation in Castlevania is awesome. If the show is the of the same quality overall, I'll be ecstatic.
     
  14. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I don't care about He-Man, but I like Kevin Smith so I'll definitely be giving this a try. Hopefully it will be more action packed and exciting then the Netflix She-Ra show, which just comes off as a generic Saturday morning cartoon (which is fine, I don't care about She-Ra either way, but for a He-Man show I hope it goes for action and adventure over a more kiddie saturday morning cartoon style, which I'm assuming it will since it seems more like a general audience or even adult focused show then a kids show).

    If this is anywhere as good as the Netflix Castlevania show, it will probably be pretty cool.
     
  15. Jayson1

    Jayson1 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I love Kevin Smith but none of this sounds interesting. I only vaguely remember Teela and doing a show were maybe your only memorable character isn't the star makes no sense. It would be like rebooting Transformers after 30 years and using Prowl as the focus instead. Unless your just going after kids in which case why bother with unfinished storylines. The should have just done a spoof staring Robot Chicken's Skelator. Jason
     
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  16. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I've never watched the original, but Kevin Smith's involvement has me curious, and I am interested in the franchise, so I'll probably check this out.
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Whether you remember her or not, Teela was the female lead and one of the three most important human characters in the show, along with Adam/He-Man and her father Duncan/Man-at-Arms. Plenty of the original show's episodes focused on her, she was frequently just as involved in the action as He-Man was, and as mentioned above, she was secretly the daughter of the Sorceress, which was pretty much the one major story thread I can think of that could be considered "unresolved." So really, it makes perfect sense that she's central to the story here.
     
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  18. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    A bunch of (maybe all?) episodes of the original series are available on youtube, if anyone wishes to check those out.
     
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  19. Marsden

    Marsden Commodore Commodore

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    When they talk about unresolved He-Man, I'm thinking only of the 2002 Mike Young productions which was like most shows today and was an ongoing story and not only episodic.

    Things left hanging were the Snake Men invading Eternia and seeming almost unstoppable, Man-At-Arms being turned into a snake man, Skeletor and his crew were completely sidelined by King Hiss and his snake jerks.

    But then they talk about the 1983 show, so I'm not sure what they are referring to, He-Man has been done several times now.

    I really loved the original, but that 2002 reboot was great, until the Snake Men took over, then I wasn't as happy, but there were a lot of interesting things they explored. Greyskull was an ancient king that built the castle that bore his name and He-Man has HIS power, not the castle's when he shouts that line, for example.

    Evil-Lyn was a very interesting character, all of the characters had much more development, though, even Roboto.

    Stratos's bird people and Buzz-Off's bee people were actually hostile until He-Man brokered a peace deal and they both joined him out of loyalty to King Randor and appreciation of their new era of peace.

    I recommend the 2002 series to anyone who even marginally likes He-Man, and if this new one carries on in a similar way I will be certain to watch it.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2019
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  20. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It looks like all of the 2002 (has it been that long? sigh) series is available there as well.