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

I just finished Revelations. Looks like Kevin Smith was going for a best of both worlds style cliffhanger there.

 

I watched all 3 previous series' on YT over the last year+

 

I give up.


So are there any specific episodes of that it would be a good idea to watch before watching this. I'm planning on checking this out once I go back to Netflix, but I've never watched or read anything He-Man related. I've been curious about the franchise for a while, and this seems like a good excuse to finally check it out.

 

Just the synopsis in Wikipedia. Or the opening credits on YouTube. All the essential info are there.

 

Talk about recognizable voices. King Greyskull is the Allstate guy

 

If I recall correctly, Evil Lynn got some development in the 2002 series very similar to this, where He-Man (I think) almost tempts her to change sides, possibly after a reunion with her father, who is sort of neutral? Based on what we've seen so far, I suspect we will revisit this. She was portrayed as a woman still in love on some level with the man Skeletor used to be. At some point, she may finally wise up to the fact that he is no more.

There is also Teela's traditional destiny, teased almost as a joke in this show because it was a secret from the original cartoon that simply never went anywhere. Does Teela have magic in her blood or just a strong right hook? Her fight in the underworld suggests the former. I think this is what I find so frustrating. Teela has always had her own awesome destiny to develop in her own right ever since the action figures first came out (she was the guardian of Greyskull with a groovy serpent animal totem to rival the sorceress). I don't see why her destiny should be overshadowed by He-Man or vice versa. I would prefer if they became equals on their own terms.

Let's see where it all leads!

 

And Scare Glow is Candyman/old Jake Sisko.

 

aka: Kurn


I'm a little surprised they didn't refer to them as Sword Of Power and Sword Of The Ancients. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to refer to that story.

 

So where does Orko go when he dies? Because he might have the first gravestone in heaven. Although he probably survived somehow.

 

Well, Evil Lynn implies that Teela is carrying a torch. It's tempting to think it's for Andra but it would be more consistent with the source material if it was for He-Man, mirroring Lynn's own unrequited love for Keldor. Certainly, her refusal to have a heart to heart with Adam supports that possibility. Did Adam keep quiet because he wanted to win Teela's heart as himself? If Teela did love He-Man (and it was often implied that she had the hots for him), her feelings of betrayal might run that much deeper if she doesn't feel that way for Adam, who was more like a brother. That's a lot to process when the dude also died in front of you.

 

I wonder if the initial time shenanigans will result in some sort of reset to that point, or did Kevin quash any ideas of that already?

 

Some of rabid fans that are bashing the new show are saying something like "It figures!!! They made Teela a butch lesbian who is lusting after Andra!!!!". It made me think and to do a little experiment I tried to imagine their relationship if they were both men. And I immediately recognized the stereotype of the slightly gruff and disillusioned mentor and the enthusiastic and optimistic pupil. There have been countless movies and tv shows which used this particular trope, without people seriously thinking that the main male characters were humping each other (well, except fanfiction authors, but they don't matter). But if two women don't talk to each other about makeup or men, well, sapphic alert!

Now, I really don't care if in this version Teela is straight, lesbian, bi, asexual or whatever. But it's a little ridiculous that people are inferring the sexual orientation of two female characters just because they don't talk only about "feminine" subjects.

 

Other than seeing the movie and reading the MotU comics DC did I never watched any of the cartoons but I really enjoyed all 5 episodes. I watched them this afternoon and they were over before I knew it.

Spoiler

i really don’t think that Adam is going to stay dead. And of course Skeletor will be defeated some how.

I think Lena Heady stole the show as Evil-Lyn.

 

Good point. I just finished the first episode, and I feel it makes the characters do uncharacteristically dark things with little motivation just for the sake of being gratuitously "adult" and edgy. Like, I can't believe for a moment that He-Man would throw out his code against killing the moment Skeletor offs some random bit character. Now, if Skeletor had killed the Sorceress, maybe I could buy it, but it would still be a stretch. As it was, it wasn't remotely earned, just forced for the sake of shock value. I hadn't thought about it, but Teela's reaction is much the same -- as is Randor's banishing of Duncan on pain of execution.

Also, since when did He-Man battle silently? He was all about the superhero quips. "This is the ten-foot pole I wouldn't touch you with" remains my all-time favorite.

I did find it amusing that they gave He-Man a magical girl-style naked henshin sequence. Let's objectify the guy for a change!

 

And her hair cut

Also...

Cringer has a real Paul Lind quality.

And isn't BattleCat a Leather Daddy?

 

I'm still processing how I feel about this. I don't outright hate it, but I don't love it either. I think it works better as a fantasy-action animated story than as a return to the Masters of the Universe I loved as a kid. I read some of those old comics back in the day and also looked at the reboot that came out in the early aughts as well, which I also liked. But I'm no diehard He-Man fan, that said, I did even like the Lundgren film, more so because of Langella's Skeletor.

I know some are ragging Kevin Smith for 'lying' about what the first part of the series would be about, but I see it as more so him being artful with his words in an attempt to keep some suspense, but also hold off the internet mob that was coming. He didn't appear to do too well in either case.

I thought the animation was good, though I prefer the original Filmation look. The voice acting was uneven. I hate to admit it but wasn't that impressed by Hamill's Skeletor (really liked that he said Langella's line, "let this be our final battle"; I wish Langella had voiced Skeletor again), or Conroy as Mer-Man. Sarah Michelle Geller was fine as Teela, but I liked Lena Headey as Evil Lynn most of all I think. I did like seeing some of the old characters, though sometimes the cameos just felt superfluous. Also would've been nice to see more with Beast-Man. Why was he so loyal to Evil Lynn after all?

I wasn't a fan of quite a few of the narrative decisions, but I suspect that the second part might address my concerns there. In a way I felt Teela and how she was handled was a better version of Star War's Rey and that MOTU:R was a better version of The Last Jedi.