"Masters of the Universe" Film in Development (Again)
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The Grumpy Skeletor account on social media was always very funny, but sadly hasn’t posted on either Facebook or Twitter for some months.My oldest daughter loved He-Man as a child. I was doing the stay-at-home dad thing, and we'd watch it together. I learned to impersonate Skeletor and would do some of his funniest dialogue for her. He was actually a comic foil more than a villain.
The Filmation version was the best version. There's not a damn thing wrong with it.
I sent my daughter the trailer link this afternoon. She's delighted. "Adam Glenn" isn't exactly a deep cut, but it shows attention to the details.
Leto better do the damn VOICE!
I don't know about anyone else, but that trailer felt very generic. Now mind you, I wasn't the biggest fan of the cartoon growing up. I watched it here and there and it certainly part of culture while growing up in the 80's. I think it helps to have a familarity with it, but even then, I felt the trailer was didn't really do much for me. In fact, I think the whole modern-day trope of inserting fantasy / cartoon characters into it feels so tired at this point. Further trailers might do a better job of convincing me though.
"Pixel" Dan Eardley is one of the biggest names in MotU fandom, doing his YouTube videos about toy collecting for over a decade now, being one of the go-to hosts for convention panels, and having written the book "The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe". And, of course, he did his own video review of the trailer:
Yes. It's mainly more fantasy but with some sci-fi elements mixed in, like some of the advanced technology vehicles. One of the early background concepts was that Eternia had a more advanced culture at one point but much of it was destroyed in wars. There's a lot of interesting early installment weirdness in the franchise.
For those who might be interested, I recently came across a nice fan blog devoted mainly to the toyline, but also with some articles about how other aspects of the franchise evolved. Before the fantasy setting became the main one, there were also options for a sci-fi setting and a military setting where He-Man would have potentially had a tank for a head.
Those prototypes have been given more modern toys as distinct characters in the MOTU universe, as a tongue in cheek nod to the beginning.
I got round to watching the full trailer today. While I’m still not a fan of the earth setting, generally it looks a lot of fun and seems to get the balance right between respecting the source material and not taking too seriously a show with a hero called He-Man, whose catchphrase is “I have the power.” It’s not a film I’d go to the cinema to see but I hope that it entrances younger viewers the way the original show entranced much of my age group.
Yes. It's mainly more fantasy but with some sci-fi elements mixed in, like some of the advanced technology vehicles. One of the early background concepts was that Eternia had a more advanced culture at one point but much of it was destroyed in wars. There's a lot of interesting early installment weirdness in the franchise.
Mattel originally conceived Masters Of The Universe as being two separate toy lines ("Space" and "Fantasy").
Somewhere along the way, the two toy lines got smushed together into one giant line. We now have armor-clad warriors fighting dragons and robots with lasers and swords.
and then Thundercats came along and copied the concept as well.
There's a lot of influences on MotU, both from the premise and the look of it. It borrowed heavily from Frank Frazetta (not just Conan, but John Carter and others) and Jack Kirby (mostly Thor and Fourth World), though only Frazetta has been named by MotU designer Mark Taylor as such, as well as Robert E. Howard, though actually more Kull than Conan, with the skull-faced sorcerer villain (Thulsa Doom and Skeletor) and humanoid snake armies (Serpent Men and Snake-Men). The transformation from Adam to He-Man, while also reminiscent of Donald Blake's transformation into Thor, was actually directly lifted by Filmation from SHAZAM!, the animated show they produced right before He-Man.
Of course, there's also a long literary tradition in mixing elements of scifi and fantasy. Dragonriders of Pern, Thongor (another series with humanoid reptilian villains), a lot of Marion Zimmer Bradley's work, etc. And there are elements that certainly feel similar to MotU in those works, and the team at Mattel that was working on MotU were genre fans, so it is most certainly the case that a lot of these also were influences on MotU.
Of course, there's also a long literary tradition in mixing elements of scifi and fantasy. Dragonriders of Pern, Thongor (another series with humanoid reptilian villains), a lot of Marion Zimmer Bradley's work, etc. And there are elements that certainly feel similar to MotU in those works, and the team at Mattel that was working on MotU were genre fans, so it is most certainly the case that a lot of these also were influences on MotU.
Dragonriders of Pern is pure Sci-Fi.
As someone for whom MotU was they very first fandom (the earliest Christmas I can remember is the one where I was 4 and got Castle Greyskulll which brought me much joy) I'm not sure how to feel about the trailer.
Mostly just hopeful that it'll at least be OK, while prepared for it to be a disaster. Been tricked by trailers before, so not really convinced either way yet. I could have done without Leto being anywhere near it, but not having to see his face for at least the majority of the movie is at least somewhat mitigating.
Mostly just hopeful that it'll at least be OK, while prepared for it to be a disaster. Been tricked by trailers before, so not really convinced either way yet. I could have done without Leto being anywhere near it, but not having to see his face for at least the majority of the movie is at least somewhat mitigating.
Indeed, which rather begs the question; why even bother? Just fully commit to it being a fantasy movie and be done with it, I say!
I think I saw a glimpse towards the end of the trailer that showed crowds of people running away from some threat and they were all passing cars on a bridge, which suggests Earth might be featured in the climax of the film.
Shazam, Isis (another Filmation show).
Imagine "Dinoriders" with Jurassic Park-style real life builds and supplemental CGI, with lasers attached to their heads, and Jim Henson Company puppetry work for aliens.
Hmmm, he didn't say the whole quote...
Oh my..
Because connections to Earth are a fundamental part of the lore due to Queen Marlena being an Earthling 'Isekai-ed' to a completely alien place after crashing on Eternia.
I'm still waiting for a studio to discover Dinoriders and make a live-action adaptation of it, either as a film or an ongoing series. I'd rather watch that than another crappy Jurassic World that pretends to be realistic but is already halfway to Dinoriders.
Mattel actually owns the rights, but doesn't do anything with it because they also have the toy licence for the Jurassic Park/World franchise and they don't want to do two Dinosaur toylines ultimately competing with each other.
Personally, I think they should instead get Universal to give the Jurassic franchise a rest and use time to do a Dino Riders adaptation with Mattel, who then can obviously do the accompanying toyline.
