He-Man (The Original Cartoon and The 1987 Movie)

[JRS]

To me personally the orginal Filmations He-Man cartoon was an essential part of my childhood and maybe for me, one the coolest cartoons ever
It had cool characters, great music and fun adventures..and Skeletor was a great villain
I fas a big fan then, and I have always the most fondest of memories of it
I know it was basicly made to sell toys and so on, but I think it was ten times better than some later cartoons, like Pokemon.
Must get this on DVD, someday...

He-Man Opening credits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yeA7a0uS3A

Im also big fan of the motion picture version. I admit that its goofy at parts but essentially good fun.
It had a great cast also, I mean Frank Langella was superb as Skeletor( of of the most underrated screen villains in cinematic history)
And the laserbattles are cool..Im somehow missing those..

Here is a nice blog about the movie. Lots of nice photos and interviews of some of the cast members:
http://mastersoftheuniversemovie.blogspot.com/

What kind of memories you have of He-Man?
Who was your favorite character? (mine was Skeletor)
What did you thought about the newer cartoon?
Is the 87 film a complete turkey or a cult classic?
Discuss and comment...

 

[Pauln6]

I played Dungeons & Dragons and loved the look of the He-Man figures in the eighties. They came with little booklets with stories based around the figures. I was mortified at how cheesy the cartoon turned out to be compared to the story booklets. I watched most of them but the more modern version finally started to define the characters more and was much better in my view. The most hilarious review I ever saw described the characters as oiled muscle marys posing and wrestling with each other and not one of them was ever interested in Teela...

The 87 film was reasonably good children's entertainment but I always felt that the decision to move to Earth and not to feature a large number of the characters spoiled it a little bit.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I loved the original MOTU and it has a personal significance to me because it was such a big part of my childhood. My dad would tape the episodes and my brother and I would watch them and I had most of the action figures from the show as well. My name is Adam so I had a affinity for Prince Adam and my brother and I would play "Masters of the Universe" all the time. The movie sucked for the most part as I mentioned in the previous thread but Frank Langella really does make the film tolerable with his performance as Skeletor although I will say that one of my earliest crushes was on Chelsea Fields as Teela.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Not gonna diss the 80's version too much (Filmation was waaay too pro-social to be much fun), because it at least led to some hilarious youtube parodies.

The Mike Young Productions toon in the 2000's was more what I envisioned Masters of the Universe as: Lots of butt-kicking, use of actual toy characters besides just He-Man and Skeletor, less cutesy stuff.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The Filmation He-Man series rules. A small person close to me was absolutely fascinated by it and as a result I saw it most weekdays and over and over and over again on tape. It was silly as all hell - almost as silly as the notion that this should be taken seriously, ever.

When the He-Man/She-Ra movie premiered, the adults in the audience I saw it with broke into applause for Alan Oppenheimer's opening credit as "Skeletor" - old skullface was such a lady.

They can do whatever they want with it - whether it's Dolph Lundgren or some new movie or cartoon revival - but the old one is the one version I give a fuck about, for purely nostalgic reasons.

 

[davejames]

I've got the original series on DVD, and it's still a lot of campy fun to watch (I find it a lot more watchable now than, say, Transformers or Voltron, which I probably loved more as a kid).

Say what you will about the stories, but the music, sound effects, and atmosphere were all fantastic (and did a LOT to carry the show). And of course the transformation scene still gives me chills every damn time I watch it.

The movie has some good moments and works okay on it's own, but it just isn't "He-Man" enough. And the new cartoon had great animation and better stories... but the magic wasn't quite there for me.

 

[coolghoul]

I have a lot of fond memories of watching the cartoons. I *hated* MOTU because it had an ugly sorceress and no Adam, Orko or BattleCat. And Skeletor's voice wasn't the same thin-reedy one. I think I completely understand the movie changing the voice for Skeletor - can you imagine a live action big bad with that voice?! - but I still hated that.

Favorite character for me however was Evil-Lyn. She was HOT. I would always root for her. Especially in her evil machinations against Skeletor *and* He-Man.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Oh, I thought the Sorceress of Grayskull was hot stuff.

The "He-Man/She-Ra Christmas Special" was marvelous fun, too - Skeletor overcome by the "Spirit of Christmas" and disgusted by his own sudden desire to be charitable and kind.

 

[Christopher]

^I think he's saying he found the live-action movie's version of the Sorceress to be unattractive. And I agree that the Filmation version of the Sorceress was lovely.

 

[Lt. Trull]

how's this.... my best friend worked on the set of he man as one of the construction engineers....
here's the pic's he sent me from the set...
the one in red...

#1

#2

#3

 

[FalTorPan]

I'll always be fond of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I bought the DVD box sets of the show, and I've watched them all. From this thirtysomething's perspective, nearly every episode is laughably silly and forgettable, but from a single-digit-something's perspective back in the '80s, the show was awesome. I remember literally crying when the local station stopped showing it on weekday afternoons.

In recent years I've become increasingly fond of Filmation cartoons. I hope that Andy Mangels' biography of Lou Scheimer will be published soon.

Earlier this week I found and purchased both of Mattel's recently released two-packs of a "Masters of the Universe Classics" ("MOTUC" in He-Man geek speak) action figure with a "DC Universe Classics" figure. The two-packs consist of Superman vs. He-Man and Lex Luthor vs. Skeletor. The new MOTUC figures look great... but I still can't help but wish that they more closely resembled their Filmation counterparts.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I hated He-Man. HATED IT! Maybe I was a little older than its target audience(I was around 12), but I used to nitpick that show to death. I mean the worst example? The episode where Skeletor got the sword. I mean he actually finally accomplished it. He got the Sword of Grayskull. He held it aloft. He said the words. He got the power. AND HE STILL LOST TO HE-MAN! And it took He-Man all of about 10 seconds to do it. You'd think he would have packed it in after that.

 

[saturn5]

Even back then I thought the cartoon was pretty stupid. especially the moral message at the end bit.

The movie was ok, young Courtney Cox gorgeous and the wonderful Meg Foster as Evilyn

 

[JRS]

Cool pics Lt.Trull
I discovered yesterday that theres some full episodes of the orginal cartoon on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HeMan

 

[Lonemagpie]

What kind of memories you have of He-Man?

That it was a cheesy toy ad with an even cheesier moral message tagged on, and it only existed because Mattel bricked themselves when they saw how un-child-friendly the Conan movie was (cos they'd licenced Conan as an action figure and then decided they needed to change the name... But how to advertise it and not lose the shitload of money they'd already spent...? (This isn't actually what happened - He Man started off in a short lived DC comic - but this is the memory I have of the time!)

Who was your favorite character?

Orco or Skeletor

What did you thought about the newer cartoon?

What newer cartoon?

Is the 87 film a complete turkey or a cult classic?

Cult classic- Meg Foster, Courtney Cox, Langella is cool, the theme tune's fun... Lack of Orco is a major downer. I love the "why do they put the food on those little sticks?" exchange...

 

[FalTorPan]

I hated He-Man. HATED IT! Maybe I was a little older than its target audience(I was around 12), but I used to nitpick that show to death. I mean the worst example? The episode where Skeletor got the sword. I mean he actually finally accomplished it. He got the Sword of Grayskull. He held it aloft. He said the words. He got the power. AND HE STILL LOST TO HE-MAN! And it took He-Man all of about 10 seconds to do it. You'd think he would have packed it in after that.

I don't exactly have an encyclopedia-like memory of the Filmation cartoon, but I don't remember anything like this happening in that show.

 

[Piper]

Some of us are still waiting for Skeletor's promise at the end of the film - "I will return!" - to be fulfilled...