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Gothic_interlude Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:10 pm
The show takes place on the fictional planet of Eternia, a land of magic, myth and fantasy. The show's lead character is Prince Adam, the young son of Eternia's rulers, King Randor and Queen Marlena. Prince Adam is a seemingly cowardly, blond muscleman dressed in a Cote d'Azur chemise. However, Prince Adam possesses a magic sword, and when he holds it aloft and says the magic words "By the Power of Grayskull! I have the Power!" he is transformed into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe. He-Man is a brave, blond muscleman in a baldric and loincloth. Together with his close allies, Battle Cat, Teela, Man-At-Arms and Orko, He-Man uses his powers to defend Eternia from the evil forces of Skeletor, a tyrannical warlord with a skull for a face. Skeletor's main goal is to conquer the mysterious fortress of Castle Grayskull, from which He-Man draws his powers. If he succeeds, Skeletor would be able to conquer not only Eternia, but the whole universe.
Despite the limited animation techniques that were used to produce the series, He-Man was notable for breaking the boundaries of censorship that had severely restricted the narrative scope of children's TV programming in the 1970s. For the first time in years, a cartoon series could feature a muscular superhero who was actually allowed to hit people, though he still could not use his sword often; more often than not He-Man opted to pick up his opponents and toss them away rather than hit them. The cartoon was controversial in that it was produced in connection with marketing a line of toys; advertising to children was itself controversial during this period. In Britain, advertising regulations forbade commercials for He-Man toys to accompany the program itself. In similar fashion to other shows at the time: notably G.I. Joe, an attempt to mitigate the negative publicity generated by this controversy was made by including a "life lesson" or "moral of the story" at the end of each episode. This moral was usually directly tied to the action or central theme of that episode.
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:12 pm
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is a modern remake of the classic 1980s series of the same name, animated by Mike Young Productions, produced to coincide with Mattel's revival of the Masters of the Universe franchise eleven years after its previous attempt.
Season 1
Eternia has seen the end of tyranny and evil. Its community lives in peace, safe in the knowledge that its greatest threats are trapped behind the great barrier in the badlands near Snake Mountain. But little do they suspect of the danger to awaken, for Skeletor has broken through the barrier at last, and hopes to spread his bane once more, beginning with the capture of King Randor. Their liberation is detected within Castle Grayskull by The Sorceress, who informs Man-At-Arms, captain of the guards within Randor's kingdom and a trustworthy ally, that the time has come for destiny to be fulfilled.
Prince Adam, a spoiled, almost carefree future heir to the throne of his father Randor, is trained daily by the unrelenting Teela, his best friend. Adam is approached by Teela's father, Man-At-Arms, who takes Adam to Castle Grayskull. There, Adam learns from the Sorceress of an approaching evil and his role in defending the kingdom as the warrior He-Man. Adam, of course, instantly rebuffs the responsibility and returns to the palace, where he finds that Skeletor's forces have captured his father.
Adam, Man-At-Arms, and Teela pursue Randor's kidnappers into the forests, where they are ambushed. Adam is covered by Man-At-Arms as he returns to Grayskull, followed by his pet tiger Cringer, and the court magician Orko. His flight through the forest infuriates Teela, who only sees a coward leaving the scene of battle. Adam accepts his destiny, and is granted the Sword of Power, which he uses to become He-Man. With Cringer transforming into Battle Cat, a strong and brave method of transport and assistance, He-Man returns to the scene of battle and rescues his father from Skeletor, drawing "first blood."
Over the course of the first season, Randor's armies of defence expand, some convinced to fight through encounters with He-Man. The Sorceress stands revealed as the mother of Teela. Teela's ultimate destiny as the successor to the mantle of The Sorceress manifests in small doses physically and mentally, often causing her pain or general befuddlement at what these abilities are and what they mean for the future. Skeletor becomes aware of Grayskull's power when he attacks it, prompting him to spend much of the season attempting to enter it. Hints are made as to the fate of Skeletor's mentor, Hordak, and the future main adversaries of the second season, The Snake Men.
Much like the original series, selling toys was a key goal of this series, and He-Man and Skeletor would don variations of their costumes or different ones entirely whenever they were briefly "empowered" with an ancient relic or new technology. The first season ends on a cliffhanger in which Skeletor unites several of the other adversaries fought by the Masters into a grand council of evil. He captures most of the Masters, forcing He-Man and Teela to enter Snake Mountain. Adam becomes separated from his sword, and is soon forced to protect Castle Grayskull from Skeletor without it.
[edit] Season 2
After the resolution of the season one cliffhanger (Orko returning the sword to Adam, the Masters rescued), the Snake Men, (who were included in the original toyline, but most of them never made an animated appearance), took center stage as the main adversaries, having been hinted at in the first season as being trapped beneath Snake Mountain (the place being their former stronghold, hence the name and reason for its existence) inside a void. They are finally being liberated by allies existing outside of the void, as well as a treacherous Evil-Lyn. Adam is informed of their rising by The Sorceress, and finds his He-Man armour completely different upon transformation, designed to fight the Snake Men, led by King Hiss. Skeletor would still appear from time to time, but would be gradually phased out, although had the series continued, he would have returned to his status as a major player.
This season was shorter than the first, and as a result, more serialized, with certain episodes following on from one another, characters were strongly developed, and old characters reintroduced, including Fisto, now a disgraced soldier of the court who went AWOL during the last great war, and Man-At-Arms' brother. The third episode of this season "Out Of The Past", also told the tale of how The Sorceress, on a granted leave from her duties, nursed an amnesia-stricken soldier back to health and fell in love with him. The soldier left mysteriously before she gave birth, and therefore his identity remains a mystery, and it is debated whether or not Man-At-Arms or Fisto were the ones involved, or somebody else entirely. The secret origins of Evil Lyn, Skeletor, and Castle Grayskull's power source itself, were also revealed.
[edit] Unfinished Third Season
In a Q&A session with the members of He-Man.Org [3], Ian Richter of Mattel, who was behind many of the storylines of the cartoon, revealed some details on what had been planned for the show. Had the series continued, the second half of season 2 was planned to have featured King Hiss being regenerated after his capture by the Masters, and a final showdown between himself and Skeletor, of which Skeletor would have emerged the victor. Skeletor was then to have used his creation, Faker to trick the Eternians into thinking He-Man had turned against them, thus enabling him to overthrow Randor and conquer the kingdom for himself. The third season would have involved the takeover of Eternia by the much hyped arrival of Hordak and the Evil Horde, who would have been released from their prison by Evil-Lyn and overthrown Skeletor, thus spreading mayhem across Eternia, effectively making He-Man and the Masters wanted fugitives.[4]
Apparently the intention was for Skeletor, who owed his very life to Hordak, to have finally gained the power to overcome his own mentor by the end of the season. At some point, Man-At-Arms was to have been captured and turned temporarily into a Snake Man (how long this change would have lasted has never been confirmed), Teela would have learned of her heritage, and She-Ra would have been introduced at some point- according to Ian Richter 'when the time was right'.
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Gothic_interlude Vice Captain
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Gothic_interlude Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:16 pm
After the second season wrapped up, the series was terminated by Cartoon Network, and the toyline itself was swiftly ended by Mattel. The reason being that the show had not received strong ratings, and the toyline failed to appeal to the main demographics. Fans insist the series' failure was due to the lack of hype, promo time, and a decent time slot on the networks' part (even though Cartoon Network at one point scheduled He-Man right after Teen Titans, the highest rated show on the network at the time), whereas Mattel simply failed to promote the toyline themselves, concentrating mostly on their female products like Barbie. Toy designers the Four Horsemen, who designed the modern action figures, were also criticized for wasting too much time creating busts instead of actual action figures, expanding the catalogue much quicker and making the line lengthier regardless of the franchise's termination.
The line suffered from poor distribution of the action figures within the toyline (i.e. three Skeletors to every one Evil-Lyn) as well as spotty shipments to retailers. Most collectors found it nearly impossible to collect every figure as the only ones to be found were the primary characters, which led to toy stores becoming frustrated with merchandise that would not sell, which in turn meant less restocking.
During the time it was on the air, the series had a promotional tie-in with fast food restaurant McDonald's. Action figures of characters were featured as toys in the restaurant's Happy Meal offerings.
To coincide with the release of the series, a He-Man comic was created by MV Creations. Three volumes, one mini-series and a handful of one-shots were published. The tone and maturity of the comic was slightly different from the cartoon, as the writers hoped to appeal to the older demographic purchasing the comic. The comic ultimately came to a close when Mattel began to end the licensing program for the Masters of the Universe relaunch.
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Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 12:02 pm
Feel free to talk about this he-man only on this forum area. You may post other topics in the forum.
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Gothic_interlude Vice Captain
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