New He-Man Netflix Series

[Andrew NDB]

Yeah, it's more than a little bit telling that She-Ra leads things out of the gate for a He-Man revival... and then when He-Man gets his own show later on, it's starring a female side character.

[sdp]

As I stated in the She Ra thread, I've always been curious about He-Man but it was before my time and it just didn't seem like it has ever clicked. I'm impressed by the lore it was able to built with such a silly concept. I only ever watched a few episodes of She-Ra growing up and never He-Man. Like ten years ago I rented a "Best 10 episodes of He-Man" DVD and all 10 episodes reeked of awful 80s writing so I stayed away.

I do hope She-Ra is in the show and that He-Man is in the She-Ra show, it'll be cool to see both interpretations be on at the same time. I could tell Netflix was thinking of investing in He-Man for a while now, they kept recommending that documentary for a long time like a year and a half ago.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by sdp

Like ten years ago I rented a "Best 10 episodes of He-Man" DVD and all 10 episodes reeked of awful 80s writing so I stayed away.

Define "awful 80s writing" for the audience at home please. People use these buzzwords like it actually means anything, in truth I could say Princesses of Power has the same kind of writing. If people thought the writing was "awful" there would never have been a "best of" list compiled. The fact is that the true fans of He-Man can LOOK PAST the shortcomings to see some pretty good stuff in there.

Are people even still doing this? Bashing 80s cartoons was a popular thing in...like, 2002 or something. It's the primary reason I hated Toon Zone back in the day, all they would do was trash 80s cartoons when they came out on DVD. I love how irrelevant that site is now. At the end of the day, those cartoons still provide the backbone of modern nerd culture so they obviously did SOMETHING right. There's been remakes and reboots that have been far worse than anything the 80s threw at us, yet people are always far harsher on them than the dross they watch now.

[ABrown]

Originally Posted by sdp

As I stated in the She Ra thread, I've always been curious about He-Man but it was before my time and it just didn't seem like it has ever clicked. I'm impressed by the lore it was able to built with such a silly concept. I only ever watched a few episodes of She-Ra growing up and never He-Man. Like ten years ago I rented a "Best 10 episodes of He-Man" DVD and all 10 episodes reeked of awful 80s writing so I stayed away.

When it comes to the original He-Man cartoon, this is what I tell people. If you didn't watch the cartoon as a child, I'd say you probably won't enjoy it as an adult. I love the character, but the original cartoon was a very poorly produced cartoon. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that I would tell those same people not to give this forthcoming series a shot. But you say that you gave the Top 10 set a shot and didn't like it? Then yeah, like I said, I'd say nevermind this series.

What you might want to give a try though is the Mike Young Productions 2002 He-Man series. That was an outstanding cartoon that was cut off too soon. It should've gotten at least another 26 episodes to finish telling its story. The series is kind of like to He-Man what the 4Kids series was to TMNT. Unfortunately the MYP 2002 He-Man didn't get anywhere close to as long of a run as the 4Kids TMNT series did.

[Andrew NDB]

To be fair, I never super got into He-Man. I remember casually watching a few and mostly digging it. My generation, as kids, I kind of became aware of it when there became a kind of a stigma about it. And then it sort of went away anyway.

Like, "Eww... you like He-Man? That's gay!" on the playground.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Bashing 80s cartoons was a popular thing in...like, 2002 or something.

Really? That was the time when 1980's nostalgia began to kick in.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Really? That was the time when 1980's nostalgia began to kick in.

Yeah, and there was a resistance to it back then for some reason.

While we definitely had more sophisticated shows in the 90s and 2000s, 80s cartoons got thrown under the bus too many times for their commercialism, almost as if the audience was resentful for being 'brainwashed' by them (yeah, they told you to buy toys you could have fun playing with, use your imagination, live by a decent morality code...what's to hate you ask? Apparently everything)

[TommyT]

What a surprise, the people hating are the same people who claim to not “get” He-man. I wasn’t a big fan of a number of things, and watching that content now, it will seem odd. It’s not bad writing, it’s of its time. He-man has child-like logic, it flows like a daydream, or a trippy hallucination. It starts, things happen, you’re told to be nice to your neighbor, the end. Looking or expecting deeper meaning here is pointless.
I’m sick of world building. Stop insisting everything has this vast universe of importance. People wonder why the 2002 He-man died so quickly, it’s because they removed the fantasy part. It wasn’t fun weird adventures, it became one more Joseph Campbell clone, in neon oatmeal.

He-man isn’t about action, it’s about escaping and exploration. If they don’t get the tone right, it’s going to flop.

[sdp]

I guess by awful 80s writing I mean the characters are for the most part bland and one note, the status quo rarely changes if it even dares to change, the bad guy always loses at the end and suffers from villain decay early on, the good guys are all always good etc. I still grew up with plenty of 80s cartoon reruns as a kid in the 90s and I could see even then the inferior quality of them. that's not to say all of them did it. Thundercats while also suffering from these things still managed to do so much more despite it. I do agree about ToonZone being trash, it was good forum for like 3-4 years.

I'm not trying to knock on He-Man, I'm impressed by the fandom and that despite the 80s writing it still managed to sneak in lore for fans to love and develop. The 10 episode best of dvd just didn't do it for me so I never checked out more episodes, I didn't say she-ra was better, just that I watched it, I'm sure it was the same quality.

Still I think making He-Man cool again is a tough, tougher than say Power Rangers which also has a hard time despite nostalgia of power rangers being a thing / cool now. And I don't think a show that only appeals to certain fandom no matter how loyal can succeed. Still I wish it the best and I'm sure at one point in my life I will dwell into He-Man just to check it out.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by sdp

Thundercats while also suffering from these things still managed to do so much more despite it.

The only thing Thundercats truly succeeds at is having a main character that looks like an impossible bad-ass, but is in fact the single most limp-dicked, useless putz in the entire pantheon of 1980s cartoon shows.

For real. Lion-O couldn't open a goddamn pudding cup without begging for help. Really jumps out upon re-watching. And it's not like he got any less useless as the show went on, either.

Meh.

[TommyT]

Originally Posted by sdp

I guess by awful 80s writing I mean the characters are for the most part bland and one note, the status quo rarely changes if it even dares to change, the bad guy always loses at the end and suffers from villain decay early on, the good guys are all always good etc. I still grew up with plenty of 80s cartoon reruns as a kid in the 90s and I could see even then the inferior quality of them. that's not to say all of them did it. Thundercats while also suffering from these things still managed to do so much more despite it. I do agree about ToonZone being trash, it was good forum for like 3-4 years.

I'm not trying to knock on He-Man, I'm impressed by the fandom and that despite the 80s writing it still managed to sneak in lore for fans to love and develop. The 10 episode best of dvd just didn't do it for me so I never checked out more episodes, I didn't say she-ra was better, just that I watched it, I'm sure it was the same quality.

Still I think making He-Man cool again is a tough, tougher than say Power Rangers which also has a hard time despite nostalgia of power rangers being a thing / cool now. And I don't think a show that only appeals to certain fandom no matter how loyal can succeed. Still I wish it the best and I'm sure at one point in my life I will dwell into He-Man just to check it out.

I agree with you, coming at He-man cold, beyond the impressionable age of 5, it’s going to look stupid. I do think you’re underestimating the power of He-man, and indoctrination.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Masters of the Universe is much a product of Star Wars, that debuted in May 1977. Post-Star Wars, we also got fiction like.

Alien and Metroid

Asteroids and Space Invaders

Blackstar (and later, Masters of the Universe)

James Bond Moonraker

Some of the science fiction stuff in TMNT (even if TMNT also has borrowed a lot from Star Trek)

The list can be much longer. But it only shows how influencing and inspirational Star Wars was, spawning hundreds of trillions of cartoons, comics, films, books and video games. Some of them hard science fiction, other science fiction, and some more science fantasy.

[cammy85]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

To be fair, I never super got into He-Man. I remember casually watching a few and mostly digging it. My generation, as kids, I kind of became aware of it when there became a kind of a stigma about it. And then it sort of went away anyway.

Like, "Eww... you like He-Man? That's gay!" on the playground.

https://youtu.be/Kv_-KOdM6Wk

[ZariusTwo]

Some bad new for the community, the fan-produced episode "Return of Faker" has been given a cease and desist by NBCUniversal and cannot be screened or released

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Wv8S9Awuj/

[Voltron]

Wait, is the Teela thing true? Why not just name the show Teela, then?

Also, trying to put a more feminine emphasis on a show called He-Man is pretty stupid.

[AT-Man]

Originally Posted by Voltron

Wait, is the Teela thing true? Why not just name the show Teela, then?

Also, trying to put a more feminine emphasis on a show called He-Man is pretty stupid.

If it's called Masters of the Universe: Revelation, then it could technically be about any of them.

[Voltron]

That's a good point. Though it's a bit disappointing.

[TommyT]

If they continue the series, and it LOOKS like Filmation He-man, and has the vibe, like what James Eaton was doing with his Faker episode, it will be awesome.

If it looks like current animated shows, with simple designs and a weird CG hybrid look (Godzilla on Netflix) it will suck.

If it has any Kevin Smith isms in it, it will SUPER suck. The important thing is to make sure they go full out. If it’s Filmation He-man, then do that. If not, don’t pay lip service. Nithing worse than half measures.

[newfan]

I don't remember the last episode of the old show, I did watch a couple of eps when I noticed it on Neftix but they have taken it off since.

As for He-Man being the centric/main character, I'd hope he is, it is a continuation of the old show after all. Might just have some extra character arc focus?

I also didn't realise this was going to be Anime, or so I have seen on social media.?

[Andrew NDB]

Kind of sounds like TPTB decided on a "the future is female" route (which is not something new, and they were not unclear about their stance by leading with She-Ra which was not as popular in its time), went before the committee, the committee said "you know what would be totally contrary to mask our agenda? We hire Kevin Smith to do this!" And now Kevin Smith has to figure out some fu**ing way to make this not seem like what it obviously is.