Review(s): DVD The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (10 Episode Collector's Edition)
Stand up and be exploited again!!!
When I was four years old I was totally in love with He-man. I had He-Man bedsheets, He-Man curtains, He-Man action figures, He-Man play sets, a plastic He-Man sword... you get the idea.
The one thing I didn't have was any He-Man videos, and believe me, I would have bought them. The world loved He-Man, but the world has a short attention span, and gradually He-Man began to age.
But you know how this story ends. Mattel, after 20 years, has finally decided to release He-Man on DVD, just as they are now releasing every TV show you have ever heard of (and some you haven't). I stared, slack-jawed, upon the box labeled "The Best of He-Man". It was the ten best episodes. I knew at once, I had to have it.
Actually, I come to find out, He-Man was fairly revolutionary. It was the first five-day a week children's cartoon, and it was also the first such show run by a toy company. It was perhaps the most genius marketing idea I've ever heard of; design the toys, and then make up a TV series around them. It was little better than having a half-hour long commercial for toys.
But, you see, it worked. I didn't know this at the time; I didn't even know the company that had brought you Barbie was trying to get away with doing something for the boys, which might have crushed me when I was four. I just wanted He-Man.
And now, Matel returns with a possibly even greater genius move. The release of these DVD's was tactful. They knew they had to wait a long time for the generation they had once exploited to stand up and ask to be exploited again, but this time it was even easier. Every Master of the Universe, every single one of us, no longer had to beg our parents to buy us He-Man. Like myself, every single one of us woke up one day to find He-Man staring us in the face, and we remembered what was missing in our lives.
I'm not saying it's perfect. The character's lips never match their voices, and watching Battle Cat roar is downright laughable. Considering this was probably the best they could do in the early 80's, I'm impressed. But the soundtrack, I have to admit, is pretty cool, and that's something I couldn't have appreciated back then.
Nor would I have recognized the subdued incestuous themes when Teela hints at her attraction to He-Man, even though Prince Adam is like a brother to her.
That's not her fault, though. The series also plays host to the classic superman error, where He-Man wears nothing to conceal his identity, and yet his own parents and sister seem unable to recognize him. In fact, all holding the sword over his head really does is give him less clothes.
Which isn't to say their weren't some very mature themes. In one episode, Prince Adam undergoes an identity crisis when he thinks his father likes He-Man better than him. The 60-second moral at the end of that one is that parents sometimes forget to tell their children they love them, but that really deep down they do. That's a lesson we needed then as much then as 20 years later.
In the episode where they need to convince Skeletor to help them fight the evil Dark Seed (who appears to have a bustle sprout for a head), Skeletor continually cries "don't you ever get tired of being a hero. Don't you ever feel like doing something evil." It's totally ridiculous, and yet when he finally lifts his staff to help explode the giant ice ball, everyone cheers anyway.
It's also funny to watch the series creators speak in deadpan about it, as though it were the most serious thing in the world. And yet, I don't blame them. I was a series creator too, or at least I was part of what made the series work. The fans were what it was all about, and the fans are what it is still about now.
And for just a half-hour, I felt like a Master of the Universe again.
Nostalgia at its best
I grew up in the '80s and one of my most favorite aspect of the '80s was the cartoon shows I watched. One of my favorite shows was "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe". For some time now I have been hoping for the show to come out on dvd, and it finally is (next month for the entire first season). Until the first season comes out, "The Best of He-Man and the Masters fo the Universe" will have to do. "The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" is a best of collection from the show's first two seasons. Both discs contains a countain of the top five episodes from seasons 1 & 2.
From season 1, I have to say that "Evilseed" is my favorite. Evilseed is this cabbage-looking villain who tries to take over Eternia with his evil plants, forcing He-Man and Skeletor to join forces. One of my favorite scenes was when Skeletor was forced to join forces with his most hated enemy, He-Man. His lines were hilarious although overdramatic. I also liked the episode "Prince Adam No More" when Prince Adam tries to prove himself to his father King Randor.
On disc 2, I loved the story behind the Sorceress on "The Origin of the Sorceress". The only problem is how it didn't really mesh with her story from season 1 involving Teela called "Teela's Quest". It made no sense. I think the writers totally forgot about what happened in "Teela's Quest". Another great episode from season 2 is "To Save Skeletor" when He-Man has to clean the mess of what Skeletor made by bringing in a monster beyond his control into Eternia. Again this forces both He-Man and Skeletor to join forces. My personal favorite episode from this season is "The Problem with Power" where Skeletor tricks He-Man thinking that he was responsible for the plight of an innocent.
Watching this best of collection brought back vivid memories of my love for this show. The dialogue is really over the top and hilarious. The animation may be out dated by some people's standards. All in all, I still love this show and I can't wait to get the first season on dvd.
All Nostalgia
You're right when you say that the animation sucks and that the acting was sub par, but if you're like me, He-man was a major part of my childhood and watching these episodes makes feel 8 years old all over again.Alot of these cartoons on dvd are all about the nostalgia, and taking us to an age where things were much easier.I loved he-man.I have still have a ton of figures stashed away.And I feel if you watched he-man at all you will like this 2 disc set.
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