Apon starting a rewatch of Kevin Smith's He-Man series, Masters of the Universe Revalation, I couldn't help but be reminded of the more the recent Netflix series, Scott Pilgrim: Takes Off. Much like the afformentioned series based off of the The Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series, Revalation sees its main chracter, He-Man supposedly killed off in the first episode, leaving him off the board so to speak for most of part 1's run time. This caused many fans to call the first part of the show a bait and swtich by killing off He-Man and essentially turning into a show about Sarah Michelle Gellar's Teela.
Internet drama aside, Masters of the Universe Revealation is beautiful animated -- and is on par like more recent Netflix animated offerings like Castlevania. Its opening battle sequence is dripping with nostolgia with plenty of "holy crap I had that toy" moments as chracters like Moss Man, Man E Faces and Man and Arms help He-Man defend against Skelator's latest attempt to raid Castle Gray Skull. Mark Hamill's delivery of old skelly is pitch-perfect; simoatinously sinister and comically irritated by how many times he has lost the fight against He-Man. He's just as much the chracter from the original 1980s show as he from the famous memes weve all seen. The first episode even includes a clever reference to the 1990 live-action film.
The ploy to attack the castle interupts the crowning of Teela as new Royal Captain of the Guard, "The new Man At Arms." Teela's father, the original Man At Arms, is all too happy to see her daughter recieve the high honor. Turns out that the "Revealation" is that there is a powerful magial orb underneath Castle Gray Skill, which is not only the source of all magic in Eternia, but maybe the whole universe. The orb in question in damaged in the battle -- causing Prince Adam to transform into He-Man in front of Teela (who coneventily seems to be the only hero in the inner cirlce unaware of his secret identity). Adam and Skelator are seemingly killed when the orb is destroyed.
Teela is understandbly hurt by being kept out of the loop, although she seems more upset that she was lied to than the fact that her supposed best friend is now dead. She denounces her connection to the Royal Family and leaves everything behind. The next arc sees Teela alongside techno-genius Andra as they find them selves as mercenaries for hire. A job leads them to a still alive Evil-Lynn -- who is intent on restoring magic to Eternia.
Other reviews and pieces from media outlets seemed to indicate that the show was settng up a same sex romance between Andra and Teela. The storyline told in part one seems to indicate otherwise. Not only do plot elements heavily imply that Teela has long carried a torch for He-Man, but there isnt anything to suggest that Andra has a romantic interest in Teela. Lena Heady's Evil Lyn warns Teela of the dangers for falling for "dangerous men." Part One is also peppered with some entertaining flashback scenes of He-Man fighting alongside Teela, with Chris Wood's hilariously overly cheesy one liners being a highlight.
With all the magic in the planet slowly dying it leaves our heroes with one choice -- form an uneasy alliance with Evil Lynn, which inlcudes a slowly depoured Orko. The short wizard has much more depth in this interpatation, giving the show a layer of warmth and compassion to counter balance the angst. In order to restore magic, and save the dying Sorcorcess our would-be heroes much find the two half of the fractured Sword of Power.
The final leg of part one sends our heroes on a plot straight out of the video game -- travel to mysical realms to find the two halves of the sword reforging it and fix the orb. The team finds Prince Adam is Eternia's version of Valhalla -- choosing to stay as Prince Adam instead of staying in his He-Man form. Our heroes succeeed only to be dashed by Skelator who was hiding in plain sight and he claims the sword of power for himself.
Masters of the Unverse: Revealation is great glimpse into the He-Man Universe. Part One is bogged down by a bad pacing, and internet drama that was based in large part on assumptions made by the audience. Kevin Smith did a poor job of playing with exspectations, and splitting this show in two parts did it no favors. De-powering He-Man was a great idea... but a Prince Adam who still wanted to fight against evil would of been way more interesting than the disjointed story that is presetned here.
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