He-Man?

[GoufCustom]

Why such hate for He-Man? I thought the art, plot, writing, and direction is a MILLION times BETTER than the original. There were a little cheesy parts, but overall I thought it was still good.

[Killtacular]

A million times zero is still zero.

[j32885]

I thought It was a heck of a lot better than Transformers: Armada.

[RogueMartian]

Originally posted by Matt Wilson
A million times zero is still zero.

LOL! How true, I'd agree too. The remake of He-man is better, but I wasn't impressed with it, I hope it gets better or removed.

[JTurner954]

I had no problem with either HeMan or Armada, although I liked Armada more for some references from the original.

The thing is I kept an open mind (with every show and movie) without trying to refer to the originals, (especially Armada since it's NOT a remake), enjoying the show on its own, and I ended up enjoying them both.

I believe that the general amount of people on the internet nitpick since they are more informed than the average person on the animation groups and voice actors and other things (like inaccuracies) then compare it to other things. It just all comes down to differing opinions and the kind of style an individual likes.

[bfmusashi]

He-Man was decent enough, and yes, it was better than the original. I'm going to excuse the slightly bland characters and plot for the moment, since I've only seen an introductory movie, and things still have the possibility to get better. The series still has lots of potential, I will say, and could become quite good if that potential is properly carried out. But then again, we'll just have to wait and see.

[Gary L Thompson]

After watching the movie, I'd say this version is at least true to the essentials of the original series, which was not the case with the 1990 fiasco of the Primus series. What's truly amazing is so many of the character relationships remain intact. Teela is still very much Daddy's girl and the strong captain of the royal guard, Man-of-Arms is still the wise veteran soldier and a wee bit at odds with the comic relief Orko, Prince Adam is still the despair of his father but not so much his mother (I believe someone objected on this board that she didn't look like an Earth girl, but then she didn't in the original series either, it was only in flashbacks that her astronaut origins were revealed), and Cringer still lives up to his name. The supporting players to He-Man and Skeletor were vaguely familar, so I can't say if there were any brand new players in the two opposing forces (Evolyn I remember very well, clearly she will still play the Wicked Witch of the West role in Skeletor's camp).

The biggest difference between the two versions, of course, is that Filmation never was able to do this kind of full animation in any of its shows (only in its three movies did Filmation get beyond its primative limited animation: "He-Man and the Secret of the Sword," "Pinnochio and the Emperor of the Night," and "Happily Ever After"--and I'd say only the middle film really featured anything close to the action we saw in this new He-Man special). I suspect that was one reason they decided to give Teela a pony tail, rather than bind up her hair as in the Filmation version. Of course with their animation style it would be much easier to flow it dramatically. If their purpose was to show the original He-Man as he would be without Filmation's animated limitations, I'd say they didn't miss the target by much.

However, in the end, the old excitement of Adam's transformation and rushing to the rescue just wasn't there, and it's fairly obvious why--the musical score just doesn't do its job. I think a large part of Filmation's years of success was due to its musical scoring, overall the best in the business in those years, helping to hide its weaknesses in other areas. The special may have had a dramatic orchestral score, but it was too generic, nothing in the way that would continually run in the audience's minds and become identified as He-Man's own. I think they would have been much better off to acquire the rights to Filmation's original score (nothing to say they couldn't have riffed it up considerably for the new show).

There were a couple minor changes. Many Faces was presented as an ally to the throne from the beginning, instead of being originally a bit of an outlaw who was reformed by He-Man (frankly, I've always felt the character was silly, a outwardly-villianous character that turned out surprisingly to be a fast friend of our hero was a good idea by Mattel, but their design just didn't work). The second change has a lot more serious implications. Skeletor was presented as confronting He-Man for the first time. In the original this wasn't the case, he actually battled the kingdom when Prince Adam was still an infant, as a stooge to an evil overlord, who Skeletor ended up betraying to save his own skin. Does that mean no She-Ra is contemplated this time? That would be a shame, because unlike in the original series, it would have been possible to foreshadow Adam's sister this time (frankly, the closing episodes of She-Ra were taking far more interesting directions than He-Man was taking, and it would be nice if someone could press them to their ultimate conclusion).

[David64ca]

So far, I thought the new He-Man was pretty good, but I still think the original show is better. But I think the new show will get better. All we saw was the first 3 episodes. It was just introducing the charecters. Now that we know which charecters are in and what they look like, they can get to the good episodes.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Gary L Thompson
Skeletor was presented as confronting He-Man for the first time. In the original this wasn't the case, he actually battled the kingdom when Prince Adam was still an infant, as a stooge to an evil overlord, who Skeletor ended up betraying to save his own skin. Does that mean no She-Ra is contemplated this time? That would be a shame, because unlike in the original series, it would have been possible to foreshadow Adam's sister this time (frankly, the closing episodes of She-Ra were taking far more interesting directions than He-Man was taking, and it would be nice if someone could press them to their ultimate conclusion).

Actually, Keldor, aka Skeltor was presented as going up against the rulers of Eternia and was fighting against the king most of the movie. They didn't go that in depth into Skeletor's origin to leave it open to change or add anything later on in the series. Also, that part of Skeletor's origin was added in later for the She-Ra movie and series, after He-Man was ended. It's understandable they didn't add that in the new series because that would mean they would have to add in She-Ra immediately, which they weren't sure if they wanted to, and would have to factor her into the story and her part in the alternate world, Etheria.

[Gary L Thompson]

Originally posted by blackcat


Actually, Keldor, aka Skeltor was presented as going up against the rulers of Eternia and was fighting against the king most of the movie. They didn't go that in depth into Skeletor's origin to leave it open to change or add anything later on in the series. Also, that part of Skeletor's origin was added in later for the She-Ra movie and series, after He-Man was ended. It's understandable they didn't add that in the new series because that would mean they would have to add in She-Ra immediately, which they weren't sure if they wanted to, and would have to factor her into the story and her part in the alternate world, Etheria.

That's my point, there was no way for the original series to have anticipated She-Ra later on, but here was the chance to do so from the beginning. It wouldn't have hurt to make a subtle hint about it, even if they don't actually add her to the series later on.

One added note on the musical score. I watched the new Speed Racer yesterday, and its theme was exactly a riffed up version of the original! I'm pretty sure the Japanese version of the Speed Racer remake did not use the original tune, but undoubtably DIC was sensitive to the fact that the 1990s American remake caught a hail of criticism for failing to use the Speed Racer theme.

[raykremer]

Oh hey, you saw Speed Racer X too? I only turned it on because Zim was on afterwards, but it looks good. I've always avoided the original Speed Racer but it looks like the remake removed the things that made the original stupid. (i.e. the monkey and the young kid, who's still there but he's not so young and not comic relief.)

[Optimus81]

I, too, thought He-Man was very good (still not great yet, though), and this is especially obvious after watching the terrible Transformers: Armada. As for strengths/weaknesses with the original, I don't think it's fair to compare the two since they're just from different time periods, but I will say this:

I absolutely agree that you don't "feel the power" when He-Man transforms. In the original, you really felt it whe Adam became He-Man. The voice actor who played He-Man at the time sounded far more convincing, and the musical score was incredible during the sequence. Yes, I know they reused it every time, but I don't care, it struck me no matter how many times I'd seen it.

I like the new show the way it is, but right now I'd say it's a 7 out of 10. For it to be a 10 out of 10, or just plain higher, I'd say that the only weaknesses it needs to work on are the full effect of the transformation scene (yes, it is that important), with better music and better voice acting, and making the action scenes feel like they don't take up an entire episode. Yes, they were awesome, but needed to be used in accordance with the story a bit more. Other than that, I was very pleased.

I don't know what all you He-Man haters are talking about.