He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a show that sparked a small yet passionate fandom amongst kids that lasts to this day. Heck, plenty who were not kids at the time it first hit airwaves are into it based on re-issues of toys and attempted reboots of the property on television.
I began this expecting a large selection yet found only two in comparison to other more niche works of fiction. Maybe it was something I was doing my results were limited to two. Strange all things considered. Even so take a look at these offerings.
Enjoy!
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Fall of Grayskull
- Directed by Daniel Benedict
- September 26, 2015
He-Man and Skeletor battle for control of Castle Grayskull.
The first thing that jumped out at me was on the surface it feels a touch reminiscent of what Kevin Smith recently did with his reboot. Or rather the other way around. Admittedly what Smith did was over several episodes but there seemed to be a lot of elements in this film that can be found in the later series. Castle Grayskull falls. The Sorceress passes the torch. He-Man gets killed. And there’s a romance between He-Man (Brian Cage) and Teela (Mercedez Varble) implied at the end though in the later series it was Teela as the Sorcerous and Prince Adam.
The story isn’t bad. As I said it has a lot in common with the later Kevin Smith series but it’s a better execution of the idea. It doesn’t stretch what should be a two or three episode plot into an entire season. It gets to the point.
For the most part the costumes are pretty good. He-Man, Tri-Klops (Johnny Bilson), the Sorceress (Lindsey Mebche) all look good. They even reach into the broader MOTU lore and pull-out Shadow Weaver (Louisa Torres) though was a She-Ra villain yet they exist in the same universe. Shadow Weaver looks absolutely amazing.
Where they fail in the costumes is largely with Teela’s. It’s just a generic warrior woman costume. I swear the headpiece on Evil-Lynn actress Alexandria Hendrick was made in part from one of those crappy spiderweb decorations you can find at all your finer Dollar General/Dollar Tree stores.
Then there’s another issue. The sets. Or rather lack thereof. We have props and pretty good costumes for the most part but no sets. Everything occurs in front of some graphics of rather questionable quality. They are not bad but they were clearly not real and if you’re going to go with virtual sets they need to look realistic. In that the creator reached a bit beyond his grasp.
He gets the tone of the Filmation series nearly right. There is a dark moment but overall it works very much like the Filmation show did. The gentleman behind this was clearly a fan of the original show.
Despite reaching beyond its grasp Fall of Grayskull is not a bad fan filled. I will give this an if you want only because it needed a better budget and that lack of funding does take you a bit out of the film.
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Teela and the Masters of the Universe
- Written and Directed by Jonathan Martin
- January 11, 2023
Teela protects the Sword of Power from three wanderers in the wastes of Eternia.
Teela and the Masters of the Universe is a short film created by the actress playing Teela (Emily Ashby) as a means of auditioning for a possible MOTU film. While the costumes are fantastic, her acting is minimal and less than stellar.
As an action focused short, this is great. It is a great sequence that gets you pumped. In its execution there is something very 80s era about it. I am left thinking they got their inspiration from the MOTU movie of the time. A guilty pleasure of a Cult Classic.
This is extremely well produced in appearance. From start to finish it looks very professional. Aside from Teela, all other characters we get are original. What I liked were that their names shown in the credits felt like they came right from the MOTU. Bronan. Chain Male. Great names!
There is not much (if any) story here which is a bit unfortunate. With all this quality it is a shame she did not do something more than here. Not that it makes this a bad watch. I just wanted more.
Teela and the Masters of the Universe is a good looking bit of action that will satisfy MOTU fans.
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Despite wanting more choices, I was pleased with what I found. I was taken back to my childhood and would view the two again.
Warren Watched A Movie 