“I have the power!” had to be what Kevin Smith said to himself after Mattel approached him to meet for a collaboration with Netflix to write Masters of the Universe: Revelation, the latest animated series in the MOTU franchise.
Smith, along with Powerhouse Animation’s Adam Conarroe and Patrick Stannard (Netflix’s Castlevania), released a five-episode season one featuring some of Hollywood’s top talent for voice acting, including Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), and Tony Todd (Candyman).
Much like season one of Castlevania, I really enjoyed the direction of the first season’s story, though I immediately wanted more when it was finished. The episodes go by fast (about 25 minutes each), and the season ends in a cliffhanger. However, Revelation did an excellent job exploring the world of Eternia and many of its characters and their backstories, rather than relying on just He-Man or Skeletor for one-off story episodes.
It may be a little hard for “die-hard” Masters of the Universe fans to swallow that the main storyline centers more around Teela rather than He-Man (though he is in every episode). Still, I’ve seen the He-Man storyline multiple times by this point in the franchise. It was a breath of fresh air to get some real emotion and backstory by spotlighting characters like Teela, Roboto, Orko, and Evil-Lyn, a role Lena Headey was born to play in both animation and real life.
The animation is top-notch. More goofy and lanky-looking artwork was used for characters like Adam and Cringer, making their transformations into He-Man and Battle Cat look even more spectacular and dissonant. Similar styles were done even at the emotional level. For example, in a scene when Orko is down on himself with no self-confidence, his shoulders are slumped, his head is down, and he looks weak. When gaining the confidence needed to fight for his life, his animation was proud, strong, and defiant. I absolutely loved even the most subtle differences in the animation. The brightly-colored and smooth fight scenes were brilliantly done as well.
Each episode felt thematically different and sort of centered around its own portion of the overarching story involving Teela’s journey. Much in the way of old Masters of the Universe episodes, defeating a specific villain was the focus on the way to achieving passage to the next path, whether it be the classic Skeletor (Mark Hamill), Tri-Klops (Henry Rollins) and his technology cult, or the particularly frightening Scare Glow (Tony Todd) in Subternia (hell), which was the highlight of the season for me.
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I really can’t stress how much fun I had with the voice acting. Alan Oppenheimer, the original voice of Skeletor, returned to voice Moss Man for a few episodes, and even Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman in Batman: The Animated Series, reunited with Hamill (who played Joker) as another MOTU baddie, Mer-Man.
I was always a He-Man fan. I played with the toys, read the little comics that came with them, watched the cartoons, and still love the Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella-helmed films from the ’80s. I never really had the emotional attachment with MOTU that I had with some other ’80s cartoon franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Transformers, and maybe that’s why He-Man taking a side seat for other characters is really not a problem for me.
Being able to ingest these characters’ emotions and backstories as an adult in a less dated format is better for the franchise. I had no issues with the series. Kudos to Kevin Smith and the team. I can’t wait for season two.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation is now streaming on Netflix.
