So, the new He-Man cartoon on CNX. Is it good, telling a good story while at the same time making us all nostalgic for the original, or is it just a big pile of elephant turd? There haven't been many re makes of 80's cartoons yet, except for a couple of attempts at new Transformers series, which I have to say, were pretty appalling. So, I was kinda sceptical about the new He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. But, I have now watched enough episodes to make a judgement. I will do so by listing the good points followed by the bad points. Good points: 1: The new looks for the characters. They have modernised, and dare I say it, improve upon the look the of characters, making everyone look very cool, while still remaining incredibly faithful to the way they looked in the original. For example, Man At Arms helmet always looked kinda stupid in the original, but with the updated look, seems pretty cool. Beastman looks pretty much the same, but is now also really rather large, which works better for the character. So the new look is actually an improvement. 2: Todays animation techniques are obviously better than they were 20 years ago, and this has worked very much in He-Man's favour. Everything about the cartoon looks incredible and moves fluidly. But just look at the locations. Most of the time, they have enough character of their own. 3: The characters really haven't changed. Everyone is pretty much what they were in the original, with only slight updates to keep up with the times. Sure, Adam and Teela are younger, but again, it just seems better. 4: Cringer/Battlecat doesn't talk anymore. This is one of the biggest differences to the original, but I prefer it this way. Having Cringer just mew like a frightened kitten, then roaring and snarling when he becomes Battlecat works better than having him talk. He seems more like what he's supposed to be now: the loyal pet. 5: The voices. Most of them sound pretty similar to the voices from the original. Skeletor particularly. The actor doing Skeletor's voice is one of the best things about this series. 6: The humour. There's some very funny moments in the new series, and I don't remember there being very many of those in the original. For example, have a look at the episode where the Masters try to defeat Skeletor once and for all by attching a device to him which hurts him whenever he say's or does anything bad. Watching Skeletor trying desperately to be nice and polite to his minions is hilarious. 7: Where else on television today are you going to find characters with such great names like Buzz-Off, Mechaneck, Man-E-Faces and Ramman? 8: It wipes away any memories of the awful Dolph Lundgren film Bad points: 1: They changed the theme tune! All right, so maybe the original theme tune just wouldn't work in this day and age, but come on! 2: He-Man doesn't hold his sword in front of him now when he say's "I have the power!". He just keeps it pointed skyward. That just seems wrong somehow. So there you go. The good points far outweigh the bad, and lets face it, how tiny and petty are thos bad points. So I say that the new He-Man is a triumph. It's at least an equal to its predecessor, if not better in some ways. Lets hope this paves the way for some decent re makes of other classics. I for one would love to see the Thundercats come back in a good cartoon, and it's about time the transformers came back in a cartoon that did justice to the fantastic originals. And lets also hope that the new He-Man goes on for long enough that they remake the Secret of the Sword movie which introduced She-Ra and we get a new She-Ra cartoon. That'd be cool.
