A Força de Grayskull: A História de He-Man e os Mestres do Universo

It's a well made and all-encompassing movie that sadly should have come out before The Toys that Made Us. You won't really learn anything here that wasn't already explored there, but it was nice to see Frank Langella and Dolph Lundgren talk about the awful live action movie.

Movies with businesses as heroes, trying valiantly to sell you things you will look at in ten years and mouth "What the fu...?" not the easiest thing in the world. Movies about making a super hokey but widely loved film, which everyone involved seemed to think that they were making Citizen Kane pt. 2? Easy, intriguing & bedding for longer than the 10 minute glossing over it gets here. When Dolph Lundgren is the voice of reason - more can only be better.

Some of the history is interesting, no doubt more so to die hard fans (who doubtless will know all of this information anyway), nothing ever grabs or emotionally involves the viewer (beyond Frank Langella's sincere pride in and love of the movie).

Well worth a watch on a Sunday evening, even if it's just for the "wait, that'd captain Kirk's mum?" moment, but not worth digging through the bargain bin for.

Being a kid of the 80's I was a huge fan of He-Man. This documentary brought a lot of rose tinted 80's clad memories flooding back.

From the inception of the Toy line through to the sad demise and disappearance of the character his documentary really does take you back

Fascinating looks at the toys the series , the movie and that god awful reimagining the new adventures of he man

Also Interesting insight into the making of the movie with interviews with dolph lundgren and frank langella and the problems that plagued the production and led to the flop of what should have been a home run

Nostalgia trip

Enjoy.

I just finished watching "Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" on Netflix, and I must say that I was adequately entertained.

Sure, as a life-long fan of MotU then there weren't all that many surprises to be experiences here. But still, there was information and bits and pieces that I was not familiar with, and it was nice to have this extended information added to the knowledge of the MotU series and toys.

The documentary offers a good insight into what made He-Man, how it was at its pinnacle, how it evolved, what happened to its after its glory days, its early 2K return and the state of affairs today. So there is a little bit of something for everyone here.

There are good insights into Filmation's creation of the animated series, the crew and people behind the figures from Mattel, and also interviews with prominent people from those places, as well as with Frank Langella and Dolph Lundgren whom both starred in the live-action movie.

Regardless if you are a newcomer to the MotU franchise or a life-long fan, then "Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" definitely was entertaining. Sure, it was not something that you would watch more than once, but still worth the time and effort to do so.

I am always interested in information, but most documentaries nowadays imply a narrator, usually some known actor or actress, who emotes in front of the camera while slowly saying boring things. Then you have whole seconds of some interviewee walking randomly on the street or stopping in front of the camera or other time wasting crap like that before you get to what is interesting. And that is if you are lucky and you don't get an outraged activist setting up scenes that would appear controversial while spouting angry and contradictory messages at you.

Not so Power of Grayskull! It is comprised almost exclusively from interviews with the people involved in the creation of He-Man and materials from the production. There is no narrator, no forced perspective, no one opinion shoved down your throat. It was amazingly refreshing. And yes, it is sad that I get so excited just because a documentary is well done and not blatantly sucking, but that's the market today, especially on Netflix.

I am sure the subject of the film is much more exciting for fans of He-Man, comic books in general or for collectors. For me it was interesting to see the history of the character, how it started and so on. Two things raised the level of the film: one is the quote that is being used in the beginning, something along the lines of "We were in the business of making things out of plastic and were completely taken aback when they sprung to life" - not an exact quote. The other one is Frank Langella's reminiscence of his role as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe. With his slightly angry, slightly bored, slightly annoyed calmness he recounted the whole thing in a few phrases that were just hilarious.

Bottom line: if you know who He-Man is or you are interested in a fascinating story of a character being organically created or you just want to see a documentary that is well done, this is the thing for you!