Masters of the Universe (The Live Action Motion Picture) DVD Review

Masters of the Universe
2009, Warner Home Video
Original Release: 1987, Cannon Films

Special Features
Feature-Length Commentary by Director Gary Goddard
Theatrical Trailer

Do you remember walking through the movie theater in 1987 and seeing this…

?

I do! YES! A live-action version of Masters of the Universe! But wait… That’s gotta be He-Man but why does he look like he belongs in a Mad Max movie? Why is he holding an assault rifle ?! Why is the gun more prominent than the Power Sword ?!

Yes, I remember seeing that poster and instantly feeling a mix of joy and doom. I was extremely happy that a live-action He-Man movie was coming but just by the teaser poster alone I already was not liking how they were going to be portraying the world of Eternia. Oh yeah… Eternia. Didn’t really feature as much in the movie as we He-Man fans would’ve wanted, did it?

That is probably my one biggest gripe about the movie — how can you have the very first Masters of the Universe movie and then not set the entire film on Eternia? Granted, the movie is a goofy cheesy ’80s movie no matter what but taking the majority of the film to Earth in the year of 1987  extremely dates the film and isn’t what people wanted to see. Maybe something like that could’ve been done for a sequel but for the initial MOTU film? Nah. Keep it on Eternia.

Given that Cannon Films was usually very budget conscious, my theory is that they built the bare minimum set pieces that they could for Eternia (basically Gwildor’s hut and Skeletor’s throne room) and then filmed on location in Los Angeles because it was cheaper to do that than having to build even more set pieces. So that’s why we ended up with the story of He-Man & Co. ending up on Earth. To be fair though, I think this movie was probably had one of Cannon’s biggest budgets. Wikipedia states $22 million but in the director commentary Gary Goddard states they had a $17 million budget at a time when most movies had $6-8 million budgets.

 As you can see from of the artwork, they were really going for a Star Wars vibe right down to getting Drew Struzan to do the artwork. Great artwork though and it does a great job of making the movie look amazing. Even Skeletor’s soldiers (something he didn’t have in the cartoon) look like Storm Troopers except their armor is black and their helmets appear to be that of Imperial Gunners.

Anyway, Eternia issues aside, it would’ve been nice to also see a bit more character depth. I guess the writers & producers just assumed anyone coming to see this movie already knew the backstory so we get thrown right into the middle of the action. That’s commendable on some levels because I know many fans of geek culture groan over “origin” movies but it still would have been really nice to see a live-action transformation of Prince Adam to He-Man. There is no mention of Prince Adam at all in this movie.

Even the Power Sword receives very little recognition in the film. He-Man seems to prefer using laser blasters. He holds it up one time towards the end of the film to yell “I HAVE THE POWER” but it’s too little too late and the moment is glossed over. The He-Man/Skeletor sword fight is pretty brief and lame compared to what Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader had done. In the movie’s defense, director Gary Goddard does that that due to time restrictions the final battle was not staged the way he wanted it and some portions of the throne room set went unused.

Another weird quirk is the absence of the typical MOTU villains. Sure, we have Skeletor, Evil-Lyn and Beastman but what about Tri-Klops, Merman or Trap-Jaw? The movie introduces some new villains: Blade (who almost seems like a stand-in for Tri-Klops), Saurod (a reptilian creature that reminds me of the Goombas from the Super Mario movie) and Karg (who reminds me of the late Ronnie James Dio). None of those three characters were ever on the TV show, which was canceled by this time anyway, but Blade & Saurod were given action figures.

On the Heroic Warriors side, I think they did pretty well: He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela and a captive Sorceress. They could’ve expanded upon that if there was a sequel and added Mekaneck, Stratos, Man-E-Faces, Ram Man, Buzz-Off and/or Orko. Speaking of Orko, even as a kid, I  always assumed Gwildor was meant to be his replacement in the movie. Upon listening to Goddard’s commentary, he confirms that by saying it would’ve been too financially & technically difficult to put Orko in the movie. So, they replaced a magician that always screws up and is played for humor with an inventor that always screws up and is played for humor.

Ultimately, the film was not a critical or financial success. Released in August 1987 (and I remember seeing it in Fort Walton Beach, Florida on opening weekend while visiting my grandparents), it made only $17 million total. Had it been released a year or two earlier (remember, the show had been canceled in 1985 and the toy line had been losing steam as well since it had no show to help promote it) and had it stayed more faithful to the fantasy-based cartoon/toy line rather than going in a sci-fi direction (that was inspired by Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” comics from DC Comics) it probably would’ve done better.

Even though the movie kinda broke even or maybe even lost a few million for Cannon, a sequel was written and planned. Unfortunately, Cannon ran into financial troubles in 1989 and could no longer afford the MOTU license. The sequel’s script would later go on to be re-worked into Cyborg starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and when that movie was played on television it was sometimes retitled Masters of the Universe 2: Cyborg.

I think Masters of the Universe is a fun cheesy ’80s fantasy/adventure. It almost seems forgotten but I think it’s a real cult classic. Dolph Lundgren was a great voice (visually at least) for He-Man and Courtney Cox is cute as a button in her first movie role and plays her part well.

With plans for a new MOTU on the way, I’m sure a small spotlight will get thrown back on this movie in the next few years. I think the movie has been released on DVD twice. Once in 2001 through Warner Home Video but it was in a snap case. I made sure to order the 2009 edition because it features the standard DVD keep case which I prefer over the snap case that Warner Bros. well hell-bent on using for a number of years. Both editions have the same special features. My particular copy was made for distribution in U.S. & Canada so that’s why you see the film’s title in French on the cover.

I’m truly surprised they even bothered giving the movie a director’s commentary. You’d think something like would would’ve been made bare bones and then thrown into the $5 bin at Walmart. I usually never listen to commentaries but for this movie, I felt like trying it and enjoyed it.

Either DVD edition can be found for $6-8 and it’s well worth picking up for all He-Man fans. Sure, it’s not the MOTU we wanted to see but it’s a lot better than New Adventures of He-Man that’s for sure!

Buy the movie!

Masters of the Universe: The Evil Horde Fright Zone

Certainly a topic worthy of Halloweentime discussion is the Evil Horde Fright Zone play set from the Masters of the Universe line of toys. It’s a trap-filled stronghold of terror, you know. This was an extremely cool play set. Everybody wanted it but I was one of the kids that never got it. As usual, the neighbors down the street had it (along with the U.S.S. Flag Aircraft Carrier!). They seemed to get all the cool vehicles and play sets while I was left with about a fourth of the figures they had and my own imagination. I swear, every year I flipped through that phone book thick Sears holiday catalog, circled all the toys I wanted, show it off to my parents and was lucky to get one or two of those items! And it was never the “big stuff”!

Just look at this thing! I mean, it’s called the Fright Zone for crying out loud, so yeah, it’s pretty creepy and awesome. The Horde always kinda creeped me out anyway. Skeletor and his troops were bad yet goofballs but Hordak and the rest of the Horde came off as just pure evil. Hordak is an absolutely sinister looking toy. The Evil Horde was way weirder, freakier and scarier than any of the Evil Warriors.

I love the creepy, dying tree with the vultures sitting on the branches. The giant snake is just great too. Such an awesome idea that they basically made it a hand puppet for you or one of your friends to operate. Notice in the promo art below and the box art about that Skeletor is being made Hordak’s bitch. First he’s having to fight off a wicked tree and then he’s locked away in a cave! Poor Skeletor. 

Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man Video Game

Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man is a video game published in 1983 by Mattel Electronics for Intellivision and Atari 2600. It is the first MOTU video game ever produced. While we’re on the subject — CAN I PLEASE GET A NEW MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE VIDEO GAME ?!?!?! Can you imagine a He-Man game done God of War-style?

Anyway, from what I’ve seen and played, He-Man games are pretty bad. And I don’t mean “bad” in the urban slang manner. I mean bad as in lame. This one definitely appears to be no different, thus keeping the bar low for all MOTU games to follow.

The object of the game is to reach Castle Grayskull and ultimately defeat Skeletor. It’s part side-scrolling shooter as you’re cruising in the Wind Raider  fighting off fireballs and dropping bombs on Skeletor’s head (BTW – Skeletor is crazy fast to be keeping up with the Wind Raier on these levels). The second part of the game, I don’t know what you’d call it, but you try to make your way to the right side of the screen as Skeletor allegedly throws lighting bolts at you (personally, I think they look like spinning octopi). Once you reach Skeletor, you engaged in a comical sword fight.

What I'd really like to see is that comic book that was packaged inside.

Despite how mediocre the game is, if I owned an Atari 2600 or Intellivision this would be a cool collector’s item to have. But even then, I couldn’t bring myself to spend $75 on a “new & sealed” copy like the one that is being offered on eBay.

If you ever wanted to watch 15 minutes of Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man gameplay on Intellivision, you’re in luck:

He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special DVD Review

He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special (2005, BCI Eclipse)
Original Release: 1985, Television Special
45 minutes

BCI’s collection of the original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power and The New Adventures of He-Man were obviously labors of love. From the special features, to the collectible art cards, to the packaging and menu design everything was done perfectly. These releases are shining examples of and should be the template for any animated release.

As the distributor was just starting to release the original MOTU show in 2005, just two months after the release of Season 1, Volume 1 BCI fulfilled the dreams of every He-Man fan everywhere by giving us He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special on the special’s 20th anniversary. It had been released on VHS back in the ’80s, but this was the first ever DVD release.

To be honest, it took me awhile to warm up to He-Man when it came to DVD. I bought S1V1, but wasn’t yet drawn back into it for whatever reason (my rediscovered obsession would start in 2006), so the release of this Christmas special totally slipped by me. It wasn’t until a year or so later that I remembered this special and started longing for a DVD release… only to find out it was already on DVD!

Though I remembered that it existed, I wasn’t aware of any of the details of it, so when I watched it a few years ago, it was like watching it for the first time all over again.

With a shimmering title screen like this, you just knew this was going to be awesome.

The cast of characters is really cool. Obviously, you’ve got He-Man and you’ve got She-Ra in all of their transformation montage glory, and of course Skeletor and Hordak tag along, but with this special being released in 1985 just as the original He-Man show had ceased production, we get tons of appearances by later MOTU characters like Webstor, Rattlor, Spikor, Two-Bad, Moss Man, Snout Spout and Sy-Klone. Some of those characters never made it onto the MOTU show before cancellation, having to settle for appearances on She-Ra, but they were released as Masters of the Universe figures.

I won’t get into the plot (basically, it’s an adventure triggered by another Orko screw-up but on a larger than usual scale), you can find that elsewhere or better yet, go watch the DVD yourself but suffice to say this is an awesome He-Man special and it’s an awesome Christmas special. It’s really great to see both shows and their characters interacting  and my favorite thing about this special is when the Spirit of Christmas begins wearing off on Skeletor and he find himself in the role of hero for once. Hey, it’s the holidays — even Skeletor has to get mushy hearted sometimes! Skeletor is one of the greatest cartoon characters every created in my opinion thanks to the character’s ability to flow so freely from evil to comedy to the rare kind-hearted act without any of it ever seeming out of character.

If you’re a fan of He-Man and/or She-Ra and you haven’t seen this special yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. It’s a great Christmas special all wrapped up in a perfectly BCI-designed bow.

Special Features:

We get the standard (i.e. “excellent”) assortment BCI extras: TWO new documentaries, two 4×6 art cards, a few video clips, character profiles, fun facts and a PDF file of the show’s script.

I Heart Robots: 1980s Edition, Vol. 2

Seems like it was only five days ago that I talked about ’80s ‘bots… Let’s do it again.

Alphie II

Alphie II I’ve touched up on before, but he still deserves a mention here. He’s a learning robot! As you probably could tell, he’s not the first version of Alphie, but he’s the coolest version.

Horde Trooper

Another Masters of the Universe character/toy. Horde Troopers were awesome and the grunts for Hordak and his Evil Horde. If you don’t believe they were awesome, just check the listings on eBay. It’s not uncommon to see one of these going for around $100. I never owned one, I remember playing with one. Hm… I should try to remember what childhood friend that was and ask if he’d be willing to sell! The toys were marketed as part of the “Masters of the Universe” line, but when it came it came to animation, they were stuck on She-Ra: Princess of Power because the planned third season of Masters of the Universe was canceled in favor of starting up that new franchise.