So I watched the He-Man thing. Five episodes, half-hour each, easy binge. I gotta say, I thought it was fun.
Now, full disclosure, my prior MOTU experience is limited to 4 Non Blondes and Beast-Man AIDS, so I’m not going in with any huge nostalgia-driven expectations. But they got me to care about a bunch of ridiculous-looking action figures, so they must have done something right. Plenty of action. Plenty of adventure. Just enough ‘80s cheese in the flashbacks to emphasize the contrast with the grimdark present. Just enough exposition to keep noobs like myself apprised of the mythos. And they got Dennis Haysbert as Grayskull, which is an automatic 50 bonus points. That man’s voice is like buttah.
Not to say it was perfect. Mark Hamill’s Skeletor is a bit too much like Mark Hamill’s Joker. He’s a fine VA, but for this role I think he needed to be stronger, more intimidating. Just wasn’t feeling it. And the characters never really seemed to cotton to the whole “if we don’t reforge the Sword of Power, EVERYTHING DIES” plot point. Now this happens all the time in stories with WORLD-SHATTERING COSMIC STAKES, but it’s still annoying. I know you want your subplots and your drama, but… priorities, people.