He-Man & The Masters of the Universe Filmation Episode 1 - The Cosmic Comet
By: Karl Stern (@dragonkingkarl, @wiwcool, karl@whenitwascool.com)
Some things hold up well and some... are like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe by Filmation. Video embedding for this video has been disabled by YouTube but here is the link to the video- https://youtu.be/GPPqDUDzsek?list=ELXbg5l6hICbE
In case you didn't know, the He-Man cartoon is a vast departure from the sword and sorcery of the mini-comics included with the early He-Man action figures. So, kids who bought the figures went in expecting this-
But instead got this-
Yeah, not exactly what we were expecting. Also, for reasons unknown, Man-At-Arms had a sweet mustache.
The first episode of the regular series was entitled "The Cosmic Comet" and it was as trippy as the name implied. The episode first aired on September 30, 1983. The action figures had been available for many months prior to that.
In less than two minutes after the opening credits, He-Man had already definitively kicked the ass of both Beastman and Evil-Lyn. So, congratulations if you had those worthless figures. They were rendered useless before the first commercial break.
The animation is terrible and the dialogue is beyond ridiculous. We also get introduced the absolute worst sidekick in the history of cartoons- Dorko... I mean Orko, the blundering, hat-wearing, sack of eyes, that floats around in the way during most of these episodes.
No.
The plot, what little there is, is pretty terrible. A magic comet comes to Eternia. A bumbling old magician helps the heroes in the end and He-Man and Skeletor never fight. I don't know what more to say.
The Filmation He-Man and the Master of the Universe series was terrible from start to finish. It contained none of the elements that made the toys so cool. It was basically a poor version of Scooby-Doo but with shirtless men and swords. Not the cool Scooby-Doo era either, the terrible Scrappy-Doo era with Orko playing the part of Scrappy. Just try to watch an entire episode, I dare you. How the toy line ever survived this nightmare, I have no idea.
There's a lot going on in this picture- clockwise: bad die job old man, where's his thumbs? bondage gear, where's his nipples? amazing haircut. the end.
