Grim n' Gritty or Colorful?

[Met-Hild]

I'm surprised nobody brought up the Indiana Jones trilogy yet, because when thinking about the tone of the movie, that's what I thought of first. It's not a comedy, but it's a great lot of fun and quite humorous. The threats feel real and the bad guys can be really frightening, but they aren't totally unbeatable or infallible either. The laughter and the scares are well-balanced for the most part. There's even a nice balance between realism, impossible feats and supernatural fantasy (although MOTU obviously needs a whole lot more fantasy).

As for colors, I think they have to tone down the flashy plastic look a bit. Unless they make it a CGI feature, they'll risk it looking unreal in the wrong way. By this I mean e.g. giving Man-At-Arms bronze armor instead of bright orange, or making Trap Jaw's and Skeletor's skin bluish grey. The key to bringing a fantasy world succesfully on screen is versimilitude. Once you find the tones that feel real, you can make even quite outlandish color schemes work.

[kylun flac]

With it being dark I think more of an audience could take it more seriously.

[Spacedust]

Hmm... "Grim N Gritty" could refer either to the tone of the storyline, or the costumes.

In terms of story, I'd like to see it played pretty dark, but not too serious. Just no Filmation-esque bumbling villains (well, maybe one to lighten the mood, but not all of them!)

If you mean in terms of costumes, I'm not sure. When I think of MOTU, I instantly think of bright, bold designs. One thing I didn't like about 200x was the dulled down, muted colourschemes. But for a movie... I dunno. Maybe a happy medium between the two.

[HordePrime#1]

I will echo what I read from some others here... LOTR is the best blueprint for the tone and visual of the movie. Swords & Sorcery with doses of humor sprinkled throughout. The dark humorless tones of Batman do not apply here.

Obviously costumes will need to be altered, some more than others. I think He-Man's costume should be more like the Battle Armor He-Man toy rather than the original. Probably no green skin for Man-At-Arms. Some of the vibrant colors would have to be muted in order to make the transfer from animation to live action. Not sure what they'd do with Man-E-Faces if he made it into the film (although I'd like for all the early figures to be there).

Overall, my vote is for colorful over grim & gritty (with respect to tone of the film), but I'm aware that there will be visual changes needed to tone down the color.

[Lewd_Squirrel]

what about colorfully grim & gritty?

[Mr. Shokoti]

what about colorfully grim & gritty?

[Patreek]

I agree...Grim and gritty but in a colorful way. Is that possible? LOL Like I don't mind it being dark and atmospheric... but utilizing gem tone colors that we are used to seeing... emerald and purple and marigold

[Akai]

I did pick Grim and Gritty but a combination of both is the best way to make it work. You've still got to make the characters look recognizable by their color scheme. Skeletor's Evil Warriors do need character and not snarly, drooling henchmen.

[iron_pride]

Combo of both!

[Bri-Man]

somewhere between willow and the avengers.