Pro and Con of the series

[Burtonnut]

In your opinion, what are the pros and cons on the 2002 He-man series. Here's mine:

Pro:
-Skeletor. I just love how they did him in this one. I love the filmation skeletor as much as this one.
-Some character designs I liked better (Buzz Off, Trap jaw, Tri-klops, Whiplash, Clawful mainly)
-The backstory of how Skeletor became evil
-The animation was pretty good
-Some of the character voices were spot on (particularly Ram Man)
Con:
-Some of the character designs I didn't care for (Teela, Orko, Queen Marlena, the Sorceress mainly)
-I really hate saying this but...Orko. I don't like what they did with him. I mean since when does he say "Trolly Molly"? (the beginning of The Deep End made me think of Dexter's Laboratory as Orko was like Dee-Dee and Man-At-Arms was Dexter). I just don't like what they did with him.
-Teela. I really don't like what they did with her in this one. They made her into a...lets just say it's another word for a female dog.
-Speaking of Orko and Teela, where were all the Orko/Teela implies? That was one of the many reasons why I liked the filmation series.
Teela: Orko. I could kiss you.
Orko floats over and his ears are wiggling
Orko: Please do.
-Not crazy about some of the colors on here (not a big fan of yellow).
-Characters from the filmation series that didn't come into the series (Dree Elle, Uncle Montork, She-ra, etc.)

[Baena]

Pros. The whole thing was awesome.
Cons. It ended.

That's honestly how I feel about the series. I loved it.

Was it perfect? No, but at risk of offending the Filmation fans, I'll take MYP over filmation any day.

Okay real Pros...

Great over-arching stories.
Great character developments.
Fun view of the world.

Cons...

Some of the voice work was off. Didn't care for Teela's voice, she was a bit too whiny at times.
Dumb villians. They don't need to be THAT dumb.
Death of Webstor, I wouldn't have killed him off.
Too many "Toy commercials" in the second season with the Dragon Walkers and that spitting bulldog thing.

[JonWes]

Pros:

- The build-up of the backstory of the characters
- Continuing story threads
- Reoccurring villains other than Skeletor
- Fleshing out Eternia as a place
- Some great character designs and redesigns (Skeletor, Count Marzo, etc.)
- Skeletor's portrayal
- Evil-Lynn was awesome

Cons:

- Terrible, blocky vehicle redesigns (Wind Raider, Battle Ram)
- Weak design and color choices for backgrounds, cities, the planet (especially weak when compared to Filmation's imaginative forests and moody colors)
- Weak transformation sequence
- a charmless Orko
- fairly generic Teela/Adam relationship, lacking some of the spark of the original series
- Stupid villains

[VZX]

Pros: It was pretty cool. Solid continuity, etc. Duncan's pony tail was nifty. Over-all, pretty neat. It kept on getting better and better. Weapons were spinning much less toward the end.

Cons: Often times they cut a line mind-sentence for dramatic effect. Kinda cheesey.
Also, they never referenced a vehicle by name EXCEPT for skysleds and the Wind Raider in one episode.
Not a fan of Decker. There, I said it.

[Neo]

Pros. The whole thing was awesome.
Cons. It ended.

That's honestly how I feel about the series. I loved it.

Was it perfect? No, but at risk of offending the Filmation fans, I'll take MYP over filmation any day.

Okay real Pros...

Great over-arching stories.
Great character developments.
Fun view of the world.

Cons...

Some of the voice work was off. Didn't care for Teela's voice, she was a bit too whiny at times.
Dumb villians. They don't need to be THAT dumb.
Death of Webstor, I wouldn't have killed him off.
Too many "Toy commercials" in the second season with the Dragon Walkers and that spitting bulldog thing.

Couldn't have said it better.

[Teacher of Madness]

I watched the show once through all the way, and while not a huge fan there's definitely some things it did for the brand which are think are great.

Pros:

-The linking together of episodes. As much as I loved Filmation almost no episode alludes to anything that happened in any other previous episode.

-The development of Eternia as a whole, with regions and races and a history that mattered.

-Most of the characters added were great, additional creature races and development of existing races was well done. I love the Kulataks (probably spelled wrong, yeti people), I love Dactys's people, all of that was very cool.

-The danger seemed much more dangerous that it ever did in Filmation, and I appreciate that. Feeling like there's actually something at stake helps draw viewers in.

Cons:

- I hate how almost everything looks. Battlecat was the biggest design failure in the series, followed closely by the sword, but I don't think anything else was much better. The decision to push the "technology" part of Masters' traditional Magic and Technology mix to such an extreme visually does nothing to impress me.

- A little kid turning into a burly adult is never an appealing story element for me. I like better that He-man just plays an idiot adult to throw off suspicion until he becomes He-man, where basically his strength gets a huge boost. Plus that opened the character up to the internal struggle of hating that he has to spend his "real" life basically being looked down upon and disrespected, but it's for the greater good. That's more believable to me than someone whose whole physique is altered, and though nobody would peg the two as the same person Adam's still a bit of a screw-up. Plus, Teela kinda had the hots for both in 200x, a 15 year old kid and a 30 year old man. That's a bit creepy too.

- 200x Orko is the "Jar Jar" everyone says he is. Awful voice and no reason at all to be there. I know some think that's the case always, but I like to ignore those people.

- Lastly, I kind of liked it when Skeletor was the bad guy just because he was clearly a bad guy, and not because everyone's a racist and his father didn't love him. I know that we as consumers no longer accept stories without explaining the villain's motivations (and often creating a villain that people develop some sympathy for), but I'm kind of tired of it. I don't always crave that level of psychological complexity in my cartoon shows.

[Night Stalker]

Pro: Teela.

Con: He-Man.

[MannyB175]

Pro: Seeing the Evil Horde making their appearance.

Con: Too much Snake Men involvement.

[NagAAsi]

Pros
1- The Snake Men!!
2-THE Snake Men!!!!
3-THE SNAKE MEN!!!!!!!!!

Cons:
Not enough Snake Men

I waited 20 years to see King Hiss and The Snake Men make their animated appearance. I will always love the MYP series for finally making my childhood dream a reality

[BlastAttak]

Pros:

- continuity,
- character development and spot-light episodes (I mean, origin episodes for Stinkor, Two Bad, Roboto..., Buzz Off and Sy-Klone were not only "appear and show your gimmick, and then stand in the background" but had some development and significance..., etc.)
- darker villains (Skeletor, Marzo, Evil Lyn, Snake Men)
- personality traits that made characters more "their own"
- story realy became interesting in last 10 or so episodes
- character designs
- introduction of Snake Men (though they are not my favourite faction, but they were badass)

Cons:

- bland backgrounds
- bland music
- extremely boring and drawn out fight sequences in first couple episodes (weapon twirling, "Wild West stare-offs" that lasted forever, trying to make fighting sequences more awesome led to making them very annoyig.. Luckily, they reduced this in later episodes, and fights became good old awesome again.. )
- character selection (why making up new characters when you have slew of awesome characters already? Why invent new giants when you have Megator and Tytus? Why King Grayskull when there is He-Ro? Why Dekker when Clamp Champ might be used just as well?...)
- not enough known characters (Why no Jitsu and Ninjor in Anvat Gar episode even as cameos? Why didn't they use any of three evil warriors like ie Spikor, Blast Attak and Saurod instead of Giants in "Counsil of Evil" and "Buzz-Off's Pride"? It wouldn't change a thing to the flow of episodes, but it would introduce more familiar characters..)

[Spacedust]

PROS:

* They really scoped out the whole MOTU Universe, adding much more depth, sub plots, and so on.
* Continuity... no more adventures began and concluded in 22 minutes, never to be referred to again; this new version really felt like it continued from each episode to the next.
* Some of the villains actually felt like a menace this time around. Whilst some where dumbed down (Clawful?), I could live with that for some of the upper A-list villains actually feeling like a thread, a far cry from some of their Pantomime-like later Filmation days.
* A number of nice nods and references to the original version(s). For all that I didn't like various concepts being disposed with, there was always a feeling of respect, at least.

CONS:
* As others have said, some episodes, especially second season ones, were one long "toy commerical" offerings with little plot of interest; a couple of them I truly haven't rewatched, even on DVD, since I recorded them (on VHS!) "back in the day!!"
* More a comment on the 200x line in general, but the whole fake anime / whatever style didn't work for me. In particular, I got tired of characters jumping 100 miles through the air, complete with obligatory "blurry background shots". These always felt stuck in just to try and copy other shows around, and not only didn't fit in with the style but I found very distracting
* Some characters (Adam, Teela, etc.) really lost, feeling very generic teen-like, and very hollow. At least vintage Filmation Adam and Teela had a little character to them.
* Whilst I love the expansion of the original versions, they sometimes interfered when they didn't need to and could've stuck to original versions, gently expanding from there instead of totally reworking some concepts. ...And this new version, for all of it's scope, always felt "cold" to me and lacked heart.

[redsquadron]

Pros: He-Man was back. NOT Japanese-style animation (except some battles), lots of background characters got a good showing.

Cons: Eternia just didn't seem the 'alien', magical place it should have been. Too long fight sequences with characters leaping into the air, crashng to the ground and adopting 'cool' poses (and these fights often taking up huge chunks of the episode at the expense of story)
And purely a personal thing: I never cared for the Snake Men, at all.

[Akai]

Pros:
- Serious fighting
- Evil Warriors using lethal means
- Evil Warriors making attempt to hit He-Man when he's not looking rather than blindly charging him when he's right in front of them.
- Tight continuuity
- Non-human characters being shown as actual races and having actual civilizations
- Less absurd ways of neutralizing large monsters.

Cons:
- Everybody's an olympic level gymnast.
- Weapon spinning.
- Unnecessary explosions
- Characters getting thrown into walls leaving indentations and being buried in rubble. Usually losing consciousness and getting back up like its nothing.

[jyaremko16]

Pros:
-snake men
-The revamped character looks
-the character specific episodes
-Skeletor
Cons:
-not nearly enough of the evil Horde
-the Japanese style animation fight scenes
-no 3rd season LOL

[Phil.Pastel]

I just watched the series for the 1st time. Overall, enjoyed it and liking pretty many of the figures.

PRO: Skeletor's w/ cape
PRO: They actually use the phrase "masters of the universe" in this cartoon
PRO: King Hisss devouring Whiplash
PRO: Ice Armor outfit

CON: Zodak
CON: Trap-jaw's top row of teeth
CON: Clawful's voice
CON: Generic metal playing in the background during a few fight scenes

[Jukka]

I just watched the series for the 1st time. Overall, enjoyed it and liking pretty many of the figures.

PRO: King Hisss devouring Whiplash

In the flashback King Hiss devours a generic Caligar. Not Whiplash namely.

[Adam_Prince of Eternia]

The only con of the entire series is King Grayskull.

[Phil.Pastel]

Sure, but they all looked just like him
I don't know that I like having such characters have "races".
It makes them feel less unique.

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The only con of the entire series is King Grayskull.

Eh, I don't know. I was ok with him. His lion was interesting.

[jyaremko16]

Boring ...Yes! But i found after the first 15 episodes or so it picked up pace a lot! Especially all the snake men episodes i thought were well done. But i had a hard time muscling my way through the first 10-15 episodes without falling asleep,I'm 34 years old though possibly younger audience would do better with them.I think the boring parts all revolved around the japanese style,like stated, waiting on a characters face forever or the long drawn out fight scenes with spinning weapons and such

[superheman]

Here are some I can think of right away:

Pros:

• Origins!
• Depth and interior of Castle Grayskull -- would go really well with the exterior and mystical/magical elements of the Filmation show
• Exterior and surroundings of Snake Mountain -- actually scary!
• Skeletor, Evil-Lynn, Count Marzo
• Script, direction, plot devices, continuity of episodes
• Sound -- not the music, but the sound
• Snake Armor He-Man -- awesome plus great action figure

Cons:

• Severe lack of magical/mystical qualities of physical spaces/backdrops as reflected in Filmation
• Prince Adam -- too juvenile
• Transformation sequence -- no aura to it. I can watch the Filmation He-Man transformation sequence forever and ever. I got tired of this one and forward through it sometimes even.
• Music -- No uniqueness to MOTU, hate that they didn't try to incorporate the Filmation theme with a newer style and richer sound, which could've worked beautifully
• No talking Battle Cat!
• Snake Men -- too much of them!
• King Hsss -- the whole devouring act got old, not to mention that it was often disturbing

[Count Judas]

Pro:

• The beginning of it all, loved the first 3 episodes!
• The origin stories of characters like Two-Bad, Stinkor, Roboto
• The updated versions of Filmation characters like Count Marzo, Evil Seed
• The differences between the light and dark hemispheres
• The continuity of the stories

Con:

• The villains were not that bright at all, besides Skeletor and Evil-Lyn, the others were shown as goofs in some episodes
• The power level disparities of some characters - Count Marzo beating up on He-Man knocking him out but his magic is as useless as dust when he blasts Skeletor
• The background art needed more of a Filmation style touch to it to make it look more like another world and not a medieval "Earth" type setting

[Phil.Pastel]

Pro:

Con:

• The villains were not that bright at all, besides Skeletor and Evil-Lyn, the others were shown as goofs in some episodes

That was a complaint of mine too. It boils down to adapting MOTU to plots that are formatted for super heroes. And this is going to go on until somebody changes the format or the franchise disintegrates. We had a thread on this is the vintage forums a few weeks ago. I still maintain that these are not 'heroes and villains'. They are warlord-barbarian types.

[Triklops]

I know your post is 2 months old but I just read it, and I have to whole heartedly agree with it. I loved the MYP series and I was gutted when it finished and when they stopped making the figures. I can't say I agree with the thread starter, the Sorceress was awesome I loved what they did with her costume. I also agree with you that I hated Webstor getting killed off. If they were going to kill anyone off it should have been Hiss. My one and only singular gripe with the MYP series was the saturation of the Snakemen toward the end. I mean don't get me wrong they were fine and everything, but it really felt like they took over the show and lingered for a bit too long. I also hated how King Hiss defeated Skeletor so easily. To me Skeletor is the original and ultimate badass and would be able to put up a much bigger fight than that. Even in the unaired 40th episode he still gets defeated by him, which really bugs me, I was really hoping to see Skeletor get his revenge. Other than that, the MYP version is my favourite, I loved it

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I have to disagree with you about the transformation, I thought the transformation in the MYP series was awesome. And I loved how they changed it about 3 times throughout less than 40 episodes. I also feel that him turning from a smaller teenager into an muscular adult more emphasized the incredible boost in not only strength but wisdom and intelligence that he gets. I was a fan of the Filmation series but I had to admit it was kind of silly that Prince Adam looked exactly the same as He-Man, muscles and all, not much of a transformation really and also seems more unbelievable that no one would recognize him just because of how he acted, at least in MYP no one would suspect it was the same person.

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Oh and forgot to agree with that con, the weapon spinning got old for me too, which is why I'm glad it was only the first few episodes. I actually didn't mind the high jumping that the characters did as mentioned by someone else, because as Masters of the Universe I have always expected them to be able to perform feats like that. I mean they are supposed to be powerful etc. If they could only jump a metre off the ground I would find that underwhelming.
Would have been nice to see more of the Horde too as someone said. And I agree with Adam_Prince of Eternia, wasn't a big fan of King Grayskull, I personally felt they made him cast a big shadow over He Man and make him look like a much weaker watered down version of him.

[MegaGearMax]

Pros:
• Continuity at last! Nothing is forgotten
• Characters who have never been explored in animation are explored--Buzz-Off, Sy-Klone, Roboto, Fisto, Zodak, Stinkor, Two-Bad, King Hsss, Rattlor, Kobra Khan
• New characters appear more than a one-shot appearance
• Occasional new villains. The majority of the fights were against Skeletor, but the new villains never overstayed their welcome.
• The villains really stepped up--Evil Warriors were a real threat initially and defeated the heroes at least once at Snake Mountain, The Snake Men were a real threat and ate people and The Horde really seemed like an army. He-Man was fighting the most powerful villains in the universe.
• Epic Battles such as The Last Stand, Council of Evil and Rise of the Snake Men with lots of combatants on the battlefield.
• Skeletor wasn't a goof ball anymore and he took no crap.
• No talking animals
• Less Orko
• The music--Nice and tribal sounding theme music.
• The backgrounds--Eternia felt like it wasn't Earth with it's yellow skies and multiple moons.
• The good thing about the transformation is the epic holy music and Grayskull lighting up
• Adam didn't look exactly like He-Man.
• He-Man actually got his ass kicked at times (Stinkor, Marzo, Serpos, the Ram Stone, Skeletor/Evil-Lyn/Marzo teaming up against him and a dragon).


Cons:
• Not enough He-Man-centric episodes. He-Man often took a backseat to MAA.
• The weapons twirling was taken to an extreme in the pilot, but it went away in the series
• The bad thing about the transformation is that MYP doesn't do lighting effects like Filmation
• Clawful being too dumb
• Castle Grayskull looked too pedestrian.
• The show never got to some iconic characters like She-Ra
• The show never reached a Queen Marlena focus