Council of Evil Part 2 - Official Talkback Thread

[Dead Man Walking]

Watched this two parter yesterday...

I rather enjoyed the Mec-a-nec in trouble sequence that opened the episode. His screams were actually chilling, like those of a real person. I think we can all agree that none of the characters on this show actually sound like real people...but he did then.

I don't enjoy the new Evil-Seed look, or voice for that matter, but He-Man's battle with the vines was interestingly staged. Maybe this show has more to offer on a visual level than I'd thought.

Webstor is seriously creepy. Good voice, and well animated. The animation in this episode was a step-up from part one overall.

Ultimately, though, there just wasn't much of a story. It's like the writers think spectacle will wow the audience, when it won't. There's almost wall-to-wall fighting in this series, so why would they think just having Adam and Teela trying to rescue the Masters for 21 minute be enough? It was okay...and the ending annoyed me. There wasn't a need for a third part in this storyline, at least from what I've seen so far. Adam up against EVERY VILLAIN just seems...gratuitous. Because we ALL know he's not going to die, and Skeletor isn't going to conquer Grayskull and the Masters will somehow save his butt or something.

No enough substance for a season-ender. A bit of a tease, to be honest.

Let me guess; you're one of these people who likes to pick apart the MYP series and complain about "too much action", while holding that the Filmation series was genius, and describing a scene like this as amazing:

[DisneyBoy]

Actually, I'm discovering the MYP series basically for the first time. Don't jump to conclusions, smarty pants, Neeeheeeheeeyeahahahaha!

Sorry, that Filmation clip sent me into Skeletor giggle mode. That clip wasn't fantastic, but it was easy to follow the action. I sometimes I have trouble with that on the MYP show. Things aren't staged all that neatly...

EDIT: APE - THAT fight sequence is GOOD. Well-staged. I can almost follow everything happening on-screen. Very well animated, nice tension. Nice sequence, that. Maybe part three is going to be the best of the three.

[krosfyah]

Actually, I'm discovering the MYP series basically for the first time. Don't jump to conclusions, smarty pants, Neeeheeeheeeyeahahahaha!

Sorry, that Filmation clip sent me into Skeletor giggle mode. That clip wasn't fantastic, but it was easy to follow the action. I sometimes I have trouble with that on the MYP show. Things aren't staged all that neatly...

EDIT: APE - THAT fight sequence is GOOD. Well-staged. I can almost follow everything happening on-screen. Very well animated, nice tension. Nice sequence, that. Maybe part three is going to be the best of the three.

Watched this two parter yesterday...

I rather enjoyed the Mec-a-nec in trouble sequence that opened the episode. His screams were actually chilling, like those of a real person. I think we can all agree that none of the characters on this show actually sound like real people...but he did then.

I don't enjoy the new Evil-Seed look, or voice for that matter, but He-Man's battle with the vines was interestingly staged. Maybe this show has more to offer on a visual level than I'd thought.

Webstor is seriously creepy. Good voice, and well animated. The animation in this episode was a step-up from part one overall.

Ultimately, though, there just wasn't much of a story. It's like the writers think spectacle will wow the audience, when it won't. There's almost wall-to-wall fighting in this series, so why would they think just having Adam and Teela trying to rescue the Masters for 21 minute be enough? It was okay...and the ending annoyed me. There wasn't a need for a third part in this storyline, at least from what I've seen so far. Adam up against EVERY VILLAIN just seems...gratuitous. Because we ALL know he's not going to die, and Skeletor isn't going to conquer Grayskull and the Masters will somehow save his butt or something.

Not enough substance for a season-ender. A bit of a tease, to be honest.

I think you've got the gist of the MYP series, essentially IMO it delivered where filmation didn't but failed where filmation succeeded. anyway part three IMO has the best fight scene in the entire MOTU history. but be warned most of the episode is a giant fight scene.

As for animation, they used two studios, Dong Woo and Dong Yang, Dong woo is the better of the two, it's very clear actually esp in the later episodes. if you were a fan of tiny toons or Batman TAS the difference is almost as stark as when WB used Tokyo Movie Shinto for the animation vs the other studio they used (can't recall the name)

[DisneyBoy]

They did NOT use Dong Woo And Dong Yang...!

Wouldn't have guessed. I personally love Dang Yang. They aren't consistent (there's an A team and a B team and it often shows), but their best people pull off AMAZING stuff (see part two of JL's Starcrossed, and B:TAS' Second Chance).

[BIG DADDY SINISTER]

Yeah, that brown shading got a little annoying after awhile. But it was still a quantum leap in improvement over Filmation. Like night and day.

[Midwinter]

Yeah, that brown shading got a little annoying after awhile. But it was still a quantum leap in improvement over Filmation. Like night and day.

The brown shading is actually the thing I hate the most about the 200x series. Well and all the spinning weapons (at least from the early episodes).

[Alexx]

So I've been watching through the series finally, and I've mostly had it on in the background while doing other things. I started watching it with full attention, but eventually it just got annoying to watch. The cool battles were too few and far between; most of them consisting of jumping, twirling weapons, and random feats of strength. Seems like anyone can do anything they like so long as they feel like it. Man-At-Arms can launch a crab man twenty feet, but He-Man can just barely manage to toss one against a wall after a struggle. It wasn't rampant, mind you, but most of it didn't warrant full attention to get the idea: stuff goes down, someone learns something, and the fights were kinda boring.

But MAN, things changed with the season one finale! "The Council of Evil" one and two and the season two starter "The Last Stand" suddenly took a major 180 and ramped everything up. I was doing my usual half attention thing, but the very beginning of "Council" and He-Man's fight against all the evil warriors grabbed my attention right away! I couldn't believe it; all the fighting actions actually seemed planned out, and you could imagine the people talking about what they wanted to do rather than just say "there's a fight in this scene." Now there was a clash, a parry, a jump - but not just a jump - a jump that ended with an enemy there to catch him, but a swift kick to the jaw takes him out BUT WAIT, there's another guy ready to hit him again!! I was in it for the whole fight.

After that, I stopped what I was doing and watched all the events unfold. Just an awesome two-parter. The battles even followed the starting one and just kept everything interesting. The story kept my attention as well! I loved how just about every piece of power makes it back. You rarely expect enemies to try again with the same stuff, but Skeletor actually uses some items together (Ram Stone and Marzo's amulet, ya now, after Marzo tries to kill 'em...hehehe...man that was awesome).

Then of course, "The Last Stand" was the crowning piece to the new style of fight scenes they worked on. Each hit moved on to a new one, and not a single enemy was ignored. Nor did the enemies take turns! It was actually an all out battle! I was very impressed, considering the yawn-inducing battles they started with in the series.

Other than just wanting to talk about it, I also gotta ask: does anyone have any behind-the-scenes knowledge about this? What changed in the writers and directors so much? Perhaps they just noticed the low points and decided to ramp it up for the finale? It was such a big change that it really took me by surprise. I'd love to know the thought process behind it all.