In which Filmation makes an unexpected comeback.
In Snake Mountain, Skeletor is hard at work making a Paralysing Potion, with the entirely predictable intent to slip it into He-Man’s dinner. Unfortunately, a crucial ingredient in this potion is death nettles, and Skeletor hasn’t got any. Deciding against the more reliable option of doing a Tesco online shop, Skeletor chooses to take Beast-Man and Mer-Man to the base of the volcano Mount Prometheus to collect some.
Once there, they find the death nettles with surprising ease, but are distracted when a violent earthquake causes a rockslide and reveals an ancient door, above which is a stone carving of a giant spider. Having learned nothing in the preceding 217 episodes, not to mention the big-screen movie, Skeletor decides that it’s a sensible idea to investigate.
Inside, they discover a dark, cobwebbed corridor, leading to a room that Beast-Man considers looks like a tomb. Some runes on the wall refer to King Heltor and the Three Terrors, an ancient Eternian myth which of course turns out to not be a myth after all. Skeletor, Beast-Man and Mer-Man split up to search the tomb, and within no time at all, Beast-Man and Mer-Man are taken out by three wolf-headed creatures who are identified as the Three Terrors.
Skeletor, on the other hand, finds his way to a deeper room, where he picks up a jewellery box, no doubt hoping to find something to give to Evil-Lyn. Instead, the box contains a cloud of dark smoke, which envelops Skeletor, leaving him wrapped in white bandages and possessed of glowing red eyes. He explains that he is now King Heltor and that he hopes to re-establish his ancient rule over Eternia.
Luckily and entirely coincidentally, Beast-Man discovers that King Heltor is allergic to water, though Christ alone knows why, so with the aid of a well-positioned water pot, he and Mer-Man are able to restore Skeletor to normal. Skeletor is naturally not in the least bit grateful to his sidekicks, but decides that he’s had enough exploring for one day, and so the adventure is called to a halt with a return to Snake Mountain and the successful creation of the Paralysing Potion – but back at Mount Prometheus, King Heltor is able to reacquire his original body, and sets off to conquer Eternia…
In today’s adventure…
Prince Adam and Man-at-Arms put in a last-minute appearance to remind us that Skeletor is not very good at his job, and then they laugh about it. This isn’t exactly a moral lesson that I would advise anyone to take heed of, since that way leads to bullying in the workplace tribunals and other such exciting procedures that we could all do without.
Character checklist
Skeletor takes the lead here, of course, and Beast-Man, Mer-Man, the Three Terrors and King Heltor are also heavily featured. As noted in the previous paragraph, Prince Adam and Man-at-Arms show up in a post-credits sting.
Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance
Aside from the entirely excusable incidence of the MYP episode The Beginning, Part 1, this is the only episode of He-Man (to this point) in which He-Man does not appear. Prince Adam barely appears either, and he certainly doesn’t waste his 15 seconds of screen time explaining away a disappearance that doesn’t happen.
Insults
The writers of this episode had a fairly good handle on Skeletor’s character, since – at a conservative estimate – 75% of the dialogue consists of Skeletor hurling insults at his henchmen. Beast-Man gets served with “imbecile”, “flea-bitten furbrain”, “goof”, “halfwit”, “water-brained wimp” and the classic “fool”, while Mer-Man gets the more elaborate concoctions of “cowering fish-face”, “cowardly catfish”, “simple”, and “one step evolved from a frog”.
Skeletor also addresses both Beast-Man and Mer-Man collectively as “worthless nincompoops” and “fools”, and King Heltor – perhaps observing Skeletor’s technique – gets in on the act by echoing “fools” to Beast-Man and Mer-Man.
Does it have the Power?
If anyone’s unfamiliar with this one, it was a 10 minute episode put together by Super7 and released in the summer of 2016. Made in the style of Filmation and even going to the trouble of hiring Alan Oppenheimer to perform as Skeletor, it had an instant built-in loyal audience of at least one (me). Naturally, it was great to hear Skeletor’s classic nasal whine and to see a pretty good approximation of the old Filmation cartoon, and I really hope that Super7 do a few more of these, though since it’s been a good few years now, I suspect they won’t.
That said, this episode isn’t outstandingly good. It feels curiously incomplete, somehow; being only 10 minutes long, and ending with King Heltor emerging from Mount Prometheus, it seems like it’s only got halfway through the story before cutting off abruptly. All in all, it comes across as a little gimmicky, which is a shame, as it’s clearly been put together with love.
Still, at the time it was produced, there was no suggestion that there would ever be the new series’ that we have now, so it was really fantastic to see new life being breathed into Masters of the Universe. Simply for being the first Filmation-style He-Man cartoon since 1985 or thereabouts, and for pulling off the coup of involving Alan Oppenheimer (whose voice work is still spot-on), I’m definitely awarding it a pass, and I should add that if Super7 do make any more, then my money is as good as in their pockets.
Masters of the Universe Review Site 