Like millions of little kids in the 80’s, He-Man was a monumental part of my childhood. The cartoon was a daily ritual; at 3pm every day, nothing could stand between me and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Dozens of characters filled my toy box, waiting for the next heroic challenge I could think up (usually involving two figures preparing for battle atop the mountains of my kneecaps). Oh, you had Battle Armor He-Man? Well I had Thunder Punch He-Man, bitch. You had Beast Man? I had Trap-Jaw, Whiplash and
In August of 1987, a movie was released that some might refer to as a pinnacle achievement in the cinematic world. Masters of the Universe told the incredible tale of He-Man, portrayed by Swedish cyborg Dolph Lundgren, joining forces with friends Teela and Man-At-Arms, and traveling to Earth through a portal on Eternia to defeat the evil Skeletor. Pulling in a total of $17 million, Masters of the Universe broke even at the box office. I remember leaving the theater as a kid feeling a little violated, like part of my childhood had just been turned into a fiberglass suppository.
That’s the last we saw of Eternia’s last hope on the silver screen, and it seemed that Masters of the Universe ruined Prince Adam and Cringer’s chances of ever bringing their struggle (to protect the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil Skeletor, naturally) back to the movie screen. But all that’s about to change. Warner Bros. and Joel Silver are gearing up to make a new version with Justin Marks penning the screenplay, set for a summer 2009 release.
However, comic book writer and filmmaker Kaare Andrews also wants to help tell the story. He’s written for Spiderman, the Ultimate X-Men, the Incredible Hulk and others, and he’s got a vision for He-Man that comes off a lot more…well, awesome than the original film. Andrews put together a video of his vision to pitch to the studio in a week’s time, paying for it out of his own pocket.
See the He-Man video here.
His perspective on He-Man is this: “Where I grew up we didn’t get He-Man on television. We had to rent them on VHS. It made the show special… gave each episode an importance. I watched them mostly when I was staying with my Dad. I’m not sure why. Maybe my Mom didn’t have a VCR yet. I had a lot of the toys. My favorites were Battle Armor He-Man and Battle-Ram. I had He-Man bed sheets. I had the Paninni He-Man sticker book. I bought the comic books. My Mom sewed me a He-Man Halloween costume. And when I was supposed to ‘grow out’ of my toys my little brother carried on the tradition. I don’t believe in trying to intellectualize childhood experiences. Obviously it had something to do with power fantasies, imagination and storytelling. But I prefer to think of that time in simple words. Because simple is powerful. And He-Man was the most powerful in the Universe.” So does that make him the simplest?
I Have The Power!!
