A brief review #052 - "Teela's Trial"

As many of you will know, in 2010 I published The unofficial cartoon guide to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. At 300+ pages the book features 700+ pieces of trivia, 460+ deleted scenes, 360+ examples of animation reuse, 380+ quotes, 50+ abandoned episodes, and a LOT more! It is the book that NO fan of the Filmation series can live without! BUY IT NOW!

As an incentive, here is my brief review and rating (as they appear in the book) for "Teela's Trial"...

This episode should be shown as an example of how not to make an episode of He-Man. At times this episode is incredibly hard to watch, not only because of the questionable animation throughout, but also the incredibly bad character writing. He-Man and Teela are written so far out of character it becomes almost funny. Sadly, the character writing on Teela borders on the ludicrous. Gone is the headstrong, brave and determined warrior woman; replaced by a whimpering wreck of a character. The best thing to do is pretend that this atrocious episode never existed. During the series David Wise proved that he knows how to write a strong Teela. So what went wrong here? 2/10

Now, may I ask; what is YOUR rating?

Panini sticker album art #3

When I was a kid, one of my most prized possessions was the Masters of the Universe sticker album by Panini. I still remember the day my mother purchased the album for me. Aside from the fun of collecting the stickers themselves I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the Filmation-accurate illustrations that could be found on each and every page. I thought it would be a good idea to showcase those illustrations on this very Blog!

Here we see the moment Orko casts the spell during the infamous "eggs over easy" trick, alongside an illustration of the Royal Palace...


(click on the image to see it at full-size)

Time Demons!

The Masters of the Universe minicomic "The Temple of Darkness!" is interesting with regards to its close ties to the season one episode "Temple of The Sun". However, I was always a fan of the action-packed story within, which saw the Heroic Warriors face Skeletor's defenses time and time again. And speaking of time, as a kid, I was never the biggest fan of the Time Demons; Skeletor's time-centric creations that used the hands of a clock as weapons! I always thought that their design was a little goofy to be honest.


(click on the image to see it at full-size)

"Broom Takes A Break!"

Broom was one of my favorite characters from the She-Ra series, mainly due to the way in which the character was portrayed in the Filmation cartoon; so I always enjoyed stories that focused on him outside of the cartoon. Here we see a short story, originally published in issue eight of the UK Princess of Power comic, which was colored and republished for the UK Princess of Power special, titled "Broom Takes A Break!" In this story we see that there are a few disadvantages to being a living broom!


(click on the image to see it at full-size)

Panini sticker album art #2

When I was a kid, one of my most prized possessions was the Masters of the Universe sticker album by Panini. I still remember the day my mother purchased the album for me. Aside from the fun of collecting the stickers themselves I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the Filmation-accurate illustrations that could be found on each and every page. I thought it would be a good idea to showcase those illustrations on this very Blog!

Here we see the opening panel for "Diamond Ray of Disappearance"...


(click on the image to see it at full-size)

"Evil-Lyn in Waiting"

As He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was developed into a series, the staff writers at Filmation came up with a wealth of proposed story premises. Numerous episodes were never developed beyond the early stages. Showcased below is one of those abandoned episodes, alongside a title card that I have created to show what might have been. Please note that in some of these synopses Orko is still referred to as Gorpo, Evil-Lyn as Desira, and the Evil Warriors as the Masters of the Universe. The Sorceress does not appear to have been fully developed at this point either; with many references instead to the Spirit of Grayskull. Also, Stratos is a villain; much like he was in the early Mattel material. All of the original spellings (Tee-La, Beastman, etc.) are also retained for authenticity.

The unofficial cartoon guide to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe features many more abandoned episodes!

"Evil-Lyn in Waiting"
A mysterious, but beautiful woman arrives in the Royal Court, asking only to be the Queen's chambermaid. Everyone in the Royal Court is charmed by the sweetness and poise of this maiden. Only Teela is suspicious, but Prince Adam and Man-At-Arms attribute her doubts to jealousy. It is up to Teela to unmask this stranger as none other than Evil-Lyn who intends to help Skeletor gain access to the Royal Palace. Teela is able to thwart this invasion with an assist by He-Man!


* Legally I should say that Paul Dini did NOT write this episode. This is merely an example of how the episode title card might have looked.

Panini sticker album art #1

When I was a kid, one of my most prized possessions was the Masters of the Universe sticker album by Panini. I still remember the day my mother purchased the album for me. Aside from the fun of collecting the stickers themselves I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the Filmation-accurate illustrations that could be found on each and every page. I thought it would be a good idea to showcase those illustrations on this very Blog!

Here we see the beautifully illustrated (and written) opening page...


(click on the image to see it at full-size)