Magic gave birth to Eternia, the first planet
in all of creation. But now the magic is gone.
Without magic, Eternia will rot and die. And
as goes Eternia, so goes the entire universe.
I built a life of truth. Away from magic. Now
you want me to save magic? Yes, to save Eternia.
If I don't do this, everybody dies. No! Whatever
became of Eternia, we'll face it together. No
one else dies. But the Sword of Power was destroyed.
Not destroyed. Divided. Whether you serve Greyskull
or Snake Mountain... We all gotta work together
now. Or else Eternia dies. What were we ever
fighting for? Being a hero swallows you whole.
Well, that's a risk I'm willing to take. Still
know the tune? Some things you can never forget.
I have the power! Hello, this is Optimus Solo,
and welcome to the 125th chapter in our Powers
of Greyskull series. With me for this journey
into the Masters of the Universe franchise...
as he has been with every other chapter, is TFG1
Mike. Hello. Call your champion. Hello. Okay.
And today we are bringing you a very special
episode, so we thought it was fitting to also
have a very special guest. So crossing over from
the planet of Cybertron is none other than Steve
Megatron. Hello, Steve. Yo. Oh, and a bottle
of... Oh, no, that's something else. All right,
today we have... Oh, and a bottle of rum. I need
a bottle of rum right about now. I mean, it couldn't
hurt you. All right, today we have the privilege
of bringing you a very special sneak peek look
at the new Netflix series from Kevin Smith, Masters
of the Universe Revelation. Now, this is going
to be a two -part episode, guys, in which today
we're going to give you all of our non -spoiler
thoughts and discussions to help you get excited
for the series release on July 23rd. And then
right after the series goes live on Netflix on
the 23rd, you'll be able to come right back here
and get a completely spoiler -filled discussion
from us as well. So you get both worlds. But
first, since this is Steve's first appearance
on the Powers of Greyskull series, we thought
we would give him a chance to introduce himself
as well as his history with the Masters of the
Universe franchise. So Steve, the floor is yours.
Ah, the floor is mine. T -Man? That's about all
I can do in his voice right now. I kind of grew
up with the toys and watching some of the original
show as well as the the new adventures of He
-Man because I remember owning the sword from
that and a lot of the figures from that line.
Don't knock it. I mean, a lot of the designs
were pretty neat. I mean, the show may have been
terrible, but I wouldn't know. That's what I'm
knocking is the show, not the toys. I liked the
crossover movie, The Secret of the Sword. Yeah,
that was good. but I owned that on VHS. So I
watched it ad nauseum and I owned the Skeletor
staff and the, uh, the He -Man, uh, power sword
from that. And, uh, I thoroughly enjoyed the
designs and the characters in that movie. So,
uh, I, I hadn't seen like, I mean, I've seen
bits and pieces over the years of the various
series and I've always been a fan of it. It's
just not been one of those, like, It's not been
a Transformers or a Star Trek for me. Yeah, right.
Makes sense. But it's been one of those ones
that's kind of my second or third tier series
that, yeah, I'll watch it and really enjoy it
when I see it, but it's one that I normally didn't
seek out. Right, right. Makes sense. So that
is Steve's background. You should know Mike and
my background, hopefully, by now. I mean, after
10 years, you'd think that they would know. Yeah,
we've been through it all. We've been through
the Filmation He -Man, the Filmation She -Ra,
the New Adventures, the 2002 series, the live
-action movie. We've done a little bit of everything
until Netflix came along, and now we're trying
to catch up with some of that. So with that being
said, we hope you guys are ready, because it's
time once again to go back to Eternia. The palace
is under attack! It's just fireworks. Take it
from someone who's seen Battle Cat. All right.
So before we get into some of the non -spoiler
talk, obviously there has been a lot of hubbub
and nonsense on the Internet, as it is always
whenever there's a movie that's being teased
or a new series that's being teased or, heck,
even toys that are being teased. People lose
their minds. And obviously the person involved
in this is a big personality and a celebrity,
a famous person who's done a lot of work in pop
culture, really, with all the Jay and Silent
Bob stuff. Kevin Smith. So there's been a lot
of nonsense that's been circulating around that.
So Michael, let you go first. Cause I know you
wanted to address that a little bit. I just wanted
to address and dismiss it very quickly. Like
my opinion of this show had, it never had anything
to do with Kevin Smith. My opinions of what the
content is, what the show that they ended up
giving us. Kevin Smith, to me, is a hype man
at this point in his career. That's all he is.
He'll say whatever he has to say to get people
to watch whatever he's doing. Yeah, I think there's
one thing, though, that we need to be careful
of, and that is the fact that the Internet world
takes little bits and pieces and runs with stuff
without knowing the context, without understanding.
Yeah, without just doing the actual work to understand
what's being said and what's being done. So I
am not about to take little snippets and little
things that have been said in interviews over
the year and blowing them completely out of proportion
like this. Okay, the man is older than us. All
right. I don't know. He's older than you, right,
Mike? Okay, so to put this into perspective,
okay. Mike's already losing his mind. No, no,
no, I'm fine. To put this in perspective. Everybody
on the internet blew up because in one of his
reaction videos to one of the trailers or whatever,
or one of the hype videos or whatever it was,
he said, oh, I've been a Masters fan since 1981
or 1982. Right. Who cares? Technically, the toys
came out in 82, but whatever. It is what it is.
But then people would go back to an old episode
of Comic Book Men where he specifically said
on that, I'm not really a He -Man fan. Right,
but that's the part that gets blown out of proportion,
see, because here's the thing, alright? If you
listen to all of his interviews, he says that
his parents did not allow him to buy the toys.
So he had to play with the toys or be exposed
to them through his friends, because he had already
had a lot of different action figures from different
series, and his parents were like, you're too
old at this point to be doing that, so you're
cut off from that. So I can easily see him saying
he wasn't a fan as far as a super fan. He didn't
have the toys. He didn't have that. But that
doesn't mean he's not aware of what He -Man is.
It doesn't mean that he was oblivious to what
was going on when he was growing up. Right, exactly.
I equate it, though, to when I was... Okay, so
when He -Man was out, when He -Man came out in
October of 83, he was 13 years old. Right. That,
to me, is the same way I was with Power Rangers
when it debuted in 1993, when I was 13 years
old. I had one Power Rangers toy, and I didn't
have it until after the movie came out two years
later. But I never had any of the toys. Yes,
I watched the show, whatever. So I get it. He
was getting to the point of being a teenager,
growing out of cartoons, growing out of toys.
I understand that. It's just I wish some people
that do these things would at least get their
facts right before they go to hype it up. But
I guess that's my point is, like, okay, we're
diehard Transformers fans that have done reviews
of every Transformers episode almost throughout
time and stuff like that and He -Man stuff. So,
yes, we're going to know the dates. But the common
person isn't just going to be able to recall
what year a random -ass cartoon came out. So
give him a break is my point. If I was trying
to name what year Bobby's World started, I don't
freaking know. I might say the wrong year, too,
because I'd be guessing back to a point in my
life. And if I got it off by a year or two, so
what? I get it. The year was wrong and some of
his facts were wrong, but that's because he's
a common fan. He's not a diehard geek superfan
of that. franchise you know what i mean so like
we all have a weird way of seeing things through
our eyes instead of through like the masses eyes
oh i know and and then there's the also the other
thing that yeah he may not have been a huge fan
of it back then right but working on a project
is a totally different world So when you get
to actually work on it, then you become engrossed
in it, and then you're like, oh, yeah, I'm a
super fan of this. I love this. This is great.
Right, right, right. Because you're like 110
% in, and plus writing and directing and creating
this addition, this continuation, yeah, he's
going to be super engrossed in it. Right. I could
have a quote right now on Twitter or in some
podcast we've done or some interview or whatever
that I hate Power Rangers, I'm not a fan, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah. Ten years from now, maybe
I am into it. You know what I mean? Maybe I've
had some reason to get... I guess the best example
would be anime. I'm probably on the Geekcast
Radio Network saying I don't like anime, blah,
blah, blah. Then, Cinema Geeks, we did Miyazaki's
Spotlight and went through all of his filmography,
and I loved a lot of it. So you could easily
take a quote of me saying I don't like it and
then being like, oh, you're going to do a spotlight
on this guy? But things change. It's a constant
evolution. Right. So let's get off of the, the
need to create drama where there's not need of
drama. And if you just go into this with an open
mind, you're going to see that the love that
he wasn't, if he wasn't a fan, he must've surrounded
himself with a bunch of fans because there is
all kinds of nods and, and stuff like that. So
calm down people. That's all I got to say is
calm the heck down. The other thing I wanted
to talk about really quickly was, From syndication
to streaming, how far Masters has come in the
franchise's history? Because it went from five
days a week on television to two parts on Netflix
or technically five seasons of DreamWorks, She
-Ra, kind of thing. The evolution of the cartoons
has come so far. Now, I personally love the fact
that I can go to wherever and stream whichever
series. That's fine. But it just, man, the times,
they have changed. Yeah, and that's not necessarily
unique to Masters of the Universe, obviously.
No, no, no. Yeah, but normally cartoons back
in the day, like late 80s, I would say the syndication
game was kind of going out of, you know. It was
very rare after 1989 you would have five days
a week Masters or Thundercats or Transformers.
Obviously, Transformers ended two years earlier
than 1989, but I'm just saying it's interesting
to see how far where the cartoons are being...
consumed has changed over the last and everything
and everything that is old is new again too because
they're they're going back to that 80s pool and
resurrecting either continuing a show or completely
rebooting it like for instance uh i mean we've
had you know multiple he -man transformers ninja
turtle shows and gi joe and they've even gone
and done thundercats and now there's a silver
hawks reboot coming And then there's actually
a second He -Man and the Masters of the Universe
coming from Netflix Mattel later this year that's
totally separate from this, which is this is
supposed to be a continuation of what we had
as kids. Right, right. And that brings me to
my kind of first point here is I wanted to ask
you guys, and I know, Mike, you'll be able to
kind of maybe go into a little bit more detail.
Seeing that this is a continuation of the Filmation
series, without getting into spoilers and all
that stuff like we're not doing today, but how
well do you feel like this takes the Filmation
series and just takes the next step and continues
on like there was nothing in between almost?
It doesn't. Come on, Adam. How about we sit this
one out till the bad guys go away? Sitting's
for quitting, Cringer. The sorceress needs her
champion. By the power of Greyskull. The reason
why I say that, that it doesn't, is that He -Man
and the Masters of the Universe was done at a
time where no one, and most 80s shows are like
this, no one cared about continuity -driven stories.
Look at Tales of Eternia, our, what was that,
the first, how many episodes did we do of that?
We did that up to episode... 45, maybe? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. 45, 55, something like that. So basically,
we watched all 130 episodes. There may have been
a couple of two -parters in there, maybe just
one, I think. But, like, every episode was its
own story. And nowadays, we want continuity -driven
television. We want a whole season based on this
or a whole season based on that. So when they
say to me that it's going to be... a continuation
of the old show. Okay, it's a continuation with
the characters. It's a continuation with the
fact that it's on Eternia, not Earth or anywhere
else. It's not on Primus or whatever. I get the
fact that you're saying that it's continuity
-driven versus non, but I still think it does
pick up what they had set up in that series.
The characters are still... Like the characters.
The vehicles are still like the same vehicles.
The other races and species are the same species.
So to me it is a continuation. Because they're
not changing anything that's already happened.
So they're taking what existed in that series.
And continuing a story with that setup. I guess
is my point. They're not going back and changing
a gender of a character. changing the backstory
of a character the secrets that are alluded to
in the filmmation series are still present in
this series and we'll get into that probably
a little bit more in the spoiler episode but
all of that stuff is being continued into like
they're they're picking up threads that weren't
finished in that series and kind of going with
that so that's what i get mad about again kind
of going back to that first thing where the the
internet gets freaked out and stuff like that
they're saying oh they changed my he -man or
oh they did this or oh they did that they haven't
changed anything guys No, they haven't changed
anything. They've continued a story, and when
you continue a story, you write new chapters,
and you write new events, and characters make
new decisions. All of that does not take away
what existed in the 80s. They haven't changed
anything. No, and here's the thing, and I've
said this on many other shows, I've said this
on all things Transformers and anything else.
Generation 1, Masters 83... Masters 90, 2002,
it's all still there. All of that is still there.
I think the thing with the saying it's a continuation,
and again, I'm going to say I heard this from
Kevin Smith because I heard him say this, it
picks up right where the old series left off.
No, it technically doesn't because the last episode,
episode 130, was the cold zone. That was most
definitely a one -off episode. No, he means like
where the characters were, like which characters
are there, where they're at, like who knows what,
like that type of thing. It's not going to say
like it's going to pick up right from the same
storyline as far as like, you know, whatever
was going on in that previous episode, but it's
picking up. in the same setting and in the same
elements. Like you don't have to, you don't have
to relearn what's going on on Eternia. It's the
same thing that was going on those last few episodes
that you saw before the same people know the
same things, that type of thing. And I got way
more of a 2002 vibe off this than visually, maybe
visually, maybe a couple of plot. No, there's
one plot point where that, yeah. But, Mike, you
can probably appreciate this, too, and then I'll
give Steve a chance to jump in, though. But even,
like, I like the attention to detail and the
selection of which species are there. Like, even
though they're background characters and even
though they're not going to get any lines and
they're not going to get named or whatever, they
did some careful work on putting species in the
background that existed in Filmation. You even
get the... Oedipus version, the pre -Stinkor
version, walking around. If you look carefully,
you get some of the same types of, whether it
be cat people or different... I can't name all
the species off the top of my head, but that
type of stuff that existed. I thought that was
cool because they could have just completely
created all these new species that we never saw
in Filmation. That would have rubbed me the wrong
way. I'm not saying that there aren't some unique
new things there, but they did their best to
put in a few things that we had seen through
Filmation in the background, which I liked. And
then, obviously, you almost see more vehicles
that existed as toys in the 80s than you did
in the Filmation series. I feel like there's
even more vehicles in this. Even though it's
only five episodes, you get a lot of the stuff
that people might have had as toys when it came
to vehicles back in the day. I'm not saying that
the Filmation series didn't have a bunch of vehicles,
but I liked that they kind of paid attention
and gave you a bunch of cool -looking vehicles
that did exist as toys. Um, and then obviously
I think they do a lot of not necessarily, they're
not making fun of the cheesy eighties humor and
dialogue necessarily, but they're acknowledging
that it existed and they're kind of playing off
of it in a way, like almost in a respectful way,
but then still having fun with it without making
fun of it, which I thought was good. So it doesn't
turn into like a, you know, like a robot chicken
or something like that where they're just like
poking fun at stuff that happened in the eighties
cartoons. but they're acknowledging that it was
cheesy dialogue at times. So I kind of like that.
They even brought the shadow beast back. So Mike,
you can react to any of that and then we'll get
Steve a chance to kind of jump in here. I'm just
going to say a few things and then Steve can
jump in. The thing about what they put into this
series, these first five episodes, like you were
saying about all the vehicles and all the homages
and all, we've had almost 40 years since the
original. The original, they put in sky sleds
or rotans or whatever the hell, you know, wind
raiders, all of that, because, again, at the
time, they were trying to sell toys. Forty years
later, as you already mentioned, Netflix is going
to have two series. They're going to have this
one, and then they're going to have He -Man and
the Masters of the Universe, which is probably
going to be... for the kids and for the whatever
it's I'm not, I don't know. I've never actually
seen anything about the other one, but it's one
of those things where this series is the, Hey,
guess what? You wanted this. We're giving it
to you. You want all of this stuff. You want
all these homages that make sense into a story
that works. We're going to give them to you and
we're not going to bash you over the head. Like
when. What's one of the vehicles that shows up
in this? I'm not good with all the vehicle names.
Anyway, like the Sky Sled or the Wind Raider
or whatever. Whenever a vehicle showed up in
these five episodes, I'm like, hey, we didn't
see that 40 years ago. That's awesome. That's
cool. And again, the animation, I believe, I'm
not looking right at it, but I believe it's powerhouse
animation that's doing this. Man, this is awesome.
Yeah. Maybe it was just that the vehicles looked
that much cooler. Even if they existed in the
Filmation one, it's like they pop more in this
one. So I just thought it was a whole lot of
fun. And I swear some of those didn't. They existed
as toys, but they didn't appear in the original
Filmation series. Or if they did, it was just
briefly where it's here. They're almost featured
more. And they'd look really cool with the powerhouse
animation, what they did with that. So I guess
that takes us right into visuals. So, Steve,
what did you think of the visuals? Anything specifically
that caught your eye or kind of what were your
takes on the visual part of the series? Well,
for one, I love the fact that they used traditional
animation instead of going CG with it. To me,
I think that's kind of a lost art. And I realize
that it's probably still digitally done nowadays,
but it's different. It's not that aesthetic where
they feel like they have to blow the whole budget
on CG animation. And I just loved how much it
popped, how much the colors, how vibrant it was,
how much the shine on certain aspects, the attention
to detail. And if you look carefully in certain
aspects, you could see certain tech and you could
see certain little Easter egg details in the
episodes. Yeah, absolutely. Even the water. There
was a sequence with water that just like... looked
perfect. We always bitched about the water in
Filmation. Yeah, this is real water. They did
really good with a lot of it, though. And I thought
they did good, too, because it's like a completely
updated, modern, you know, visually almost more
akin to what we got in 2002. But yet, they found
ways to kind of... pay homage to the original
series. They even got Skeletor's Looney Tunes
face in there. They did a couple things like
that where it was like, oh, that was something
that I remember from the filmmation, but you've
updated it and made it kind of look cool. I thought
it'd be interesting to kind of go through some
of the characters, guys, and just real quick,
which ones kind of stood out the most to you,
which ones you thought worked well visually,
and which ones maybe you didn't. I, for the most
part, was a big fan of how most of them looked.
I think the sorceress looked perfect. She definitely
caught my eye. I think the only character that
I was a little disappointed from a visual standpoint
was Adam slash He -Man. Yeah, to me, he just
didn't quite look right compared to all the other
ones that I just felt like were spot on. Evil
Lynn's spot on. Sorceress is perfect. So what
did you guys think? Mike, what do you think of
the visuals of the actual design of the characters?
I'll let Steve go first. I've been talking too
much. Go ahead, Steve. Well, for me, I loved
the, well, whenever Skeletor was on screen, although
just because I was a watcher of the original,
the voice change was a little jarring. At first,
yeah. At first, but Mark Hamill did very well
with what he had. Behold, the Lord of Destruction,
Skeletor! And then, yeah, of course, Sorceress,
Evelyn, Man -at -Arms, Teela. A lot of those
were pretty strong. Yeah, I thought so, too.
Like I said, I maybe have a small gripe with
He -Man or Adam, but Mike, what did you think?
I think Adam fits the animation style. I think
He -Man is more classic action figure than classic
filmmation, and that's fine. I have no problem
with them doing classic action figure look for
He -Man. Adam, yeah, I wish his clothes were
a little different, like a little less... A little
less wool. Like, I swear to God, his magenta
sweater or sweatshirt or whatever that he's wearing,
it looks like it's a giant piece of a cat's hairball
at times to me. But the design overall for He
-Man, I liked it. I thought it was interesting.
I think it was the head or the face of Adam and
He -Man that just were a little off to me. The
body is all fine. Yeah, I think the head and
face on He -Man are fine, but Adam just... He
looked like a puffer fish. Right. Kind of thing.
And it just, I don't know, whatever. Overall,
though, the animation is great. The character
designs are great. Every other, like, if one
little, if you don't like one little character
design, you know, it's not like it's the end
of the world kind of thing. No, no, no. But,
and I find it absolutely hilarious that they
gave He -Man his own magical girl transformation.
I swear, it looks like a scene out of Sailor
Moon. I really like the transformation. That's
not a spoiler. We can talk about the transformation
briefly. I didn't have it in my notes. But I
like the fact that during the transformation,
they show each part of his outfit. come on to
him. Whether it be the wrist things, there's
a name for those that I'm blanking on, or the
chest piece or different stuff. I thought that
was cool how it kind of showed it all coming
together. Did you watch that scene very carefully?
Yeah. I thought so. I watched it twice. Technically,
you're looking at a naked He -Man as he gets
dressed. They basically do that with Sailor Moon.
Right. Yeah, I like the transformation. I think
the one thing that we kind of didn't get to yet
that I'd like to go over and then we'll get into
the voice work a little bit. But going into the
very first episode, you know, this is a five
episode part one type thing. So going into that
first one, they did an opening bit that has narration
and then it has still images. This isn't animation
animation, so to speak. It's more like a still
image look. It's a stop motion kind of thing.
Yeah. Well, it's not almost even stop motion.
It's more like an actual painting almost that
they're putting on, and then they had some movement.
But I loved the open narration, and I thought
those still images that they threw up there were
freaking amazing. Like, the scenes that they
put together with both groups, like... kind of
going at each other and some of the different
sequences that they put on there i like i could
frame each one of those pictures that they put
up there i thought that was incredible um it's
the old promotional art it is the it is the old
box promotional art that they used to use like
epic yeah i remember 10 years ago when we were
starting this out when we started this show out
I found that exact image of the battle of the
hero side, and that's one of the Tales of Eternia
images. No, I love that. I think that's great.
And I also thought, Steve, that they did a good
job of balancing the information that they were
presenting and setting the stage for that episode
without going overboard. Oh, yeah. It was totally
great how they did that. That being said, I was
slightly disappointed that we didn't get an actual
theme song. Yeah. I that's one thing I always
loved of the old 80s and 90s stuff was the themes.
Right. I wish they could have done something
like an alternate version of the theme or some
ode to the theme or something. I know there's
music. I get that. But it's like I didn't feel
like it was actually ever a theme song. So I,
you know, I'm junkie. I was like, oh, that's
too bad. So so here's the thing. Since you brought
this up, Bear McCreary is doing the score. Bear
McCreary is. legend in the in the soundtrack
business even though we don't have an actual
theme song opening like my name is adam and i
turn into this and oh no skeletor is going to
explode it and the music is even though we don't
have any of that i know that once this thing
hits netflix on july 23rd there's going to be
a score released digitally somewhere at some
point where we will actually be able to hear
the overall theme. Because I remember Kevin Smith
screaming his lungs out about how awesome the
Bear McCreary score is. I think it's more so
it's not because they didn't want to put it in
there. It's more so the time that's given to
each episode. And it's more so that society today.
doesn't want to sit through, not us, but in general,
the people who stream stuff today, they don't
want to sit through a minute and a half intro
theme. They don't want to sit through... Yes
and no. I'm going to call you out on this, Kev.
No, no, no. I want to do this really quick because
I want to make sure I'm right because I know
with Knight Rider I'm right. MacGyver. MacGyver
had a whole opening theme with the cast and the
this and the that. Yeah, it's my alarm clock
sound. Okay, and that's geeky. You're a geek.
That's fine. It's not a problem. But what I'm
saying is, where television was 40 years ago,
where we had the opening to, you know, and only
three others know my secret, and it had the music
behind it and whatever else, that was like 30
seconds to a minute more. That they could use
for story. I kind of like that. They just go
into the title card. I have no problem with the
score. Like the guy does a good score. Like I'm
not talking about that. I don't need the talking
introduction. I'm just saying I miss the, that
there's nothing, there's no ode to like something,
something that gives me that feeling that we're
going into it. That's all I needed. So like,
I don't need like a full fledged, like the whole
word part narration. They're already doing their
own narration. I just would have liked some,
Or at least maybe not in that first episode since
you are doing all that talking, but in episodes
two through five, you could have had some little
quick ditty or something. I have no problem with
the sound. He does do a good score. I'm not talking
about score. I'm talking about theme songs. And
I think what we're missing here is that, yeah,
maybe the common person doesn't like to sit through
theme songs, but you'd be surprised at how many
people like theme songs. No, I'm not saying they
don't. This is a series that at least half...
Halfway is being created for fans of the original.
This isn't... Yes, they are trying to gain a
new audience and get a new following and stuff
like that, but it would be ignorant to say this
is not also made with the thought that, hey,
we're appealing to a big fandom that's already
existing. And those people would be appreciative
of a theme song, I think. But either way, I don't
have any problem with the music. But let's get
into the voices because Steve already mentioned
a little bit with Mark Hamill as Skeletor. And
so let's get into that, what worked and what
didn't. So Steve, starting with you, any voices
that you thought really fit well or any voices
that you kind of were like, maybe not so much?
Well, honestly, I thought it was kind of funny
that we had, for the most part, a DCAU reunion
with... Kevin Conroy, Susan Eisenberg, Mark Hamill,
Phil Lamarr. And then you, of course, get Dietrich
Bader and then Kevin Smith's buddy or buddies,
Justin Long and Jason Mewes. And then, of course,
Kevin Michael Richardson from other Batman properties.
What I did love is we got Alan Oppenheimer back,
even if he wasn't the leading role. Right, right,
right. I thought it was very cool to fit him
in there. I thought that was very cool. For the
most part, the only ones that were jarring to
me were Skeletor was jarring because it wasn't
Alan Oppenheimer, but they were going for a little
bit darker, grungier. And so Mark Hamill makes
sense. He plays villains well. Merman, I felt
like they could have put some kind of a... Almost
like a gargoyle or a Zoidberg type thing, you
know, on his voice. You know, almost they could
have used Billy West. Yeah. And had him do like
his Zoidberg almost with Merman and, you know,
just amp it up a little bit. Yeah. And that's
nothing against Kevin Conroy or he, you know,
he performs it well. He acts it well. I just
feel like his voice would fit a different character
better. Yeah, well, and either that or they could
have amplified it with some like gurgling and
bubbling and, you know, something that's water,
you know, amplifying his voice. Other than that,
like, I really didn't have a problem with anybody
else. I did have some characters that kind of
drove me nuts on the screen. Which, yeah, we'll
probably get more into the actual characters
on that second part just because I think it's
hard to do without spoiling some things. Yeah,
you are correct. But yeah, strictly voice -wise,
and then I'll let you react, Mike, too. I agree
with him. Merman was the one that I was the most
thrown off on just because I loved the water
sound that they did with him in Filmation. So
I was like, oh, come on. And I think Kevin Conroy
could have been like three or four other characters
that would have been perfect. The ones that stood
out the most to me as being absolutely fantastic,
spot on, like I can almost not hear anybody else
do their voice now. Liam Cunningham as Man -at
-Arms. was freaking amazing. I thought that voice
fit that character perfect. And Lena Headey,
mostly recently probably known for Game of Thrones
as Eva Lin, was perfection as well. I thought
Eva Lin was perfectly voiced. For me, the only
other ones that I would point out is just because
they're so identifiable, it took me a little
while to get used to Sarah Michelle Gellar doing
Teela. And Alicia Silverstone, to me, doesn't
fit Queen Marlena. So those two, I don't know
if it's just because I know their regular voices
and that's all they're really doing here is giving
us their regular voice. Not that there's anything
wrong with that, but when your voice is that
distinct, it kind of throws me off a little bit
to put you into that character because I'm just
like, well, Buffy's talking to me right now or
whatever type thing. So I was thrown off by those
two girls. Um, but other than that, like I said,
I think evil in men at arms are perfect. Um,
give me more high on the Oppenheimer. Um, and
I actually might think that Orko is, even though
it's a different voice, I think it's really quite
well done and better than 2002. May the man rest
in peace. Uh, yeah, the guy that did the 2002
voice was a little too high pitched, but this
is well done. Yeah. Griffin Newman, who does
this one. was very much Lou Scheimer filmation
type thing. Let's go around the room really quickly
before I give my thoughts on the rest of the
voice cast. We always, at least I always, want
two voices for He -Man and Adam. How do we feel
that Chris Wood stood up to two sort of different
voices for the character in comparison to, say,
Cam Clark from 2002? Yeah. I think I like his
He -Man better. I like his voice for He -Man
better, but Prince Adam's kind of a character
that his voice isn't supposed to be that great.
He's supposed to be kind of the puny kid, teenager,
whiny type thing, almost like a Luke Skywalker
version of a character. So I get what it's supposed
to be. I've never been a big fan of it in any
of the series. I think Cam Clark did it best,
but I do like Chris Wood's He -Man voice, so
I'll give him that. Yeah, I mean, I'm fine with
it either way. It didn't bother me. I don't need
it to be two different people necessarily. I
think it's fine that he's doing two different
voices in the same actor. I mean, it's one of
those things where I feel that if they're going
to play the quote -unquote Shazam card where
Adam is a teenager and He -Man is the adult,
that the voice needs to be a little different.
I will say that Chris would. did a good job of
doing that because his He -Man voice sounds nothing
like his Adam voice to me. I mean, as far as
the pitch between, like, you know, who's younger,
older, younger, older, I'm trying to remember.
Anyway, you know, certain voice actors can do,
like, take Phil Lamarr, for example. He can pitch
down his voice and sound like a little boy in
Justice League Unlimited kid stuff when they
get turned into kids. So you have kid Jon Stewart
kind of thing. With Chris Wood, I find this absolutely
hilarious. I completely forgot who Chris Wood
was. Chris Wood was Mon -El in Supergirl. Yep.
So he's only 33. So I thought the fact that he
was able to do the He -Man voice as well as he
did was pretty good because he's a little bit
more aged to do an Adam in a way. So, yeah, I
thought it was decent enough. Like, I don't know
where I would rank him, you know, with John Irwin
and Cam Clark and stuff like that. But it didn't
throw me off necessarily or it wasn't a negative.
As far as the rest of the voice cast, the only
one. I completely missed that it was... I don't
know what it was. I guess she didn't say as if
enough, but I completely missed that Silverstone
was Marlena. But the only one I don't like, and
I know we don't live in a world where one voice
actor can do three roles anymore, at least not
when you get to the age that Alan Oppenheimer
is. I am sorry. There is no way in hell anybody
can tell me that Friggin' Milton from Office
Space is a good Cringer. I hated Cringer's voice.
I didn't mind it. It's the only thing with the
voice acting. It was slightly annoying, but I
didn't care enough because he's kind of a tertiary
character. As far as Hamill with Skeletor...
You can hear a lot of Joker there, but I didn't
mind it. It's evil Mark Hamill. It's the Joker.
It's whatever. It's okay. It's not. It's, but
he acts it so well. He does. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, absolutely. But it, you know, here's a little
teaser for next episode, folks. When we give
you the spoilers section, you're going to be
hearing from the Joker. So, but it's just one
of those things. As far as Buffy is Tila. I'm
like, when is Xander going to show up? When is
Giles going to show up? That's all I could think
of is that we're living in a Buffy. Like, Buffy
somehow got transported into Masters of the Universe.
I like Teela's arc. I like the story that they
told with her. And I like where they might eventually
go with it. But I don't think Sarah Michelle
Gellar was the best choice for her voice because
Sarah Michelle Gellar's voice is, like, it isn't.
like getting susan eisenberg to come in to change
her voice or it isn't like getting and i'm not
saying we needed tara strong but it isn't tara
strong coming in to come up with a voice for
right right that would have been better but and
it's weird because it's like i and i'm not saying
that these sarah michelle geller and alicia silverstone
haven't done a voice or two in their lifetime.
But for me, when you're looking at this cast
and you have people like Mark Hamill and Diedrich
Bader and Stephen Root's done a lot of voice
acting, Kevin Michael Richardson, Conroy, Henry
Rollins, Oppenheimer, like these guys, Phil Amar,
Cree Summer, like these guys are voice actors
through and through. And it seems like for some
reason they threw in Sarah Michelle Gellar and
Alicia Silverstone almost as like the celebrity
draw. But it's just a weird, pick for me. I don't
know. There were so many other people they could
have gone with that had less recognizable voices
or that are able to disguise their voice more.
I'm not saying either one of them did a... Well,
I do think Alicia Silverstone kind of did a bad
job, but I'm not saying Sarah Michelle Gellar
does a bad job. It was just jarring that it's
Sarah Michelle Gellar's voice. I couldn't get
away from it for a while. I think it was unnecessary.
It wasn't like a current... animated movies where
they just put all celebrities in the cast like
let's get as many well -known names and throw
it on a poster so you want to come see you know
the rock and and whoever else talk like this
is a voice actor cast and then for some reason
these two are thrown in in these parts so that
was kind of odd to me but um this will be the
hardest one and kind of one of the last things
we'll talk about probably with this non -spoiler
discussion but uh dancing around it as much as
we can without giving spoilers How did you guys
feel of the general tone of the series? Like
the, you know, the rating type thing, like what
they were going for, the tenor of the series,
like the writing, the action, like, how did you
feel like that worked for you or not? Steve?
I honestly had no idea what to know, like what
to think when it started up. And then they, Without
getting into anything, they kind of throw the
book out the window, as it were. It totally goes
in directions you would never imagine. And Kevin
Smith kind of alludes to that a little bit. He's
like, it's going to start just like it was, and
then we're going to throw a big wrench in. Yeah,
and he threw a big wrench in. And I actually
didn't mind it. It shook it up. It wasn't in
a bad way. I've seen Transformers series do.
terrible uh over the years and uh we'll get into
that in another episode but the like for instance
the machinima series like that was just yeah
they had star power but the rest of it was terrible
um now it's i feel like this one matured it In
a way that wasn't Devastator's balls mature.
It wasn't like we're just throwing, and that's
not mature. I mean, it's for an older audience,
but it's immature. But they didn't just throw
stuff in there to get, yeah, there's I think
a cuss word or something in here somewhere to
probably elevate its rating or whatever. But
they did it in a way that I didn't feel like
I was watching something that I wouldn't be able
to show my whatever age kid. Obviously, we all
have different ages that we show people stuff,
but I feel like a young boy could watch this,
and you don't have to worry about him being exposed
to something that he shouldn't be. But it's not
kiddy. It's not like something for little kids.
Yeah, and Kevin Smith had an interview recently,
like a day ago or something, where he said that
he wanted to basically do what the Marvel Cinematic
Universe did for... but do it for He -Man and
then have Easter eggs thrown in, you know, for,
for fans of the original and, um, you know, just
kind of try and, uh, take the childhood and reserve
it in a really appetizing way is what he says.
So, so they basically don't ruin it. They don't
break your childhood. They give it back to you.
Yeah. The one thing I find interesting is that
In the press materials for this, Netflix instructed
us to not reveal certain things, hence why we're
going to have a spoiler -filled episode. One
of the things that they mention, they show in
the final trailer, so how is that spoiling it
if they show it in the final trailer? Yeah, they
probably didn't have the final trailer done at
that point. That's fine. That's fine. I'm just
saying. I watched that final trailer like twice,
and I'm like, but it's right there. It happened.
Well, and what's funny is I... Going into this
to watch it initially, before I let you guys
in on the fact that, hey, we got this. I was
reading the press release or the information
of notes, and then they have these lists of do
not tell. These are embargoed until after the
launch. I was like, oh, so you basically gave
me the entire plot rundown. Right. Without needing
to watch it, yeah. I was like, oh, that's unfortunate.
But I was like, now I'm going to look for it.
Right. The fun part of being able to watch this
ahead of time, though, is there's so much misdirection
in the trailers and in the promotional material
that people think they know what's going on,
and they have no idea. I mean, maybe some smarter
fans have guessed certain things and this, that,
and the other, but a lot of the casual fan is
being thrown off by a whole lot of misdirection,
and it's funny to watch them react that way.
Mike, go ahead. It's funny that this isn't, and
I'm trying to do crossover here since we have
a Transformers person, even though we're all
Transformers people, but since we have the Transformers
guy on the He -Man show for the first time. What's
so funny is our good buddy Rodimus Primal, who's
going to be helping us on one point of the ports
of the Top 100 Transformers Characters Countdown
later this year, he was speculating about Airazor
and Laserbeak. And he's like, ooh, maybe that's
Silverbolt, the maximal Silverbolt. And I'm like,
yeah, no, it's not. Kind of a thing. Go ahead.
No, go ahead, sir. I just want to say, I'll give
all you guys a chance real quick to say anything
else that you want to talk about non -spoiler
-wise, but I don't have too much more that we
can go over in my notes that wouldn't be spoilery.
Good Lord, I can't talk spoiling it. But as you
do that and give your final thoughts, I'm wondering,
you know, just I know there's some recency bias
here. We just watched it, et cetera. But especially,
Mike, since we've been through all of the stuff
so far, with the exception of going in depth
with the Netflix She -Ra, where do you feel like
currently Revelation sits, even though we've
only gotten, you know, the first part of it?
I'm not making that determination until I watch
the whole thing. I am not ranking it amongst
the rest of it because. This is only part one.
I need the whole story. I want it all. You're
greedy. For me, I have really enjoyed this so
far. I am on board 100%. I am a big fan. I actually
think, depending on where they go with this,
this has a chance of being better than the 2002
series. Maybe only for the reason that the 2002
series never got to end. So if this goes full
on and does the story that they want to tell
and has a fitting ending and whatnot, it is...
It could be the best from beginning to end series
that we've gotten. Obviously, I'm always going
to have a special spot for G1. Or G1, good lord.
For the original Filmation series, I'm talking
everything here. But for the original Filmation
series, I'm always going to have a special spot
there. But if this is a continuity -driven story
and it has a beginning, a middle, and an end
and stuff like that, and the visuals are so amazing,
this could easily be near the top of my master's
watch. And it's obviously better, in my opinion,
than the new adventures. But Steve, anything
that you did not get to talk about, you know,
non -spoiler wise before we move on? No, I just
I really enjoyed what they did with it and kind
of evolving the series into something that I
can enjoy now without having to put on nostalgia
glasses to enjoy. Yeah, absolutely. So I know
you guys are awaiting the release of this series
so you guys can watch it as well. I'm just saying
my only words would be go in with an open mind.
Forget the the toxic toxicity of the fandom.
You know, give it a chance, because if you go
in with an open mind and just watch it for what
you want to watch it for. I think this is going
to work very well for people. Yes, there's going
to be fans that are all up in arms. There's going
to be people losing their minds and saying Kevin
Smith ruined their childhood and why did he change
He -Man and all this stuff. Ignore those folks.
Watch it with a mature mind. It's a good series.
And hopefully you'll tune back in after you watch
it for us to go big time into spoilers. Right,
Mike? Right. And the thing of it is, is the last
few things I want to bring up before I run through
the outro. Is that at some point, and I will
be waiting for all four of these to come out,
but this actually is also getting a prequel comic
book. It's going to be four issues. The first
issue was released on July 7th. So once all four
issues are coming out, we will have a crossover
with the pull bag. And I assume once I send you
the issue at some point or another, Kev, you'll
want to do it because it's related to this. And
I enjoyed this. It's just I don't. Like I said.
I'm a binger. I need to binge things. I don't
like I need to control my entertainment. I don't
like doing the whole wait and see if it's good.
Like I haven't as of this recording. I will not
and have not watched Loki until all six episodes
of that. A lot of people are like that. I get
it. So we are also getting a, on June 10th, 2021,
it was revealed that an after show titled revelations,
the masters of the universe revelation after
show would premiere alongside the series on July
23rd. So in the vein of like Chris Hardwick doing
right. talking dead and and talking bad and all
that it's going to be hosted by kevin smith rob
david and tiffany smith so they're going to do
an after show for this which is going to be interesting
because it means we get to do more episode like
we can watch that and we can comment on their
commentary oh lord i just think with what they
did in the first episode of this part and what
they do in the last episode i'm very interested
to see where they go from here because people
are definitely going to have some reactions to
those two things and people are going to be very
pissed off, but I'm holding out hope that, you
know, once you watch all the parts, everything
will make sense. Absolutely. Any other final
things you want to say, Steve, before I run through
the outro? No, I think I'm good. All right. Thank
you for listening to us as we are the masters
of gray skull, as we give you the revelations.
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We hope you enjoyed the Grayskull goodness today,
and don't forget to join us in our next adventure
when we will take you on a spoiler -filled journey
through Masters of the Universe Revelations.
For now, I am TFG1 Mike with... Optimus Solo.
Steve Megatron. By the power and for the honor
of Grayskull, we have the power. He -Man. Hear
me, wherever they are.