Individuals who grew up with the Masters of the Universe animated collection as children in the ’80s can most likely nonetheless sing it by coronary heart. Netflix’s new animated collection He-Man and the Masters of the Universe modifications a lot of issues about the present. It has an up to date story and new animation fashion. It additionally has a model new theme tune. Govt producers Jeff Matsuda and Rob David defined why to Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
“I guess we want to just capture what the show was,” Matsuda mentioned in a Zoom interview on Sept. 9. “If you look at the main title, it really is a fast fall special. We wanted to make it as explosive as we could of just a bunch of people together saving the universe together and having a ton of fun doing it.”
The opening titles of the Filmation Masters of the Universe in the ‘80s arrange the story every week. Prince Adam raised his sword into the air and cried, “By the power of Grayskull, I have the power.” That turned him into He-Man.
In Matsuda and David’s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, there may be a key distinction. Now, Adam makes use of the energy of Grayskull to remodel his complete group into the Masters of the Universe. That is additionally completely different than the Kevin Smith created Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Revelation additionally has its personal new theme tune.
“The old show was like, ‘I have the power,’” Matsuda mentioned. “We really wanted to get across the team feel, the friendship aspect of we have the power. Adam has the ability to change and he gave away some of his power to those guys, to his friends too. That was really important for us to get across.”
The Filmation collection aired each weekday afternoon. It’s unlikely there have been any children tuning in for the first time who didn’t already know the mythology of He-Man. Simply in case, the Masters of the Universe theme tune would lay all of it out for them. That’s much less essential for a Netflix collection the place viewers can watch each episode in a row.
“The great thing about Netflix is that you can do really great serialized storytelling, “David said. “Each of the episodes in this first season, these 10 episodes, is really one chapter in a larger story. Even though they’re satisfying on their own, they really link together. So there’s not as much of a need to give this opening narrative summary like Gilligan’s Island style, or Buck Rogers. Or even Filmation He-Man which I love, just putting that whole thing up because really the whole series is the story as it all adds up.”
David does hope that viewers will really feel empowered by the new theme tune. When Prince Adam offers all his associates energy, David hopes that child watching really feel that their energy would make them a Grasp of the Universe, too.
“I think thematically it does in terms of the power being ours and that feeling of self-empowerment and self-discovery which hopefully is not just true with the characters in the show but a kid at home,” David mentioned. “If a kid at home does really well on a math test or wins a race at school, we want him or her to come home and be like do I happen to be the master of speed? Am I a master mathematician? We want that aspect of it.”
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe premieres Sept. 16 on Netflix. We’ll have extra with David and Matsuda right here on Showbiz Cheat Sheet.