Stream It Or Skip It: ‘He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe’ On Netflix, A CGI-Animated Reboot Of ‘He-Man’ Geared Towards Kids

Netflix’s new version of He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe should not be confused with the Kevin Smith-produced He-Man revival Masters Of The Universe: Revelation, which came out on Netflix earlier in the summer. While Revelation has the look and feel of the old He-Man series from the ’80s, and continues that story, this version, developed by Robert David, rethinks the universe of Eternia and retells the story of how Prince Adam (Yuri Lowenthal) became He-Man. And he gears the whole thing more towards kids than middle-aged viewers looking for nostalgia. Read on for more.

HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Kronis (Roger Craig Smith) looks at a holographic watch and wonders when the “patsy” he and Evel-lyn (Grey Griffin) sent to retrieve the Sword of Grayskull will come back.

The Gist: In this CGI-animated version, Eternia is more futuristic than medieval. Teela (Kimberly Brooks) has sensors floating over her head that help her sense things that she can’t see, and somehow Evel-lyn has convinced her to go get the sword on her behalf. She manages to find it, and gets chased by soldiers for her trouble. She also hears a voice that the sword should not land in Evel-lyn’s hands. When she sees that Evel-lyn and Kronis are going to kill the soldiers chasing her, Teela goes rogue and scampers off with the sword.

Meanwhile, Adam is doing everything he can to keep himself from falling down a crevasse as he tries to rescue Kitty (Max Mitchell). His helmeted buddy Krass (Judy Alice Lee) comes and gets him. They need to go rescue Kitty’s uncle Cringer (David Kaye), who has once again gotten himself caught by poachers. Adam has been a part of the Tiger Tribe for as long as he can remember; he actually doesn’t know where he’s originally from.

When Teela, still running from Evel-lyn, shows up at Adam’s village, she’s immediately thrown in a jail cell, because the tribe is afraid of witches and magic. As Evel-lyn arrives and her drones start setting fire to the village, Krass, Cringer, Teela and Adam start fighting them off. Teela gives Adam the sword to hold as she lands on a grenade designed to throw shackles on whoever’s nearby. Adam finds out there’s a sword in the sack, he takes it out, and it immediately turns him into He-Man, as soon as he reads the inscription “By the power for Grayskull…”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The original He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, of course, but with a setting and animation that’s more reminiscent of Clone Wars.

Our Take: We were certainly skeptical of this CGI version of He-Man, especially when we saw that the setting was going to be more sci-fi oriented and that the show was going to be geared towards kids (it’s rated TV-Y7). And while the CGI and the futuristic setting just don’t feel like He-Man to us, that’s just because we addictively watched the ’80s version over and over when we were in middle school. That’s why this show can exist side by side with Revelation; that show is for us olds, and this one is for kids who look for different things in their shows.

The CGI is relatively well-done, certainly on par with Clone Wars and its sequels, generally thought of as some of the best CGI animation on television. But what we’re more impressed with is how Robert David has decided to not only start Adam/He-Man’s story from it’s beginnings — he has no idea he’s royalty, for instance, and he’s going to have to figure out how to use the powers the Sword of Grayskull gives him, then he has to build his team. Getting that story from the beginning, instead of assuming the young audience knows the players and what their skills are, is helpful for building a new fanbase.

But he also writes the show with a sophistication that a lot of TV-Y7 adventure shows have these days. Everyone speaks in real dialogue, and there’s in-jokes and humor that both kids and parents can appreciate. In fact, much of the sophistication that we see in this series was definitely absent from the ’80s series made by Filmation and more on-par with the recent DreamWorks series She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power. Writers give kids a whole lot more credit for their intelligence these days than they did when we were kids, and it shows in He-Man‘s writing.

What Age Group Is This For?: Because there’s some mild violence, He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe is definitely more for kids 7 and up. We even think that it may be a little too intense for some 7-year-olds.

Parting Shot: In a dragon-shaped castle, a weakened man with glowing eyes says “The Power of Grayskull belongs to me!” Could this be Skeletor (Ben Diskin)?

Sleeper Star: We’re looking forward to seeing this universe’s version of Orko, which is actually now a robot called Ork-0 (Tom Kenny).

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. What this version of He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe lacks in nostalgia it more than makes up for with smart dialogue, good CGI, and its ability to start building the world of Eternia from scratch with a compelling story.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe On Netflix