Daily Cartoon: He-Man & The Masters of the Universe S01E15: “The Mystery of Anwat Gar”

Welcome to another episode rewatch! If you’re sticking with me everyday, we’re absolutely barreling through He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and things are going pretty good.

Usually when I try to do a full-scale rewatch of a show – especially an old cartoon series – I go crazy from boredom, poor storytelling and a host of terrible plot devices. Maybe because I stayed quasi-recent as opposed to going back to the 80s, we’ve gotten a much better quality show. Thinking back about how sudden my excitement for a show would fizzle out like when I was watching M.A.S.K. or how I’d get frustrated with a long string of poor episodes like I did with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I’m very grateful for what I’ve got with this series.

Like I’ve said before, it doesn’t have to be the best thing ever, it just needs to be good enough to keep me interested and watching. That’s a low bar and it has cleared that with ease. It’s not just something barely good enough, it’s something that is often very good and even when I find myself not liking an episode, that singular chapter is just mediocre as opposed to straight trash.

With that said, we’re coming off a pretty fun episode yesterday and diving into a fresh one today. That’s always a good thing. Let’s hope we’re rewarded again.

Daily Cartoon: He-Man & The Masters of the Universe S01E14: “Underworld”

Welcome to another cartoon rewatch! We’ve made it to the All-Star Break portion of Season 1 and, going into the second half, I’d say we have a pretty solid series overall. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe didn’t last very long but – so far – has been a very nice updated version 20 years after the original Filmation series.

Now, does that mean this is the most amazing thing ever? Even as a very biased observer: no, it’s not. But it didn’t have to be. All I want from anything He-Man is to be good and enjoyable that way I can continue to get new shows or movies and new toys and figures. I want new generations of fans to enjoy these characters for decades like I have so things like Power-Con can still happen and be successful. Unfortunately, I’ve still never been to a Power-Con (the one time I was planning to go, my home was suddenly under threat of a bad hurricane so plans needed to be changed), but hope that one of these years I’ll finally be able to head out that way and get to hang out with all my fellow He-Fans.

So that was a brief little tangent, but it’s good to take the exit ramp every now and then just to see what’s around. And now that that’s out of the way, let’s watch another episode.

Daily Cartoon: He-Man & The Masters of the Universe S01E13: “Night of the Shadow Beasts”

Welcome back to a new week of episode rewatches! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend full with things like girls that have broken our hearts and…the Matrix, Neo, but now it’s time to come back to reality to watch some 17 year old animation.

When we left off, Skeletor is fully aware that the powers of the Elders are contained within Castle Grayskull, Count Marzo returned and was re-banished, Mekaneck suffered from depression and was prescribed Zoloft by Prince Adam and Orko is still driving everybody (me included) insane.

So, with that said, strap on in and let’s kick off another week with some quality Eternian entertainment!

Daily Cartoon: He-Man & The Masters of the Universe S01E12: “Mekaneck’s Lament”

Welcome back to another cartoon rewatch! It’s Friday which is – as this old guy I used to work with named Cesar used to say – “the best day in the week!” Hopefully, the rest of you are enjoying the spoils of a four-day weekend brought on by yesterday’s holiday, but, if you’re like me and do not get to enjoy said holiday, we can put that energy toward enjoying another episode of He-Man.

Today’s episode is titled “Mekaneck’s Lament” which, I assume will address Mekaneck’s issues with depression and having a lame power. It happens to the best of us. Or maybe not since not all of us have a silly power like making your neck extend unreasonably far. Either way, I can see why he would be depressed over it.

So since most of you are still so full of meat products that it would take a crane to lift you off your couch today, let’s stop messing around and just get on with the show.

Daily Cartoon: He-Man & The Masters of the Universe S01E11: “Turnabout”

Welcome back to another episode rewatch of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe! We’re plowing through this series and already almost halfway through Season 1. Give yourselves a round of applause for this momentous accomplishment.

Quick sidenote: Happy 4th of July!

If there was any justice in the world, this would be the national anthem. Won’t see anyone kneeling when they could be nodding their heads like yeah.

In addition to staying committed to these recaps, I’ve realized how nice it is to be able to watch an episode and just be OK with seeing that one episode. Binge culture has obviously become how we consume so many of our shows now, but how much do we actually remember and process from those shows? Stranger Things is out this week on Netflix and everyone will go nuts for about ten days over it and then quickly forget it ever existed again. Maybe I’ll do a daily episode recap of that like I’ve been doing for old cartoons just because and to see if it makes me care any more than I usually would.

Either way, we’re here for Episode 11 today and I’d say we’re fully engorged in the canon now. Adam recognizes the power and importance of being He-Man, Skeletor has figured out why Castle Grayskull is so important and Orko is a fucking buffoon. Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

All of that brings us to today’s episode to further dive into Eternian mythology. Let’s do it.

Daily Cartoon: He-Man & The Masters of the Universe S01E10: “Dragon’s Brood”

Welcome to the Hump Day edition of our 2002 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe rewatch. While I’ve been focusing on this specific show, we did have some breaking MOTU news over the weekend.

A report came out on Saturday that Sony Pictures was temporarily shutting down production of the planned MOTU movie  (which has been rumored since pretty much this animated series we’ve been watching was brand new in 2002) – and slated to star Netflix RomCom veteran Noah Centineo – due to concerns with the script and budget. A follow-up came out a few hours later that this was not the case and everything is still all systems go with the planned production and shooting schedule.

So first off, I wasn’t surprised to originally hear it was being shut down. To be honest, I’d be absolutely shocked if anything for this movie ever really takes place. It has felt like there’s been a hundred restarts and sudden stops with this property over the last 15 years that it’s become one of those, “I’ll believe it when I see it” things.

Sure, things are a bit different this time as a lead actor is not only attached, but going around talking about being involved in this production, but I will continue to be cautiously optimistic.

Daily Cartoon: He-Man & The Masters of the Universe S01E09: “The Ties That Bind”

Welcome back to another episode rewatch! We’re just burning through this series so, in the words of Freddie Mercury, “bicycle, bicycle, bicycle.”

Sure, “Don’t Stop Me Now” would have been more appropriate, but what fun would that be?

Yesterday’s episode was pretty fun and I’m expecting the same of today’s. I don’t base that on anything besides the fact that I’ve enjoyed every episode so far and see no reason why I wouldn’t feel the same today. While the heart of each episode is true to the original – Skeletor wants power, tries taking over everything – this series is doing a good job of almost playing a long game with his plans.

Nobody is going to say for one second that Skeletor isn’t the big bad here, but this series has actually shrunk his role to an extent thus far. Our double-main man is still prevalent, but is more than happy to stay at Snake Mountain while delegating his assignments and orders from the comfort of his bone throne. It’s keeping him fresh for the instances where he does show up for battle and gives a vibe of, “shit…the Masters may really be fucked now” since he hasn’t been portrayed as a clown like the classic Skelly.

You can say the same for Evil-Lyn who – always Skeletor’s #2 – has been a standout character for me thus far. They’ve written her incredibly well and given her a lot to work with. She’s demonstrated her intelligence, her power as well as her somewhat muted thoughts of possibly overthrowing Skeletor at some point. She’s proven she can take the lead on missions and there’s nothing unbelievable about it.

So that’s where we are. Sometimes you forget how early in the series this still is because of all the previous iterations of these characters we’ve had over the years, but going into Episode 9 today, I’d say that right now this show is sailing along wonderfully. So, with that being said, let’s get to Episode 9 right now.

Daily Cartoon: He-Man & The Masters of the Universe S01E08: “Siren’s Song”

How was everybody’s weekend? Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Welcome back to another exciting rewatch on the Car JoeMez channel. It’s a basic channel, no premium payments needed…for now.

We’re continuing along in our series rewatch of the 2002 Mike Young Productions’ He-Man & The Masters of the Universe and I’d say so far, so good. The changes and differences from the beloved original have made sense and helped improve the presentation and the storytelling is light-years ahead of the original which was a victim of its time where these shows just didn’t feature a conjoined story across multiple episodes – forget about a full season – unless it was some kind of special like “The Secret of the Sword” movie that introduced She-Ra that was then broken up into five episodes for television or the two-part Supermarket Sweep episode of Married…With Children that will be forever beloved in my house.

One of my favorite show to reminisce about. A rewatch of this may be necessary soon.

OK, so we’ve got improved storytelling, changes that have been positive and animation that takes advantage of the advances in the system to give a sleek, action-packed finished product. I’d say we’re doing pretty good so far. Which makes this a great time to start week 2 of the rewatch. Let’s go.

Daily Cartoon: He-Man & The Masters of the Universe S01E07: “Lessons”

Welcome back to another cartoon rewatch! It’s Friday so let’s close out the week strong so we can get enough rest to come out swinging on Monday.

In yesterday’s episode, we had a huge moment at the end where Skeletor comes to the realization that Castle Grayskull has some kind of importance that he’d previously been unaware of. He doesn’t quite know what that importance is as of yet, but prior to yesterday’s episode, the Castle was thought to be just some old ruins on the outskirts of Eternia. Only Prince Adam, Man-At-Arms, Orko and Cringer were aware of the power held and protected within.

While Skeletor still doesn’t know that it’s exactly what he seeks (the power of the Elders) that’s being protected inside, he does know that Castle Grayskull just moved up on his list of shit to take over since he saw how vehemently the Masters tried to defend it.

Now we’ll see how important he believes it to be and if he makes it the focal point of his new plans and attacks. Obviously, without the full knowledge, it’s very possible he may push this back for a few episodes, but if I was an Overlord of Evil, I’d probably want to get in there ASAP and snoop around. Like some real Navy SEAL shit.

Today’s episode is called “Lessons” and, honestly, that give me absolutely no hint as to what this episode will be about or which character it will be focusing on. I’m kinda good with that. Surprise me, He-Man. Let’s watch a cartoon.