125 – Masters Of The Universe Revelation Part 1 (NON SPOILERS!!)

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.