The first hint about Mekaneck's Lament...

The story-continuity in He-Man series by Mike Young Productions was very tight from the start of the show.

Much of that credit goes to Story-Editor Dean Stefan who oversaw majority of the scripts from freelance-writers, adding small scenes here and there to help along some of the major turning-points.

One such instance comes in season 1 episode "The Ties That Bind", when Teela has gained temporarily telepathic abilities and the villains have used this to their advantage in luring her to a trap.
Before Teela realizes this, she points out to Man-E-Faces, Ram Man and Mekaneck that even because she was injured earlier, she wasn't doubting the telepathic ability that lead them to the desert and she mentions what all three are thinking at the moment.

With Mekaneck it comes off a bit harsh-sounding from her.

Teela: "And you're worried that all the sand might clog up your neck-apparatis.

And Oh yeah, wishing you had have better powers."

The thing to note about it, is that it actually is a very subtle injection of continuity that plays out couple episodes later with "Mekaneck's Lament" where Mekaneck reveals that he doesn't think his scouting-abilities are all that helpful in battle against evil.

But while the scene between Teela and Mekaneck is a brief one, it was a great way to plant the seed for a future episode.

Randor's miscolored legs

I have watched the season 1 episode "The Beginning - part I" many times ever since it aired. Mostly because I really like the scenes at the Hall of Wisdom.

Recently I noticed that while Captain Randor is fighting Keldor, he has couple scenes where animators have a small mistake with his colors.

When we see Randor enter the Hall of Wisdom, he is clearly wearing pants. But during his fight-scenes with Keldor, there are couple shots where his legs are colored with skintone-color, giving the illusion of Randor fighting pantsless.

Funny thing is, that between these three scenes, the animators remember to color Randor's legs correctly. So it never appeared back-to-back scenes this mistake.

Trap-Jaw homage #1

Homages are always fun to an existing material in any situation, be it books or films.

With He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon by Mike Young Productions, the creators were aware of the classic animated series by Filmation and would every now and then throw some nods and homages to it.

In season 1 episode "The Beginning - Part II" the heroes are fighting the villains in the Evergreen Forest and one scene shows Teela fighting Trap-Jaw.

During their battle, Teela manages to cut part of Trap-Jaw's mechanic arm-attachment off, but despite of that, Trap-Jaw still can use a claw with which he grabs Teela's sword...

And bites the tip-part off from it.

Leaving Teela with a shocked expression.

This scene is a fun nod the fans of Filmation series season 1 episode "The Diamond Ray of Disappearance" where Teela chased Trap-Jaw on their respective Sky Sleds away from the Royal Palace and shot him down.

While Trap-Jaw is busy trying to attach his Energy Bow,

Teela lands her Sky Sled and approaches Trap-Jaw.

Who immediately bites on her Sword.

Resulting with Teela looking at the sword in shock.

This wouldn't be the only homage MYP Trap-Jaw paid to the classic cartoon but that is another post for another day. ;)

Hero or Villain in episode-title?

One thing I personally find interesting about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animation produced by Mike Young Productions was translations in other countries.
The example today comes from italian translation for season 1 episode "Mekaneck's Lament".

The title is very descriptive about the established heroic warrior and enticing in its own way.

But the italian name for the episode is "Il ritorno del Conte Marzo" that translates into "The Return of Count Marzo", which turns the tables on episode-title featuring a villain of the episode instead of the hero.

Also what I find interesting is that until this episode, Count Marzo had not made any appearance or gotten his name mentioned on the show.

In the US, the official description for the episode by Cartoon Network didn't reveal who the villain was:

"While trying to acquire better powers, Mekanek unwittingly sets a dangerous villain free."

For any fan of the Filmation series, Count Marzo was a semi-known character, appearing in 3 episodes. So his appearance in the new cartoon came as a suprise to many.

As for italian fans the episode-title "spoils" this big reveal, but depending on the fan; that can be a good thing just as much as a bad thing.

Would be interested to hear how the italian fans feel about this topic...

Clawful's missed opportunity.

Ever since the first episode of He-Man cartoon by Mike Young Productions, Clawful is clearly potrayed as  not being the smartest henchman in Skeletor's troops.

A particular example comes in season 1 episode "The Island" where we have a scene with Clawful's cousin, who has learned that Man-At-Arms is traveling to an remote island to visit his mentor Dekker. Clawful's cousin then uses his claw to make a sound that travels the oceans on Eternia and can be heard at Snake Mountain in a pool of water.

Resulting in the following scene between Clawful and Evil-Lyn...

Clawful: "Hey, you hear that? Some kindaaa clicking sound?"
Evil-Lyn: "It's code. The language of your people!"
Clawful: "Ooohh yeah... Never was too good at spelling stuff."

Which is the lowest point for Clawful's capabilities on the intellectual-department with the show.

Fans addressed this to the show's producer Ian Richter who responded in a Q&A over at He-Man.org:

We were planning a story later in season 2 where Clawful would gain intelligence via some brain tampering from Tri-Klops and almost overthrow Skeletor.

And it is a real shame that the second season was cut mid-way because this premise sounds like one hilarious episode for the crustacean villain.

Symbol change...

When the toyline debuted in April 2002, fans could find a He-Man figure sculpted by the Four Horsemen, that had the classic Cross-symbol, based on the vintage figure.

Later in spring however, the figure was becoming more sparse to find when the shelves were updated slowly with a He-Man figure that had an Stylized H-symbol, that fans have later dubbed as the "asterisk"-symbol (*).

Over at He-Man.org, fans asked about this change and Jeremy Padawer of Mattel's Entertainment Marketing answered:

When the debut of the new toy line was delayed, Mattel had the opportunity to go back and stew over every detail of the new line. When you think about it, Superman has his classic "S", Batman has his notable bat symbol, but what did He-Man have?
Now, when a new generation looks upon He-Man, they will see a symbol that they will recognize. And in the years to come, when people see the stylized "H" they will say "That's He-Man!"

Which boils down to Mattel most likely wanting new symbol they could trademark and use.

Early storyboard-artworks also show for the animated series that artists' were using the cross-symbol before Mattel finalized their plan to change the symbol.

In a future blog-post I will show another art-piece that had the symbol changed...

Greetings!

Hello everybody and welcome to The Essential MYP He-Man blog!

2012 marks the 10th Anniversary-Year for the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon done by Mike Young Productions.

So in honour of that, I decided to make this blog where I'll be highlighting some observations, images, wallpapers and trivia from the cartoon that I've personally made or learned about during these years.
While this blog will be cartoon-centric, I will make posts about the comic, produced by MVCreations because the stories there were made to co-exist with the cartoon.To the fans of the 2002-toyline, cartoon and comic, some of these posts I make may not be all that informative but hopefully some fans can be enlightened.


I will openly credit James Eatock (aka Busta Toons) as a personal inspiration to me as a He-Fan who liked the cartoons more than anything from the worlds of Eternia and Etheria.
In fact, this blog takes many cues from the He-Man and She-Ra blog. You should check it out because it is a wealth of information for any vintage He-Man and She-Ra fan!