The SmarK DVD Rant for She-Ra: Princess of Power – Season Two
So everyone pretty much knows who He-Man is and his story, but what about poor She-Ra, his mostly ignored twin sister?
She-Ra was actually a much more positive role model as a character than He-Man was, and not just because she was a girl. And sure, there was a lot more of the horses-and-rainbows stuff going on in this series than over in Eternia, but She-Ra could still kick ass with the best of them. You have to respect that a bit.
Developed by animation studio Filmation in the 80s, He-Man and She-Ra were classic examples of the cut-and-paste style of their animators, as costs needed to be rock bottom. Or lower if possible. So they employed a distinct style using stock footage, where they’d animate a few shows early in the season and then take as many future shots as they could from the figures drawn for those shows. Change the background, flip around the scene, redraw the eyes, whatever, and bam, you have a new show. Using that system, He-Man and She-Ra cranked out 65 episodes per season each, before She-Ra’s second season was cut to 28 episodes, which is still pretty long for most cartoons.
So anyway, I was talking about She-Ra being a role model. The basic premise of He-Man is that a wimpy and cowardly pampered prince named Adam holds up a magic sword and suddenly gains confidence, which played into male nerd fantasies and thus made the show a big hit. However, the premise of She-Ra is totally different, as Adam’s twin sister Adora is already a tomboyish hellraiser who works for the evil Horde as a “Force Captain” at the beginning of the show’s run, and from there only gets more imposing and confident when she turns into She-Ra. Rather than being about living out a secret life, like with He-Man, She-Ra is more about her atoning for past crimes and fighting with rebels against the dictators called the Horde who run Etheria.
All that being said, 90% of the shows are pretty lightweight stuff. The basic form of each episode is to introduce some new character who can be sold as a toy later, put him/her in a situation where they have to make a morality judgment, and She-Ra saves the day, the end. The show rarely went outside its own comfort zone because they had to crank them out so fast that there was just no time for character development or experimenting. There are some exceptions, the most famous of which is on this set: “Sweet Bee’s Home.” Probably the most popular of She-Ra’s run, the director came up with a flirtation between Frost and He-Man (himself a frequent guest on the show to boost ratings) and changed the stock facial expressions to all sorts of crazy things to express He-Man’s embarrassment. That episode was clearly the best, but the rest all kind of run together after a while. Still, if you were into He-Man, you were probably into She-Ra as well and you probably don’t need my recommendation to pick this up. Filmation may have worked fast, but they were pros who knew how to squeeze every last shot out of their limited budget, producing some very fun and very action-packed TV.
The show does raise the eternal question, however: Who was hotter, Adora or She-Ra?
This set contains the final 28 episodes of She-Ra, in production order. You can tell it’s nearing the end because of the increased frequency of visits by He-Man stars.
Disc One:
One To Count On
Return of the General
Out of the Cocoon
A Lesson In Love
Something Old, Something New
Loo-Kee’s Sweety
Disc Two:
The Pearl
The Time Transformer
Above It All
Day of the Flowers
Brigis
The Caregiver
Disc Three:
When Whispering Woods Last Bloomed
Romeo And Glimmer
The Perils of Peekablue
Just The Way You Are
The Locket
She-Ra Makes a Promise (with optional creator commentary)
Disc Four:
Bow’s Magical Gift
Sweet Bee’s Home (with optional creator commentary)
Glimmer Come Home
The Inspector
Portrait of Doom
Disc Five:
Hordak’s Power Play
Shades of Orko
Assault on the Hive
The Bibbet Story
Swifty’s Baby
The Video:
I want to take special note here about the absolutely incredible job that BCI has done restoring these classic series to pristine condition again. In particular, the pastel world of She-Ra looks tremendous, with bright colors and a minimum of noise. If only all animation companies took this kind of time with their classic programs.
The Extras:
An entire sixth disc is comprised of extras, featuring a 30 minute documentary called “The Stories of She-Ra part 3,” as creators and producers discuss the final episodes of the show and what went into making them. I had never noticed the “triple eye-blinks” before watching this, but now I see them. You also get a GIGANTIC collection of Filmation trailers (basically the opening credits sequences from the shows) and I’m talking over 30 different ones including stuff like Flash Gordon and Hero High and all the obscure 80s shows from that era. What a great add-on. A huge collection of character profiles is on here as well, with pictures and backstory in encyclopedia form. Great stuff there. There’s also supposed to be trivia and fun facts, but I can’t see them on the disc and none of the episodes have any subtitle tracks, so maybe it’s an Easter Egg, I dunno. Also cool, if you use the sixth disc in your DVD-ROM drive, you get access to the all the scripts and storyboards for the episodes! Now that’s another feature that’s much-needed for TV season releases. In all, there’s a LOT to learn about each episode here.
The Pulse:
For hardcore 80s cartoon geeks, and there’s a lot of us out there, this is awesome stuff. She-Ra totally holds up today just as well as it did back then, still providing an exciting and positive show that’s great for kids as well as grown-ups. Highly recommended.
