Power of Grayskull is a comprehensive, 90-minute documentary that takes us through the creation of He-Man at Mattel, his rise, his fall, and the attempts at reboots, along with everything that came with that, like the cartoon and the movie. We hear from the players involved, how and why they came up with this or that, plus the forces of evil that prevented them from doing other things they wanted to do. And it has Dolph.
I really enjoyed this. If there was going to be a documentary on He-Man, this feels like it, which I appreciated. The other thing though, now as an adult, I could hear the people involved in He-Man's creation and evolution from that standpoint--I could both remember being a kid and getting He-Man figures, and now be an adult and get a kick out of the stories they told about the process. I think the most interesting part about He-Man is that he and Masters of the Universe were created out of thin air, they weren't based on an established book or movie. I don't think that could be emphasized enough, and this documentary leaned on that more than anything I felt, which did it the most justice.
As I watched, I couldn't help but go back through my own memories of collecting He-Man figures. I got Man Ram I think when I was 4, at our local Osco Drug, while my mom was picking up a prescription for my ear infection. When the Toys R' Us in Newington, NH first opened, the He-Man section was overwhelming with how many figures they had, the end cap towering above me, and me wishing I could have every one of them. That may have been what started my desire to collect things overall, to have all of something--that and an early love of comic books. Maybe my best memory was of me getting the Slime Pit for my birthday. I was the first of my friends to get it, and I remember how crazy everyone at my birthday party went when I opened it. I stupidly put Moss Man in it, which ruined him and I had to buy another.
But what I don't remember is when I stopped getting them. Somehow I transitioned to GI Joe, and then Ninja Turtles, but I can't point to a specific time where I said "I'm not getting He-Man anymore." The movie tries to put that into context for me, which is crazy to think, right? I need the documentary to tell me why I did something when my memory fails me. I think that was another fascinating aspect of this: the film was filling in gaps in my memory--or in some cases, it was correcting my memory. We have these memories of life as a kid that feel so real, and then we watch something like this, and realize, no, that didn't quite happen that way, or based on what they're saying, that couldn't have happened when I thought it did. Probably a good reason why I make sure I watch a movie close to the time I review it now.
This is Dolph's 57th film on the site, as he cruises toward being the first person in the 60 Club--after recently being joined in the 50 Club by Gary Daniels--, but this marks the first time he appeared as himself on the site. It's a great and engaging interview as he discusses what it was like for him to make the movie, the challenges it met in production, and even how he felt about the whole idea. When we think of the roles that have defined him, it's He-Man, Ivan Drago, and Punisher, which, when you put them all together, should have made him one of the biggest action stars of all time; and maybe that's why we love him so much on this site, he still has that larger than life quality, even if he didn't have the box office returns to go with it.
The film finishes with a kind of "whither He-Man" idea, which makes sense: this massive cultural and financial phenomenon that had such a huge impact and then disappeared almost as quickly feels like a reservoir of untapped potential, especially now with the technology we have to do cinematic adaptations. The film focused on new action figure releases and reboots with cartoons, but I think there isn't the market for that the way there would be for a DTV franchise with Dolph at the helm. But do it right, make it closer to the original He-Man, only with Dolph as the too sweet He-Man he was in the film. My biggest fear if a studio were to make a DTV He-Man franchise is that they'd cast someone like a Kellen Lutz in the lead. If it's not going to be Dolph, it needs to be someone of that stature, which I know isn't easy to find, but if they can make it happen, I think it would be a huge a success.
With that, I think it's time to wrap this up. You can see this on Netflix now, and it's totally worth it if you haven't seen it. Even if you were too young or too old for the He-Man craze, just how it all went down and the backstory behind it is compelling enough; but if you did live through it like I did, it has the added nostalgia factor that makes it even sweeter.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5338774/
Great review as always. I grew up with He-Man also and like you greatly enjoyed this documentary. Did you hear that Kevin Smith is doing a direct sequel to the original cartoon on Netflix? The designs of the characters are supposed to be like the original show but with better animation.
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