_D_ wrote:The problem with He-Man was that Skeletor could never win. According to the writers on that series, that was in the series bible. So, it became a running joke as to how Skeletor could amass all these armies of bad guys and lose every episode. Now in the real world, no one is going to work for you if you are a loser. Just about every series and most comics at the time featured just that...the villains could try as hard as they wanted but could never win! So, at that point, I just shelved the whole genre.
Well, what cartoons DO have villains that win? It's not limited to He-Man, it applies to basically every kids' cartoon ever made. I guess the only American cartoon I can think of that has a villain get close to "winning" is when Megatron killed Optimus Prime in the Transformers movie...but Megatron was also so brutally beaten up himself, he needed to be totally remade. So it was more of a stalemate.
(And Optimus came back in the TV series later on anyway)
llj wrote:Interesting piece of trivia: the speaking voice for Jem, Samantha Newark, actually sung "In Your Eyes" for Project A-Ko. It's the song that plays during the B-Ko bath scene when she's declaring her love for C-Ko.
Huh, I didn't know that! Interesting how things you liked sometimes intersect in weird ways, huh?
llj wrote:
Today's cartoons are better written--dialogue wise anyway--but I really dislike how most of today's action cartoons crib from Bruce Timm. In many ways, I think Timm's influence was bad for action cartoons overall, even though I like most of his cartoons. I find there's a real design sameness right now that's prevalent in every action cartoon I see. All these sharp edges and straight lines. I don't mind it as a style, I just hate the "me-too" trend of it. Everything DOESN'T have to look like a Bruce Timm cartoon.
People who don't like anime often accuse the genre of looking all the same, but if we look in our own backyard, we'll find the same thing happening here too.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. How did we go from cartoons that looked like this:
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to this?:
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I mean, I know everyone has their own "styles" they like, but I consider that a huge downgrade. :/
He-Man and She-Ra did have some beautiful backgrounds. There are a bunch of the cels for sale on ebay. I would like to have one of the really long pan shot backgrounds. The stories in those shows where pretty lame. I almost enjoy the She-Ra show more now just because Princess Adora is a stronger character in her normal form the her brother. When I was little I had almost all of the first couple waves of figures and both Castle GreySkull and Snake Mountain. I gave my He-man toys away when I was young
The best use of Skeletor was in the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special. We watched it this past Christmas. He ends up learning some kindness, it is a bunch of laughs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He-Man_%26 ... as_Special
The best She-Ra episodes are the first five episodes which introduce the character, once again proving that the best storylines usually need more than 1 episode to really develop.
He-Man had a few decent episodes here and there, but it's all very tame. I think the crossovers with She-Ra tended to be the best ones. I recall the episodes that focused on the eagle/bird woman (sorry, can't remember her name) also were highlights.
llj wrote:The best She-Ra episodes are the first five episodes which introduce the character, once again proving that the best storylines usually need more than 1 episode to really develop.
He-Man had a few decent episodes here and there, but it's all very tame. I think the crossovers with She-Ra tended to be the best ones. I recall the episodes that focused on the eagle/bird woman (sorry, can't remember her name) also were highlights.
Yeah, any episodes with the Sorceress tended to be pretty good. Almost everytime I talk to people who used to watch the show when they were children, the episode with Teela finding out the Sorceress was her mother comes up. It was a touching scene.
And have to say as far as old 80's-90's cartoons go, My Little Pony Tales is my guilty pleasure. It had so many voice actors from Ocean Studios (of Ranma 1/2 fame, and so many others) so that was certainly one of the reasons I liked it. I loved MLP when I was younger, really do NOT like the new one and the bad bad part of the fandom that goes along with it.
ryoran wrote:And have to say as far as old 80's-90's cartoons go, My Little Pony Tales is my guilty pleasure. It had so many voice actors from Ocean Studios (of Ranma 1/2 fame, and so many others) so that was certainly one of the reasons I liked it. I loved MLP when I was younger, really do NOT like the new one and the bad bad part of the fandom that goes along with it.
The original 80s version is my favorite, but I do like Tales. I hope they put that on DVD, the rest of it is. I've been a pony fan since the 80s and while I do like the new cartoon, the fandom does scare me too. Makes people like me look really bad.
I love all the old 80s Pony cartoons, I watched them so much as a kid. I like the new show alright (I don't think it's like, THE BEST SHOW IN THE WORLD!! like some people do, but it's cute.) but I agree that the fandom for it freakin' SCARES me. I tried to join in a couple of conversations on the main Livejournal community and I almost instantly regretted it--there are some fans there that seem genuinely bat-shit insane. My favorite thing was when someone was using the word "brony" as a put-down towards someone, so I stupidly chimed in and said that she shouldn't use the term as if it was a slur...I was then told that I shouldn't describe any put-down that wasn't referring to a minority a "slur" because I would then be "insulting minorities" by "belittling their plight". I was then told that being a woman was also the same thing as being black/a minority, and that I was stupid, ignorant, and that I should "read more". The kicker? I WAS TOLD ALL OF THIS BY OTHER FEMALES. Um. WHAT?? SERIOUSLY? All this from a community about pink singing cartoon ponies? Yeeeeeah, I definitely stopped joining in conversations after that...(99% of them are probably a lot younger than I am, anyway...oh, to be young again and think you know everything in the world because you read about social injustices on the internet...)
I'm generally skeptical of online fandoms devoted solely to one particular show or franchise. It takes a certain kind of person to obsess over something very specific, and many fandoms tend to have a sort of tunnel vision about certain issues as a result. And like you said Usamimi, they're usually hyper sensitive about the most inane things.
I guess the only kind of "specific" fandom I've stuck with online for over 10 years are the ones related to my favorite sports team. But that's because every season brings new topics of discussion. Of course, my team has sucked for so long, so a lot of seasons have generally been similar, but I digress...
Yeah, as time goes on, I seem to find it's more and more common that places meant for a specific fandom seem to be off in their own little world... >__> And heaven forbid if you have an unpopular opinion in one of them, lol. General fandom places like this forum seem to be much more my pace.
Interesting how things you liked sometimes intersect in weird ways, huh?
SERIOUSLY? All this from a community about pink singing cartoon ponies? Yeeeeeah, I definitely stopped joining in conversations after that...(99% of them are probably a lot younger than I am, anyway...oh, to be young again and think you know everything in the world because you read about social injustices on the internet...)