She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
I am excited to see that She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has been so well-received. This relaunch of the 1980s cartoon show has a more modern sensibility, and it allows the character to stand on her own instead of being a He-Man adjunct. (I haven’t had a chance to see the show yet, but I believe it, since the revamp was created by Noelle Stevenson, whose Nimona, which did something similar to fantasy adventure stories, won an Eisner a couple of years of ago.) I’m told it’s a good watch for fans of Sailor Moon or Steven Universe.
The 13 half-hour episodes are produced by DreamWorks and all are now available on Netflix. The show
tells the epic story of an orphan named Adora, who leaves behind her former life in the evil Horde when she discovers a magic sword that transforms her into the mythical warrior princess She-Ra. Along the way, she finds a new family in the Rebellion as she unites a group of magical princesses in the ultimate fight against evil.
The show promoters sent me a super-cool t-shirt and a pack of character cards to bring me up to speed on the cast. There are a lot of them!
Aimee Carrero provides the voice of She-Ra/Adora, with Lauren Ash as Scorpia, AJ Michalka as Catra, Lorraine Toussaint as Shadow Weaver, Keston John as Hordak, Noelle Stevenson (!) as Spinnerella (which always makes me hear “Cut it up one time”), Krystal Joy Brown as Netossa, Christine Woods as Entrapta, Jordan Fisher as Seahawk, Vella Lovell as Mermista, Genesis Rodriguez as Perfuma, Merit Leighton as Frosta, Reshma Shetty as Angella, Marcus Scribner as Bow, Karen Fukuhara as Glimmer, and Sandra Oh as Castaspella.
9:41 pm
I finally watched an episode after hearing all the fanboys complaining she wasn’t sexy enough (oh, sorry, “not true to the source material.”). I never saw an episode of the original and maybe only one or two of He-Man, but damned if it didn’t hook me. The storytelling and characters are different enough that it feels legitimately fresh. I’m so outside the target audience, it’s not funny, but damned if they didn’t make me a fan. Also, great work on the voice actors. Several I recognized (Junior from “Blackish,” Heather from “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and a couple of others that sound like I should know them) and all are well suited.
7:51 am
I’m glad to hear it worked so well for you!
11:48 pm
I’m someone that saw the movie that introduced She-Ra in theaters as a kid. I watched the original series and liked it more than the He-Man series.
So I was prepared to really dislike this for being so different. But after one episode I’m intrigued. The characters amhave depth and there is a bit of what I liked about original still there. (having your world turned upside down when you face reality on your own). So I’ll watch more and see how it goes.
5:00 pm
I wanted to wait until I saw the show before I commented on this. I have now seen the first two episodes.
I was a fan of the original show, although I only watched the first season. Like James, I am intrigued. I can see why fans of the original might not like it, as it is so much more stylized than the original both visually and with the voices of the characters. It is the latter than I am having trouble with, as all of them sound like kids to me.
Nevertheless, I feel the show is true to both the storyline and characters. The big difference is that it is an ensemble, as the title suggests. The 80s show was pretty much an Adora show and all other characters were minor, including She-Ra. (That may have changed in later seasons, as few of the other princesses were introduced during it).
I also never considered her being a He-man adjunct, even though certain elements of her character were obviously derivative. I think this is due to her being on a different world than He-man with a very different mission: freeing a people enslaved by an invading force. While He-man appeared in the show a couple of times, that was rare. In fact, the most significant interaction between the two that I remember is during her origin where she, as Adora, captures He-man and obtains her sword. I feel the writers of that show made a effort to establish her as an independent character, and were mostly successful in that regard.