The Greatest Skeletory Ever Told

[vovat]

I noticed that the Nostalgia Critic did a review of the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special. I haven't yet watched his review, but I found the special on YouTube, and thought I might want to get in my own two cents first. I remember watching He-Man occasionally as a kid, but I don't think I've ever seen this before. Since these cartoons take place on another planet, it's kind of weird that they'd have a Christmas special, right? Well, I don't know. The Whos live on a microscopic world, and they celebrate Christmas. So do the Flintstones, who were supposed to have lived some time Before Christ. Really, I have to give the He-Man special credit for explaining why the planet Eternia would have an Earth holiday. While decorating for a birthday party for He-Man and She-Ra, the Queen comments that it reminds her of preparing for Christmas back on Earth. This becomes relevant to the plot when Orko, with his typical tendency to screw everything up, accidentally launches Man-at-Arms' spy rocketship into space and flies it to Earth. Personally, I blame Man-at-Arms for building a ship that starts when you break a lever. Anyway, it hardly takes any time at all for Orko to reach Earth, which presumably means that either Eternia is actually quite close, or that this ship that was apparently never intended to leave the atmosphere is capable of exceeding the speed of light. At least the Ninja Turtles cartoon tended to use trans-dimensional portals when a plot involved interstellar travel.

So anyway, Orko meets two children, who tell him about both the religious and secular aspects of Christmas. The cartoon seems to want to avoid being too specific about the former, however, as the only part of this discussion shown onscreen simply has a kid mentioning the wise men following a star to Bethlehem. Man-at-Arms transports Orko and the kids to Eternia, where the natives decide it's an excellent idea to start celebrating a holiday from some other planet. In fact, the very presence of the kids brings Christmas Spirit to the planet, and this terrifies Horde Prime. Under his orders, Skeletor captures the kids, but the Christmas Spirit causes him to change his mind and save the children at the last minute. If it's that simple, how come people still do bad things on and around Christmas? But then, we ARE talking about Skeletor, who talks about being evil a lot more than he really does anything. I have to imagine that the poor guy really didn't have much choice as to his lot in life, having a skull for a head and all.

By the way, has it ever been revealed what Orko actually looks like? And how does She-Ra's horse fly in space? Also, couldn't Eternian and Etherian zoologists come up with better names than "Snow Beast" and "Beast Monster"? Then again, when one of your superheroes is "He-Man," perhaps lazy naming is to be expected. But anyway, while I could go on nitpicking this eighties cartoon for some time, I have to say that it WAS fun to watch.

Comments

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

I remember watching this when it first aired and loved Skeletor "fighting" the Christmas spirit within him. I also own it on DVD. I'm pretty sure Orko actually ended up going to Earth through a portal. That is how Queen Marlena arrived on Eternia from Earth, after all.

They've never actually revealed what Orko looks like. In the series, they said that Trollans only show their face to their one true love - and Orko and Dree-Elle show each othet their faces, but we never see them. However, on She-Ra, there was a sequence in one episode where Madame Razz's face is quickly seen (if you have freeze-frame capabilities, then problem solved!).

Swift Wind can fly in space coz he's magic. LOL.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Orko actually ended up going to Earth through a portal.

I think they do show the Sky Spy disappearing at one point, so that could be.

[arfies.livejournal.com]

My favorite part of the NC review was the cigar-smoking unicorn.