I feel like this movie is coming like a decade or 2 too late to hit the right audience. Like, those people who would get nostalgia baited for watching this cartoon as kids are nearing 50. Their own kids are already grown up, so they’re not catching a new generation either.
The first transformers came out 19 years ago and did not have as long a gap in franchise presence, as we had beast wars in the 90s, and a continuous comics run.
It’s also one of the weirder/dumber cartoons from any era.
Sword-wielding barbarian hero, spaceships, scary skeleton villain, green tiger. It feels like a toy company took a bunch unused action figure ideas and said “make a cartoon out this so we can sell them.”
There was an animated series in the early 2000s (it was excellent), Netflix did Kevin Smith’s version (also excellent), there was a 3D animated show aimed explicitly at kids (not for me), AND She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (*chef’s kiss*).
The Kevin Smith obe was excellent? I don’t remember much of it, but i found it really bad and somehow the guy who’s name is in the title was hardly in it. I thought it was generally nit well received
It’s called Masters of the Universe, there’s no guy’s name in it. It had the same problem as any show/movie that puts a woman at the centre.
Edit: sorry, this might not have been clear enough. I’m not suggesting you didn’t like it because there’s a woman at the centre but I was referring to how the “public” (aka a loud part of the internet) received it.
More recently there was a Masters of the Universe cartoon that started 2021. I heard it was meh but it was apparently successful enough to run for 3 seasons and wrap up the story. I think this thread underestimates how big of a franchise it still is.
Yeah, that’s why I said “technically”. Also while reading up on this, I learned that the film/TV rights to he-man and She-Ra are owned by two separate companies. They couldn’t appear together unless Mattel and DreamWorks decided to work together - Source
There have been Transformers shows and toys almost continuously since the 80s. There us maybe a vague gap between G1 and Beast Wars aside from the nebulous G2.
But one following right after we had
Beast Wars, Beast Machines, RID2000(Car Robots), Armada, Energon, Cybertron, Animated, Movie1, Prime, More Movies, Robots in Disguise, Earthspark, etc etc
Plus several toddler tier shows like Rescue Bots. And several Youtube web mini shows.
Thats not even getting to the toy lines. For at least a decade Transformers has had like 5 lines going on shelves. The toddler line, the simple kiddie line, a more complex “Classics” line for older collectors, some sort of movie themed line, some sort of specialty line like Masterpiece.
Sorry for the long rant, and its nothing personal, it just seems funny anytime Transformers comes up and people act like it was G1 then the movies. Transformers has never gone away ever since it started.
I feel like this movie is coming like a decade or 2 too late to hit the right audience. Like, those people who would get nostalgia baited for watching this cartoon as kids are nearing 50. Their own kids are already grown up, so they’re not catching a new generation either.
The first transformers came out 19 years ago and did not have as long a gap in franchise presence, as we had beast wars in the 90s, and a continuous comics run.
This just seems to be a weird choice…
It’s also one of the weirder/dumber cartoons from any era.
Sword-wielding barbarian hero, spaceships, scary skeleton villain, green tiger. It feels like a toy company took a bunch unused action figure ideas and said “make a cartoon out this so we can sell them.”
Why not Space Ghost? That would cooler.
Literally what they did.
Omg that makes so much sense! I was always like “wtf is this place even meant to be?” - though it does kind of have the vibe of 80s Flash Gordon.
That is literally what it was. It was commisioned by Mattel to sell the toy line after the FCC relaxed regulations on marketing to kids.
Yeah I had no idea there were spaceships in this until I saw the trailer. I assumed it was basically a kid friendly Conan
There was an animated series in the early 2000s (it was excellent), Netflix did Kevin Smith’s version (also excellent), there was a 3D animated show aimed explicitly at kids (not for me), AND She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (*chef’s kiss*).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_the_Universe_(comics)
The Kevin Smith obe was excellent? I don’t remember much of it, but i found it really bad and somehow the guy who’s name is in the title was hardly in it. I thought it was generally nit well received
It’s called Masters of the Universe, there’s no guy’s name in it. It had the same problem as any show/movie that puts a woman at the centre.
Edit: sorry, this might not have been clear enough. I’m not suggesting you didn’t like it because there’s a woman at the centre but I was referring to how the “public” (aka a loud part of the internet) received it.
There was technically the fairly successful She-Ra show on Netflix, but I think that had a very different target audience than this movie.
More recently there was a Masters of the Universe cartoon that started 2021. I heard it was meh but it was apparently successful enough to run for 3 seasons and wrap up the story. I think this thread underestimates how big of a franchise it still is.
It was completely detached from He-man and stood alone on it’s own merit.
Yeah, that’s why I said “technically”. Also while reading up on this, I learned that the film/TV rights to he-man and She-Ra are owned by two separate companies. They couldn’t appear together unless Mattel and DreamWorks decided to work together - Source
Yeah I highly doubt anyone not already in the know is going to make that connection.
I’m not 50, but I have a lot of love for He-Man.
But are you nearing 50?
I’m less than 40 and love He-Man. And She-Ra.
I can hear the gif. Loudly.
Cool. I don’t think I used any superlative adjectives like “only/every”. You’re definitely not among the majority of those who watched this as kids.
Idk man, it was pretty popular over here. We got it years late due to being a small European country probably.
Me too and I grew up on this cartoon. But these movie is garbage and will not waste my time or money on it.
I’m one of the old bastards who was there for the cartoon and I’d rather watch the “What’s Up?” video than a live-action movie nowadays.
Yeah I to was around when this show aired in the 80s and even as a kid I realized how shit this show was.
Still, the kid at the house my mum dropped me at before school had Castle Greyskull and that was pretty boss.
The new netflix series seems quite popular. So there are certainly still interest in the franchise.
There have been Transformers shows and toys almost continuously since the 80s. There us maybe a vague gap between G1 and Beast Wars aside from the nebulous G2.
But one following right after we had
Beast Wars, Beast Machines, RID2000(Car Robots), Armada, Energon, Cybertron, Animated, Movie1, Prime, More Movies, Robots in Disguise, Earthspark, etc etc
Plus several toddler tier shows like Rescue Bots. And several Youtube web mini shows.
Thats not even getting to the toy lines. For at least a decade Transformers has had like 5 lines going on shelves. The toddler line, the simple kiddie line, a more complex “Classics” line for older collectors, some sort of movie themed line, some sort of specialty line like Masterpiece.
Sorry for the long rant, and its nothing personal, it just seems funny anytime Transformers comes up and people act like it was G1 then the movies. Transformers has never gone away ever since it started.
Uh… That was literally the opposite of the point I made.
Transformers was the benchmark I was comparing He-man to.