He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special (1985) Review
Two of the biggest cartoons of the 80’s were He-Man & The Masters of the Universe,
and its spin-off, She-Ra: Princess of
Power. If you don’t know what the shows are about, here’s what you’re
missing. It’s kind of like Lord of the
Rings meets Star Wars. There’s
fantasy and sci-fi and cheesy action all rolled up together.
Adam, the prince of Eternia, becomes the muscle-bound
warrior He-Man when he picks up his magic sword and shouts, “By the power of
grayskull! I HAVE THE POWEEERR!!!” His pet cat, a green-and-orange tiger named
Cringer, becomes Battle Cat, and, along with his friends Teela, The Sorceress,
Man at Arms, and the magical creature Orko, they fight the evil Skeletor and
his army of goons, who try to take over Castle Grayskull: the very place He-Man
is sworn to protect.
She-Ra came later;
it’s very similar to the He-Man
premise, but the show was aimed at young girls, while He-Man proved more popular with young boys. Princess Adora is
Adam’s sister, and becomes She-Ra when she picks up her own magic sword. Her
mission is to defend Etheria from the evil Hordak, and she rides on a unicorn
instead of a tiger.
With all that explanation out of the way, let’s get into
this Christmas special. It begins with Orko getting into trouble, as usual, and
crash-landing a space ship on earth, where he meets two kids who got lost in
the woods while looking for a Christmas tree. Orko has never heard of Christmas
before, so the kids teach him all about it. Meanwhile, on Eternia, Adam and
company discover Orko is missing, but can’t bring him back without a special
crystal, so Adora goes to Etheria to find one, and action and adventure ensues.
Skeletor and Hordak’s evil master believes the Christmas spirit (which is
brought to Eternia when Orko and the two kids are transported back) will be his
doom, so they try to put a stop to it.
This is definitely a unique Christmas special. It manages to
work the holiday into the story relatively well, and meshes He-Man and She-Ra together in about the most satisfying way possible. The only
thing I can complain about, really, is there wasn’t enough He-Man action. Adam
only becomes He-Man a couple of times, and they don’t play the He-Man theme
music enough, but it’s understandable. The show covers a ton of ground, and
it’s only an hour long, which makes it go by pretty quickly.
I’ve watched many episodes of He-Man, but haven’t seen much of She-Ra. If you’ve never seen either show, this Christmas special might
be less than compelling, but it’s still entertaining even if you haven’t. If
you are familiar with either show, then you should know what to expect. It has
a bit of everything to love from a classic He-Man
or She-Ra episode: bumbling bad guys,
a giant monster, giant evil robots, punching, fighting, space ships, and then
you have the earth holiday Christmas worked in there, too. The best part, for
me, is when Skeletor starts feeling Christmas joy and gets pissed off because
he doesn’t like being happy. It’s good stuff. If you don’t like campy 80’s
cartoons, then this isn’t the Christmas special for you, but if you want a
space fantasy adventure with that holiday cheer, then give it a watch.
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