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alibi_shopI'm not really the target for this since I'm neither 1. a little girl nor 2. someone with nostalgia for the '80s version (I think I watched it once or twice, but I knew it was related to He-Man and I didn't like He-Man because I didn't like anything with big muscles in it). But it's really good even without the nostalgia. The style is a blend of various kinds of '80s fantasy art with the look of many modern popular kids' comics—i.e. the comics that the new show's creator Noelle Stevenson has worked on—and Stevenson and the other writers bring some solid storytelling and character development, and a concern for diversity, while keeping it (I think) very accessible for kids. It's simultaneously high-minded and plain fun.
They wisely picked up one of the potentially interesting story points from the original—that the hero was originally part of the villains' army—and made it actually interesting by having her not be brainwashed at all, but just someone who grew up in an elite position and never had any reason to question the system, and still basically identifies with it. While this is a very obvious metaphor for people trying to rise above their own class privilege, racism, etc., it never feels heavy-handed because they've taken care to tie it to specific character interactions that anyone can understand. Similarly, her main antagonist Catra has a grudge that would make total sense to anyone who's been short-changed by not being the oldest child, or the teacher's pet, or the blonde white girl; and she doesn't just talk about it, we see exactly how it works. Basically all the villains (except Hordak) are sympathetic to some degree even though it's clear that they're wrong, and that helps to build suspense because we know people might not always be just one way. One of my favorite lines is when Catra's boss and tyrannical mother figure has just fallen out of favor with her own boss, and she's pretty low, and Catra tells her: getting yelled at isn't so bad—you'll get used to it, like I did.
It can be pretty corny (not always a bad thing: I wasn't a fan of the goofy dude voice for the horse, but I loved that the whole flower kingdom is basically a big joke about California) but it's got a good sense of how and when to change things up, so for instance if you start to get sick of jokes, something dramatic will happen... or if you're thinking "It's been a few episodes since they showed that whole transformation sequence, that was cool, I'd like to see it again": ZAP, for the honor of Grayskull, you're welcome.
They wisely picked up one of the potentially interesting story points from the original—that the hero was originally part of the villains' army—and made it actually interesting by having her not be brainwashed at all, but just someone who grew up in an elite position and never had any reason to question the system, and still basically identifies with it. While this is a very obvious metaphor for people trying to rise above their own class privilege, racism, etc., it never feels heavy-handed because they've taken care to tie it to specific character interactions that anyone can understand. Similarly, her main antagonist Catra has a grudge that would make total sense to anyone who's been short-changed by not being the oldest child, or the teacher's pet, or the blonde white girl; and she doesn't just talk about it, we see exactly how it works. Basically all the villains (except Hordak) are sympathetic to some degree even though it's clear that they're wrong, and that helps to build suspense because we know people might not always be just one way. One of my favorite lines is when Catra's boss and tyrannical mother figure has just fallen out of favor with her own boss, and she's pretty low, and Catra tells her: getting yelled at isn't so bad—you'll get used to it, like I did.
It can be pretty corny (not always a bad thing: I wasn't a fan of the goofy dude voice for the horse, but I loved that the whole flower kingdom is basically a big joke about California) but it's got a good sense of how and when to change things up, so for instance if you start to get sick of jokes, something dramatic will happen... or if you're thinking "It's been a few episodes since they showed that whole transformation sequence, that was cool, I'd like to see it again": ZAP, for the honor of Grayskull, you're welcome.
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2019-01-20 15:43 (UTC)no subject
2019-01-20 22:30 (UTC)no subject
2019-01-20 22:34 (UTC)