She-Ra, Princess of Power, is a toy line that became an eighties legend. With the new Netflix cartoon hitting our screens it’s time we took a look at He-Man’s cousin and Etheria’s mightiest hero.
Netflix’s new series has taken the world of fantasy fandom by storm. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is smart, funny and charming. From its catchy theme tune (which will almost certainly become an anthem for various human rights protests across the world) to its easy art style, the show is simply lovely. It’s all due to the Eisner award-winning Noelle Stevenson.
She is the creative force behind the new She-Ra show, and she comes highly recommended. She’s responsible for Nimona, an online comic strip that blends mad-science with dragons and magic, as well as a strong vibe of fairness, justice and silly fun. (Sounds familiar to us).
She also created Lumberjanes, a sort of whimsical Girl-Scouts inspired comic book. Her work also includes collaborations with the likes of Ryan North and Rainbow Rowell. Her art style can be seen all across the reboot – she tends to favour simple yet realistic looking body forms.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a more child-friendly and more engaging show concentrating on telling stories rather than selling toys. The actual backstory is broadly the same, but they’ve concentrated on character building, storytelling and silly fun. It’s also a modern show for a modern age; everyone will find a character they can relate to, regardless of their differences from each other, which is as it should be. This is a show where characters actually talk to each other to solve problems. Something that shouldn’t be revolutionary, but probably is.
The art style is very different from Filmation’s crude stylings or from the Boris Vallejo style art that Mattel used as inspiration for the brand. The characters are more integrated also; whereas the ‘80s show simply threw toy lines at us and expected the viewers to get it. The new show gives us time to find out favourites. One thing we find intriguing about the new show (and this is not a spoiler), is the fact that so far, lead villain Catra is lacking her mount, Clawdeen. This is a giant pink lion, and is conspicuous in its absence, though when you consider that similarly family-friendly show Steven Universe has a magical pink lion in it, maybe not.
It seems that nothing can be rebooted without it causing some degree of controversy. Before the show even came out, it was exposed to a now familiar cycle of outrage. This came from older fans who had nostalgic memories of the original cartoon series and toy range. The arguments seemed to stem from the radical change in style. Stevenson’s sparkling tom-boy is a stark and notable different from the ‘Barbie doll with a sword’ from the old Filmation days. The argument seemed to boil down to the idea that an idealised physical form equals battle ready and competent.
Old school She-Ra (both in the ‘80s cartoons and the later comics) is cast in more inhuman and statuesque form, with exaggerated features. This compares to the over-muscled He-Man. Both are power fantasies and are simplified ideas that did the job of marketing toys to kids in the ‘80s. When designing the original toy, Mattel had another interest as well. The She-Ra toy was a dry-run for redesigning their main product, Barbie. Executives at the time were keen to take Barbie’s design away from her origins as the German Bild Lilli doll, a toy intended as a raunchy gift for adults.
For the reboot, Stephenson and Netflix have concentrated on a style that’s more accessible to everyone. The style is cleaner and easier on the eye, as well as being relatable. She-Ra’s new design is an athletic and stylised, as well as sort of achievable. Aimed at children and teens, it shows a healthy body image. Online trolls have broadly ignored this nuance on both sides, who turned this fun redesign of a kids’ show into an argument about gender politics. And this is why some adults can’t have nice things.
She-Ra began life in 1985, as part of Mattel’s range of Masters of the Universe line. The ‘80s was a heady time for fantasy and science fiction focused on children. A change in advertising laws meant that American toy companies could produce TV shows, comics and so on that were effectively extended adverts for their goods. Coupled with the success of the Star Wars toy range, and kids wanted their toys with cool stories attached.
1982’s Masters of The Universe was Mattel’s attempt at cornering this market. The company was better known for sales of fashion doll Barbie at the time, and He-Man and chums enjoyed a similar marketing approach, with accessories and scenery designed to encourage imaginative play. The toy line rocketed off the shelves, being a fun mix of heroic fantasy with some sci-fi tropes for good measure. Magic swords are cool, but magic swords with jet bikes and laser rifles? An easy sell to any child. The toys came packaged with mini-comics and some captivating art. Though the graphic design initially led the storytelling, Mattel let Filmation take the lead.
By 1985 the Masters of The Universe was Mattel’s biggest seller, even going as far to out-strip Barbie in popularity. Realising that their products were only selling to half a market, Mattel called upon the team to produce a companion line to She-Ra. It kind of worked. It mostly supported the existing Barbie line, providing a boost in sales to that line. Retailers claimed confusion; some stocked her with He-Man, others with Barbie.
The line was assisted by its own cartoon series, produced by Filmation in a similar style. Princess Adora, the alter-ego for She-Ra, lived in a much darker world than He-Man. The world of Etheria has been conquered by the Evil Horde, an interstellar empire lead by Hordak. A one-time mentor of He-Man bad guy Skeletor, Hordak was a mix of a great dictator and camp villain. We first met him in the cartoon movie The Secret of The Sword, along with his trusty companion, Force Captain Adora.
It turns out that the Captain was, in fact, He-Man alter-ego Prince Adam’s long-lost twin sister, Princess Adora. She also had access to the same mystical powers as He-Man, and when Princess Adora holds her magical Sword of Protection aloft, she becomes She-Ra, Princess of Power. Her powers were super strength, agility, healing and being kind. Forming a group called ‘The Great Rebellion’, She-Ra fought the evil horde.
Filmation’s approach was to repeat the formula that worked for He-Man. Simple animation, a world filled with monsters and technology, moral at the end. The censors constantly leant on both shows with concerns about violence. Sexism at the time forbade She-Ra from actually doing anything violent or ‘lusty’, which seems ridiculous by today’s standards. The writers, who included Sense8 and Babylon 5 creator J Michael Straczynski, rebelled, by trying to make the show as body positive and feminist as the censors would allow.
The toy range did moderately well; She-Ra was seen as a big sister to Barbie, and it helped that the toy was better proportioned. Market research showed that little girls thought Barbie was pretty, but She-Ra was strong and brave. It’s worth remembering that Barbie was originally designed to hold lots of layers of clothing. Its proportions were based on the German Lilli dolls, which were aimed at adults, so Barbie has a distorted shape, especially compared to the athletic She-Ra.
Unfortunately for the franchise, She-Ra contributed to an over-saturation of toys on the market. Only $60Million worth of She-Ra toys sold, compared to He-Man’s $400Million from the previous year. As sales plummeted, He-Man creator Roger Sweet blamed She-Ra, though the culprits were in fact global recession and too many similar toys on the shelves.
She-Ra also failed to appear in the 1987 Flop-Buster, Masters of the Universe, featuring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man. Though she was in the original script, that movie was such a mess that this is perhaps She-Ra’s mightiest escape.
The character continued to stay in the public consciousness, even after the decline of the He-Man brand, appearing mostly as the cosplay of choice for various Gay Pride marches across the world. (It doesn’t hurt that many of She-Ra’s male allies often wore tight spandex. Her friend Bow, who enjoys revealing heart-shaped panels on his costume, is particularly popular.) There was a failed attempt to revive the line a ‘rock-themed’ toy range in 2006.
The Netflix show is not the first attempt to reboot the franchise. Back in 2014, Mattel and DC hired Guardians of the Galaxy writer Dan Abnett to produce some He-Man and the Masters of the Universe comic books for them. Abnett made the whole thing a little bit cosmic, featuring ancient gods and a conspiracy of sinister serpent men masquerading as heroes. One of his innovations was to cast Princess Adora a champion of Hordak, and to make the character a villain for long, making the inevitable face-turn more satisfying.
In a story arc that is recognisable to fans of Super Girl, this particularly gritty take saw Adora as a hard-ass, conquering lands in Hordak’s name believing that people were better off conquered. After a lot of soul-searching (and beating up a lot of heroes) She eventually goes upon a redemptive arc and becomes the familiar rebel leader She-Ra, though one with considerably fewer allies. Abnett’s version alas didn’t make it past the pages of the comic book (despite a long-rumoured adaptation), but it’s a fun ride.
She-Ra was also planned for the third season of 2002’s Cartoon Network reboot of He-Man. Alas, the show was a little too messy to keep an audience and was shelved during its second season. It seems she has finally found her home on Netflix.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is available on Netflix now. The old ‘80s show can also be found on Netflix – if you really must.
