Rein-Toon-Ation: Masters of The Universe: Revelation (2021)

 Netflix's Masters of The Universe: Revelation is meant to be a sequel to the 1983-6 He-Man & The Masters of The Universe, meaning it skips past Mike Young's 2002 reboot, which remade some episodes of the original series. Of course, it completely ignores Jean Chalopin's insipid 1990 New Adventures of He-Man.

The series also explains the origins of Castle Grayskull and other Eternian landmarks and characters that we're all familiar with---and some we didn't know.

Curated and created by filmmaker Kevin Smith, who cast his daughters in supporting roles, Revelation expands the backstory that toy manufacturer Mattel created nearly 40 years ago, including how Skeletor (Mark Hamill) came to be, as well as his nemesis, He-Man (Chris Wood). The all-star cast also includes Sarah Michelle Gellar (Teela), Alicia Silverstone (Queen Marlena), Stephen Root (Cringer/Battle Cat), Diedrich Bader (King Randor), Kevin Conroy (Mer-Man), Susan Eisenberg (The Sorceress), Lena Headley (Evil-Lyn), and Smith's long time collaborator and BFF, Jason Mewes. Original cast member Alan Oppenheimer was brought back, the only one from the 1983 series to do so, but this time as Moss-Man.

Concurrently, Dark Horse Comics is running a 4-issue prequel miniseries, which as of this week has reached the halfway point. Netflix has only released the first 5 episodes of the online series, with the 2nd half to follow later this year.

Let's revisit the teaser:

In the 2002 series, it was established that Skeletor, formerly Keldor, had a humanoid form. Issue 2 of the comic book has him spinning a yarn to Evil-Lyn that suggests that he came from a race of skeleton people. Since Smith is co-writing the book, too, you can tell he's playing the readers in order to sell them on the cartoon. If this doesn't end with Prince Adam & Teela finally hooking up after nearly 40 years, then this will not be worth it in some people's minds.

Rating: B.