Preview reel from a segment of the upcoming TOY MASTERS documentary. This section focuses on the making of the live action Masters of the Universe film. www.toymastersmovie.com
@MeeslyMeeron - So many people, just like in the comments below, are just jumping on the bandwagon and crapping on this movie, but really have no idea what they’re talking about or just haven’t taken the time to find their own opinion. I challenge you to go rewatch the movie, because it IS extremely underrated and the special effects, make up, and costumes are away ahead of their time. Besides the scene where he-man’s flying around on the hover board which is obviously fake, (mind you no stuff like that looked real back then anyways), everything else is done amazingly. I’ve heard people make fun of skeletor and his face and say that it doesn’t look at all real, but I beg to differ. It looks incredibly real and better than most masks in movies to this day. His whole costume was amazing. Same with that lizard man. Sorry, I don’t remember his name. And the dialogue was also amazing. When skeletor is making his speeches and talking to he-man after he’s captured, it’s truly amazing dialogue. And his acting is superb as well. I’ve heard even major fans of he-man make fun of and crap on this movie, but it’s just one of those things that once a popular opinion is formed, a bunch of lemmings will just blindly follow suit. It’s kind of pathetic how people are afraid to have their own opinion even when it’s totally obvious that what they’re saying isn’t true. I commend you MeeslyMeeron for forming your own opinion and telling the truth about this movie.
Movie still holds up pretty well, all things considered. I had no idea the production was this screwed up and cheap. They somehow still managed to mostly pull it off.
Success???? Don't care about that!! Soundtrack! Special effects! Story! Low budget or not, one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE movies!! SHAME on you Cannon!! There had to be much more support from you for Gary and his team!
Much of the Earth scenes were shot in my hometown. Spend many nights hanging out around the set watching them blow things up. So much fun to watch HeMan skysurf though the streets of Whittier.
Yep i remember my dad telling me as a kid that the scene where there at the music store was in whittier and he would have to drive by there from work man i miss being a kid 😢
personally, i think the soundtrack AND langella saved this movie from being completely nonexistent. the soundtrack was very 'epic' feeling and langella really kept the story going.
Why do people give Dolph crap about his performance? He did great IMO. 99% of He-Man in any movie is going to be the look. And who had that look of He-Man other than him, come on now? Frank obviously rocked this role and made this movie pretty good IMO. I still enjoy it.
I can tell you why Dolph got crap he may have looked like he man but he sure as shit didn't act like him. but frank rocked it as old bone face man at arms and teela were god oh god just horrible the writing was shit the plot not the greatest.hell the comic adaption of this movie was wayyyy better than this pile of shit. hell I could the making of for this movie in two seconds . ya we made a space movie where people from plant come to earth. what to do call it well we will call flash Gordon . nah kids won't see that we will call it masters of the universe we will rake up the cash
I absolutely commend the hell out of this director for working under such conditions. And hearing the true story of that eerie "lights out" battle between He-Man and Skeletor, dude! That entire fight was freaking amazing and so unquie. When Skeletor yelled "Yes! Let this be our final battle!!" Bro, as a kid back in the 80s, you FELT that shit. I know I am not the only one who liked this incredibly undderated movie. The set, art and costume design we're honestly unreal!
This movie is awesome. Wish it could have got put together better because there was potential throughout the entire script to have been gold. Wish they would do a sequel
+KANE HELLZ It is awesome. I know people who don;t like it cuz it's NOT the cartoon...lol hogwash It's great on it's own. If you make a live action property EXACTLY like the source material - then what's the point of interest in that material ever again?
+Bronze Gremlin I'd love a sequel. They could honestly just start the cartoon story from this point. I see he-man walking eternia kung fu style...helping out the little towns, farmers & anyone in trouble...just roaming eternia with battlecat...as skeletor has been rotting in snake mountain, practically powerless still from the battle at grayskull (feeding like a vampire on the life force of his snake men servants to stay 'alive'). He has a plan to take over grayskull and get revenge on he-man and the sorceress by using the other broken cosmic key (being fixed by trapjaw) to sneak into the dragon's land and steal the dragonfire from granamire. Unbeknownst to him though evil lynn has been using the already fixed key to travel to the frightzone, meeting with her sister Shadoweaver... Without going into too much detail - basically dolph turns the mantle of he-man over to prince adam...you use the same story of adora from the cartoon only having evil lynn and shadoweaver being the ones who conspired to steal the baby...regardless she-ra is the sequel film and there you have a trilogy to sell lots of dvds and new toys with and we get a sequel...yay! Otherwise they'll reboot it and it will be lame...
+KANE HELLZ no sequel or reboot....as weve seen alrdy from other movies....it just doesnt work. the time is different, the cast is different... you get 1 chance to get it right...
KANE HELLZ Agree but it still could have used the whole effects crew at ILM and not just Richard Edlund and John Williams doing the score not the guy who scored Rocky
Frank Langella did for Skeletor in this movie what raul julia did for Bison in the Street Fighter movie. Took what would've been a mediocre to bad movie and at least made it a fun guilty pleasure.
no money, constant pressure and bad reason to make a movie, considering that, this movie is a master piece, it reminds me of my childhood, special effects don't matter to a child, kids have to be amazed and emotionally involved
I know that Gary Goddard will never hear me, but I just want to thank him so much for making my childhood a happy time. This movie was the defining work of art (and to hell with those who disagree), of the kind of art people call camp because they don't know what accidental sincerety of good fun and kindness is. I never liked the cartoons and toys that much, but I have always loved the film.
Meg foster's eyes are hypnotic and she is perfect for Evil Lyn. Frank Langella is a perfect Skeletor with the best lines in the movie. I wonder who the original actor was that the director mentioned who was going to play He Man before they replaced him with Dolph Lundgren
I used to love this movie when i was a kid, when i watched again I didn't love it that much, "well it's not great but is not that bad" I though. But after watching this, and reading about the really really low budget this movie had (less than half of a quarter that any shitty action film gets these days, including inflation) really puts things into perspective, it's quite an amazing movie if you think it was made literally with two bucks. And of course Frank Langella performance gets better everytime I watch it :)
The producers at Canon were idiots. If you're going to do a movie, either support it or don't. At least I know now why the ending was so disappointing. And why the special effects were so disappointing. Canon didn't give them the budget to do decent ones. Dolph was completely disappointing as He-man; he brought nothing to the part. It was Dolph in a silly outfit; that was it. The little gnome was pointless too; either have Orco, or don't have anyone. The script needed to be much better than it was for the movie to have worked. Kind of a sad story, all the way around...
Also, they should have called it "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", or not done it at all. Whoever made that call was out to lunch as well......
I really liked this film as a kid. I usually end up watching it anytime its on. I probably assumed when i was younger that it was more successful then it was. Skelator made it tho, he was unforgettable, the soundtrack was pretty good and all the villains were really good too. Sure you can see where they cut a few corners, but it was a bit ahead of its time
+RTG2000 I agree, Universal wouldn't have backed out on paying for half of the movie. And Universal would have made sure it was perfect, they more times than not get their money's worth, which is more than I can say for Cannon. For what it was, it was great, but it could have been a lot better.
The thing that really killed this movie is it came out too late. He-man was popular in 83-85 this movie came out in 87. The cartoon had already been pulled from the air and there was no cartoon network for syndication back then so when the big networks canned the series it was done, Done. The toys were all gone too so when this movie came out the series was pretty much forgotten about at that point. They had misjudged their target audience that 6 - 9 year olds have short attention spans. If this movie came out in 85 and nothing else changed it would have been a hit. If the studios are going to reboot He-Man like they did Transformers and GI-Joe they need to do it now while 80s retro is still hot. If they wait 5 or 10 more years the generation of adults who grew up in the 80s will be too old to care.
FINALLY - it's getting some recognition! i'm so thankful i'm an 80's kid. First saw it Boxing Day 1987, i was 12 and it remains a favourite today! I loved an interview ( on YT actually ) where Frank Langella says that Skeletor was one of his favourite roles. He was absolutely sublime in the film, as was Meg Foster. Can't wait to see the documentary and it's great to see & read so much fondness for a much underrated 80's classic :)
Cannon were notoriously cheap skate bastards. They essentially thinly spread out a budget between this and Superman 4. At least Masters was a far better film than that pile of shit. They should have went to Universal or another studio.
Warners are working on the MOTU film for a release on bluray at the moment. The telecine artist at Warners confirmed the other week. Its getting restored, some of the optical shots are in a bad state.
I just..for all the cheesy effects in this picture,I just take this movie to heart and love it so.My personal fav scene is the one early on when Skeletor is addressing the citizens of Eternia by projection.So theatrical.I love it.
This was the first film i saw in the cinema. Watched it again the other day and forgot how good it is! This also has a great performance from Frank Langella. I always could take or leave the story with the Cosmic Key but the He-Man/Skeletor story is brilliant! The film got slated but this video explains the constraints the crew were under. If they had the funds this could have been a new Star Wars.
It wasn’t only his monologue but his mannerisms were absolutely perfect. Flawless performance. And remember in the cartoon Skeletor had never become master of the universe. It was an AWE moment!!
The amount of people (in this comment section) who lack listening comprehension skills.....is *ANNOYING* . A sad commentary on our culture. The actual Director (Gary Goddard) gives the average dummy EXACT, BEHIND-THE-SCENES account (revelations I didn't know about, until this documentary) on the events of "Masters of the Universe". Yet, low-comprehension dummies are STILL complaining about "why wasn't this in there?" "They should've done it, like this". Because, of course production had the budget for that (dummies 🙄). Anyway, I'm glad "Masters of the Universe" continued to thrive on VHS, cable and DVD for 30 years. Other films which failed at the box office, yet became successful (due to VHS rentals and cable): "Labyrinth (1986)"...."Half Baked (1998)"...."The WIZ (1978)"....."The Five Heartbeats (1991)".....
Despite all the aforementioned problems, the final nail in the coffin was its release date: AUGUST, 1987. This should've been a MAY release.....before we got out of school. In the summer of 1987, THESE classics preceded "MOTU": "PREDATOR"....."ROBOCOP".....and "THE LOST BOYS". By August, families spent their budgets on camp, previous films, and are getting ready for "Back to School" shopping. Although WE (my brothers, my Aunt and I) saw it in theaters, opening weekend......it should've been a Memorial Day release.
I know that a lot of people hate on this movie. But I love it! There was a movie critic here in Az. the late Bill Rose. He wasn't a Masters of The Universe fan, but he loved this movie! He gave it 5 stars. This movie is excellent! My only regret was Mattel didn't produce an Air Centurian action figure.
I was 6 years old when it came out. My parents didn’t allow to watch it at the cinema. But they recorded it on VHS, when it aired on TV. I loved this movie wholeheartedly ever since, no matter it’s flaws.
Frank Langella was only saving grace of an otherwise not great film. The director tried too but he couldn’t get it going budget. Courtney is beautiful I liked her character as a kid. Poor director pulling plug like that.
Can't help but wonder what this could have been, without all the hiccups. I mean...doesn't matter to me, technically. I was born in 83, so by the time the movie came out, I was READY. I'll always have fond memories of it, and Langella as Skeletor was the archetype for any villain I had made up back in the day. Still one of my top favorites. Nonetheless, my adult self is still interested in what this story could be, if it were handled right and devoid of all the background shenanigans that tore this movie apart.
I have always loved this movie! It seems that from the beginning, due to all of the studio and toy company issues, it was destined to be dismissed by many people. Now that the movie has a cult following and He-Man is somewhat nostalgic, I would love to see it remade into a darker, more adult version of the story - perhaps set years after the events of the original film. My one condition would be that Frank Langella reprise his role as Skeletor. His portrayal made Skeletor, in my opinion, one of the best sci-fi villains of all time.
I had seen one episode of He-man before I stumbled on this movie on RU-vid last year at uni. I found the movie really entertaining and fun in the same way as The Princess Bride. Low budget sure but you can see everyone cares and is putting their all in and so you care and suspend reality.
He- Man was already played out by 2 years when this came out. Me an my mom went to see it with tongue in cheek, as a kid I knew it was going to be bad. But no one expected Frank to be so awesome. To see him on the big screen opening weekend was so wicked.
Great movie, one of my fav as a kid and is one of the most under rated superhero movies of all time. The ending with the universe in her hands always choked me up even as a kid.
Well.. I'm not an english-native speaker (American, British, Australian etc.) but Dolph's accent has to be described by me anyway as very slight.. for me it's barely noticable (probably different for english-native people).. at any rate if that is considered having an ACCENT, then I do not know what I have.. fuck :P
***** Right. I have no problem understanding what Dolph is saying. But its his awkward delivery of the lines that is the issue. I believe the subject of Dolph's accent is a smoke screen to cover up what they really think: That they feel his performance was bad.
They should have used more familiar characters from the He-man universe. I remembered watching this as a child and was confused...where was the He-man I watched on cartoons who was this dude running around with a cape? Where was battle cat, orco,trap jaw, stratos...prince Adam......The film was fun on VHS but to this day it still has no semblance of heman in its soul. They should have called it Masters of the. Keyboards or something
I remember watching this movie as a kid and having the WTF look on my face when they took the He-man characters looked nothing the cartoon then they brought them into our world. Those are decisions that the studio executive clowns make that completely destroys what would be successful franchises. They did it with other properties, because they believe kids would love to see those changes, but it's not true.
As a latin american Kid, this movie had a plus, it had the voices from the actual show for the dub, so it gave a really nice transition from the cartoon to live activon. You could feel the acting (in the voice) of the voice actors giving their soul to put the things like the cartoon.
This all sounds more like apologies and excuses, rather than a "making of" documentary. I loved the movie as a kid and thought it was so cool, even though it was different from the cartoon.
An amazing movie. One of the underrated MASTERPIECES in science fiction. A true CLASSIC with phenomenal acting and storytelling. Are the effects dated? Maybe. Do they look honestly look fantastic? 100% YES. CLASSIC RICHARD EDLUND EFFECTS. GHOSTBUSTERS AND THIS MOVIE HOLD UP VISUALLY BECAUSE OF HIS STUDIO.
Wow, very interesting, and insightful. I've always loved this movie, very much. Great childhood memories of me and my grandfather going to see it on opening day, back in 1987. R.I.P. grandpa.
Ok, look, no offense to you guys that liked it, because I'm glad some of you got entertainment out of this. But this movie SUCKS. I remember growing up through the 80's with MotU, Conan, and all the sword and sorcery stuff that exploded that decade. MotU was my first love and I'd take it's weird, Barsoom-ian vibe over 4 mutant turtles or some robot cars any day. This movie let me down so much I remember trying to force it out of my mind. I wish they'd stuck closer to those pack-in comics. :(
Was Masters of the Universe a great movie, no. Was it a terrible movie, no. I always have a great respect for directors who have to deal with demading studios and have to overcome a multitude of setbacks. When you take in to account everything that Gary Goddard had to deal with and that he still made a pretty decent film, you gotta give him props. Also, the 2004 version of The Punisher, I give director Jonathan Hensleigh a ton of credit for that film. Read up on what that guy had to deal with
Trust Canon to stiff Mattel and the director - then theres the simple fact kids had moved onto other things, weren't M.A.S.K and CENTURIONS big toys in 1986? Thats all that happened. Had this film come out at least 2 years earlier, when the toyline was riding high, it would have probably been made with an immense or more appropriate budget for the time and would have been the sort of film we all hoped for...oh well.
This film, compared to the basic story line of Masters Of the Universe, was bad and cheesy. The only saving grace was Frank Langella as Skeletor. The film should have stayed in Eternia. I have a few films that Canon produced in the '80s and they were mediocre to just plain bad: 80s style. So many films in production at once, not only did they not make a good Masters of the Universe film, they also single handedly put the nail in the coffin for Christopher Reeve's Superman films as well.
THIS IS A MOVIE THAT IS TIMELESS AND CAN BE ENJOYED BY SEVERAL GENERATIONS. Though the special effects are nothing like those today, they work well. Some movies don't need improvement. War or the Worlds (1953), E.T., It's a wonderful Life, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Ben Hur. All these did well, continue to do well, and will do well in the future without special effect "improvements". Masters of the Universe has been and will likewise.
It may not be the greatest film, but I respect the fact that they tried (and Skeletor was the whole reason I enjoyed this movie as a kid)...truth be told though, it sounds as though this movie was doomed from the beginning. I can only hope someone out there will see its potential and give MotU the movie it deserves...anyone agree?
Gary Goddard got screwed by Canon and somewhat by Mattel Im surprised the picture is this good.Gary ,Frank Langella ,Dolph Lundgren,Meg Foster and the rest of the company did a a brilliant job with what they had . people bitch and moan always why wasnt this set in Eternia >> thats because their was no money to do it in Eternia let alone CGI back then ,
I liked the movie, although I wish they did stay on Eternia instead of going to Earth. But hey: Meet Tom Paris from the USS Voyager and Monica from Friends/Claudia from Misfits of Science :D I hope one day we get a true He-Man movie. You just have to take Conan, throw in some Star Trek and Lord of the Rings and you're done. And make it epic or let it be.
The problem with a movie like this is that it is not made by the fans, if the studio was smart they would hire a panel of about 10 fanatics to help in developing any type of movie of this caliber
Yeah this was Frank's film, but the whole crew did their best to make a decent film with Cannon and Mattels annoying interfering. I still love the film to this day, but it could have been much better had the time and budget been available.
oh yeah incase you didnt know the director of g.i joe is directing a reboot of he-man & the guy who wrote script for expendables 2 wrote new Masters of the Universe script..apparently its mind blowing..no news on casting though :-s
Many people complain about this movie saying "For a Hee-Man movie, he's hardly in the movie" If they would take time to read the title it's "MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE" Hee-man's name is not mentioned in the title. I loved this movie as a kid.
No, what the director was saying is that there was one guy who tested fir the voice over who was flawless, but Canon wanted to stick with Dolph. Dolph was always going to be the body and the credited actor,
Is a good movie! we must to see the year and all the possibilities, exist another TV series with a bad movie and we dont say nothing, but this movie is good, having the time of making, is good.
the movie was OK when i was a kid...but from a different perspectvie today. it is really bad!! they could have made it so much better! more characters and show way more things from eternia
I love this movie even though it's not good as it could been but back in the day it was a hard to make good masters of the universe movie. Now they have CGI and it would be a cool to see New Motu movie. 1987 movie they at least tryed.
Y'know, for an 80's movie based on a cheesy cartoon series that bordered on shitty (I loved the series but let's be honest here, it was mediocre at best when it wasn't downright shitty) I think this film was pretty damn good, for what it was.
This movie was hardly flawless, but I don't think it gets the appreciation it deserves for how respectfully it handled a licensed property, especially on such a small budget. Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and Dragonball Evolution all had roughly double the budget of this movie, so chew on that for a minute. Let's not bring up the likes of The Last Airbender, Catwoman, Bay's Transformers, or the Hanna-Barbera adaptations. It's just sad that today people will write off this movie without a second thought, and then turn around and give Michael Bay's robot circus parody the benefit of the doubt. I mean, I can watch Evil-Lyn and Skeletor in this movie today and STILL feel like I'm watching Evil-Lyn and Skeletor. That means a freakin' ton! All of the female characters' outfits were dialed down on sex appeal too, which I give the costume designers mad props for. THIS is how you adapt characters for the stage while remaining tasteful, and not compromising their personalities.
KillYounglings for the time it was the best..Only thing i missed was orko that little elf thing gave me the creeps but still spot on loved it wish i could get it on dvd..
Okay, well I will never forget having the biggest crush on Courteney Cox after watching this movie.... She was breathtakingly gorgeous. Now she looks more like Skeletor...
I had mixed emotions about that movie when I was young. I didn't think Lundgren was right for the part but couldn't think of any other person. I missed Orco and thought Gwildor was a cheap substitute. Skeletor was obviously a guy in heavy makeup (though I agree Langella and the music are what made the movie not totally suck). I had no idea why they changed Grayskull so much or why the movie took place on Earth. I thought Duncan and the characters original to the cartoon were also grossly miscast. In retrospect, they should have done what they did for the original Transformers movie; a cartoon with the original crew at the helm and a bigger budget.
it's true that in 2017 or 2018 another heman movie's coming out why you think its been so many years and they haven't maded another one do you think they made a mistake of not going with warner brothers intead of that other company that ended up making them fork all the money and broke out on them at the last minute???
Se puede sacar la cara de Skeletor y poner algo más real en lugar de la carrera? Alguien puede hacerlo? Yo intenté con davinci 18 pero no pude. Son muchísimos fotogramas y mi PC es un dinosaurio. Alguien me dice como hacerlo?
+Rob Brown Yeah. I got that it was a segment on an upcoming documentary. but I haven't found any official DVD release of said documentary and was wondering if it had been put with anything else or combined with other documentaries as a bonus feature of some kind. but thanks for the input.
+Aaron Nicewonger Gotcha! I'd only just seen this today, as the link was in a discussion thread for this film on "How Did This Get Made?". It's the movie they'll be talking about in this week's episode.
Why are they quite mean about Dolph? He is iconic in that role. The physique alone is phenomenal. It’s He-Man not King Lear. It doesn’t require RSC standards of acting!
I remember this movie when I was a kid, and even as a kid, I realized what a huge departure this was from the cartoon show. And as bad as I think this movie is, I still enjoy it. I love the music, and I love Skelator!
How many movies nowadays feature one naval and it belongs to a dude. Everyone else was covered up. Today’s movies are just soft porn flicks. So... investors were Mattel, from the merchandise angle, and GolanGlobus are two Jewish guys but the documentary says Cannon were the other half of the money. I remember watching this in a Cannon cinema in England. So did GolanGlobus own Cannon?