Saw the He-Man / “Masters of the Universe” movie on Friday, and it was such a fun romp! I’m not very familiar with the source material – I haven’t watched the show – but I went in expecting a campy good time. It delivered on this, and more, as I constantly felt the budget for this movie felt much higher than what I would expect for a movie of this scope. Which was an absolute treat for an audience-member, but it made me concerned for how this movie might perform at the box office – as while I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, it felt very niche.
The standout for me, though, was Skeletor. I know nothing about this character, but hearing the voice actor’s performance in cinematic theaters was an unfathomable delight. The VA’s performance reminded me of a niche character in Guild Wars 2, called “Mad King Thorn,” who is a trickster, jokey character that is vaguely demonic (he’s associated with the game’s version of “Halloween”). To me, this performance was a mix of a more “unhinged” version of Mad King Thorn, combined with a more “unhinged” version of Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas – or, more accurately, Danny Elfman’s portrayal of the character. Danny Elfman can do wonderfully spooky yet appealing things with his voice, and much of the creative choices used for Skeletor’s voice reminded me of several aspects I love in both Danny Elfman’s voicework and singing, along with the VA for Mad King Thorn.
I appreciated the vaguely flirtatious direction Skeletor was given when referring to He-Man in the movie, haha. The little sigh of longing he does after mentioning He-Man’s thighs was comedic brilliance, the actor has wonderful timing. I want a playlist of only Skeletor’s lines to listen to while drawing, haha.
Oh! Speaking of playlists – I was also shocked by how strong the soundtrack is. It is a very modern take on both 80’s themes, as well as older rock/electric guitars from that era. I was very interested in seeing who the composer was during the credits, and learned it is Daniel Pemberton. Who is also the composer for Project Hail Mary – my favorite sci-fi movie I’ve seen this year so far – as well as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse! I don’t recall the score for those Spider-Man movies too well (I’ll also admit ready bias toward Danny Elfman’s scores for the Raimi Spider-man films), but I remember enjoying the score for Project Hail Mary while watching it in the theater.
I enjoyed He-Man’s score even more, though. It’s a standout to me! I was listening to it while drawing this sketch, haha. Oh! Let me link the playlist here. Give it a listen, you might also enjoy it!
I’ll add it in the full post:
