They tried to bring He-Man into more modern times when they made the show Skeleton Warriors, which mixed magic alongside technology in a neo-mythological world. Created mostly to sell toys the idea was pretty damn cool but sadly it was never able to take off. Whether you enjoyed the cartoon or the toys let’s look back on the animated series.
Narrated by an awesome for the time CG Skull that gave us a brief rundown before and after in a rather creepy yet wise voice totally set the mood for each episode before it even began. The show has a bit of a dark premise where the bad guys take over and in this case because of the Lightstar crystal they become skeletons that can regenerate and it’s up to the ex-Royal family to make things right.
The premise of the show is rather interesting and full of potential for a bunch of stories to dwell and flesh out this universe from Prince Joshua who by betraying his family becomes skeleton/human hybrid to the fact that in these world creatures with multiple arms, werewolves, talking apes among other things exist. Mortal Kombat would be proud by the diversity in the species available to play with here. The fact that it has both magic and technology to mess around with as well gives it plenty of opportunities.
Sadly this is where the show mostly fails as it is written like a rather basic 90s cartoon and didn’t really break any ground. Even the better written episodes fail in comparison to other 90s shows doing similar themes like X-Men The Animated Series. Being a product of its time hurts it a lot as there is so much more that it could’ve been done. That’s not saying it’s particularly bad, it’s a decent 90s cartoon, it just doesn’t have much for it to stand out.
Sadly the show did not get past its first and only season but we can at least say that the show did conclude the biggest plot point by the end of it, sure it leaves the story open for more but counting it didn’t happen we can leave happy knowing that it at leas got a happy ending of sorts, that’s more than many shows could ask for.
With such a deep mythology in just 13 episodes and other licensed material this is a show that we need to get a revival for. Sadly it doesn’t seem like it’ll ever come to be as no one really remembers it or sees the potential. This show done now or hell done in comic form would really turn some heads.
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