"By the power of Grayskull.... I have the power!"
Because of the power of Netflix, I was able to introduce my children to some of the more "classic" cartoons that I loved as a young girl. I say "classic" because saying "old" makes me feel uncomfortable. Scrolling through the Kids section of Netflix (which is organized poorly, in my opinion), I came across He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and its girly counterpart, She-Ra: Princess of Power.
I admit, I was excited about re-watching them and curious to see if they would hold up, thirty-odd years later. As many will remember, binge-watching used to only occur when your parents would let you rent the same VHS tapes over and over again. If you really loved the show, you could rewind it and then watch the video again in the morning before you had to return it. Under no circumstances could you return the VHS late otherwise your mom will not be happy.
Let me be clear: my kids did not want to watch these cartoons. At all. They looked dumb, old and boring from the video clip. Nevertheless, I persisted and we watched the first episode of He-Man and She-Ra and I am pretty sure that they hated it. I kind of loved it. But, yes, they were utter terrible. So, so, bad. At one point, my almost five-year-old daughter asked me why they looked like they were robot-talking. I tried to explain something about animation and "back in the day" but I don't think it helped. My son could not understand why there were comets, aliens, skull-monsters, swords, flying cars and talking green tigers, all at the same time. I couldn't explain.
There were so many things that I forgot about. Castle Grayskull is part of the good guys lair; when Prince Adam activates the power of the sword, he becomes more tanned as he loses his clothes; He-Man looks like a wig on a steroid action figure. The graphics are terrible, the plot is ridiculous and I am dumbfounded as to why everyone is wearing leotards and headbands. But She-Ra has a unicorn Pegasus, called Swift Wind, so even if the animation sequences are recycled fairly frequently for a twenty-minute episode, we may be watching it again because who doesn't love a flying horse?
I have a few questions still left unanswered: before the She-Ra spin-off came out, there was no mention of a mysterious twin sister. What kind of parents forget that one of their babies were stolen by a red-eyed skull, cyborg-type creature? Also, I forgot that Adora, (She-Ra's alter ego), was actually raised by the evil Horde.
Luckily, the Sword of Protection, found her and then she became the mighty She-Ra. It is a ridiculous show that I smiled with nostalgic guilt as each strange, half-familiar creature limped across on the screen. Meanwhile, my kids complained incessantly and wanted to watch Teen Titans Go instead.
For better or worse, all of the silliness that we used to watch is back in some way and available for ridicule. Somethings may be better off left in the recesses of nostalgic joy rather than watching them in the cold, harsh light of the present. But, sometimes there are shows that are worth a re-watch. Does anyone else have an embarrassing favourite that either holds up to scrutiny (or really does not hold up)?
