Near the end of 2017 Netflix announced that they would be working with Dreamworks Animation, the team behind the very popular Voltron: Legendary Defender series on the Netflix streaming app, and Mattel to bring back the 1985 cartoon series She-Ra: Princess of Power.
Since the announcement, some long-term fans have been wondering what the upcoming reboot would look like, especially after the disaster that was the ThunderCats Roar reveal. Thankfully since we know Dreamworks Animation actually has some sort of quality to their animation, fans can be sure that it isn’t getting the CalArts treatment. We got confirmation via twitter about the animation with the first set of preview stills via the Official Twitter page for She-Ra: Princess of Power.
You’ll see the images throughout the rest of this article.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the She-Ra reboot’s showrunner, Noelle Stevenson, explained that while her series will definitely be reflective of her own vision for Adora’s adventures, the show will still cleave very closely to the original plot of She-Ra: Princess of Power:
She’s separated from her family as a baby, she’s sent to another planet, she’s adopted by the villain overlord and raised by him in this evil army. She’s been raised to believe that the villains are doing the right thing and that the Princesses are the evil ones.
And so we follow her as she has this crisis of faith; she’s been very sheltered her whole life and as she starts to experience the world, she realises that there’s more to this than she knew, that maybe there’s a reason they were called the Evil Horde. That maybe they were evil.
Like the original show, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power will focus on Adora’s journey to heroism in a world where all manner of magical creatures and evil robots are locked in an epic war. Even though Adora soon realizes that she’s destined to play a pivotal role in the fight for justice, Stevenson added, the show will also focus on her uncertainty:
As She-Ra, she doesn’t know how to act. This is all new to her, and it’s a little clumsy at first. It’s like an uncomfortable suit. She’s like, “OK, here I am. I’m very glamorous, I’m very strong, people are looking up to me — because I’m very tall.”
The cast for She-Ra: Princess of Power consists of Aimee Carrero as Princess Adora / She-Ra (Young & Hungry), Keston John as Hordak, Marcus Scribner as Bow (Blackish), AJ Michalka as Catra (Steven Universe) and Lorraine Toussaint as Shadow Weaver (Orange is the new Black) and more. There is some good acting/voice over talent working on this show, but unfortunately, it looks like the showrunner isn’t making a She-Ra show, but a Steven Universe clone.
She-Ra: Princess of Power will debut on November 16, 2018, exclusively on Netflix.
Editorial Opinion: And this is where I personally start having issues with the remake. The original She-Ra didn’t have any issues when it came to anything. She was bold, confident, assertive, sexy… Yes, sexy. The original She-Ra was able to do anything that she wanted to. She didn’t have to battle uphill every time she needed to help herself or the people around her. She was more about saving people than anything else, even her enemies. This version of She-Ra looks to lack anything personality wise except being a clumsy, uncertain, self-doubting girl who will rely on others more than herself. In an age where we are meant to be an empowering woman to be confident and have the ability to do anything they want, is this down-trodden, self-doubting girl to be a role model? Nope is the correct answer.
She-Ra: Princess of Power, which is due to debut in November 2018, just doesn’t seem to get it so far. Just take a look at the image above. Then you have Adora, who actually looks somewhat normal and decent for a… 12-year-old? Then there is Bow, who to be honest, isn’t that much of a step up from the LGBT allegory that he was in the original. Yet he’s been hit with the diversity stick for no reason except for inclusion quotas. Then there is Glimmer… Oh for the love of god did they do to Glimmer. For those who don’t know how Glimmer originally looked, click here, then look at this thing we have in the picture. Yes, that is the new Glimmer. 9 foot tall and thicker than 6 brick walls. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with A thick woman, but she looks way out of proportion compared to the other two characters around her… God help me when we see the villains.
Finally, we see the She-Ra herself… Yep… Sorry, but this version of She-Ra does not look anything like a confident woman who is kicking the ass of evil. Once the glow drops off, I’m expecting She-Ra to stumble over when she swings her sword and then makes a joke reminiscent of the DiC original dub of Sailor Moon. The real She-Ra again looked like she has the build of a warrior, someone who can move quickly while being able to swing a sword. This one looks like that basic level cosplayer you’d see at a convention.
At the end of the day, this She-Ra remake might have the original story behind it, which is great, but in the usual problems with today’s society; we have seen the removal of anything threatening, sexual, attractive, confident and just about anything that might actually make the show great. At the moment, what we have is a show that is going to be average at best, then gain a hive-mind twitter following when the showrunner, Noelle Stevenson, comes out on twitter blaming “toxic males” for ruining the show and causing low ratings. Which sucks because the cast is pretty damn good.
