The Design of Masters of the Universe

The design of Masters of the Universe is one of the film's best qualities.  The production did well to hire Claudio Mazzoli as a concept artist and William Stout as production designer.  They did a good job of bringing Eternia to life on a small budget.

Castle Grayskull is really transformed from its original design.  I love the epic scale of the building but somehow it is less grand that its animated counterpart.

This is concept artwork by Mazzoli for the Grayskull throne room.

This is concept art for the throne room by Stout.

In the final film you can see a fusion of ideas from both great pieces.  Though it's a great set I don't think it feels like it belongs in the castle.  The exterior and interior don't seem to mesh very well.

This black and white sketch is a concept for He-Man by Moebius.  I think it updates the character nicely.  It gives him a bit of a gladiatorial feel.  The colour sketch is by Claudio Mazzoli and clearly hearkens back to the animated He-Man.  It's very flashy and He-Man appears younger and leaner.

The final sketch is by William Stout.  He successfully combines the best elements of the other two sketches.  This sketch bears a great resemblance to the final realized appearance of Dolph Lundgren as He-Man.

The designers were clearly careful to respect the original animated series and yet, not afraid to make some changes for the translation to live action.  I really would like to have seen what they would have done with more money.  This could have been a huge sci-fi/fantasy blockbuster!

A great source for more information and artwork is He-Man.org.

Masters of the Universe

Masters of the Universe was released in the summer of 1987.  Directed by Gary Goddard, who is known for producing theme park attractions, this film tried to bring the animated series to life without much success.  The film had a guaranteed audience because of the success of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.  The characters and universe are rich but, unfortunately, the budget wasn't.  Masters of the Universe fails to live up to its potential.

The casting is almost the best part of the film.  This is Courtney Cox's first film and also Robert Duncan McNeill's first big credit.  Dolph Lundgren makes a good He-Man.  He really looks the part.  Unfortunately, he doesn't have much to do in the film which is really odd since He-Man really built the franchise.

Frank Langella is a fantastic actor and his performance of Skeletor brought a sense of gravity to the film.

I think my favourite cast member has to be Meg Foster who played Evil-Lyn.  Foster has had a terrific career and she was born to play this role.  Those eyes are just incredible.

Production designer, William Stout and his team did a really good job creating the world of Eternia on a budget.  Kudos also to Michael Westmore's make-up and Julie Weiss' costumes.  It is never easy to translate animation or comic art to live action but I think they managed pretty well.

He-Man's power sword should have been a key prop in the film but, as mentioned above, He-Man doesn't figure that prominently in the story and neither does his sword.  The prop reflects that.  It's fairly lackluster.

I think the original concept behind He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is brilliant and this film could have been but it suffered from too small a budget ($17 million).  The budget forced most of the story to take place on present-day Earth rather than on Eternia.  The film was a little too dark for most kids and a little too cheesy for most adults.  Nevertheless, it has some endearing qualities and can still be fun to watch.  The DVD is nothing special.  It features only a commentary with Gary Goddard.  I would love to see some features on the special effects and design but I doubt it'll happen any time soon.

The Creatures of Masters of the Universe

This post will be a little more sci-fi than usual but, Masters of the Universe sort of bridges the gap between fantasy and sci-fi.  For me, the creatures and monsters in fantasy-adventure films are really important and have been since Harryhausen.  

The special make-up designs for Masters of the Universe were by Emmy and Oscar winner, Michael Westmore.  Westmore is part of the famous make-up artist family of Westmores.  He won his Oscar for 1985's Mask and was nominated for another for Star Trek: First Contact.  He won several Emmys for his work on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Overall, I really like the look of the creatures in this film.  The main problem with them is that most were done as full-face masks which gave the actors trouble with moving their mouths.  As Westmore's technique developed, he fixed this problem for his Star Trek work.

Beast Man is a character from the original animated series so there was a clear guide for his design.  This artwork is by production designer William Stout.  It's pretty faithful to the original Beast Man design and Westmore's make-up is really successfully realized on actor Tony Carroll.

Saurod was a new character for Masters of the Universe but I think he fits really well into the rogues gallery.  This design is by William Stout and the costume and make-up are really strongly realized on actor Pons Maar.  You can barely see the tail in the film but it looks great!

Another new character for the film was the bounty hunter, Karg.  Again, I like Westmore's design.  It's very creepy and the costuming and hair coupled with Robert Towers' sort of androgynous performance make Karg really memorable.  The problem with him was that his prosthetic was all one piece so his mouth doesn't move believably.

The character of Orko was too complex to create on film in 1987 so he was replaced with another new character, Gwildor.  Gwildor was played by the famous Billy Barty and he does a good job getting his performance through a really complicated make-up.  Again, Gwildor looks great in still frame but his mouth doesn't really move when he talks.

Finally, you couldn't make this movie without a great Skeletor.  I like the casting of Frank Langella even though he's totally unrecognizable.  Westmore's make-up is really good but I think I would have preferred to have black around his eyes.  No doubt the filmmakers thought that would deaden his performance too much.

A great source for more information and artwork about this film is He-Man.org.

Eye Candy: Dolph Lundgren in Masters of the Universe

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