Written by Since this animated series’ debut in 2002 (exclusively on the Cartoon Network in the U.S.), fans of the MOTU reboot “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” have been dreaming of a higher resolution home video release worthy of the series.
What originally was a cartoon created in the digital age (where the traditional animation cels were a thing of the past), “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” felt prime for a high definition digital remaster, a perfect candidate for a substantial upgrade over the average picture quality that was displayed via the DVD and streaming releases before it.
So naturally, fans were excited when – not one, but two – Blu-Ray releases were finally announced and slated for a Fall 2026 release (to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the brand’s big budget movie.)
However, for some, that excitement quickly changed to disappointment once they bore witness to other fan’s screenshots… or received these new editions themselves, placed a disc in their Blu-Ray player and pressed play.
He-Man & Masters of the Universe: Complete Series (2002-2004) (Steelbook):
Beginning with the new steelbook blu-ray release from Alliance Home video, while the steelbook itself is extremely pretty to look at, some were turned off by the complete lack of special features of this release, especially when compared to its DVD predecessors.
Unfortunately, while this lack of special features is frustrating, this is a sign of the times and not a surprise in today’s era (of what is considered a lower tier remaster.) In addition, the lack of bonus content could be found on the product description at the time of ordering as well, so this bare bones release is disappointing, yes, but a surprise, no.
What was a surprise, however, to many consumers was the picture quality of the discs, a presentation ranging from barely improved to sometimes worse than the lower resolution DVDs.
Many disgruntled consumers have surmised this new Blu-Ray set from Alliance Home Entertainment is simply an upscaled copy of the DVD, essentially a Blu-Ray transfer that contains all the problemetic bad aliasing and ghosting artifacts from before, but now amplified in higher quality. (Did we mention the Steelbook was pretty?)
The result is a Blu-Ray set being labeled as a shameful product that was not fit to be released to consumers, with many customers returning their purchases and demanding refunds.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002) (Vol. 1)
Then there is the Plaion Pictures release, a set that is reportedly Region Free, but not permitted to be sold to customers in the United States.
Split into two volumes (with Volume 2 yet to be released), this particular version shows a lot more love to consumers when it comes to supplemental materials.
However, some fans in the United States have found this content to be less than ideal, because much of the bonus material is written in German including the guides to navigate through.
And while the picture quality looks absolutely beautiful at first glance in comparison to the previous DVD releases…
…the AI Upscaling used to make the image look so impressive has actually come at a cost: There is sacrificed detail, like missing rivets on He-Man’s belt in this one comparison…
…to Battle Cat missing stripes on his tail.
.Based on this one comparison, we can only surmise the series from Plaion Pictures is riddled with missing details, mistakingly cleaned up by a misguided artificial Intelligence that can’t differentiate between finer detail and imperfections.
So what now?
When it comes to getting our hands on a glorious blu-ray remaster of the 200X He-Man cartoon, should fans of the series save their money and stick to their DVDs instead?
Perhaps,especially if there are no masters preserved in storage for this show, and the DVDs (or comparable files in similar resolution) is the highest quality available for these studios to remaster…
…which would explain a lot.
We’ll see you next time.