Written by TAKE the CHALLENGE!
A terrific group of He-Man fans have taken the challenge to watch all 130 Episodes of the 1983 Filmation Cartoon Series “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe“ for 130 days straight, one episode per day. They are the RE-WATCH-A-THON-ERS!
Be sure to check out the RE-WATCH-A-THON celebratory memento shirts and mugs (long sleeve shirts options are available too).
Today’s Episode is:
Orko’s New Friend
| PRODUCTION NUMBER | EPISODE TITLE | DIRECTOR | WRITERS | PREMIERE DATE | RE-WATCH-A-THON DATE |
|---|
| MU109 | “Orko’s New Friend” | Ernie Schmidt | Shelley Karol, Warren Greenwood | November 8 1984 | Mar 15 |
| Synopsis: Orko’s old friend Squonge from the Trollan Academy of Magic comes to visit. This Trollan has a tendency to tell tall tales. When he is the first to notice the arrival of the dangerous Slavemaster on Eternia, nobody believes him. | |||||
CLICK HERE to Watch on YOUTUBE (or watch it embedded below:)
OUR REVIEW:
An Eternian take on the classic fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", this tale (while not awful) doesn't do anything extremely well either. The new villain the Slave Master feels better suited for "The New Adventures of He-Man" series than this show. (5/10)
Comment, Review and Discuss below:
Tomorrow’s Episode is: “The Problem with Power”
I have never really liked this episode, and is probably one of the ones I’ve only watched start to finish a couple of times. Additional Trollans usually aren’t a good sign, and it doesn’t help that we don’t get a transformation. I will say that I’m impressed by the animation- a lot of new He-Man animations and brand new background characters, it’s a shame they really started making strides in this area late in the series.
The only reason I can remember The Slavemaster is because he reminds me of the Filmation Ghostbusters villain, not for anything he actually does in the episode. The goofy borderline dumb robot sidekick has his moments though.
Wasn’t expecting good when I came to an episode with Orko’s name in the title, but color me blind something interesting actually happens. Once Da Sound Of Da Police come in, suddenly I’m a bit more invested.
I feel from a writing standpoint, if they wanted a “don’t lie/boy cried wolf" moral for the kid viewers, they told, but not shown enough at the beginning to hit home the message enough. Orko just says Squonge is a lier, he comes in on a non-traditional Trollian way, he tells one exaggerated tall tale no one believes and brushes off as a joke and the episode just goes on.
I feel like it was intentional for the show to lie itself by calling this episode “Orko’s New Freind", when said friend already knows him well. Think that’s funny if it’s the case.
I swear Filmation made so many awesome designs for one-off characters that Mattel never (and I’m betting still hasn’t even with the long run of Classics) made into action figures. Slavemaster is one of them, though I’m betting his name alone never put him on their radar.
Squonge himself I was a bit confused for a minute if he was a girl because Erika Schemer gives her identical Loo-Kee voice to a character who looks gender neutral.
Me when I see another Filmation Trollian design:
2 stars. Great background character designs and the slave master is one of filmations best. But it’s another Trollan guest episode with nothing super interesting happening.