FILMATION animation studio APPRECIATION

[Gaastra]

Orko is in the music video and on some of the movie posters but is not in the film! How many kids got upset over that? Also if you saw it on the big screen you got a free mini comic!


Mini comic. (not in the "complete" he-man mini comic collection)

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Movie Record.

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[Nate Grey]

Orko is in the music video and on some of the movie posters but is not in the film! How many kids got upset over that?

Good question. I didn't notice till you said something and I've seen the movie dozens of times.

[Electricmastro]

List of Filmation‘s shows for reference:

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983–1985)

Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–1975)

She-Ra: Princess of Power (1985–1987)

The Original Ghostbusters (1986–1987)

BraveStarr (1987–1989)

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972–1985)

The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (1980–1982)

Josie and the Pussycats (1970–1972)

The Batman/Superman Hour (1968–1969)

The New Adventures of Batman (1977–1978)

Flash Gordon (1979–1982)

The New Adventures of Superman (1966–1970)

Blackstar (1981–1982)

[Gaastra]

Good question. I didn't notice till you said something and I've seen the movie dozens of times.

Yup he was in the music video and showed up on some of the movie posters hung up at theatres and was in the movie mag promoting the film but is not in the movie at all! Talk about false advertising!


Here is the second teaser poster. There's orko! (also the horde are replaced with he-man bad guys who only have a small role and you have to wait over a hour to even get to them!)

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Here is the main poster by the way. Teaser poster was better.

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Gobots did this also with female gobot sparks who is on the movie poster with the main gobots but has a 1 min cameo with no lines! So filmation wasn't the only one doing this. (yes gobots had a big screen movie!)

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[Nate Grey]

Yup he was in the music video and showed up on some of the movie posters hung up at theatres and was in the movie mag promoting the film but is not in the movie at all! Talk about false advertising!

Well, again, good question because was he that popular or did kids, like me when I was a kid, find him irritating and therefore his presence wasn't missed in the cartoon movie? I'd love to know the consensus on that.

Gobots did this also with female gobot sparks who is on the movie poster with the main gobots but has a 1 min cameo with no lines! So filmation wasn't the only one doing this. (yes gobots had a big screen movie!)

I wonder if the exec who thought up the concept ever worked again. "you know what kids really like these days? Rocks. They also like robots. So I'm thinking..."

[Gaastra]

Worked for he-man!




And yes orko was big with kids. (i loved orko as a kid also and had the toy!) That's why he had that big role in the christmas special and he showed up many times on she-ra even without he-man.

The director of the live action he-man movie said he still gets asked where was orko to this day! (gwilder was only made to replace orko in the film by the way!)

When they announced the 2002 series one of the first questions asked was "is orko in it?" so yeah orko still has his fans.

[Nate Grey]

Worked for he-man!

Yes, and I had Stonedar and Rokkon (pity they never made a Granita toy). But that's within an existing toyline. Its own toyline is a tougher sale, as history now tells us.

The director of the live action he-man movie said he still gets asked where was orko to this day! (gwilder was only made to replace orko in the film by the way!)

Yes we know. They couldn't afford to do Orko justice with the tech at the time (or money going toward making it akin to Star Wars, one or the other or both), so they created Gwildor instead.

So thats why when I hear that I'm wondering if they magically were able to use Orko but kept everything else the same would it have turned a profit? Cause the movie had bigger problems besides Orko's absence.

When they announced the 2002 series one of the first questions asked was "is orko in it?" so yeah orko still has his fans.

Fair enough. And I did like the eps where Clawful functioned as his nemesis. Is just every other time...meh.

[Gaastra]

Yes we know. They couldn't afford to do Orko justice with the tech at the time (or money going toward making it akin to Star Wars, one or the other or both), so they created Gwildor instead.

But they could do slimer in ghostbusters and a robot owl in clash of the titans 6 years ago. I'm sure they could have done a puppet orko if they wanted. With that said this is canon films we are talking about.

[Güicho]

I was surprised we were like 4 pages in and He-Man and She-Ra weren't getting all the praise.
It's personally when I tuned Filmation out (was the wrong age for it and aesthetically it did not appeal to me (even less so the toys)) , but I recognize it was kind of the zenith of everything Filmation had been doing and building, that really has their stamp on it, and likely their most successful, self defining and popular franchise for both boys and girls, in longevity, toy license, and across media.
I know they have a tremendous and loyal fan-base, surprised you all took so long to show here.
I can see if you were the right age, the expansive fun character and world building appeal.

Well, again, good question because was he that popular or did kids, like me when I was a kid, find him irritating

Filmation had a couple of those supposed "kid appeal" annoying magical characters, and would give them all that similar tone.
This goes back to their use of Batmite (I know they didn't create him) seemed like they just stuck with that template, and could not let go of the idea, that had to be what kids loved! LOL!.

[Nate Grey]

I was surprised we were like 4 pages in and He-Man and She-Ra weren't getting all the praise.

What's funny is thanks to this thread I've stayed up nights looking at various He-Man/She-Ra wiki. One thing I never realized was that Jitsu only appeared in one episodes ("The Dragon Invasion") and that was it.

When asked about Jitsu, Larry DiTillio said: "Jitsu was a second He-Man generation toy and it depicted an Asian. We never had Jitsu to work on until late in the Series. People were very nervous about depicting 'minority' characters, lest they be taken as a harmful stereotype. So Jitsu made one brief appearance and said nothing. He was the victim of political correctness, you might say."

Makes sense. As a kid I had most of the figures minus some movie characters (I only had Saurod) and the final wave of Snake Men. So I would make Fisto and Jitsu fight as they seemed obvious foes to each other (same gimmick and steeds (Stridor and Night Stalker respectively)). I always wondered why they never fought each other in the cartoon, but, again, makes sense. With that in mind we probably never would have seen Ninjor in animated form, either.

Filmation had a couple of those supposed "kid appeal" annoying magical characters, and would give them all that similar tone.
This goes back to their use of Batmite (I know they didn't create him) seemed like they just stuck with that template, and could not let go of the idea, that had to be what kids loved! LOL!.

What's really weird: She-Ra had, what, FOUR, of these "'kid appeal' annoying magical characters" (Madame Razz, Broom, Kowl, and Loo-Kee) yet none of them were as remotely irritating as Orko. Ok maybe Madame Razz is iffy in that she was a sort of grandmotherly type, but I still count her in that she'd have spells that sometimes didn't work. I think the difference was none of them seemed like an obnoxious idiot like Orko. And maybe idiot is too strong a word, I know he was trying to be useful since his magic was bonkers without his staff, but...he was a bit much.

But, again, maybe I'm in minority. *shrugs* The toy was mad fun though!



"Yaarrr!" Totally how Skeletor sounds. lol

[Gaastra]

Madame Razz, Broom, Kowl, and Loo-Kee

Plus loo-kee's girfriend and the Twiggets.



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I never found orko annoying as a kid at all myself.

[Nate Grey]

Plus loo-kee's girlfriend and the Twiggets.

Right that makes me realize we should probably say "comic relief" instead of "annoying magical creatures" cause the latter kinda muddies the water and the former is more specific. Laa-See (in her lone appearance) and the Twiggets aren't comic relief the same way, if at all, that the four/Orko are. And actually, Loo-Kee's status as comic relief is tenuous, now that I'm thinking about. His gimmick was simply "did you see me during the episode?"

I never found orko annoying as a kid at all myself.

Like I said I could be in the minority, after all he did return (dialed al the way up to 11) in the 2002 reboot. Personally couldn't stand him but ironically he was the toy I played with the most, right up there with Thunder Punch He-Man and Road Ripper.

[MyriVerse]

I never found orko annoying as a kid at all myself.

Battlecat annoyed me more, and even Adam/He-Man was somewhat annoying. But I wasn't a kid.

[Güicho]

Battlecat annoyed me more, and even Adam/He-Man was somewhat annoying. But I wasn't a kid.

Cringer was (and likely supposed to be) annoying , Battlecat however was badass! Maybe one of the few things I liked on the show.

And his transform looked great, although borrowed from these and a bit Tawky Tawny.
They put their own spin on it.


https://i.imgflip.com/2dn8yx.gif


What's funny is the toy he was based on was just a simple repainted and repackaged Mattel Big Jim Tiger

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

To me, the profanity laced story of how the Battlecat character came to be, is hilarious...

The Real Story of Battle Cat (Cringer's Alter Ego)!