2023-07-20 06:41:11
Cult hero of toy giant Mattel in the 1980s, Musclor saw Netflix abandon the feature film project altogether.
Impossible to start this news without giving in to the call of nostalgia, by explaining this immense cultural phenomenon of the 1980s. Like the excellent documentary The Toys That Made Us had detailed it on Netflix, the manufacturer Mattel experienced a key turning point between the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. One of its competitors, Kenner, carried out the heist of the century by joining forces with Star Warswith a range of toys with intergalactic success.
Eager to use a different universe, the builder, which has cult licenses such as Barbie or Hot Wheels in its ranks, seeks to renew itself. The success of Conan the Barbarian is a source of inspiration, but its rights are considered too expensive and its world too violent. A golden opportunity then opened up, with the repeal of a law prohibiting the production of cartoons around a range of toys in the USA.
Masterstroke of the universe…
Very quickly, Mattel embarked on the creation of He-Man (Musclor), a character drawing his power from a sword allowing him to acquire superhuman strength, against the forces of evil led by the infamous Skeletor. Masters of the Universe were born, with a whole marketing logic, ambitious and innovative.
The range of figurines uses an almost systematically identical body model, reducing costs, and the promotion is done with comics and especially a cartoon created by the Filmation studio. The success is overwhelming, both for the television program and for the derivative products, even relegating Barbie behind him, excuse the little.
… and a blow to the ancestral skull
In the cinema, the only attempt to adapt the adventures of Musclor and his tiger Gringer was a resounding flop in 1997, with Dolph Lundgren or Courteney Cox in this absolute shipwreck. Since then, the very strong nostalgic aura around the license has often been a source of rumors of adaptations, until the day when Netflix announced that it was launching in early 2022, while unveiling a new anime project.
Scheduled to headline Kyle Allen (West Side Story, The In Between) and brothers Adam and Aaron Nee (The Lost City) to the production, the film will never see the light of day, according to information from Variety. In the operation, the broadcaster would have already lost at least 30 million dollars, but avoids paying the 180 million claimed for the overall budget. Mattel is therefore looking for a buyer, while, paradoxically, Barbie takes all the light in the cinema. The revenge of a blonde, in short.
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