Review: She-Ra & The Princesses of Power (2018)

The new Netflix version of the 1980’s cartoon/toy-merchandising spin-off of He-Man makes zero apologies for its origins. There is an obvious affection for the original that exudes out through the colours and characters and plot. Yes, it is extraordinarily much, much, much better than the original in all aspects but in a way that makes the original more likeable.

This is still a kid’s cartoon about a teenager who can magically turn into a mighty hero and smash bad guys with a magic sword in a setting that wobbles between fantasy and science-fiction. The difference is that the original was an almost accidental combination of conflicting visions and confused purposes, which some clever souls (such as J. Michael Straczynski) turned into something sort of sensible, whereas Noelle Stevenson’s version has balanced those contradictions into something that retains all the magic and increased the show’s inherent charm.

The basic plot is the same. On a weird SF/Fantasy planet, Adora is an unwitting part of an evil army who defects to the rebellion and in the process discovers she can turn into a magical warrior (complete with extended transformation sequence and battle-cry). The updated version weaves in tropes from more contemporary young-adult genre movies, including young people raised in psychologically abusive surroundings to become warriors who have to discover their own paths. That doesn’t require shoe-horning much into the basic premise of She-Ra, it just requires thinking through the existing premise of the character.

Likewise the many interpretations of the sub-text of a story about a young woman who abandons the social assumptions and constraints of one life to adopt the freedom and new friendships of people she had been brought up to think of as evil, was always there in the original She-Ra cartoon, it’s just now brighter and clearer and told using characters who are allowed to show greater depth of characters. That story could be taken as an allegory about sexuality or moving from a particularly oppressive religious or cultural background, or just about growing up.

Having said that there are an awful lot of rainbows. Which is great on multiple levels, not least of which is the 1980’s colour scheme. There’s also robots and a unicorn pegasus with revolutionary ideals and a cast of magical princesses — which is pretty much what you would want out of a She-Ra reboot.

The villains though, is where the show really excels. In particular Catra, Adora’s former best friend and rival who gets a complex and interesting character arc. Episode 11, in particular, explores Adora’s and Catra’s past growing up among in the ominously named Fright Zone setting up the final conflict in the last two episodes.

I expected something with more laughs but I didn’t expect how charmed I’d be with the whole thing. Yes, there are some less good episodes (Episode 5 was mainly just annoying – sorry) but by that point I already cared too much about what was going to happen to these people (even knowing it was never going to be anything to bad).

Silly, camp, colourful, touching and charming.