Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I saw Secrets of the Sword the first time at a friend’s house when I was like 5 years old and it’s how I got into the 80’s version of He-Man and She-Ra. If you don’t know He-Man and She-ra the Secret of the sword is the 5 episode pilot to She-Ra. Unlike the classic He-Man where we got no origin story She-Ra’s origin was told out in 5 episodes staring He-Man.

Now when Mattel released there new He-Man in the 2002 they should have had this along with a volumes of the classic series on DVD, of course Mattel’s screw ups the new generation of He-man are countless and now only after the new series is dead are we getting this movie on DVD, along with 5 episodes voted best of the she-ra series (I’ll cover those later in the best of she-ra DVD review though).

Story.
The story starts in castle greyskull where the sorceress has just woken up from a flashback of something that happen 20 years ago. Man-at-arms and her tried to rescue a baby girl that a villain named Hordak had kidnapped but they fail and he escapes through a magic portal and neither has been seen since. When she awaken from her dream she sees a sword simpler to Adams sword open a portal in castle greyskull. She summons Adam to Greyskull and gives him the new sword saying it’s destine for someone special, someone who the fate of the universe may well depend on. Adam enters the portal and comes into another planet called Eithera. Eithera is a beautiful world but it has its dark side seems like some intergalactic beings called the Horde have taken over the planet and not realizing it Adam gets into a fight with there Horde troopers, and meets Bow in the process. It seems that Bow is in a group rebelling against these guys and takes Adam to the camp of the great rebellion. At the camp though it seems that Adams sparing has gotten the whole village in trouble with the hoard and now there going to enslave the entire population of the village. And they have brought one of there strongest captains along, force captain Adora. The rebellion decides to attack the hoard and free the village and Adam of course promises to “bring his friend He-Man along”.

He-Man finds no trouble with fighting the horde or horde troopers but there mysterious force captain is a puzzle to him, especially since the sword the sorceress gave him always seems to glow when she is near. He gets captured twice by her and the 2nd time he isn’t so lucky he’s lock up in a cage that will suck out all his strength and give it to Hordaks new weapon which will obliterate the rebellions base. But what about Adora and the mysterious sword, what secrets does it hold for her when she does finally holds it aloft and says “for the honor of grayskull” and becomes She-Ra.

Now I like the movie and it’s very entertaining and it’s filmation cheesy way. They cover all the bases in what the new series will envelopment and the characters to. Unlike the He-Man’s world of Eternia which is a mostly a peaceful paradise, minus the melodramatic Skeletor of course. Eitheria is a land of war and rebellion and the hoard as taken over everything. Basically He-Man is the sheriff in Eternia; She-ra on the other hand is the biggest outlaw on Eitheria.

While we don’t see She-Ra till half the movie is over she does get quite a bit of screen time and development and becomes a bit more likeable then He-Man during the final half. Mainly do to the fact that Adora and She-Ra character designs are more different then Adam and He-Man. (Adora gets more then just a really deep tan and furry underwear in her transformation). Another reason might be that Adora seems to be a bit deeper character then Adam and He-man is, and the voice actress for her also changes her performance when she becomes She-ra hamming it up a bit in a super man type way.

Of course not everything is perfect in the secret of the sword since it’s a 5 part episode long arc and not really a made to be a movie the story is episodic. The story flows in about the same way as another TV pilot turned movie I got a month ago Superman the last son of Krypton.

DVD.
It’s a shame that a lot of classic cartoons and TV shows get the bare minimum treatment when they get there DVD. Secrets of the sword however does not fall into that category. The video as been cleaned up and restored similar to the episodes of He-Man and it looks dang good for it’s age. For special features we get a commentary by director Gwen Wessler, Lary Ditillio who wrote 4/5 of the script, Lou Scheimer the head hancho at Filmation, and Alan Oppenheimer the voice of Skeletor and several other He-Man characters. The commentary is mildly entertaining the problem comes is that very little is spent on the making of the secrets of the sword and borders more on the He-Man and She-Ra series in general but there is some entertaining parts including Oppenheimers doing many of his voices and Scheimer talking about some of his joys and pains that came with doing the He-Man series. We also get a music video called the by the power of love, and several features with it. Including an interview with the writer Erika Scheimer, a Spanish version and even a story board. Also add in two Movie Theater trailers and you got yourself a pretty good set of extras.



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4