SOME CONNECTIONS BETWEEN FLASH GORDON AND HE-MAN.
With my review of the second chapter where we are presented to the Monsters of Mongo while Flash, Thun and Dale are escaping from Ming via the cavern worlds beneath the outer crust of Mongo and Dr. Zarkov is kept captive of Merciless Ming, I want to point out some similarities between this production, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FLASH GORDON, and a later production also by the hand of FILMATION: HE-MAN (or He-Man and The Masters of the Universe).
Architecture: There is a lot of similarity between Ming's Royal Palace and the one of the Randors in "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" , in my opinion they both seem to have a lot of influence of the "Art Decó" movement and both seemed to have one basic color with slight variations. Both Palaces were constructed over heavy and enormous pieces of rock and have catacombs, being these catacombs the way how our heroes escaped in today's episode. The catacombs under the Royal Palace in He- man are, in opposition, rather small and prince Adam and Teela used to play there as kids. There are also some small similarities between the objects and decoration in Ming's Palace and the ones that we will later find in the house of some the allies of "She-ra" called "Castle Bright Moon". For those unfamiliar with 80's animation She-ra was the spin-off of the He-Man series and the name corresponds to the powerful lady that happens to be his twin.
Anatomy: As an example, we can see there is a lot of similarity between the characters of Princess Aura in Flash Gordon and Teela from He-man, having similar proportions between the relative sizes and distances between their lips and eyes, they both have abundant red head...and, taking in consideration that Teela was not really daughter of General Duncan and that Sorceress, her real mother had a sweet and peaceful personality... ... I think it is safe to assume that Teela got her bad temper from Princess Aura.
Some common characters: Both series have an important role for dragons, unluckily for Flash Gordon, unlike the dragons in He-Man, the ones in his series, or at least in this episode, are not exactly rational beings. We also have an important place in both series for perils such as carnivore plants, a kind of danger also common to other 80's classics.
We can also see some correspondences within the three main characters, being Teela the one less alike to Dale Arden, Flash is not very physically similar to He-Man or Adam but they both are righteous heroes and maybe the most similar are the third elements: Doctor Zarkov and Man-At-Arms being the both of them men of science both resourceful and diligent and both are somewhere between their 40's and their 50's.
Thanks for reading. IMDb Review written by David del Real. México City. México. November 14th.
With my review of the second chapter where we are presented to the Monsters of Mongo while Flash, Thun and Dale are escaping from Ming via the cavern worlds beneath the outer crust of Mongo and Dr. Zarkov is kept captive of Merciless Ming, I want to point out some similarities between this production, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FLASH GORDON, and a later production also by the hand of FILMATION: HE-MAN (or He-Man and The Masters of the Universe).
Architecture: There is a lot of similarity between Ming's Royal Palace and the one of the Randors in "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" , in my opinion they both seem to have a lot of influence of the "Art Decó" movement and both seemed to have one basic color with slight variations. Both Palaces were constructed over heavy and enormous pieces of rock and have catacombs, being these catacombs the way how our heroes escaped in today's episode. The catacombs under the Royal Palace in He- man are, in opposition, rather small and prince Adam and Teela used to play there as kids. There are also some small similarities between the objects and decoration in Ming's Palace and the ones that we will later find in the house of some the allies of "She-ra" called "Castle Bright Moon". For those unfamiliar with 80's animation She-ra was the spin-off of the He-Man series and the name corresponds to the powerful lady that happens to be his twin.
Anatomy: As an example, we can see there is a lot of similarity between the characters of Princess Aura in Flash Gordon and Teela from He-man, having similar proportions between the relative sizes and distances between their lips and eyes, they both have abundant red head...and, taking in consideration that Teela was not really daughter of General Duncan and that Sorceress, her real mother had a sweet and peaceful personality... ... I think it is safe to assume that Teela got her bad temper from Princess Aura.
Some common characters: Both series have an important role for dragons, unluckily for Flash Gordon, unlike the dragons in He-Man, the ones in his series, or at least in this episode, are not exactly rational beings. We also have an important place in both series for perils such as carnivore plants, a kind of danger also common to other 80's classics.
We can also see some correspondences within the three main characters, being Teela the one less alike to Dale Arden, Flash is not very physically similar to He-Man or Adam but they both are righteous heroes and maybe the most similar are the third elements: Doctor Zarkov and Man-At-Arms being the both of them men of science both resourceful and diligent and both are somewhere between their 40's and their 50's.
Thanks for reading. IMDb Review written by David del Real. México City. México. November 14th.
