He-Man & She-Ra's Christmas Special

The Spirit of Christmas




It's no secret that I am a huge He-Man and She-Ra fan.  My love of the series has not abated as I've got older; in fact, it is even more entertaining to watch the respective shows through adult eyes.  One of my regrets, though, is that I never owned Castle Grayskull or the She-Ra action figure.  However, thanks to eBay I may just be able to remedy those regrets.  Recently, I discovered a He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special DVD on amazon.  Whaaat? (said as Kate McKinnon would).  My childhood heroes combined with my favourite holiday?  I added it to my cart before you could say "for the honour of Grayskull!"

The film begins with a snow-covered Eternia where Adora's friends are helping the inhabitants of the castle to decorate a huge par-tay.  Meanwhile Adam and Man-at-Arms are playing with a rocket designed to spy on Skeletor - such voyeuristic tendencies you have.  But Orco accidentally launches the creatively named Sky Spy and Skeletor is soon in pursuit, with a bunch of henchmen I'd never seen before.

Despite He-Man and She-Ra's best efforts to get the rocket back under control it flies into space (we don't question how they are able to breathe in space) before crash-landing on Earth. Orco comes across two children, who do not seemed to be freaked out by the fact they are talking to a floating ghoul-like creature from another planet and ignore the "stranger danger" as they follow Orco inside the Sky Spy where they tell him the story of Christmas.
Back on Eternia, She-Ra consults Mermista, a mermaid with double C-shells (get it?) and a French accent, who may just be one of my new favourite characters.  They need a water crystal to power the rocket and bring Orco home.  With Mermista's help, they get the crystal and bring the mischievous Orco back (who has been singing Jingle Bells), along with the children (kidnap much?) and a Christmas tree.

Adora and Adam's mom, aka The Queen, decides to combine the twins' birthday party with the celebration of Christmas so that the children won't miss this earthly holiday.  There is a sugary sweet Christmas song about caring and love, accompanied by Bow, the ripped ginger with the 70s porn star moustache, on his lyre-like instrument.  However, Skeletor and Hordak threaten to destroy the newly established Christmas spirit on Eternia. The children and Orco are kidnapped by Hordak - gasp!

Enter the Manchines, Cutter and Zipper, who help to free the young prisoners.  Cutter resembles a prawn with rotating saw blades while Zipper is a tricycle with pimped up rear wheels.  But they are not safe just yet.  Skeletor is disgusted by the season of love, caring and joy and kidnaps (again!) the children.  However, he shows them kindness, providing them with warm winter jackets and saving them from a snow beast.  Thus the children teach "Mr Skeletor" about the purpose of Christmas, proving that even the evilest of villains has some goodness in them.

Eventually the children are returned safely to earth and the film concludes with a message from Adam regarding the meaning of Christmas.  So it is the perfect film to watch in the festive season and one that any fan should have in their collection.

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