SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER, season 1 review - Glorious

(Reviewed by Melody Werner)

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is an animated TV show which aired for 5 seasons between 2018 and 2020. Showran by comickers ND Stevenson and Chuck Austen, produced by DreamWorks Animation Television, and co-distributed by NBCUniversal and Netflix, it received critical acclaim and amassed a ginormous audience in spite of an indignant nontroversy following its announcement regarding the "heinous" unsexiness of its titular child protagonist (motherfuckers weird like that). Many of these culture warriors of course grew up on the original She-Ra: Princess of Power series by Funimation from 1985 (of which this is a reboot), and, having the memories of a goldfish, don't recall that the show from their childhood did a lot of the things these dorks were crying about. For starters, Funimation was about as gay as they could be in the 80's—their CEO at the time was a bisexual dude. Princesses of Power was not emblematic of the gay agenda tainting the pure classic material, it was an extension and elevation of the pre-existing gay agenda from its entire original production studio. Cuz, y'know, that's what reactionary televangelists at the time recognized at the time threw hissy fits over. Funimation were not subtle, dear culture warriors, you are just too dweebish and disingenuous in your frothing outrage. What, is a gay widdle children's cartoon too "politically correct" for you?

Obligatory dunking on the creepy misogynists and queerphobes from literally 4 years ago aside (tho I wish I didn't have to delve into said nonsense, but it still defines much of why this series took off in the way it did, because the caterwauling nontroversy led to mountains of attention for this show, and it capitalized on that), some pretext for why I am reviewing this season now. I started watching this a few years ago, made it about halfway in, saw a bunch of spoilers, and put it on the back-burner until I forgot about 'em. It's been ages since I last watched DreamWorks' other Netflix Original animated series, Voltron: Legendary Defender, but in a lot of ways, Voltron walked so She-Ra could run. She-Ra also takes a largely forgotten ad for action figures and overhauls it into something special. While there are elements of old television to it (comfortable structural formatting, IE a "princess of the week" formula), things are modernized in ways both towering and granular. There is of course an overarching narrative, more explicit depictions of queerness (Funimation were only really able to get away with symbolism, winks, and bountiful rainbows), and cutting edge animation. But there's also things like the ability to have varying body types, and the fact that you don't get the full animation of Adora's transformation into She-Ra every episode. If it's not already obvious—yeah, I just love this show. It is so wonderfully gay and fun, with enough complexity and subversive storytelling that will make it a rollicking time for older audiences too.

In light of the (entirely expected) recent confirmation from Stevenson regarding that Netflix had underpaid and exploited the hard work of the animation team behind She-Ra, I want to be very clear. This is contemptible, and contemptuous, of Netflix—but, again, to be expected (though not to be tolerated). I do have a slight criticism of the animation, but I acknowledge that oversights are part and parcel of being mistreated like this. What blame, if any, ought to go to Netflix, as far as I am concerned. Credit, however, all goes to the phenomenal team behind the astonishing animation of this show. They did a terrific job in spite of their material conditions, with countless jaw-dropping moments of what can only be described as visual splendor. But the excellence goes beyond that, with some stellar character designs and facial expressions. Action sequences are dynamic, with clever animated cinematography (e.g. match cuts). I am consistently impressed, even in the earlier episodes I had already seen before. Here comes my one complaint: there are a few noticeable continuity errors. My policy on "nitpicks" like these are that if they are noticeable on first watch, they are clashing with a viewer's immersion, and unintended distractions like that deserve to be mentioned. Particularly when they undercut dramatic moments; for instance, one of Adora's friends is an archer named Bow (yeah, I thought it was Bo, but no—it's Bow). He's supposed to be running low on arrows, and Glimmer (a teleporting princess and Bow's BFF) points this out to him when analyzing their chances in the ongoing battle. And I'm watching this, and I am thinking, "Er, I can clearly see that his quiver is full." There aren't too many of these continuity errors, but there are enough that are noticeable that I gotta mention 'em, even if it always feels like kicking the brilliant animators while they're down in cases like this.

As for the music and sound effects, they are quite good, and help to elevate the storytelling and little moments. It's the sound design that's the real star in this respect, though, as it feels consuming. In a good way. I don't usually mention sound design (as most sound design tries to go unnoticed), but it's a damn craft, and this show's a great reminder of that. Speaking of crafts, what black magicks did these motherfuckers tap into that made the voice acting this goddamn good? Every distinct performance is brings an undeniable sense of personality to it—whether that be moody indignance, woundedness at abandonment, jubilee at witnessing something cool, shame at failure, full-body boredom, lighting up with someone the character in question fancies.

I have gone on the record with my adoration of the webcomic that Mr. ND Stevenson cut his teeth on, Nimona (which, fuck, I just realized while writing this that my review of which still was deadnaming and misgendering—ND came out as trans after I wrote it, but I always try to update names and pronouns when someone I have written about comes out—fixed now. still, sorry). My appreciation of Nimona has only grown in the years since I first read it (2017), to the point that I would now easily revise my original 9.5/10 review of it to a 10 (which is a canon score revision). So, needless to say, I am also a big fan of a series he was a showrunner and executive producer on. The show has a few other writers in season 1, who all deserve great kudos as well, but my "in" was ND. Narratively speaking, I love the structure here. Even in its "filler episodes", there is always a sense of forward momentum. That its world is always in flux, that something actually bad could genuinely happen and won't be able to be fixed. That's a tough balancing act when building a show that's ultimately for kiddos, as you don't want to be overwhelming. And this is where the sugar that is the show's humor and cuteness makes the bitter go down. If I wasn't outright giggling, I was always grinning with the comedic reactions, banter, visual gags, hilarious facial expressions, etc.. But the humor also knows its place, and doesn't crop up too much in the darker, more emotionally complex scenes. When this show wants its characters to seriously hang in a lacuna, they will, and you feel that. And when they are in a more chipper mood, the writing and atmosphere are like a warm blanket.

But emotionally complex moments are only impactful (at least, in something like this) if the characters are there. And, oh boy, the characters are there. Catra is the obvious runaway success. She is simultaneously an empathetic character you feel for, but also someone who can really dig her claws in where it hurts. And yes, fans of the show, I know about the thing. Not only is that a spoiler I have seen, the show isn't shy about the hints towards it. Even from the first episode. I won't say what I am talking about for the benefit of anyone who has yet to see it, so I will continue to be cryptic about it, but... y'know, just keep an eye on Catra. I already know this is gonna make me, and probably you, very happy in the end of the show (though I am writing these reviews at the end of each season, so that I can better compartmentalize my opinions of each). However, every fucking character here is loveable. From Adora, to Glimmer, to Bow, to Mermista, to Entrapta, to Scorpia, to Swift Wind, to Seahawk. They still carry striking designs as they would've back in the day in order to sell toys, but now they serve a new purpose: forming a cast of clearly identifiable characters who are uniformly great and memorable.

As for narrative critiques? Well, without spoilers, there's this one big curveball in the plot in the back half of the season. One of the princesses gets left behind in this enemy fortress. And her friends see this big door close her behind it... and immediately jump to the conclusion that she's dead? Despite it just looking like a door sealing her inside? Like, I just don't see why they wouldn't go back and break the door down and grab her. It could've been a bit more convincing, is all I'm saying. Have her get attacked or trapped in something seemingly lethal, or something, and bam, your big emotional beat is much more comprehensible. As is, I'm just confused. I understand narratively why this happened, but the execution is off.

All around, I can't say enough good things about this show so far. Just about everything about it is at such a high caliber. It is adorable, it is fun, it is gorgeous, it is dark and complicated, it is bright and uplifting, and it is awe-inspiring. It's doing a lot of things we've all seen before, but in a way and on a level that we haven't. The first season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power gets a 9.5/10.

Must-watch

Summary:

Hands down, one of the finest seasons of a cartoon of the past ten years, and possibly ever. Fingers crossed that it continues to be this good—or maybe, even better?