In case you hadn’t heard, He-Man is making a comeback. Sony has finally freed the most powerful man in the universe from development hell and plans on releasing a new Masters of the Universe movie sometime next year (filming is scheduled to begin this summer).
And the big guy has been getting plenty of people excited in advance of his return to the silver screen.
Enter Rafi Sengupta, a lifelong He-Man fan and video editor extraordinaire.
Though a current resident of New Zealand, Rafi discovered He-Man in his native India, where it turns out the Masters of the Universe are a really big deal. “Mattel hired a local company (Leo Toys) to produce toys for Indian children,” he says, adding that the Indian toys were pretty much identical to the Western ones.
While it revelled in plenty of camp, the classic 80’s cartoon show also had plenty that appealed to Rafi. “I used to love watching the cartoon growing up and felt a massive connection to it,” he says, adding that themes of family and friendship forged a deep emotional connection. He cites Teela’s adoption, the reason her real mother was forced to surrender her, the splitting of Adam and his twin sister Adora (who would go on to have a pretty impressive super hero resume of her own) when they were newborns and the need for secret identities as narrative devices that drew him in.
Not content to simply earn a degree in digital media, Rafi also got himself a diploma in 3-D animation. Combining the two allowed him to pursue digital editing and post production as a career. But you just know that he was also able to put all that schooling to good use as a proud He-Man fan as well.
Need proof? Check out the video he did recreating the opening sequence of the 80’s cartoon using actual toy figures from He-Man’s original toy line.
So how does Rafi feel about He-Man’ return to the big screen? “I’m super excited about the potential new movie and I hope they’re really able to satisfy the original fans but also pull in lots of new ones.”
Stop motion is an art form and Sen says he’s already hard at work on a video starring a certain long lost twin (see above). He also hopes to do plenty more in the future. If next year’s movie is a success, Sen will probably have a lot of fresh inspiration. And lots more toys to work with.
You can check out his youtube channel here.
