I'd like to share some original animation cells and drawings i acquired a few years ago from the 1983 - 1985 TV cartoon series "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe". IMO, this form of animation is almost a lost art. It's much more economical to produce them on computers. Back in the days before computers, all the cells were first hand-drawn in pencil before being photocopied onto celluloid and hand painted. Each background was also hand painted in multiple layers.
Below i've written a breakdown of the show, the episode the post focuses on and some artwork sequences. I hope you enjoy it!
Background artwork. Caves always had little horns - it's how you knew the badies lived there!
Background:
I was browsing on eBay one night and saw an auction for a bulk lot of He-Man animation artwork. It was hundreds and hundreds of cells, drawings, backgrounds and it was literally being given away, discarded. I later learned that one of the creators of He-Man had recently passed away and a lot of this stuff was being dumped as if it was worthless.
I don't know about you but i grew up watching this cartoon, it was always on in the mornings before school and part of the Saturday & Sunday morning cartoons. It was ritual viewing.
The memories it brings back are priceless.
The bulk auction didn't show what was included other than a couple cells - it was too much for the seller to list - so i took a risk and bought them. I can't remember what i paid but it was peanuts, the shipping probably cost more.
A couple weeks later a HUGE box arrived at my house filled with the most amazing drawings and animation cells - it was my childhood coming back full circle. I now OWN a lot of the ORIGINAL artwork that made this cartoon! It's something that i would never have thought would happen when eating coco-pops before school, knowing if i stayed and watched the whole episode i'd only have 10 minutes to run to school before the first bell.
About the Cartoon
This was back in the day when Cartoons actually conveyed a positive message to teach kids rights and wrongs. Each episode would involve an adventure in which He-Man would save the day, resulting in a lesson being learnt.
The show takes place on the fictional planet of Eternia, a planet of magic, myth and fantasy. Its lead character is Prince Adam, the young son of Eternia's rulers, King Randor and Queen Marlena. Whenever Prince Adam holds the Sword of Power aloft and proclaims "By the Power of Grayskull!" he is endowed with "fabulous secret powers" and transformed into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe. Together with his close allies, Battle Cat (who undergoes a similar transformation from being Adam's cowardly pet tiger Cringer), The Sorceress, Teela, Man-At-Arms and Orko, He-Man uses his powers to defend Eternia from the evil forces of Skeletor. Skeletor's main goal is to conquer the mysterious fortress of Castle Grayskull, from which He-Man draws his powers. If successful, Skeletor would have enough power to rule Eternia and possibly the entire universe.
Source: Wikipedia
ARTWORK FROM MU 77
MU77 (season 2, episode 22): TROUBLE IN TROLLA
First aired: September 22, 1984
Directed by: Ernie Schmidt
Written by: Larry DiTillio
Synopsis: Dree Elle summons Orko to Trolla to help overcome Skeletor's ally Whiplash, who has enlisted the help of a misguided Trollan wizard to attain magic powers. Orko tells viewers to not discount old people, who often have much wisdom to combine with the vitality of youth, resulting in a better time for everyone.
First Sequence - He-Man battles a squid monster!
He-Man carried a huge sword that gave him his powers - but he never actually used it when fighting. Like most of the fighting sequences it involved He-Man swinging something around in circles and throwing it away!Detail of Pencil Drawing. Note the blue underdrawing under the black pencil
How it was shown in the cartoon:
The drawings & Cells in sequence
Second Sequence - Detail & Notes For Depicting Motion
Here we have some great insight into the animation process. The sequence is only a couple seconds long but the effort that went into it is pretty amazing. The sketch artist leaves a note for the cell painter to add some rope with a dry brush.
Original Pencil Sketch with Animation Notes
"SPFX (special effects) - Note from here to #11 (frame 11) start putting some rope color dry brush. (See DWG 12)"
The finished painted cell
The back of the finished painted cell
The finshed sequence as shown in the cartoon
Thanks for Reading & Please Vote!
There's a lot more i could share so if you want to see more, please vote, re-steem and comment to let me know. It takes a while to go through it all, photograph, photoshop, make gifs etc so if you like this post then please make it worthwhile with your support and i'll continue posting some more. Thank You!