Masters of the Universe

Masters of the Universe is the collective name of the original Mattel toy series, featuring characters such as He-Man and Skeletor. It led to numerous spin-offs, including four animated series and a major motion picture.

He-Man outside the US

In the UK He-Man episodes were occasionally edited which has resulted in some confusion in the series' fan-base, as sometimes entire scenes (such as in the case of "The Beastly Sideshow" and "Quest for He-Man) were omitted (ironically the same phenomena occurred in the US with certain title-cards when the series was put out on VHS). Also in the UK, BBC was forbidden from airing MOTU toy-comercials along with the cartoon.

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He-Man was also dubbed in to a number of languages. While most were slavish translations of the original a few are worth of special notice:

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• In France He-Man is known as "Musclor", however the show's theme song was not altered and so the back-up singers still chant "He-Man" in the opening and during the cartoon. The French opening also lacks the translated yell of the intro sequence "and the Masters of the Universe" which was included in all other dubs. Originally no episodes featuring Skeletor appeared in France, which included the majority of the first season of the original cartoon.
• Germany actually had two different dubs, one for Television and a second for the VHS release. However both versions use the same intro sequence chant "He-Man und die Meister des Universum" although He-Man's voice in the VHS version sounds nothing like the one from the TV dub. The German dub is also notable since it's the only intro which explicitly calls the Sorceress by the name "Zoar" (which more properly is the name of her falcon form). Also the German dub is the only one where Cringers whimping was re-recorded.
• The Italian dub is the only one to have a unique laughter for Skeletor. However the new laughter was mixed with the old one rather than being dubbed over and the old laughter can still be heard in the opening.
• The Spanish version had the entire theme-song re-recorded with added lyrics. Also rather than saying the Spanish equavalent to He-Man catch-phrase "I have the power" (during the transformation-sequence) He-Man clearly says "I am He-Man". This is unintentionally similar to the opening of "She-Ra" where she also says "I am She-Ra" rather than "I have the power".
• In Finland the show was never dubbed but all versions of it (home- and rental-videos and aired episodes) had sub-titles.