{"id":1206378,"date":"2026-02-20T13:57:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T13:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=600665"},"modified":"2026-02-20T13:57:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T13:57:54","slug":"bring-back-the-coolest-animated-series-and-coolest-animated-sword-of-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bring-back-the-coolest-animated-series-and-coolest-animated-sword-of-1981\/","title":{"rendered":"Bring back the coolest animated series (and coolest animated sword) of 1981"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bring-back-the-coolest-animated-series-and-coolest-animated-sword-of-1981.jpg\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-none\">Back in 2010, when Cartoon Network first announced its plan to reboot the beloved 1985 animated TV series <em>Thundercats<\/em>, the first thought that went through my mind was, \u201cThat\u2019s great! Do <em>Blackstar<\/em> next!\u201d In 2014, when Boat Rocker Media announced its reboot of 1981\u2019s<em> Danger Mouse<\/em>, same thing: \u201cHuh, interesting, but do <em>Blackstar<\/em> next.\u201d 2016\u2019s Disney reveal about its reboot of 1987\u2019s <em>Duck Tales<\/em>? \u201cRad. But\u2026 <em>Blackstar<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">And so it went, year after year, with the announcements about 2018\u2019s Netflix reboot of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2018\/11\/13\/18065360\/she-ra-character-explainer-reboot-original\"><em>She-Ra: Princess of Power<\/em><\/a>, 2021\u2019s <em>He-Man<\/em> reboot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/22588730\/masters-of-the-universe-revelation-review-netflix\"><em>Masters of the Universe: Revelation<\/em><\/a>, the CG version of <em>Inspector Gadget<\/em>, the American <em>Voltron<\/em> update <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2017\/1\/20\/14335058\/voltron-legendary-defender-season-2-review\"><em>Voltron: Legendary Defender<\/em><\/a>, half a dozen new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/23808631\/seth-rogen-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-the-boys-invincible-interview\">Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/entertainment\/23686534\/transformers-watch-order-movies-chronological-streaming\">Transformers<\/a> projects, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2qi41rHz4ps\">little-loved second <em>Thundercats <\/em>series<\/a>, and every single Smurfs movie. I get it \u2014 the kids of the \u201980s are producers and writers and showrunners now, with enough clout to get their childhood memories turned into new shows. But apparently none of them watched <em>Blackstar<\/em>, easily one of the coolest animated series of the 1980s, built around the coolest sword.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">There\u2019s a direct genetic line between the success of 1977\u2019s <em>Star Wars <\/em>and the wave of space-set, fantasy-themed Saturday morning cartoons that closely followed. <em>Star Wars<\/em> beget ABC\u2019s popular <em>Thundarr the Barbarian<\/em>, a post-apocalyptic dystopian-future fantasy about a muscular hero who fought oppressive magical villains while wearing a fur skirt, hanging out with a leotard-clad sorceress, and more or less <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SaB19auvjc8\">carrying a lightsaber and traveling with a Wookiee<\/a>. <em>Thundarr<\/em> helped inspire <em>Blackstar<\/em>, CBS\u2019 equivalent show, about a muscular hero who fought oppressive magical villains while wearing a fur skirt, hanging out with a leotard-clad sorceress, and carrying his own form of laser sword. (No Wookiee, though \u2014&nbsp;instead, series hero Blackstar got to ride a dragon.)<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div>\n<div><iframe title=\"Blackstar Opening and Closing Credits and Theme Song\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HAJZbMvwl9M?rel=0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"accelerometer *; clipboard-write *; encrypted-media *; gyroscope *; picture-in-picture *; web-share *;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Both shows were on the leading edge of the post-<em>Star Wars<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theartsdesk.com\/film\/micro-golden-age-mid-eighties-fantasy-films\">dark fantasy wave<\/a>, leading to movies like <em>Excalibur<\/em>, <em>Conan the Barbarian<\/em>, and <em>Dragonslayer<\/em>. But unlike most of those \u201980s fantasies \u2014 <em>Flash Gordon<\/em> aside \u2014<em>&nbsp;Thundarr<\/em> and <em>Blackstar <\/em>kept a foot in <em>Star Wars<\/em>\u2019 science fiction roots, hanging onto the idea of worlds where technology and mysticism met and clashed. <em>Thundarr <\/em>was more popular, but <em>Blackstar <\/em>was more compelling: a weirder, darker, richer world with a lot more going on, and a much more imaginative sword that wasn\u2019t just a lightly reskinned lightsaber. Though the show only managed a single season and 13 episodes (compared with <em>Thundarr<\/em>\u2019s two-year, 21-episode stint), <em>Blackstar<\/em>\u2019s potential still sticks with me decades later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The story in brief: An astronaut from a future Earth, John Blackstar, enters a black hole in his experimental timeship, and winds up trapped on an ancient alien world, full of magic and monsters. (It\u2019s essentially an isekai series, decades before isekai was the hottest trend in anime and manga.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The local Sauron equivalent, the Overlord, dominates the planet Sagar with an artifact called the Powerstar, a huge two-handed crystalline energy sword. Somehow, the Powerstar gets broken into identical halves, producing two badass weapons: the Power Sword, which the Overlord still holds, and the Star Sword, which falls into Blackstar\u2019s hands. Blackstar winds up as the figurehead in a growing rebellion against the Overlord\u2019s. Meanwhile, the Overlord wants not just to squash this budding rebellion,&nbsp;but to reclaim the Star Sword and take up the Powerstar again.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bring-back-the-coolest-animated-series-and-coolest-animated-sword-of-1981-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eJ10kU9Hc4w\">series of interviews for <em>Blackstar<\/em>\u2019s 2006 DVD release<\/a>, the creators and writers cop to some of their influences in writing the show: The protagonist is a little bit John Carter of Mars (the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barsoom\">original Edgar Rice Burroughs version<\/a>, not the 2012 fantasy-movie version) and a little bit Flash Gordon, though he also closely resembles the protagonist of the 1979 live-action series <em>Buck Rogers in the 25th Century<\/em>. The Trobbits \u2014 tiny comedy-relief people who find and rescue Blackstar after his timeship crashes \u2014 take a little inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s hobbits, and a lot more from Disney\u2019s seven dwarfs, complete with the \u201cone personality trait apiece\u201d dynamic, and a youngest member who never speaks. (There are also seven of them.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The Overlord is somewhere between Darth Vader and Ming the Merciless, while Blackstar\u2019s sorceress companion, Mara, is basically just a reskin of <em>Thundarr<\/em>\u2019s Princess Ariel, with very similar powers, a similar elegant, educated personality and role as party historian, and similar obvious crush on the oblivious hero.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Although these characters rarely feel unique, the mythology and setting of <em>Blackstar<\/em>\u2019s world very much do, and the central plot device of the Powerstar is unique in fantasy animation. The symmetry of the central villain and hero each having half of the world\u2019s most legendary weapon \u2014&nbsp;which is to say, half of the power left in a world struggling to define itself \u2014&nbsp;is a clever riff on the idea that heroes and villains should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2018\/2\/21\/17036848\/black-panther-killmonger-supervillain-comparison-magneto-xmen\">mirror each other for maximum thematic impact<\/a>. Their connection through the sundered Powerstar gives the protagonist and antagonist an intimate personal connection, a reason to clash again and again.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bring-back-the-coolest-animated-series-and-coolest-animated-sword-of-1981-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">It also helps define their characters, and what they do with power. It\u2019s no coincidence that in the Overlord\u2019s hands, the Power Sword is all blunt force, used solely to blast or slash, while Blackstar uses the Star Sword as a finesse weapon with flexible magical abilities. (Too flexible, really: Its magic is ill-defined, and the show\u2019s writers invented new Star Sword powers in nearly every episode.) The idea of these two swords as yin and yang, perfect halves that assemble into a greater whole, is unusually elegant for an \u201980s cartoon \u2014 and one of the series\u2019 many ideas that was never really explored to full advantage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">For modern viewers <em>Blackstar <\/em>is fairly close to unwatchable. Its production company, Filmation, emerged from a series of commercial jobs in the 1960s, but by the 1980s, it specialized in budget-priced television animated entirely in America, rather than in cheaper overseas production houses. That necessitated a lot of cost-saving devices, like recycling the same hand-drawn sequences many times over, often within the same episode, and using a hilariously limited library of sound effects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\"><em>Blackstar<\/em>\u2019s sound design is garish and repetitive, with vocal work that sounds like almost everyone is shouting. The scripts are clunky: Blackstar is conceived as a quippy hero who peppers his foes with snarky one-liners, but his jokes are cataclysmically stiff. About the best he can muster is a jaunty \u201cPutting on a little weight, aren\u2019t you, Rocko?\u201d when hefting one rock elemental to toss it onto another during a battle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">And the series is designed for the syndication of the era, meaning that episodes might re-air in any order. So there\u2019s no story development, no character arcs, not even an opening episode to establish Blackstar\u2019s origins. Continuity glitches, inconsistent design and storytelling, and budget-saving slow pans across paintings abound.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bring-back-the-coolest-animated-series-and-coolest-animated-sword-of-1981-3.jpg\" alt=\"Blackstar, a brown-skinned, black-haired man in a fur loincloth, blasts something off screen with his crystalline Star Sword, while his allies watch, in an episode of Blackstar\" title=\"Blackstar, a brown-skinned, black-haired man in a fur loincloth, blasts something off screen with his crystalline Star Sword, while his allies watch, in an episode of Blackstar\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">But the world it\u2019s set in is fascinating. There are hints here and there of ancient technologies and centuries-old civilizations buried under what\u2019s become a verdant forest, centered on the magic of the gigantic central Sagar tree, a mystic font of power the Trobbits live in and tend to. Sagar is a world full of weird creatures that seem either like evolutions of familiar animals, or like magical constructs \u2014&nbsp;shark-bats and frog-rabbits and monkey-birds, long before <em>Avatar: The Last Airbender<\/em> made these kinds of amalgams a running joke. Those slow-pan, cash-saving painting backgrounds are rich, elaborate, and colorful, suggesting a world with the darkness and detail of Jim Henson\u2019s <em>The Dark Crystal<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">While so much of 1980s animation was about the clear line between good and evil, there\u2019s a sense throughout <em>Blackstar <\/em>that most of the world of Sagar isn\u2019t aspected in such a black-and-white way. It\u2019s just a chaotic ruin, where hungry monsters, prim but weary civilizations, and barbaric enclaves all exist side by side, divided by lethal geography. Every scattered outpost and wandering monster is equally dangerous to Blackstar and the Overlord, but ripe for either of them to exploit for an advantage in their ongoing war. There are even hints at a nuanced system for magic, where the mental power of sorcery and the elemental power of nature magic are different things that work in different ways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">After <em>Blackstar<\/em>\u2019s<em> <\/em>single season ended, Filmation immediately followed it with the Mattel-backed and far better funded <em>He-Man and the Masters of the Universe<\/em>, a series based on an existing toy line, but just as clearly based on elements borrowed from <em>Blackstar<\/em>. Once again, there\u2019s a muscular hero in a fur skirt with a magic sword, battling a sorcerous villain in a chaotic technofantasy world packed with environmental hazards and weird, wildly diverse humanoids.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bring-back-the-coolest-animated-series-and-coolest-animated-sword-of-1981-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Filmation regular Alan Oppenheimer voiced both <em>Blackstar<\/em>\u2019s Overlord<em> <\/em>and <em>He-Man<\/em>\u2019s Skeletor; similarly, Linda Gary voiced <em>Blackstar<\/em>\u2019s leading lady Mara and <em>He-Man<\/em>\u2019s Teela. Filmation staff writer Tom Ruegger developed the series bible for both shows, and it shows, in everything from the similar heroes\u2019 and rogues\u2019 galleries to the sprawling high-and-low-tech world where magic and robots co-exist. One <em>He-Man<\/em> episode, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/QG_6q3eZa3U\">\u201cThe Remedy,\u201d<\/a> even reused several <em>Blackstar <\/em>sequences, reintroducing Blackstar\u2019s dragon-horse Warlock as a beast He-Man saves from a giant spider, then rides around.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">While <em>He-Man<\/em> had many of the same budgetary and aesthetic limitations as <em>Blackstar<\/em> \u2014 frequently recycled animation, obnoxious sound design, goofy and often ineffectual comedy relief \u2014<em>&nbsp;He-Man <\/em>was immediately more popular. So popular, in fact that toy maker Galoob tried to nab some of Mattel\u2019s sales success by putting out a <a href=\"https:\/\/toysntat.com\/blackstar-toy-line-a-complete-collectors-guide\/\">weirdly modeled toy line<\/a>&nbsp;for <em>Blackstar<\/em>, two full years after the show was canceled. (Those toys did not do well.) Now, we\u2019re in an era where <em>He-Man<\/em> gets reboot after reboot \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/22588730\/masters-of-the-universe-revelation-review-netflix\">an all-ages animated version<\/a>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/22671624\/he-man-and-the-masters-of-the-universe-netflix-reboot-cg\">CG version for kids,<\/a> a <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/film\/news\/masters-of-the-universe-movie-amazon-mgm-travis-knight-release-date-1235989182\/\">new live-action movie scheduled for 2026<\/a> \u2014 while <em>Blackstar<\/em> is all but forgotten.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">And I find that so strange. The bid to reboot and update every hit cartoon of the 1980s seems like a natural enough progression for an era of media fueled by nostalgia, but I\u2019ve never understood why there isn\u2019t more of it for <em>Blackstar<\/em>, a series that was more imaginative and ambitious than either the predecessor it was trying to outdo or the follower that got all the glory.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bring-back-the-coolest-animated-series-and-coolest-animated-sword-of-1981-5.jpg\" alt=\"Two of the Trobbits, dwarf-like fantasy creatures with bright magenta skin and white hair, wearing purple tunics and yellow stockings, stand together in front of a bramble patch in a scene from Blackstar\" title=\"Two of the Trobbits, dwarf-like fantasy creatures with bright magenta skin and white hair, wearing purple tunics and yellow stockings, stand together in front of a bramble patch in a scene from Blackstar\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">In the way of so many other \u201980s cartoons, my interest in a reboot is much less about re-creating an often janky, limited, cheaply made TV series, and much more about realizing the potential these characters and this world couldn\u2019t take advantage of in the 1980s. A modern version with up-to-date animation could give John Blackstar a proper backstory, and actually make some sense of the biggest hero\/villain themes the \u201980s version lightly touched on. It could take advantage of the retro-future magic setting and the sprawling original world of Sagar in ways Filmation never dreamed of.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">And most importantly, a proper modern update could finally dig into the event that split the Powerstar and turned its two halves into thematic weapons. There are so many story possibilities for that particular cool sword, just waiting to be discovered by a new generation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/opinion\/600665\/80s-cartoon-reboot-blackstar-star-wars-he-man-connections\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in 2010, when Cartoon Network first announced its plan to reboot the beloved 1985 animated TV series Thundercats, the first thought that went through my mind was, \u201cThat\u2019s great! Do Blackstar next!\u201d In 2014, when Boat Rocker Media announced its reboot of 1981\u2019s Danger Mouse, same thing: \u201cHuh, interesting, but do Blackstar next.\u201d 2016\u2019s Disney reveal about its reboot of 1987\u2019s Duck Tales? \u201cRad. But\u2026 Blackstar?\u201d And so it went, year after year, with the announcements about 2018\u2019s Netflix reboot of She-Ra: Princess of Power, 2021\u2019s He-Man reboot Masters of the Universe: Revelation, the CG version of Inspector Gadget, the American Voltron update Voltron: Legendary Defender, half a dozen new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers projects, a little-loved second Thundercats series, and every&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bring-back-the-coolest-animated-series-and-coolest-animated-sword-of-1981\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1206379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1206378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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