This is the news that fans of
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe have been waiting for since DVD was introduced back in 1997! Reports are coming in from all over the international stock market wire that Entertainment Rights of U.K., who purchased the Filmation library from Hallmark last year (see
3/30/04 news report), has made a deal with BCI Eclipse for the rights to release the original cartoon classic on Region 1 (North America) DVD, probably sometime this year. Here is a quote from
a Bloomberg business report:
Entertainment Rights Plc (ERT LN) climbed 1.75 euros, or 12 percent, to 16.75. The owner of children's television characters...said it expects "an extremely successful 2005." The company will also get an advance royalty payment of $1.25 million from a unit of Navarre Corp., a U.S. distributor of personal computer-software and video games, that will sell its "He-Man: Masters of the Universe" DVD titles.
Here at TVShowsOnDVD, we've spent the day looking into this, and BCI Eclipse, the unit of Navarre which won the bid for the property, has no comment to make at this time. They will put together a press release in the near future, though.
In the meantime, we've gotten word from other sources that this deal will include the original 1983 series, and possibly one of the two specials that featured both
He-Man and
She-Ra (we would guess that the Christmas special is the more likely of the two). We've been assured, though, that the main
She-Ra: Princess of Power series is still not scheduled for DVD just yet; the deal that came to light today is strictly for
He-Man. That definitely includes 1983's
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,and may or may not include the 1990 sequel series
The New Adventures of He-Man. But it definitely will *not* include the 2002 Cartoon Network incarnation, as Entertainment Rights does not own that property.
Our thanks to the many, MANY readers who wrote in to make sure we knew about this. There is certainly a lot more news to come in the future on this subject, so stay tuned and we'll have more for you when the time is right!
