Good Idea? Hasbro is Remaking the Epic 80s Cartoon M.A.S.K

When I was growing up, Saturday morning cartoons were essentially the holy grail of the week.  I waited all week, just so I could lounge around on a Saturday morning and watch, what I thought, were some pretty epic cartoons.  Obviously, with today’s graphical and technological capabilities, cartoons of yester-year, weren’t quite as nice to look at.  But that doesn’t mean they weren’t good.  Over the last 5 or so years, there have been a lot of re-makes of shows that were extremely popular in the 80s and 90s.  And now, your dream of combining both your love of cartoons and today’s remake possibilities is coming true.  M.A.S.K will be the next 80s cartoon to get a movie.

But what might be even better than that? The movie will be directed by F. Gary Gray.  For those of you who don’t know F. Gary Gray directed Fast & Furious 8 as well as Straight Outta Compton.  He also has a Men In Black reboot or spinoff on the books, but details about that aren’t available just yet.  Gray will be producing the film along with Hasbro, but no writer has been announced just yet.

The premise of the show revolves around the task force M.A.S.K.  M.A.S.K stands for Mobile Armored Strike Kommand, and their goal was to battle against the evil V.E.N.O.M.  Which stands for Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem. (There are far too many acronyms!) The show itself is based on the now-defunct toy company, Kenner.  In addition to the cartoon, there were a number of toys that were created as a result.

There aren’t many more details about this project, which is interesting, but it’s likely just too early to have all that information.  Why make a reboot?  The producers are looking to bring this forward as “a contemporary subculture movie with a youth empowerment angle”.  Meaning, they want to introduce today’s youth to this movie in a way that’s compelling to them, but there is a good chance that they’re also going to tap into the nostalgia angle.

I mean, that’s a really good move if you think about it.  And something we see all the time now.  Think about the X-Men.  Yes, that’s a comic book, but they had a pretty great cartoon in the early 90s.  And how many X-Men movies have there been?  That’s not to say that this is automatically going to be great.  There is a fine line between making an incredible reboot, and having a project flop completely.  I’m not saying that as discouragement towards this particular project.  I think there is the possibility for this movie to be great, but it has to be done in a way that brings out the elements from the original show and also puts a new spin on it.

In general though, when it comes to reboots, are you likely to go and watch?  If yes, is it just because of the fact that you’re curious to see what’s become of your beloved show, or is there more to it?  When we have more details on this remake, we will be sure to bring them to you.