Patrick Duncan

Ernie Schmidt

To save his daughter, who has been kidnapped by Skeletor, the Ice Lord captures the entire Eternian royal family - including Prince Adam! It will take some quick thinking (and unlikely acting) from Orko to get He-Man back in the picture and all the other hostages released!

Queen Marlena, King Randor, Orko, Teela, Man-at-Arms, Prince Adam (He-Man)

Trap Jaw, Skeletor, Beast Man

Slush, Ice Lord, Snowflake

Wind Raider

The entire royal family, their man-at-arms, the captain of their guard, and their royal magician (one wonders who is left to mind the store at Eternos!) are all on a delightful skiing trip in the titular "region," when suddenly they start disappearing! The queen, the king, Teela, and even a wary Man-at-Arms vanish into the snow. Adam and Orko realize something is up, and the prince is just about to lift his power sword and summon He-Man when he, too, is sucked underground through a hole as Orko watches. The same thing is tried on the Trollan, but since he hovers, he is luckily immune to the attack. Orko waits for He-Man to pop up and save everyone; when the hero is not forthcoming, our Trollan magician decides it's time to investigate and magically breaks into his re-filled snowhole.

In a cave below, Orko finds the helmeted Ice Lord in state on his throne, while his giant spider Slush puts the finishing touches on the prince's ice prison! All in a row next to Adam are the other members of the royal party, each in their own block of ice. What to do? Orko gets a hint when the Ice Lord, happily monologuing and unaware anyone is listening in, reveals that he is waiting for He-Man to come save everyone, and also that he has only heard legends of He-Man and therefore has no idea what the hero looks like. Orko magics himself a sword and approaches, brazenly claiming to be He-Man.

Scoffing, a clearly dubious Ice Lord instructs Slush to take care of the so-called He-Man; but Orko gets very lucky. Seemingly without meaning to, he wildly shoots a barrage of fireballs out the end of his sword, causing a cave-in and shattering the ice block into which Slush temporarily freezes him. Convinced that he really is speaking with the man he wanted, the Ice Lord confesses that he is acting under duress and has no real desire to hold the royal family hostage. He is only doing it because Skeletor, who holds his daughter, is forcing an exchange. Orko promises to help and negotiates the freeing of one captive, his "assistant" Adam. The pair then walk off far enough for Adam to safely transform into the real He-Man.

Orko is ready to break his deal with the Ice Lord and wants He-Man to go down and free his friends; but Adam has reminded the Trollan that he must keep his word, and their first duty is to go to Snake Mountain and rescue the girl. They head off in the Wind Raider, parking it nearby their destination (apparently inside a waterfall) and approaching by stealth. He-Man decides the best entry is through Snake Mountain's snaky mouth, currently being guarded by Trap Jaw (who is waiting for the promised exchange of the Eternian royal family for the Ice Lord's daughter, Snowflake). Orko and our muscly friend drop down from the top of the snake head and tie up Trap Jaw, then suspend him from the jaws of the fortress by a handy stick which the villain has ill-advisedly taken in his mouth. They sneak past Skeletor and Beast Man, who are trying in vain to interrogate the imprisoned but feisty Snowflake, and break down her cell door to rescue her.

The girl is saved! Now all they have to do is get out of there. This proves a bit of a challenge. First the heroes stumble across Beast Man, who is busily heating up a big cauldron which seems to be situated under Snowflake's cell, and is meant to make her uncomfortable (either that or Beast Man means to lug the thing into her cell once it's heated - too bad he couldn't just turn up the thermostat!). Snowflake simply freezes the dumped water. He-Man takes the now-empty cauldron and sticks it over Beast Man, crushing it around his legs so that it won't come off. In this comical state he finds his way to Skeletor's throne room. Skeletor thinks Beast Man is trying to find new ways to lighten the atmosphere at Snake Mountain, but our hairy minion alerts him to He-Man's presence. To try to stop the heroes' escape, Skeletor closes up the mouth of his fortress.

The villains make a last-ditch attempt to stop the escape in person, but Snowflake creates a handy ice slick so that He-Man can toss the now-returned Trap Jaw (who ingested a lot of rope to escape from his tricky situation) at a slippery Skeletor and Beast Man. All three collapse in a tangled heap. He-Man then simply pries open the snake mouth. The villains' plan is thoroughly foiled; and to top everything off, poor Beast Man has caught a cold!

Back in the Region of Ice, with the rescue party returned and Snowflake restored, the Ice Lord apologizes profusely to the now-defrosted royal family for his transgression, citing his love for his daughter. Randor suggests rather shirtily that, should this happen again, he should just ask for help.

End with a Joke: A pleased Snowflake kisses one of her two "He-Men," Orko, who has a typically cartoonish response: smoke coming out of the ears and all. Prince Adam comments, "The hero always gets the reward!"

• Adam: Mother and Father really needed this vacation. / Orko: So did I! Being a magician is hard work.
• He-Man (to Orko): I'm going to need all the help I can get. After all, I am only your assistant.
• Beast Man: Every time something doesn't work around here, I get the blame. (Too true, Fur-face; too true)
• He-Man (to Trap Jaw, while holding a random stick he found on the ground): This is the ten-foot pole I wouldn't touch you with. (Proceeds to try to touch Trap Jaw with it)
• He-Man (commenting on Beast Man's heated cauldron of water): Hello, Beast Man; making soup?

• Adam laughs, head back: At a snow-covered Orko
• Skeletor leans in close to the viewer: In reverse, to show him leaning back from his desktop viewer
• Skeletor shakes his fists, three-quarter view: In a random fit of aggravation
• He-Man laughs, head back: At Orko's terror of Trap Jaw
• He-Man punches the viewer: To smash Beast Man's frozen "soup"
• Beast Man picks up and throws a rock: Throwing a cauldron
• He-Man from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: Starting at the pause, as He-Man confers with his friends in a hallway
• Adam smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: To make his final comment

One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat squence)

Brought to you by Man-at-Arms
Man-at-Arms gives us some fatherly advice about keeping a promise and meaning what we say. Oh yeah, buddy? Well what about a certain secret you've been keeping from the royal couple, eh? Eh?!

Skeletor (or another villain) plots to capture Prince Adam: This plot theme is usually something instigated by Skeletor, but in this case has been set in motion by the Ice Lord - though, as we learn, Skeletor is ultimately behind it.

• Eternians have powered skis! Each of our heroes holds a little orange control device, with a button which they push to be propelled forwards.
• A shot of King Randor approaching, shown from below looking up, is an adaptation of the more usual loop of He-Man doing the same thing.
• We often just have to infer that Cringer didn't want to be involved in an episode's happenings when he doesn't appear, but in this story we actually hear from Orko that Cringer was not interested in visiting the Region of Ice.
• Duncan gets mad at everyone being kidnapped out from under him and whips out his light saber. We've actually seen this weapon quite a number of times, usually in Duncan's hands, including MU004, MU015, and MU037. He will try his saber again in MU069.
• Orko's magic: Orko transforms a standard magician's wand into a (somewhat flaccid) sword, so that he can impersonate He-Man. Later, he is lowered on a rope that comes out of the top of his head (though this is more in the line of "things that come out of Orko").
• The Ice Lord is just one in a long line of other Eternian peoples who are not all that familiar with He-Man. He, at least, has heard tales of the hero and believes him to be a real person; unlike the women of Arcadia who don't seem to know him at all (MU039), or the people of Targa and Operon who seem to think he's just a legend (MU031).
• For once, Adam manages to do a fairly good job of deceiving others about his secret identity. Having apparently been conscious while being frozen in the ice, he very smoothly thanks "He-Man" (Orko) for rescuing him as soon as he's thawed.
• I've discussed before several scenes that seem to suggest that Prince Adam and He-Man are actually different people (see for instance the Firsts/Lore sections of MU010, MU021, MU023). In this story, both Adam and He-Man discuss with Orko his decision to impersonate He-Man, with slightly varying results.
• The Ice Lord is the only person who has actually been able to block (intentionally or unintentionally) Skeletor's spying abilities. The villain complains that he's unable to check on the progress of the hostage exchange, since when he tries to look at the Region of Ice all he sees is snow. One wonders how aware our other heroes are of how much time their enemy spends watching them... (shudder)
• This is our first time seeing Snake Mountain's snake head from a straight-on view, with our sneaky heroes perched on the very top.
• Trap Jaw communicates to Skeletor in his throne room using an intercom that looks like a horned, demonic face. Cute!
• "How will we find her?" Orko asks during his and He-Man's search for the girl; "This is a big place!" It is! But it took He-Man no time at all to locate an imprisoned Teela in Snake Mountain in MU015. He's an old hand at finding imprisoned ladies!
• Apparently Trap Jaw must have gotten in trouble for sleeping on the job before, as Skeletor makes several grumbling comments about it; but the only minion I remember seeing asleep in Snake Mountain was Tri-Klops, in MU026.
• Speaking of MU026, it's worth noting that that episode and this one share some plot elements. Both feature a high-ranking/important father who has had his daughter kidnapped by the villains, and in both cases the kidnapping causes the father to at first lash out at our heroes. Both require our heroes to go and rescue said daughter from Snake Mountain.
• We learn that Skeletor has the ability to close Snake Mountain's mouth! A nice security measure which nevertheless barely slows down our strapping He-Man.

• It's amazing how incapable our heroes are of changing their clothes! Even in the polar regions, poor Marlena and Randor ski around in their throne room garb. Teela slides along in the snow, still pantsless. Unless you count characters disguising themselves, which happens only rarely on the good guys' side, Adam is the only person we've seen in a different outfit (his pajamas, most recently in MU043). I've accused animators of being lazy in the past when this has happened (see Teela's freezing complaint in MU034), but they may also feel that character recognition is at stake. It is hard to imagine what Duncan would look like out of his armor. (It's very ironic that I discuss this idea, given what happens just a couple of episodes later, in MU046's "Eternal Darkness.")
• Queen Marlena's first line, "Come on, slow-pokes!" sounds more like Teela's voice; and Adam's laugh at a snow-covered Orko sounds more like He-Man's deeper bass.
• Given that Duncan was alerted to the danger and armed, it's hard to see how he managed to get frozen in ice with everyone else - especially shown as he is, with his arms at his side and no light saber in evidence! After all, Adam was frozen with his power sword in mid-lift.
• The smashing success of Orko's very clumsy attempts to impersonate He-Man is like a foreshadowing of Jar-Jar Binks.
• As sometimes happens when the He-Man transformation sequence omits the Cringer/Battle Cat portion, we actually catch the slightest twitch of He-Man beginning to move his sword towards an absent Cringer.
• He-Man tells Orko that they had better "land and approach on foot" as they fly towards Snake Mountain. But in the following shot the Wind Raider appears to fly directly into the fortress's magenta waterfall. Um... that's very... stealthy?
• Another He-Man story, another blatantly effortless home invasion. Ironically, in one of the shots of Beast Man travelling the halls of Snake Mountain just before the heroes sneak in, we see the (deactivated) security beam projector from MU029 set into the base of the wall.
• I think they ran out of coffee at Snake Mountain or something. All the villains are very crabby with one another in this episode: Trap Jaw does nothing but grumble at being contacted by Skeletor; Skeletor annoys Beast Man by commanding him back to his post; and then Skeletor, with very little provocation, shakes his fists in uncontained rage (his frustration seemingly born of his inability to spy on the Ice Lord).
• The trick Orko and He-Man pull on Trap Jaw, suspending him off the edge of Snake Mountain's snake jaw from a stick gripped in his mouth, is quite a cruel one!
• There are a couple of shots of the trio of good guys as they wander about Snake Mountain, which show a confusingly mixed perspective. He-Man is shown at his oft-used front angle, as if we are viewing him from below; but Orko and Snowflake are drawn straight on.
• In the growing theme of not mentioning a character's name until very late in the episode, it is He-Man who finally calls the Ice Lord's daughter "Snowflake," while in the process of rescuing her, very near the end of the episode. We are left to assume that He-Man either already knew her name (perhaps due to Prince Adam doing some princely studying on the names of all planet Eternia's royal peeps), or that Adam, Orko, and the Ice Lord had an off-screen conversation in which the name came up.
• This is the first episode to be written by Patrick Duncan, who I think did a fine job. I particularly enjoyed the physical comedy in this story, notably Beast Man walking around with the cauldron over his body (sorry Beasty!). He-Man gets off some good lines, and I love the animation of Skeletor slipping on the ice. Duncan will give us one more MOTU script, the memorable MU050.
• The animators made a very strange choice in the PSA, of placing a wall decoration in the background just behind Duncan's head. I suppose it was meant to be a candelabra, but it looks exactly as if bug antennae are growing out of his helmet. It reminds me of that memorable scene of the news reporter doing his story on Augustus Gloop in the original film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), positioned intentionally in front of a wall hanging so that it looks like he has antlers.