Robby London

Lou Kachivas

Orko is reunited with girlfriend Dree Elle - under stressful circumstances, because Skeletor's lackeys have busted into a Trollan vault and stolen the Horn of Evil! He-Man should be able to handle this problem, right? Just so long as Orko can get a hold of him - and Dree Elle's irritatingly waggish little brother, Yukkers, doesn't ruin everything!

Prince Adam (He-Man), Man-at-Arms, Cringer (Battle Cat), Orko, Sorceress, Teela, King Randor

Trap Jaw, Clawful

Yukkers, Dree Elle, T-Trollan, assorted citizens of Colmay, Skeletor's robot minions, Horn of evil monsters (tree monsters, rock monster, werewolf thing, wolf-bat, horned cyclops, giant)

Attak Trak, Basher, sky sleds

We open in the land of Trolla. How do we know? Because there are a trio of Trollans! Those of us who have been watching the show in order will recognize the pink-hatted one as Dree Elle - Orko's betrothed (no, really - see MU020)! The one with the "T" on his cloak is an unnamed guard who is telling Dree Elle how Skeletor's goons (having somehow travelled to Trolla) broke into the vaults and stole the Horn of Evil, which they are sure to use to cause trouble in Eternia. The third Trollan, we learn, is Dree Elle's little brother Yukkers, who begs effectively to be taken along on Dree Elle's mission to warn the Eternians of their Horny situation. They will be able to travel to Orko's adopted home thanks to the fact that Orko left Dree Elle the magic pyramid he used to get to Trolla in MU020. Dree Elle makes Yukkers promise not to play any of his immature pranks on Eternians, but we can see that he crosses his fingers, boding ill for our heroes.

Back in Eternia, Adam, Man-at-Arms, and Cringer have their own problems to solve: the City of Colmay is about to be struck by a meteor shower. Fortunately Attak Trak is a very good shot, but it only manages to take out two of the three meteors before its weapons system malfunctions. Time for He-Man and Battle Cat! He-Man is not quick enough to stop that third meteor, but he does a fine job minimizing the damage caused by its impact. Having taken care of things in Colmay, the heroes are anxious to return to Eternos, as they know Orko is home alone in the palace (Teela having escorted the royal couple to the Mystic Mountains for some reason).

Cut to Orko, who is sitting in his room, bored and lonely - but not for long! His pyramid transport appears next to him and out spring Dree Elle and Yukkers. Right from the introductions, Yukkers is pulling gags, in the form of a hand buzzer. Fortunately, they are distracted from the hilarity by Dree Elle's dire news. Not willing to wait for more responsible and competent heroes to return, Orko leads his countrymen directly to Grayskull, where he correctly deduces Trap Jaw and Clawful will be. Indeed, the Sorceress is already being attacked with the Horn thanks to the nefarious pair. The Trollans arrive just as the Sorceress collapses, spent from staving off the evil. They are, in fact, surprisingly helpful, managing to nab the Horn from the villains and make a getaway. With very poor taste and timing, Yukkers hides and uses a fake claw to scare his sister and her boyfriend, making them think he's Clawful. To top it off, as a fake apology Yukkers gifts Orko a bag of sneezing powder, with predictable results. That lousy son of a... Ahem. Anyway, just a few minutes later, Orko and Dree Elle see a claw amid the trees and think the kid is at it again - but it's the real Clawful! Orko and the Yukster are grabbed by the Evil Warriors, who recover the Horn and tie up their prisoners.

Luckily, Dree Elle evades the villains and runs off to get help, finding Teela with Adam and Cringer. Teela hops on a sky sled with Dree Elle in tow, leaving Adam to perform his full transformation sequence for the second time this episode. Back with the bad guys, Orko shows off some of his best magic by levitating the Horn away from Clawful and (seemingly) into his hat. Even when the crabby villain has thoroughly excavated the contents of the magician's head, however, there is no Horn to be found. More good news - Teela finally shows up, followed by He-Man! The heroes wipe the floor with their foes, even the robot soldiers Clawful spews out of the Basher, and He-Man tosses the villains' vehicle, with Clawful inside it, off into the distance. Trap Jaw is embarrassingly defeated and restrained through the combined efforts of Yukkers and his sister. The day is saved!

You'd think we could just end the episode there, right? Certainly not - not when Yukkers has yet to learn the lesson that pranks can be very hurtful! Having been told that the troublesome Horn was actually secreted under his own hat, the little nitwit fools around again, joking as if he's about to blow on it; his playful dumb-show shakes free his bag of sneezing powder, and he accidentally sneezes full-bore into the Horn, unleashing a dirty cloud of Evil! All the nearby denizens of the forest are transformed into evil monsters; and since that's apparently not enough, a spiked cyclops pops out of the Horn, and the single titanic fist of some truly ginormous giant slips out of a crack in the ground.

He-Man, Teela, and Battle Cat are quickly overwhelmed trying to deal with all these monsters, and Yukkers is absolutely no help. The Sorceress sends a message to Orko, telling him that only "the song on the Horn...can help." A sheet of music unravels from the rim of the Horn. Dree Elle, who can apparently sight-read music, tries to sing the cloyingly happy antidote song; but she's not loud enough to drown out all that evil. He-Man suggests that the Trollan lovebirds sing the song in harmony, while he blows into the wrong end of the Horn (a silly idea which probably just clogs He-Man's lungs with evil dust). The combined singing and blowing does the trick: the Eternian woodland creatures are restored, the cyclops is dispelled, the black cloud of evil dissolves, and we all pray that they never, ever sing that song again.

Back at the palace, Orko retells the events of the day to King Randor, who is very impressed. Orko points out that everyone helped, and to thank Dree Elle he pulls a copy of his own hat out of his hat, as a gift to her. Yukkers, the ungrateful little jerk, demands one as well. He finally gets his come-uppance when the hat Orko hands him proves to be full of water. The doused Yukster finds out how it feels to be on the receiving end, and he doesn't like it! Promising that they will have a long talk when they get home, Dree Elle takes the irritating imp back into their pyramid (not forgetting a good-bye kiss with her sweetie) and the pair blip away.

End with a Joke: After Dree Elle and her brother depart, we see Orko sighing with pink heart-shaped highlights stamped over his pupils. "Looks like Orko's really got it bad for Dree Elle!" remarks He-Man. "Well whatever he's got," growls Battle Cat, "I hope it's not catching!" And they all laughed...

• Dree Elle (to Orko): Do you remember the Horn of Evil? / Orko: Yes - if you blow in it, horrible spells come out! I'm sure glad it's hidden in Trolla.
• Clawful (to Trap Jaw): You cowardly hunk of tin! Now blow it - unless you want me to use my claw as a can opener.
• Dree Elle: I'm sorry about my brother, Orko. He thinks his jokes are funny. He doesn't see that they hurt people. / Orko: That's okay; but some day, one of his jokes is going to cause real trouble.
• Orko: That's the ole Trollan hat switch. One of my specialties.
• He-Man: The horn's music is turning the lovely things in the forest into evil things.

• He-Man runs at the viewer, bug-height: On his way to catch a crumbling tower
• Sorceress spreads/unspreads her wings: Preparing to fight the power of the Horn of Evil
• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: Just after his second transformation
• He-Man in battle stance on Battle Cat: Before dismounting to fight Clawful

Two full
Variation - the second iteration has an added-in comment from Cringer, just before his transformation: "Twice in one day! Orko had better appreciate this."

Brought to you by Orko
In a terrible rush to fulfill his court-ordered PSA duties, Orko blurts out a warning not to play with Earth-based parallels to the Horn of Evil that we might find around the house, like glasses, knives, matches, or tools.

Orko-specific lore
Wayward child learns a valuable lesson: Since Yukkers has to learn to not be a little bastard.
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1: Though his lackeys and his robot soldiers are present, Skeletor is not.

• Yukkers claims that "Eternia is in a different part of the universe." In MU020, Trolla was described as being "in a different astral zone" from Eternia. In MU048, Orko clearly describes the robot that menaces him as being "from my dimension," which seems to imply that Trolla and Eternia are in different universes altogether. Clearly the definition is mushy here.
• We also learn that Orko left Dree Elle the pyramid that he (accidentally) used to travel to Trolla back in MU020. The final whereabouts of the pyramid were never mentioned in that episode, but I don't believe there's anything contradicting it, so we'll give them a pass on this one! However, in MU020 the pyramid was yellow; in this episode, it is white.
• It's in this episode that we first get the sense that Orko's habit of wearing a robe with his first initial on it has caught on back in Trolla. Yukkers is labeled with a "Y," and the unnamed Trollan, I suspect with tongue in cheek, is labeled with a "T."
• "Jumping Jupiter," Duncan exclaims when spotting the meteor shower. Believe it or not, we've heard Adam use this exact expression before, in MU037 (and I complained about the reference then) - an episode that wasn't even written by the same person.
• With Adam and Duncan stopping meteors and Teela at the Mystic Mountains with the royal couple, it's only Orko left minding the store in Eternos; a dangerous occurrence that was repeated in MU038's "Valley of Power."
• We see again Orko's bedroom, looking much the same as it did back in MU045, just before he blew it to smithereens.
• While mulling over how to solve the Horn of Evil problem, Orko actually drops to the ground and paces, the corners of his cloak functioning like feet.
• This episode marks the first appearance of the Evil Warrior Clawful. Based on my information, he appears in his animated form before his action figure was released (the air date on this episode is late 1983, and the figure was not available until 1984) - and it shows. The animated Clawful looks markedly different from his toy counterpart - he has different armor and a very dragon-like snout and face. Also both of his claws are the same size. The toy Clawful, more logically, was very crab-like, with a beak mouth and carapace-style armor, and one oversized claw.
• "Wow, what a trick!" cries Yukkers, at what is, indeed, an impressive display of Orko's magic: he fetches the Horn of Evil, shrinks it, and pulls it into his hinged-open hat. (Things that go into Orko) He also somehow manages to switch the Horn over into Yukkers's hat - another impressive feat!
• Things that come out of Orko: This episode is a doozy for this category! First, in a very similar display to what came out of his hat when Orko was looking for the communicator device at the beginning of MU050, Clawful pulls out a nondescript gray bar (which turns out to be a very powerful magnet), a book of magic, a crystal ball, a single boot, a spiked pith helmet, and a golden goblet. "Why don't you clean this thing out?" remarks a disgusted Clawful. Then he finds the most interesting thing in Orko's head: a bear trap! Afterwards, as Orko roots through a huge pile of things that presumably also came out of himself, we see: a bottle of wine, a shoe, a manacle and chain, a spring, a hexagonal nut, an alarm clock, a book, and many other less identifiable objects.
• Teela uses the same flip move on Trap Jaw that we saw He-Man use multiple times on Man-E-Faces in MU043.
• Clawful releases a company of robot minions out of the top of the Basher. We haven't seen these guys since Randor and He-Man crushed several dozen of them in MU029. We won't see them again until MU085.
• It's been a while since He-Man got a chance to give a bad guy a good mud soaking. Clawful gets to be the recipient here, to christen his first Filmation outing.
• When the Sorceress telepathically speaks to Orko, only he can hear her, not Dree Elle. This is either a conscious choice on the Sorceress's part (she's made herself visible to other people before, for instance in MU008's "The Time Corridor"), or she is too weak to boost her message beyond one brain!
• Things that come out of Orko, redux: At the end of the episode, Orko unusually plucks something from the top portion of his hinged hat: some official Orko merch! It's some copies of his own hat. Very meta.
• Somewhat unusually, He-Man does not change back into Adam for the ending throne room scene; in another rarity, Battle Cat gets to deliver the outro punchline.

• Not only does He-Man put the crumbling, meteor-struck building back in place; he also somehow seals all the cracks! Love that He-Man...he could pull some contracting work on the side.
• Unsurprisingly and per usual, the Sorceress is almost immediately overwhelmed by the threat to her castle. Sigh; well, I guess that's what He-Man's for!
• Again we see evidence that travelling back and forth between Trolla and Eternia has become much easier than it was at first. Even though the villains never did manage to acquire the dimension sphere from MU048, Clawful and Trap Jaw somehow managed to break into the vault in Trolla where the Horn was hidden - and get back to Eternia to use it on Grayskull. I call shenanigans!
• Oddly enough for a newbie, Clawful acts like the senior goon, ordering the veteran Trap Jaw around. Orko talks about Clawful with the familiarity of the well-acquainted. This is a symptom of a larger theme in the show, of characters acting as if new concepts or people have always existed.
• Though it is usually very stubby, in this episode Trap Jaw's multi-purpose arm is consistently drawn about the same length as his flesh arm - more in keeping with his action figure. He also is very excited about a new attachment. "At last," he crows during a fight with our heroes, "a chance to try my new swatters." It's just an arm-length fly swatter. I'm not sure what good he thought he was going to do with it! Also, just to pause for a moment to consider one of the logical issues with He-Man which are probably better left unconsidered: where does Trap Jaw keep all his attachments? (It's worth noting that Mattel seemingly considered this problem more than Filmation, providing hooks on the Trap Jaw figure's belt for storing his other attachments.)
• In the close-up dialogue scene where Clawful is boasting about what he's going to do with the Horn, his brows jump back and forth between up and down positions, with no transitional frames to smooth the animation.
• Lots of great monsters are shown to us during the Horn of Evil sequence - it's also fun to see the "lovely" animals of the forest being transformed into monsters.
• The cheesy, saccharine song that Orko and Dree Elle have to sing to stop the Horn is a case of the cure being worse than the disease!