INTERVIEW WITH SECRET OF THE SWORD WRITER, LARRY DITILLIO:

Longtime readers of this site may remember an interview with Larry DiTillio regarding his work on the Transformers: Beast Wars series. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of his stuff. Actually, chances are you might be as well...his name's on a lot of credit sheets for a lot of programs a lot of us admired. And, ironically enough, the one episode of He-Man I feel ashamed of making fun of, and look who's on the writing credits!

Larry was nice enough to do a short interview with me about the project...here's what he had to say.

X-E: A few weeks back, Chris, who maintains all our downloads and things like that, told me he came across The Secret of the Sword.  I was thrilled, since we've had a lot of fun reviewing these old He-Man episodes and pointing out some of the more...awkward scenarios the heroes and villains are put in.  Funny thing happened with this one though...we actually loved it!  Then I noticed your name in the credits, and of course, all the way back to Beast Wars, we've been fans of your work. 

Going into this project, were there any set boundaries?  Or basically you just had to fit in all the new characters and tell the story as you saw fit?

DiTillio:  Actually I never sat down to write a movie, but rather a 5-parter to open the She-Ra Tv series.  I was going to write all 5 but Filmation wrongly believed I couldn't do it in time and gave Bob Forward the assignment to write Part 3. 

X-E:  I know a lot of animated movies, especially from this era, were originally intended to be released on the big screen.  Secret of the Sword was definitely long enough to warrant that sort of treatment -- was it originally intended to be released in theatres?   I've read about a lot of similar toons who had changed plans after movies like The Transformers didn't pull too much weight at the box office.

DiTillio: As above, there was never any mention of a film when Bob and I began writing the 5-parter.  It was after it was written that Lou decided to cut it and release it as a film. Both Bob and I were a bit perturbed.

X-E: What a lot of He-Man/She-Ra fans wouldn't realize is that since you scripted Secret of the Sword, you essentially pencilled in the template for quite a few new characters.  Notwithstanding the fact that He-Man wasn't really too in-depth of a show, are there any characters you're particularly happy about how they turned out?

DiTillio: He-Man was never supposed to be in it a great deal, this was really our way of introducing the She-Ra show.  I am actually happy with how all the characters turned out particularly the Princess of Power herself.   In truth I did all the development on She-Ra, from naming the character to the whole "Rebellion" concept.  The other characters were named for their toys, but  Mattel originally planned to call She-Ra "Hera" and then learned the name was taken.  So they asked me to come up with something and I invented She-Ra, which turned out to be a good piece of serendipity.

I have a niece named Shirah (pronounced the same) and my sister-in-law likes to think the charcter was named for her, but in truth she wasn't. 

X-E:  There really aren't available estimates for this sort of thing - how well was Secret of the Sword received? 

DiTillio: Oh it was a hit. Remember this was during the peak of He Man's popularity and kids zoomed to the theatres to see it...

X-E: Orko was suspiciously missing from the movie.  We smell a conspiracy.  Did you have something added to your contract stating that you'd never have to pen a line in for the guy?

DiTillio: Not so. I wrote several Orko episodes like "Trouble in Trolla" and I actually kind of liked the little crazy. He was very weird.  However we didn't think he would fit with the serious tone of the 5-parter and so he never made it in...

X-E: In the past few years, there's been a tremendous surge in interest in these old toons.  Just in the past few months, the classic He-Man figures were reissued, there's plans for a new 'neo-classic' Transformers show, and stations are buying up the rights to as many 80s animated hits as they can.  If given the opportunity, are there any shows you can recall that you wouldn't mind giving a more updated treatment to?

DiTillio: I certainly wouldn't mind bringing back He-Man and She-Ra, especially if it involved better animation than we were stuck with at Filmation.  Sword and sorcery has always been my first love.  I also did a show in the 80's called Galaxy High School that I thought was way before its time. Wouldn't mind bringing that back.

X-E: Given the amount of work you do in the field, I'd assume you've checked out some of the animated shows currently out there.  If that's the case, do any strike you as particularly impressive?

DiTillio: Actually, I have been trying to avoid animation and press more for live action work, unfortunately that doesn't always work out when you need a job.  Nor do I watch much "Saturday Morning " stuff.  The toons I like are "Dexter's Laboratory", "Courage the Cowardly Dog" and "Futurama".  I am not much of a fan of stuff like The Simpsons, King of the Hill, etc. because most just strike me as animated sitcoms that don't take full advantage of the medium.

X-E: Any new or upcoming projects coming up you can tell us about?

DiTillio: No things are pretty dry out here. There is a very strong possibiliity both the Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild will go on strike in a few months and everybody is waiting to see what happens...  I am trying to sell some original live action science fiction series and have some interest in them. But I doubt anyone is going to commit to anything new at this point, so I am still prowling around looking for a job.

And of course, we wish Larry the best in luck with that.  DiTillio's work can be seen in a ton of classics - from The Real Ghostbusters to Wheeled Warriors, Babylon 5, Captain Power, and many more.

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