A WIDGET OF WIDGET WOODS
Lara
Lara keeps house at the Widgets' fort in Filmation's He-Man, nursing a stranger, swinging a spoon at a monster and getting carried off by Beast Man.
Lara is a Widget in Filmation's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a small forest person in a pink headscarf who lives at the Widgets' fort. Linda Gary voices her in most episodes.
The record
The facts
WHO SHE IS
Behind the fort wall
The Widgets arrive in Paul Dini's "Evil-Lyn's Plot," first shown on September 21, 1983: small forest people with a walled fort and a supply of coridite, the mineral Skeletor wants because He-Man's own baldric is made of it. Lara is the blonde among them, in a pink headscarf and a white dress with a pink sash, usually at Squinch's elbow.[1]
When a direct assault on the fort fails, Evil-Lyn tries a con instead, disguising herself as a helpless blonde stranger and staging her own rescue from Panthor so the Widgets will take her in. Lara is one of the Widgets gathered around the guest in a Widget hut, and late in the episode she is back at the wall with Squinch.
[1] ^ Filmation's own series bible for the show pictured the Widgets as the dwarves of the Iron Forest and wrote Lara as more of a tomboy than the episodes made her.
THE SIGNATURE EPISODE
Jacob and the Widgets
Harvey Brenner's "Jacob and the Widgets," first shown on October 18, 1984, gives the Widgets an outsider to look after.[2] It includes a beach day with Prince Adam, interrupted when a pair of robot sea monsters attack a small fishing boat. The fisherman is Jacob, a white-bearded hermit who has built a life around needing nobody, and the Widgets take him home anyway. Lara is at his bedside with Squinch and a bowl of soup.
Mer-Man is behind the sea monsters, and he squeezes the location of the Widgets' coridite out of Biro, one of their own, then tunnels toward the fort and floods the mine as he goes. When he reaches the fort wall, Lara is the one holding a frightened Widget close while the fin rises behind Jacob. Jacob ends it with the fishing rod Squinch gave him, hooking Mer-Man so Teela can subdue him, and the Widgets vote him in as their new mayor.
Across her episodes the show uses Lara the same way: she is the Widget who looks after people, and the one in danger when the fort is.
The episode is also where her voice credit changes hands. Linda Gary is named for Lara in the earlier cast lists, but this episode's cast list gives the part to Erika Scheimer, one of the performers on its end credits.[3]
[2] ^ Published air dates for these second-season episodes differ by a day. TVmaze lists The Littlest Giant on October 5, 1984 and Jacob and the Widgets on October 19, while other episode lists give October 4 and October 18.
[3] ^ Episode cast lists credit Linda Gary as Lara in Evil-Lyn's Plot, The Mystery of Man-E-Faces and The Littlest Giant. The end credits of Jacob and the Widgets list Erika Scheimer among its voice performers, and that episode's cast list gives her Lara.
Lara in The Littlest Giant, helping Squinch in the workshop.
Clipped from our own copy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Littlest Giant (1984), 14:17 to 16:13, 1 minute 56 seconds. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright Mattel.
TWO MORE CALLS FOR HELP
Man-E-Faces and the Littlest Giant
Paul Dini's "The Mystery of Man-E-Faces," first shown on October 17, 1983, puts a monster at the Widgets' door. A stranger with a changing face hammers on the fort, shouting "Let me in!" and calling the Widgets little worms, and someone inside shouts for Squinch to fire the signal flare and call He-Man. Lara meets the intruder with a raised wooden spoon. The stranger is Man-E-Faces, a lonely outcast who complains that everyone always laughs at him, and by the end of the episode Lara is clapping for him in the audience at the Royal Palace.
Douglas Booth's "The Littlest Giant," first shown on October 4, 1984, belongs to Squinch, but Lara is in it from the first gust. A storm batters the fort, Kando is blown off his feet, and Squinch saves him with Lara's help. Later, when Skeletor's forces raid the Royal Palace, Beast Man grabs Lara by the arm and hauls her off.
AFTER 1985
The Widgets' only series
Lara belongs to Filmation's series alone. The Widgets do not return in the 2002 series, Masters of the Universe: Revelation or Masters of the Universe: Revolution, and neither He-Man film includes them.
IN BRIEF
Lara, 1983 to 1984
Evil-Lyn's Plot
The Widgets and their coridite fort are introduced, September 21, 1983.
The Mystery of Man-E-Faces
A stranger besieges Widget Woods, October 17, 1983.
The Littlest Giant
A storm hits the fort, and Skeletor's raid reaches the Royal Palace, October 4, 1984.
Jacob and the Widgets
The Widgets take in a hermit fisherman, October 18, 1984.
Questions
Lara questions, answered
Who is Lara in He-Man?
A Widget, one of the small forest people who live in a walled fort and guard a supply of coridite. She is the blonde in the pink headscarf, often seen beside Squinch.
What are the Widgets?
Small forest people introduced in "Evil-Lyn's Plot." Their fort holds coridite, the mineral He-Man's baldric is made of, which is why Skeletor's side keeps coming after them.
Who voices Lara?
Linda Gary, according to the cast lists for Evil-Lyn's Plot, The Mystery of Man-E-Faces and The Littlest Giant. The end credits of Jacob and the Widgets name Erika Scheimer instead.
What is Lara's first episode?
"Evil-Lyn's Plot," written by Paul Dini and first shown on September 21, 1983.
Which episodes is Lara in?
Evil-Lyn's Plot, The Mystery of Man-E-Faces, The Littlest Giant and Jacob and the Widgets.
What happens to Lara in The Littlest Giant?
She rides out a storm at the fort with Kando and Squinch, then follows Squinch to the Royal Palace, where she is caught up in Skeletor's raid.
What does Lara do in Jacob and the Widgets?
She helps nurse Jacob, the hermit the Widgets rescue, and she is at the fort wall holding a frightened Widget when Mer-Man arrives.
Who is Kando?
Another Widget, the one in the red hood, often beside Lara and Squinch at the fort.
Where do the Widgets live?
In a walled fort in Widget Woods, with huts inside the wall and a signal cannon for calling He-Man.
Compiled by the heman.org desk from Filmation's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episodes and the English subtitles for The Mystery of Man-E-Faces, the episode guides to Evil-Lyn's Plot, The Mystery of Man-E-Faces, The Littlest Giant and Jacob and the Widgets, the episodes' cast lists and end credits, TVmaze's air dates and its Revelation and Revolution cast lists.
Alongside
