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The original film, Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a beloved fantasy action/
filled romantic comedy which includes many off the wall fantasy fighting
sequences. It is also filled with interesting concepts and has tons of style. It
is about a wanna' be alternative musician who mooches off his friends and is
dating a younger Asian girl who is still in high school.
The film has only grown in significance since its release in 2010. I think it is
mostly because of three reasons. Firstly, it is seen as
one of the supreme cinematic portrayals of alternative culture or the Indy rock
milieu which was already eroding around the time of its release (80 percent of
my students listen mostly to rap and pop). So, the film has a certain hipster
nostalgia cache or appeal.
Secondly, it is also great fun to see all the fine actors who in in many cases
went on to better things when they were just starting out. This includes Brie
Larson, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans. Jason Swartzman, Anna Kendrick and of course
the star, Michael Cena (Plaza and Kendrick also worked together in the dumb but
fun Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates). The third reason is the fine, fast paced,
and creative direction of the great Edgar Wright who also did the wonderful
Shawn of the Dead,
World's End, and Baby Driver.
Now Netflix has released a Japanese style series called Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
which adapts and expands upon the story of the original live action and tells it
in anime style. While it does not reach the heights of the original film, it is
still fairly entertaining although it’s harder to emotionally connect with the
animated figures than real actors.
The show has attracted some critical accolades at awards. It won best animated
series at the 29th Critics’ Choice Awards, and it was nominated for Outstanding
Limited or Anthology Series at the 35th GLADD Awards.
It probably got the GLADD nom because it adds several gay characters (several of
them were originally straight) and Ramona has an evil female ex (she says she
went through a same sex experimentation phase), and Scott’s sarcastic roommate
(voiced by Kiernan Culkin) now has a male lover. These changes and additions
neither hurt nor help the film, although I am sure some appreciate the increased
gay representation.
If you love the live action film, you still should like the TV series. But it is
best to first see the original movie (which is still currently on Netflix
although it is leaving soon) first. This film is best viewed as a What If? or
alternate version rather than a replacement for the original.
The best aspect is that it reunites all the main actors from the live action
show to do the voices in the cartoon. They stayed connected in an e-mail chain
and they recorded their dialogue online in different cities and in some cases
different continents. The original director. Edgar Wright served as executive
producer for the series.
The first episode retells the movie story. Scott encounters a cool Magenta
haired “alt girl” named Ramona Flowers who works as a skating courier named. He
first meets her in his dreams so she is literally “the girl of his dreams.” When
he sees her in person, he falls for her instantly. The problem is that she has
seven evil boyfriends (called the League of Evil Exes which might be riffing off
the X-Men’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) that want to kill him. Scott must fight them
each separately to win the right to be with Ramona in bizarre, exaggerated
martial arts battles which look like they came from The Matrix or the Street
Fighter game (they all probably take place in his mind).
To make things more complicated, his former high school love, Knives Chau who he
never broke up with, is still smitten with him even though he has been trying to
avoid her. Some audiences might frown on his relationship with the naïve Asian
girl. She seems too young and inexperienced for him, but on the other hand
Ramona who is about Scott’s age seems too cool and experienced for him. If they
were combined (like the female leads in Igmar Bergman’s
Persona)
they might make a perfect female for him.
The first episode differs from the film because it ends with Scott’s apparent
death at the hands of one of Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes, Then the show (in
a move sure to be controversial) shifts the focus to other characters including
the enigmatic young object of his desire, alt girl Ramona Flowers.
We see the funeral of Scott from her perspective. We also meet some of Scott’s
exes there including the amusingly arrogant and self-important Envy who reminded
me a bit me of Lady Gaga, at least the way she is portrayed here (In real life
the author of the comic said she was based on Emily Haines of the band, Metric).
She sings a song about Scott at the service. She seems to be using Scott’s death
to make her the center of attention and she makes the funeral all about her.
During the second episode another one of Ramona’s evil ex’s (mouthed by Jason
Swartzman) directs a film called Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Life which is a bit on
the nose that recounts the highlights of Scott’s story. Ramona joins the cast of
the movie (as the lead actress Envy’s stunt double) and gets to know his other
ex, Knives who also works on the film. The film within a film mocks its own
producer with a character in the credits named Edgar Wrong parodying the name
Edgar Wright. Although there are other clever moments here, the episode drags a
bit.
In subsequent episodes, Ramona comes to believe Scott is not dead. As she
examines the footage of his first and last fight with Matthew Pattel, one of her
deadly exes, she sees evidence that Scott was not killed but pulled through some
kind of dimensional portal. In the show people and things gain energy by not
eating meat. It turns out that Scott was transported to a possible future
through a so-called “vegan portal’ powered by energy created by a
non-meat-eating robot built by some of Ramona’s ex-boyfriends. The film explores
some of the same themes as The Flash (everyone seems to be making films about
the multi-verse nowadays), and Scott eventually encounters alternate future
versions of himself including one who demands that he never date Ramona.
There are other minor changes in the characters in the show version. For one
thing, Ramona was originally an Amazon delivery girl in the books and movie who
uses skates and inter-dimensional powers to get to places faster. But now she
delivers DVDs for Netflix (this seems like a case of product placement) still
using inter-dimensional transport which is kind of curious since Netflix just
stopped renting out and delivering physical media. Also, Scott’s former
girlfriend knives takes up music and becomes a member of Scott’s band.
The big flaw of the show is that it turns Scott Pilgrim (Michael Sera) into a
side character in his own film which will not please people who adore the
character.
Love and Thunder made the same mistake with Thor taking a back seat
to Jane Foster. Even though Ramona and the other characters are also
interesting, I also wanted to see a little more of Scott. He only dominates the
first and last episode and some of the evil ex’s are in the show more than Scott
himself.
But on the plus side the animation is always competent and even beautiful at
times, although it is nowhere as good looking as Suzame or The Boy and His
Heron. The new series was co-produced by the anime company. Science Saru which
also created Star Wars: Visions (2021). The series does an admirable job at
replicating the manga art style of the original comic series.
Also, it is interesting to see someone take a different approach to the original
comic story which deserved a retelling. Although this is not the best entry
point for the story, it is great to see the story extended past the film into
the later graphic novels. So, although I was not blown away and it had some lame
sequences, the series is good enough to receive a marginal recommendation.
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Episodes Directed by:
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Abel Gringora |
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Episodes Written by:
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Bryan Lee O Malley and Ben David Grabinski.
Based on the Scott Pilgrim comic by Bryan Lee O’
Malley |
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Starring the Voices of:
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Michael Cena, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen
Wong |
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Length: |
The Season is made up of 8 episodes, 28 minutes
each |
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Rating:
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MA for language, smoking and violence. |
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Available On:
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At press time the series was streaming on Netflix |
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For more
writings by Vittorio Carli go to
www.artinterviews.org and
www.chicagopoetry.org.
His latest book "Tape Worm Salad with Olive Oil for Extra Flavor" is also
available.
Come to the New Poetry Show on the first Saturday of every month at Tangible
Books in
Bridgeport from 7-9 at 3324 South Halsted.
This is now a monthly show featuring Poetry/Spoken Word, some Music, Stand Up
and Performance Art and hosted by Mister Carli. For more information e-mail:
carlivit@gmail.com for details
Upcoming features at the Poetry Show:
May 4-Jose Bono, Rich Experience, Don Hargraves, and Madeline Smith
June 1-Shirley Buck and Estenia Bunuelas
July 6-Mary Hawley and Mike Puican
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SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF ©
2024 NETFLIX
All Rights Reserved
Review © 2024 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
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