Rises Above It's Truthful Title

(050924) 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.