I used to be trying ahead to Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. We all know that Scott Pilgrim himself is a POS, however there was no denying that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was a energetic, distinctive movie on the time, with a incredible solid of actors concerned.
So when the information emerged that an animated rendition of Scott Pilgrim’s story can be coming to Netflix, alongside the unique solid, I used to be overjoyed to obtain some new Pilgrim-related media. Maybe this time round they’d truly acknowledge Scott’s problematic behaviors, and possibly they’d give us extra perception into Ramona’s relationship with the evil exes!?
The excellent news is that Scott Pilgrim Takes Off does each of these issues. It explores a brand new iteration of the story we already know, devoting sufficient consideration to a variety of characters, with a stellar soundtrack, and an animation fashion appropriate for Scott Pilgrim. It even paid common homage to the world of video video games by way of its title playing cards, combat scenes, and so forth, one thing I’m a giant fan of.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off in the end did all the things that this fan wished it to do, but after episode three or so, I started to lose curiosity within the present altogether. I used to be not engaged, and making my approach by way of the latter half of the present didn’t really feel significantly enjoyable. I ended on episode seven, and I’m but to search out the motivation to complete the showcase.
Why? Well, there are a number of explanation why I consider Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was misplaced on me, and the primary is extremely subjective; the ‘manic pixie dream woman’ trope. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off has moved away from this. There’s much less of a give attention to Ramona being mysterious, edgy, and the cure-all to Scott’s ridiculous needs, however extra of a give attention to her mission to hunt readability for her previous actions and heal. In some episodes, she appears like extra of a lead character than Scott is. But regardless of that, the trope remains to be current, and I’m nonetheless uninterested in it.
I subjected myself to loads of media involving the trope as a young person, again when Scott Pilgrim vs. The World launched. There’s 500 Days of Summer, Fight Club, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and too many extra to listing. The trope has all the time been dangerous. I used to be enamored by how intense and ‘romantic’ these movies felt as a young person, and watching a rendition of an identical sort of story in 2023 felt weird to me, with the life expertise that I’ve now as an grownup.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off admittedly does its greatest to maneuver previous the trope – and it does so rather well by offering Ramona with extra of her personal story – however this in and of itself made a number of emotions come up for me that made having fun with the present a battle. This isn’t a nasty factor; actually, it’s one thing to be celebrated within the Scott Pilgrim universe. But that is one large purpose why I’ve discovered myself dropping curiosity. I assume, as excited as I used to be, that I simply didn’t wish to return there and be reminded of how a lot I as soon as naively glorified such misogynistic character improvement.
I can not categorical sufficient how effectively Scott Pilgrim Takes Off has tried to amend this, nevertheless it’s the reminders of the previous that induced my curiosity within the present – which I used to be fairly excited for – to slowly dwindle. I haven’t watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World in years, and possibly if I had, I’d have labored out a lot sooner that Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is just not for me.
Another qualm I had with the present that many would possibly agree with is with regard to its voice performing and, to an extent, the animation. Once I spotted simply how terribly the characters’ mouths match up with their speech, it grew to become all I may give attention to throughout extra poignant moments of the present.
Paired with what’s fairly poor voice performing from many of the solid, my enjoyment of the present quickly got here to a halt. This is the trade-off you make when bringing within the star-studded, authentic solid, however the truth that solely a small portion of them are expertise voice actors could be very apparent all through the present. Perhaps it could’ve been good to get a brand new solid in, however concurrently, issues wouldn’t have been as interesting as they had been with out the ever-annoyed Allison Pill, the gifted Mary Elizabeth Winstead, or the awkward Michael Cera. Performances from Kieran Culkin and Jason Schwartzman stood out as a number of the greatest within the present, that is for positive.
Ultimately, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is just not a nasty sequence. It’s enjoyable, it’s trendy, and it makes makes an attempt to amend the problems many people had with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. But a mix of poor voice performing, misaligned mouth actions, and one too many uncomfortable emotions from the previous have resulted in me placing the present down. Lots of my sudden disinterest is private, sure, and I nonetheless suggest the present to followers of Scott Pilgrim. Just with caveats.
Don’t sit and give it some thought as a lot as I did, and attempt to get pleasure from it for what it’s, fairly than specializing in what it as soon as was. You might get higher mileage out of it than I did.
