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Did you know that at some point in the \u201990s there were two separate, very different Sonic the Hedgehog TV series running simultaneously? \u201cAnd the same guy played Sonic in both shows,\u201d Scott Pilgrim, the doofy 23-year-old layabout of \u201cScott Pilgrim Takes Off,\u201d shares, unprompted, to his love interest, Ramona Flowers. \u201cIsn\u2019t that wild? The same guy playing two different versions of the same guy??\u201d<\/p>\n
Totally<\/em> wild. It\u2019s almost like how the same guy (Michael Cera) has now played two different versions of this<\/em> same guy (Scott Pilgrim) \u2014 first in Edgar Wright\u2019s damn-near-perfect 2010 film, \u201cScott Pilgrim vs. the World<\/a>,\u201d and now in this underwhelming Netflix anime adaptation, both based on Bryan Lee O\u2019Malley\u2019s<\/a> beloved graphic novel series.<\/p>\n In the books and in the film, Scott discovers that Ramona, a girl he\u2019s been seeing in his dreams (because of a convenient subspace highway that runs through his head, of course) is real, but he can\u2019t date her until he defeats her seven deadly exes in epic video-game-style faceoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cScott Pilgrim Takes Off\u201d isn\u2019t a reboot or a sequel; it begins almost identically to the film but takes a sharp turn at the end of the first episode that sets it up as essentially an alternate-reality scenario. Here, Ramona and her exes take center stage, and though the series is still set, like the film, in a Toronto from \u201cnot too long ago,\u201d this new story feels more grown up, often at the expense of its humor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The film, which condensed the six-book series into a svelte 112 minutes of addictive original songs and millennial- and Gen X-friendly references, more baldly satirized hipster culture and the clich\u00e9 ways in which young adults sabotage their relationships and fail to hold themselves accountable for their knuckle-headed decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cScott Pilgrim Takes Off,\u201d directed by Abel G\u00f3ngora, is more dutiful in its depiction of toxic relationship behaviors and more generous in redeeming its characters \u2014 even its antagonists \u2014 through their own arcs of personal growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Too bad those are also the blandest story lines. There are some intriguing new reveals and romantic pairings, along with jamming music from Scott\u2019s band, Sex Bob-Omb (original songs by Anamanaguchi), but the bulk of the eight-episode series feels like a filler arc or, to use an anime term, OVAs (original video animations).<\/p>\n The jokes are either wholly lackluster or slightly tweaked and watered-down versions of what appeared in the movie. The pacing lags too, and though most of the film\u2019s stars return to voice their animated counterparts \u2014 including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Brie Larson, Aubrey Plaza and Jason Schwartzman \u2014 the performances often land like bad English dubs, with any emotiveness muted and intonation flatlined.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Anime is a cozy fit for O\u2019Malley\u2019s work. But for as much as \u201cScott Pilgrim Takes Off\u201d is conversant in the medium\u2019s visual motifs, gags and gestures, it doesn\u2019t fully take advantage of the absurdity that the format allows. Or at least not until the ending; in its last two episodes, the series finally exhibits the kind of imagination one would expect from a story featuring superpowered vegans and spying robots.<\/p>\n So I won\u2019t say \u201cScott Pilgrim Takes Off\u201d completely fails to launch, because it offers a wholesome sense of closure for fans of the books and of the film. But the series never fully succeeds either. The characters may have grown, but in this incarnation, the story itself is stuck in a state of arrested development.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n