Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a fun, funny mash-up of movie, comic book and video game sensibilities. The story combines a romantic comedy with a fighting video game, and the film just runs full-tilt with the idea.
Every new relationship comes with baggage. In this case, the baggage happens to be Ramona Flowersā seven evil exes, who all want to fight Scott Pilgrim if heās going to date her. Fights are staged like video games, with āX vs Yā captions, physics-defying moves and special powers, and defeated opponents transforming into coins. Caption boxes provide extra information. Flashbacks are illustrated in comic-strip form.
Its biggest flaw, IMO, is that it tries so hard to fit all the battles into one movie that it forgets to slow down and show us that Scott and Ramona actually like each other (most of the time). Thereās no real sense of time, and it feels like the whole thing could happen in a week. So when the supporting cast starts asking Scott whether being with Ramona is really worth all the effort, itās a good question, one that makes the ultimate ending a bit less satisfying than the one in the original graphic novels.
The original comics tell the story over six volumes, which take place over roughly a year. Obviously side characters are developed a lot more. More importantly for the lead story, Ramona is developed a lot more, and you get to see the two of them dealing with an actual relationship, rather than simply āYouāre hot, wanna go out?ā āOh, okay.ā You get much more of a sense that the fights mean something. The later volumes also focus heavily on people growing up and growing apart, something which there really isnāt time for in the movie.
They also make it clear that Scott isnāt as great as he thinks he is. He does have the potential to become the next evil ex, after all.
The movie is great fun. If you liked it, I absolutely recommend picking up the graphic novels. If you liked the idea, but not the execution, or if you canāt stand Michael Cera (I know thatās a consideration for some people, and I had my doubts when I heard that heād been cast in the role), I recommend picking up the first volume or two to give it a try.
Update
The 2023 cartoon Scott Pilgrim Takes Offis even better. It benefits from more time (eight episodes vs. one movie), an infinite effects budget, and hindsight, and manages to tell a different, but closely related story while somehow being both wackier and more introspective.
Also, I wasnāt doing star ratings when I wrote this up for my blog back in 2010, but Iām retroactively giving it 4 stars.
Interesting Links
A fan tracked down the real-life locations in Toronto that Brian Lee OāMalley used as reference, then took photos to match them up with the comic panels. It reminds me of a story that OāMalley told at Comic-Con last(?) year about the movie production. They tried to use actual locations when possible, and at one point went to film a scene with a particular phone booth, only to find it had been torn out. They rebuilt the phone booth for the scene!
My Friday at Comic-Con included stumbling into OāMalleyās signing, spotting cosplay and window art, and completely missing the āScott Pilgrim Experience.ā (Though I did eventually pick up some āstuff.ā)
Author Seanan McGuire explains why moviesā financial success matters to fans: Since Scott Pilgrim failed at the box office, similar movies arenāt going to be funded for quite a while. Iāve actually been meaning to write up something similar, but havenāt gotten around to it.
Years later, author John Scalzi describes why the movie is a perennial comfort watch, and goes into just how much of a mess all the characters are and how well it fits the mode of life in your 20s, still trying to figure out who you are, never mind who you want to be.
Itās taken a long time (and three publishers) to complete this adaptation of the Wheel of Time prequel, even though it only covered eight standard-sized comic books. Iām sure Tor Publishing was frustrated, since they couldnāt actually release the collection until the individual chapters were complete, and Robert Jordan was extremely frustrated with the situation.
The same studio has also started adapting the main series. The third issue of Eye of the World arrived in stores earlier this week. According to a post at Dragonmount, the original plan was for Eye of the World to cover roughly 36 issues, to be collected in six volumes. Just for book one.
Dynamite has been good at keeping the comics on schedule since they relaunched a few months ago, but at that pace, even if they never miss a month, itāll take 42 years to adapt the whole series!
The Whole Story
Assembled from posts I originally made on my blog.
Iāve been really enjoying the comic-book adaptation of Robert Jordanās New Spring, the prequel to The Wheel of Time. Unfortunately, the last few issues have been very sporadic, and thereās been no way to get any kind of schedule. New issues would just pop up on the shipping list the week they arrived in stores. It didnāt help that the publisher, Red Eagle Entertainment, is a complete unknown.
So every week, Iāve scoured Diamondās shipping list, hoping to see āNew Springā on there. Today I figured Iād check the publisherās site again, even though itās been useless from the beginning. Still nothing, just a cover and March 2006 date for issue #6, which has yet to appear.
I thought of another source, though: WoT fan site Dragonmount is where I learned about Book 11. So I looked over there, and guess what? Just last week, Red Eagle issued a press release that theyāre cancelling New Spring with only 5 out of 8 issues published.
On the plus side, a rep from Dabel Brothers (the studio that actually wrote and drew the comics) commented in the thread at Dragonmount, saying that āthe New Spring series is being continued just not through Red Eagle. The remaining issues are all completedā¦ā
Not surprisingly, the publisher and studio blame each other. The dispute is apparently in arbitration. But given the realities of the comics industry, the fact that the publisher appeared out of nowhere and has no other products, and the presence of artwork for issue #7 on the studioās forums, Iām inclined to believe Dabel Brothersā claims that Red Eagle stopped actually paying them for the work they were doing.
August 2007
Dabel Brothers Productions has been much in the news this past week, between parting ways with Marvel Comics and landing a deal to adapt Dean Koontzā work to comics.
New Spring was published through Red Eagle Entertainment, a company which appeared out of nowhere and seemed to have only two properties: comic book rights to New Spring and movie rights to Eye of the World. The comic started strongly, but delays led to the series ultimately getting canceled after only 5 issues of a projected 8. Red Eagle and Dabel Bros. each blamed each other.
Thereās been very little information over the past year. Dabel has gone on to produce high-profile series like the Anita Blake comics, and Red Eagle has all but disappeared. (Even their website has removed everything but a logo and an email address.) Iāve just assumed itās still been in arbitration or something.
For instance, I hear that word was floating about ComicsCon in San Diego that I am displeased with Red Eagle. Too true. Too very true. In a few more months that last contract they have with anyone on Godās green earth that so much as mentions my name will come to an end and we can see what happens after that. You see, among other things they forgot an old dictum of LBJ back when he was just a Congressman from Texas, when he famously, or infamously, said āDonāt spit in the soup. boys. We all have to eat.ā Worse, Red Eagle though they could tell me they spit in the soup, or pee in it, if they wanted to and there wasnāt anything I could do to stop them. You canāt apologize your way out of that with me, not that they tried. There isnāt enough money in the world to buy your way out of it with me. Not that they tried that either. So they get no further help from me. Once they are completely out of the picture, weāll see what happens.
So in a few months, all of Red Eagleās WOT contracts are up. Thatāll free up the movie rights, and while it may not resolve the contract dispute with DBPro over New Spring, there might not be much left of Red Eagle to block them from finishing the book. On the other hand, Dabel Bros. has plenty of other projects keeping them busy, so it might not be a high priority for them.
I am encouraged by the fact that DBPRo has gone through several site redesigns since the breakdown, and hasnāt dropped the New Spring section from their forum.
July 2008
Dabel Brothers Publishing is going to adapt The Wheel of Time to comics, with the first issue coming out in December. Del Rey will release the collected editions. This is the same studio that did the New Spring adaptation a few years ago, an 8-issue miniseries that broke down 5 issues in due to conflicts with the seriesā publisher, Red Eagle Entertainment.
(As near as I can tell, Red Eagle existed for the sole purpose of buying the movie and comic rights to Wheel of Time, and managed to run both of them into the ground. Robert Jordan himself had some rather angry words on the subject of Red Eagle, and was looking forward to their contract expiring so that heād never have to deal with them again. āOnce they are completely out of the picture,ā he added, āweāll see what happens.ā)
Since I was very impressed with the issues of New Spring that actually came out, I think this is great news. Iām a little apprehensive given the number of publishers Dabel has gone through in the last few years, especially since properly adapting Wheel of Time at one issue a month will probably take more than a decade (Iām thinking 12 issues per novel).
I hope theyāll finish New Spring first. Thereās only 3 issues left, and that would give them material for an actual book early on to start building buzz.
November 2009
Issue #6 came out in May, as did the Eye of the World prologue, but #7 didnāt come out until August. Itās November now, with no sign of #8ā¦or of Wheel of Time #2. Meanwhile, Bleeding Cool has been reporting financial problems ā like not paying artists ā and the Dabel Bros. website has gone offline.
It doesnāt sound promisingā¦but there is some hope. I posted about several stalled comic miniseries at Speed Force, and Dabel Brothersā Derek Ruiz stopped in to comment:
NS #8 News coming soon. Itās complete and ready for printing. Once I have more to tell you on release date Iāll make my way back here. [emphasis added]
He didnāt mention Eye of the World, and I didnāt follow up. One thing at a time, after all!
As I understand it, Tor has the rights to publish the collected editions ā and I suspect thatās where the main audience for this is going to be. If Dabel Brothers can ship the final issue of New Spring soon, Tor can have a hardcover in bookstores next year to tide fans over while they wait for Brandon Sanderson to finish Towers of Midnight.
December 2009
The Beat reports that Dynamite Entertainment is taking over ācreative development, production, printing, marketing and sales for all titles handled by Dabel Brothers Publishing.ā The earliest books are supposed to ship in April 2010.
Thereās no specific word on New Spring or the ongoing Wheel of Time adaptation, but since New Spring #8 is reportedly ācomplete and ready for printing,ā it seems likely to be part of that initial April release.
If the book does come out in April, it will have taken nearly five years to complete the eight-issue miniseries. Dynamite will also be the third company logo to appear on the cover, after five issues with Red Eagle Entertainment and two with Dabel Brothersā own label.
At this point I donāt care much about the Eye of the World comics, since they only published one issue to start with (two if you count the prologue), but Iād really like to see New Spring finished!
The show was impressive. I think this is the sixth Cirque du Soleil show Iāve seen and theyāve all been good. A few acts did look kind of familiar, like the guy balancing on a 20-foot-tall tower of chairs (weād seen a similar act at the OC Fair last summer), but even those acts maintained the āhow the heck do they do that?!ā factor. A contortionist act reminded me of someoneās idea back in the early 1990s, never realized as far as I know, to get contortionists to play non-humanoid aliens on science-fiction shows. (These days, you can just use CGI to portray any body structure you want.)
The centerpiece of the show was sort of a giant double human hamster wheel. Two mesh wheels, each with a diameter of perhaps 1Ā½ times the height of the performers, are attached to either end of a scaffolding, which is then suspended from the ceiling so that the entire structure can rotate. Then two performers proceed to run and jump inside the wheels as the whole thing spins around in the airā¦and then they start running around the outside of the wheels! According to the Cirque website, itās called the Wheel of Death.
The clowns seemed more prominent in this show than in the others Iāve seen, to the point where they basically had two MC characters: one serious, one comedic.
Oddly enough, the show features a rainstorm. There was enough fake thunder and lightning that we probably didnāt recognize the real thing a few times!
This should have been a great movie. Epic story, all-star castā¦but it was intensely boring. 16 years later, I barely remember a thing about it other than being bored out of my skull, but the boredom itself left that much of an impression.
So bad that the group of friends I was with started heckling the movie, and the rest of the audience joined in. Of course, that means we found something fun about it, so it probably doesnāt count. (Similarly, I rather enjoyed Van Helsing as a comedy, even though it doesnāt seem to have been intended as one.)
