Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Produced by Science SARU

Watched on Netflix

The Skinny: Scott Pilgrim minus Scott Pilgrim

Scott Pilgrim was a comic, video game, and movie that came along at just the right time in my life. I read it just after I’d gotten back from spending a year teaching abroad and while working my first adult job. While I was a few years older than the characters (late 20’s rather than early-to-mid 20s,) the series full of early-life crises, romantic angst, actual queer characters not partitioned into their own strange literary spaces (!) along with a slew of indie rock and retro video game references was perfect Hugh-bait.
And gosh darn it if 2023’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off hasn’t done it again. Based on the source material, the series takes a wild swing at the end of the first episode, launching into a whole new direction. I’ll try as be as spoiler-free as possible, but the key difference is that after the first episode, which closely follows the first volume of the comic up until the last thirty seconds, Scott is separated from the rest of the cast.
This is a brilliant move, changing the focus of the series from the erstwhile slacker protagonist Scott Pilgrim to flawed, enigmatic manic pixie dream girl Ramona. Following Ramona lets the audience into her head in a way that the comic and movies don’t. We get to see the real character, rather than Scott’s indentation of her. And without Scott to fight, the colorful cast of evil exes all get to shine and grow in different directions, which are fascinating and hilarious.
Most of the cast of the film reprises their roles as voice actors, and they do an outstanding job returning to those roles. It was particularly great to see these actors get more time to inhabit and play with their characters. Brandon Routh and Chris Evans in particular shine with their extra screen time. There’s even a musical cameo by the band Metric that shines as both a great cover and an excellent gag.
The animation is gorgeous and dynamic, and the writing captures the goofy charm of the comics in a way that the live-action movie never could. At its heart, this is a story about the world’s dumbest martial artists running around shouting, and the series takes that Ranma 1/2-like energy and runs with it. The fights (and of course there are still fights) are especially well-animated, with creative premises and clever twists. The fight between Roxy and Ramona in the video store in episode 3 is a particular standout.
In the end, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is about self reflection, the ways we heal (or don’t) from trauma, and learning to both let go of and embrace the past, while still being as much irreverent and silly fun as the original. It takes time to examine the characters in ways that the movie didn’t, and I heartily recommend it, even if you were turned off by the movie back in the day. This may just turn you around.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is available to stream through Netflix.