Scott Pilgrim Takes Off review: Much weirder, and better, than a mere nostalgia trip

[Editor’s note: This review contains spoilers of the first episode of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.]

When Netflix announced that it was making an anime version of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels—and, more specifically, Edgar Wright’s cult classic film version of O’Malley’s books, complete with every major cast member from the movie returning to voice their characters for the show—it felt a bit like a victory lap. Although Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World remains a financial black mark on Wright’s career—it lost more money, in a budget-vs.-box office sense, than the director’s Last Night In Soho, which was released into the tail end of the COVID-19 lockdowns—its critical reception has only gotten rosier, as whole new generations of fans have cottoned on to Wright’s energetic, hilarious attempts to channel O’Malley’s strangely affecting blend of video games, Canadian rock music, and young romance for the screen. Getting the (now enormously more famous) cast back together for a cartoon version that would directly translate the books’ anime-inspired art for streaming TV felt like a natural, nostalgic fit.

And for one episode, that’s exactly what Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, which premieres November 17, is. (And here’s where we should note, sincerely, that the spoiler warning at the top of this review is not fucking around. Here there be Double Dragons.)

For one whole episode, we follow Canadian slacker Scott Pilgrim (still Michael Cera) as he meanders around his precious little life, falling in love at first sight with rainbow-haired Netflix delivery woman Ramona Flowers (still Mary Elizabeth Winstead), despite the fact that he’s already dating a high-schooler (still Ellen Wong). We see him banter with his roommate Wallace (still the indispensable Kieran Culkin, easily the best performer here when it comes to slipping into the specific comedy rhythms of animation). We see him play with his bandmates (still Allison Pill and Mark Webber). We see his and Ramona’s first tentative steps toward love. You, the viewer, might find yourself asking just how far nostalgia can go, as you watch a fairly straight anime adaptation of a movie that was already a pretty faithful version of a comic visually based on … anime. And then we see Scott confront a very literal expression of Ramona’s past romantic baggage, when the first member of her League Of Evil Exes, Matthew Patel (still Satya Bhabha), crashes a rock show … and sends the pre-existing narrative veering wildly off its course.

Which is to say that Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, which was written by O’Malley and screenwriter BenDavid Grabinski, suddenly reveals itself to be an “adaptation” of the earlier versions of Scott Pilgrim in only the loosest of senses, from pretty much its second episode right through to its big, romantic finale. Dropping the deliberately video game-inspired structure of the original story, it transforms into something a bit more suited to episodic television, taking on the pacing of a sort of bizarro detective show. (Columbo references abound.) With each episode loosely based around one of Ramona’s evil exes, the show hops genres with regularity, while its big major twist puts Winstead front and center. (A smart choice: She was good in the movie, but even better here as a version of Ramona with more room to exist outside of Scott’s lovestruck eyes.) The resulting series is far slower than either the book or the film—and, admittedly, that’s not always to its benefit.

Partly, it’s the performances. As we alluded to above, some of the show’s stars take to the voice booth more readily than others. (In addition to Culkin and Winstead, Chris Evans and Jason Schwartzman are both naturals; Evans especially is clearly having a lot of fun here playing into the dumbass skater-boy persona he only briefly inhabited in the film.) Others struggle more (including a couple of fairly distracting celebrity cameos); the vocal issues then run straight into the show’s editing, which attempts to replicate the slacker-esque pacing Wright used to great effect in the film. But awkward silence plays differently in animation than it does in real life, and the show’s more dialogue-heavy scenes can sometimes drag. (Happily, those scenes that are more focused on feeling than comedy flow more naturally, which has an add-on effect of the issue getting better as the show gets into heavier stuff.)

The animation, meanwhile, is undeniably gorgeous: Produced by Science SARU, and directed by Abel Góngora, the show shines in its action sequences, which take the promise of the fights from the original books and brings it to swiftly-moving, wonderfully sketchy life. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is a beautiful show, respectful toward O’Malley’s art without being bound by it, and taking one of Scott Pilgrim’s big tricks—the same literalization of emotion that can turn a lover’s exes into a series of elaborate boss fights—and running fully amuck with it as needed. (The episode where Ramona and ex Roxy Richter—still Mae Whitman—battle their way through both a video rental store, and its catalogue of films, is a special highlight.)

But in case it wasn’t clear at this point, fans tuning in to Scott Pilgrim Takes Off hoping for a truly “faithful” adaptation of Scott Pilgrim are going to have to recalibrate those expectations, or walk away disappointed. Those completely unfamiliar with the franchise, meanwhile, will probably be okay; although Takes Off is an intimate conversation with its source material, it’s not typically in an exclusionary way. (Which is to say there’s a lot of “Ah, I see what you did there,” but not so much “Wait, who the hell is that?”)

And yet, it’s also impossible to watch the series, as a long-time fan of the franchise, and not see O’Malley expressing those same impulses, elements, and feelings that made the original books hit so improbably hard way back in the early 2000s—those same elements that Wright keyed into so successfully even as he massively rejiggered its story for the screen in 2010. Partly, it’s the little tricks—Scott Pilgrim is one of the most reference-dense comics ever, and the show meets it where it lives by being the kind of series that will roll a deep-cut Southland Tales reference into an extended riff on Nintendo’s ill-fated Virtual Boy. Partly, it really is the nostalgia, especially the music, which blends the film’s still-impeccable soundtrack with new and old music from Anamanaguchi, who previously did the music for the Scott Pilgrim video game (also referenced here, because of course it is).

But, more than anything, it’s simply the fact that O’Malley is still capable of crafting a deeply romantic story about those giddy moments when you suspect something really good might be just about to happen. This version of that story might be more skeptical about the enduring power of twentysomething lovers than it was when its co-author was one himself—but it’s also become kinder and more mature in the process, no longer willing to dismiss anyone as “just” an Evil Ex. (Even if they are your ex, and they are, objectively, evil.) Scott Pilgrim Takes Off takes the long road to get to some of its most affecting moments, and it’s not always a smooth one. But it’s full of laughs, brightly sketched gags, and great character work to make things go down easier. And that payoff, disarmingly romantic and emotionally intelligent, still hits like a truck.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off premieres November 17 on Netflix