SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF's Precious Little Blu-ray

Netflix’s acclaimed Limited Series comes home to own

Since 2004, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s anime-tinged, sharply original, pop-culture loving series of Scott Pilgrim graphic novels have struck a chord with readers’ hearts and funny bones. That led to Edgar Wright’s brilliant 2010 movie adaptation, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, featuring a ridiculously stacked cast to tell the story of lovable dumbass Scott Pilgrim, his soulmate Ramona Flowers, and a circle of friends and enemies who are impacted by his bumbling narrative of selfish choices, fighting for what he wants, and ultimately a chance at redemption.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, an 8-episode animated limited series which debuted on Netflix in 2023, takes the best of both worlds. It features O’Malley’s visual style from the comics, which were always anime-coded, now in an actual anime. Add to that the insanely great movie cast reprising their roles: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Satya Bhabha, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, Johnny Simmons, Mark Webber, Mae Whitman, and Ellen Wong ALL return, which I find mind-blowing.

Also cameos from a couple of Edgar Wright’s guys you might recognize.

When the series debuted, I watched the first episode, a pretty straightforward adaptation of the earliest part of the series, and intended to continue on but never did. So what I never realized was the show’s most ingenious trait: it starts off as an adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim we know, then subverts it with an alternate timeline version of the story that’s incredibly rewarding.

What’s so great about Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is the title conceit: Scott actually disappears for a good chunk of the story, which brings the rest of the cast to the forefront in fascinating ways that both homage and subvert the original with an It’s a Wonderful Life twist where the rest of the cast carries on without the main character. Instead of a series of “Scott vs” battles, battles still play out, but between the other characters – in novel ways, and often for humorous reasons. My favorite takes place in a video store, with the combatants getting pulled into different movie worlds after crashing into a DVD shelf.

The series is created by O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski, who are clearly setting out to have fun, enjoy this large cast of goofy characters, and even address some of the criticisms of the canon. They understand that many of Ramona’s Evil Exes are actually inherently fun personalities who, despite their “evil” designation, are only antagonists because they represent competition to Scott or an unresolved conflict for Ramona. There’s justice for Knives Chau, unexpected bromances and romances, new villain arcs, and even a time-travel component.

At about three and a half hours total, it’s pretty short series, shorter than some movies – and it absolutely flies by. This series is so much fun, both reverent to the canon and a completely different spin on it.