Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Is a Silly, Self-Aware Romp (Review)

Warning: The following review of Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off contains minor spoilers for the series.

Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off brims with optional profundity. Superficially, it’s a slick, irreverent animated action-comedy with irresistible characters and rampant absurdity. Cut a bit deeper, though, and it becomes a goodhearted story about owning your shit and fighting for what matters to you. With series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley co-showrunning, this new foray into the Pilgrim–verse is every bit the silly, self-aware romp we hoped it would be.

Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World film was something of a miracle. O’Malley didn’t exactly build this story for live-action, so Wright pulling off his live-action adaptation the way he did is still remarkable so many years later. The cast deserves a sizable chunk of the praise (more on that shortly), but what truly elevates Wright’s film is its understanding of what it must become in order for it to work at all. The sharp, frenetic energy of O’Malley’s story, coupled with Wright’s willingness to embrace its loose connection to reality, made it more than just a successful comic book adaptation. It transmuted it into an experience that could stand on its own.

Related: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Opening Is an Anime Jam Fest

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off boasts all that and more. The plot is more or less the same: slacker Scott Pilgrim becomes enamored with the spunky, subspace highway-traversing mystery girl Ramona Flowers, only to find himself fighting for his life — and his love — against her seven evil exes. Unlike the comics and the film, though, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off kicks off its eight-episode run with a ballsy narrative swerve: it puts a main character out of commission and builds around their absence. Brilliantly, it shifts the focus in a way that simultaneously enriches what came before and sets this effort apart from the 2010 adaptation. Tertiary characters in Wright’s film enjoy expanded roles here, but rarely at the cost of anything vital.

I say “rarely” because there are instances where O’Malley’s desire to flesh out minor characters feels too tangential. Do we really need 30 (almost consecutive) minutes of screen time devoted to Envy Adams? She’s one of the least interesting people in Scott’s orbit, but the writers mine her character — and her relationship with Brandon Routh’s Todd Ingram — for humor that doesn’t end up working and subplot that doesn’t matter.

For the most part, though, the franchise’s transition from live-action back to animation is seamless. Aiding the smoothness of this leap is its cast. Just about every major cast member from Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World reprises their role here and the result is glorious. Everyone slips back into their roles with minimal effort. Michael Cera delivers his lines with ease, immediately creating the illusion that he walked right off Wright’s set and into a recording studio. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, and Kieran Culkin feel similarly natural as Ramona Flowers, Knives Chau, and Wallace Wells, respectively.

The bottom line: It isn’t perfect, but Scott Pilgrim Takes Off ultimately assumes the form O’Malley’s creation always felt destined to take.