Written by Adria Giles
If you, like many of your peers, saw the trailer for “Scott Pilgrim” and thought, “Not another Michael Cera movie,” then I am delighted to inform you that you there is so much more to the legend of Scott Pilgrim than just an (admittedly excellent) Cera-starred film.
In 2004, author Bryan Lee O’Malley published the first book, called “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life.” The last volume was published this summer, to the delight of crazed fans everywhere.
For those who don’t know the books tell the epic story of Scott Pilgrim, 23-year-old bassist for the Toronto-based group Sex Bob-omb, as he is forced to battle the seven evil exes of his new American girlfriend, Ramona Flowers. Along the way he tries not to make a fool of himself, though his attempts are halfhearted at most.
The six books are graphic novels, cartoon style with video game effects (points earned for defeating each book’s evil ex, the ability to earn extra lives and level up) and classic comic book effects (BIFF! BAM! POW!).
The movie, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”, was released in mid-August. It features impressive Kung Fu choreography, with Skateboard-Fu and even Music-Fu to add to the video game reality in which Scott Pilgrim exists.
As far as book-movie adaptations go, this translation is brilliant; it closely follows the general plot and most of the dialogue, with perfect depictions of the characters as O’Malley intended them. Michael Cera, who is typically cast as an awkward misfit, is a good if obvious choice for clueless slacker Scott, and the rest of the cast—from chill, aloof Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona to Jason Schwartzman as Gideon, the ultimate evil ex—will leave audiences amused.
The difference between the movie and the books? The ending. The movie was created and filmed before the sixth and concluding installation of the series had been released, so director Edgar Wright invented an ending that anticipated that of the books.
Although the endings resemble each other, they are reached by different means — with the movie firmly outlining the lessons Scott learned and the books getting oddly theoretical and a bit on the sci-fi side.
All that you will really miss by seeing the movie and not reading the books is the extra character development and back-stories given to all the secondary characters in order to provide the reader with insight. The movie, constrained by time, focuses only on Scott and his current issues. On the other hand, the large number of secondary and tertiary characters made it easy to forget someone or mistake one character for another; glossaries of characters at the beginning of the books helped cut down on the confusion.
“Scott Pilgrim” is for everyone. Even if you hate reading, you will enjoy the books because it takes less than an hour to read each, and I guarantee they will make you laugh; theScott Pilgrimseries is like nothing else. If you don’t feel like paying the $12 a book price, at least read the previews provided online, and definitely be sure to treat yourself to the movie.
