Cartoon Ramona Flowers From 'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off' Can Get It

By Tori Preston | TV | December 19, 2023 |

By Tori Preston | TV | December 19, 2023 |

In an era of reboots, remakes, and legacy sequels, when the only thing holding a studio back from tossing their IP under a heat lamp is whatever threshold of loyal fans their analysts project might turn out to try a taste, comes Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off — which is decidedly not a sequel, or even a remake exactly, and there is nothing lukewarm about it. The series is perhaps best described as a redo for writer Bryan Lee O’Malley, who created the Scott Pilgrim comics in 2004 and is back to helm this new cartoon iteration, alongside BenDavid Grabinski. Only this is Scott Pilgrim we’re talking about, so really the best way to think about the new series is by way of a video game reference: New Game Plus mode. O’Malley and Grabinski are restarting the story from the beginning for a new playthrough, only this time they’ve got all the knowledge and experience gained from the past two decades of living with these characters, this plot, seeing it adapted to the big screen and failing and then rising again as a cult classic. They’re older now, and the world has changed, and maybe the stories we write about twenty-somethings in our twenties aren’t the stories we’d tell about them in our forties.

So yes, this is Scott Pilgrim. It has all the characters you remember, voiced by all the actors from the Edgar Wright movie (they all came back!). There’s a slacker named Scott who meets the girl of (from?) his dreams, a mysterious and super cool messenger named Ramona Flowers. She has a League of Evil Exes aiming to battle Scott for daring to try and date her, and then… Scott Pilgrim disappears. So Ramona steps up to solve the mystery. Get it? Because Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is literal - he’s gone for the majority of the season. This time around it’s Ramona’s story, and that simple twist makes so much sense you may find yourself wondering why it wasn’t always her story to begin with. Because frankly it should have been, and I’ll tell you why in a little something I’m calling…

For Your Consideration: Cartoon Ramona Flowers For Pajiba 10!

(Am I just using P10 as an excuse to finally submit my show review while also annoying Dustin by nominating a cartoon? At least it’s not a duck this time, amirite, DUSTIN?)

Since apparently Scott Pilgrim can be a bit polarizing ‘round these parts, let me jump in and say I have always unabashedly been a fan of the graphic novels and the movie - but like many fans, Scott Pilgrim may have simply come into our lives at the right time. In my case, I was in my early twenties and in this weird long-distance flirtationship with a dude whose profile picture was comic Scott in all his fist-pumping glory. I asked him who it was, he pointed me toward the books, and yeah OK sure maybe I started reading to impress this guy, and yeah OK sure maybe in retrospect having a Scott Pilgrim profile pic was a big red flag, like that’s the fictional character you relate to? Really? The dude who can’t break up with his fake high school girlfriend? Anyway, things between me and that guy did not work out.

But I liked the books, probably because I’m also basically a lazy, awkward walking-talking video game reference myself, and then I was 27 when the movie came out. Prime age still, and I was excited. I loved the Cornetto Trilogy! I loved Arrested Development! Superman and Johnny Storm and, I dunno, was Parks and Receven a thing then? Must have been, right? Anyway, the cast was somehow both epic and surprising, just a bunch of people you definitely sorta knew from somewhere but who weren’t so huge they overshadowed the movie. Michael Cera was the biggest name at that time, and I had no idea who this Mary Elizabeth Winstead was but she nailed the part of Ramona Flowers. The cast, along with Edgar Wright as the director, helped make Scott Pilgrim vs The World one of the best comic book adaptations ever. It wasn’t just a “comic book movie” — it was lovingly faithful to the source material and found creative ways to translate uniquely graphic elements to the big screen.

That it was a bit of a flop truly wasn’t due to the quality of the filmmaking, in my opinion. It’s just that the story of a slacker who gets obsessed with a standoffish chick and then has to fight her evil exes is a hard sell. It’s all too loony, too heightened, too niche, and the characters can be hard to root for. It’s a story about growing up, and Scott Pilgrim was a man-child who had a LOT of growing up to do! The whole evil exes thing was supposed to show him finally taking a stand and being proactive, fighting for what he wanted, but what about Ramona? Those were her exes, her past, and it’s all laid out for Scott’s personal growth rather than her own. Ramona remained something even less than a manic pixie dream girl; she was a cipher constructed to be the perfect aspiration for Scott. I may love Scott Pilgrim but even I can admit that a lot of the criticism lodged at this story was valid. The balance was never right, and both the comics and the movie end with the couple nebulously deciding to try again. But did either of them change enough to make the relationship work?

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off says nah - not yet anyway. The first episode follows the plot you may remember, up through Scott’s first fight with one of Ramona’s evil exes, Matthew Patel. Only he doesn’t win the fight! He’s seemingly killed, and as his friends gather to mourn him, Ramona realizes he’s actually been kidnapped. The series, then, is Ramona’s attempt to save Scott, and to do so she dyes her hair a lot and interviews Scott’s friends and confronts her evil exes in an attempt to suss out the culprit. Rather than battling them, though, she ultimately reconciles with them, and in confronting her past she goes on her own journey of self-growth - and we finally get to know her after all these years. If Scott needed to learn how to stand up and respect himself, then Ramona needed to learn how to stop running away when things get hard.

Speaking of things getting hard: Scott was kidnapped by his future self to stop him from dating Ramona, because their relationship ends poorly! Future Scott is the real Big Bad, and Ramona joins forces with her own future self to save the day, all for a dude she just wants to get to know better. The series is both literally and functionally about viewing the past from the vantage point of future knowledge, and Future Scott is not unlike the writers, tinkering with the story after years of mulling past mistakes. But where Scott wants to scrap the whole thing, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off chooses to simply shift the perspective and uncovers a richer tale in the process. And given that the show includes a film production of Scott’s story, starring Envy as Ramona and Ramona as her stunt double, that’s hardly the most meta thing afoot.

I’d love to talk about how gratifying it is to spend more time with the array of side characters who always threatened to steal the spotlight from Scott. Wallace Wells and Lucas Lee have their own mini-arcs, and there’s a promising new villainous team-up between Julie and Gideon. But this is an FYC about Ramona, and she truly is the star this time around. She’s no longer the object of Scott’s affection but the agent of her own destiny, and in the end when they choose to give their relationship a chance knowing it might be a disaster, that feels like the smaller victory. Seeing Ramona stick around to find him, then stick around to be with him, when packing up and moving on would have been easier? Seeing her bring her exes back into her orbit and finding them to be funny, flawed, and valuable friends? Seeing Ramona meet herself and embrace her future to become Super Ramona and save the day? Finally, this Ramona is worth battling an army as a$$holes to date, and that’s the real win - but you wouldn’t have to, because she’d hold her own.

If you always thought Scott was the least interesting part of Scott Pilgrim, or if you’d just like to see the characters return for a whole new adventure, then give Scott Pilgrim Takes Off a chance. And either way, let’s vote this hot cartoon chick for Pajiba 10 and stick it to Dustin!