Small Details You Missed In Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
This article contains spoilers for "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off"
"Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" is an anime adaptation of the world of "Scott Pilgrim," first brought to life as graphic novels penned by Bryan Lee O'Malley and later adapted into the 2010 Edgar Wright-directed feature "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World." That sentence alone should make it clear that, like all "Scott Pilgrim" media, "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" throws a lot at the viewer. This is a whip-fast production that tosses new gags, character twists, and subversion of expectations (among many other tremendously entertaining elements) out at rapid-fire speed to provide a fresh new telling of the romance between Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) and Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
That appropriately breakneck pace of the storytelling means that it's easy for certain details or homages to slip under the radar of viewers. There's so much grand spectacle happening in this skillfully animated production that the tinier creative touches might get lost in the shuffle on a first watch. They range wildly from tips of the hat to other movies by Edgar Wright to subtle homages to artists that influenced Bryan Lee O'Malley to the most unexpected film references, just to name a few. Get ready to fall even deeper in lesbians with "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off," as you grapple with these important small details about the latest adaptation of Scott Pilgrim's precious little life.
The hopeful signage around Scott Pilgrim
After a triumphant moment with his crush, Ramona Flowers, in the first episode of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off," Scott saunters back to his home on foot. As he treks to his destination, Scott passes a sizeable sign for a traveling circus that reads, "This only happens once in a lifetime!" Meant to drum up business for the short time this circus is in town, the signage, of course, also doubles as a reflection of how Scott feels inside. The affection he feels for Ramona is something that happens so rarely, it lives up to the wordage on that advertisement and feels so big it can only be communicated with massive colorful words.
This background gag doesn't just function as a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reflection of Pilgrim's lovesick psyche, though. It's also a subtle homage to the original "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" movie, as well as Edgar Wright's film "Baby Driver," in which background signs and wordage that are part of the set reflect the internal thoughts of the male protagonist. This tip of the hat to Wright also serves the purpose of subtly setting up specific viewer expectations. "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" uses that background gag to suggest, like those two Wright films, that this show will be exclusively set inside the mind of a male protagonist. Of course, by the end of the first "Takes Off" episode, it's clear that Ramona Flowers is the show's lead, making this a clever bit of misdirection.
Robot-01 has entered the club
Robot-01 is one of the most notable adversaries from the original "Scott Pilgrim" graphic novels that did not make it to the big screen in "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World." However, this creation of the Katayanagi Twins is alive and well in "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" and even proves to be an unshakeable presence throughout the show. Characters ranging from Young Neil to Ramona Flowers keep running into him at seemingly random intervals, with the latter even eventually spotting Robot-01 on security footage, walking through a crowd of concertgoers the night Scott Pilgrim seemingly "dies."
Eagle-eyed viewers, however, will already be well aware of Robot-01's attendance at the concert while watching the very first episode of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off." During this installment, a wide shot showing the vast array of people that have come out to see Sex Bob-omb play nonchalantly contains Robot-01 just chilling in the back. Initially, this may seem like just a wacky gag playing off the idea that Sex Bob-omb has such diverse appeal that it's even drawing in mechanical fans. But this cameo from Robot-01 takes on much greater meaning within the mythos of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off," which is fitting for a character previously excluded from the biggest "Scott Pilgrim" adaptation to date.
A classic film reference for just a second
The skirmish between Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha) and Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman) stretches across the lavish mansion owned by the latter character. These two super-powered beings engage in elaborate pieces of fight choreography in so many different environments that some of them are seen for just mere seconds. This is especially apparent in a sequence where the camera catches Matthew and his siren fighters punching their way through an assortment of rooms in a single extended shot. Viewers see Matthew go through a bank vault, a board room meeting, and a packed movie theater where people are watching a black-and-white film.
Viewers only see one image from the movie being projected on the big screen (a clever little detail to reflect how quickly Matthew is moving across the compound), but the combination of the monochromatic coloring, the angle of the camera, the emphasis on people solemnly sitting, and other small details make it clear that this theater appears to be showing the Yasujiro Ozu masterpiece "Tokyo Story" or a movie reminiscent of it. Ozu's distinctive style of minimalist, slow-paced filmmaking couldn't be more at odds with the rapid-fire mayhem of the "Scott Pilgrim" franchise, making this Easter egg an unexpected but welcome presence in "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off."
Check out those posters in Young Neil's room
With the expanded runtime of an eight-episode season of television, "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" gets to explore new dimensions of various characters only briefly seen in "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World." One of the most notable figures to get this kind of treatment is Young Neil (Johnny Simmons), who remains as oblivious and endearingly naive as ever. However, now viewers get to explore his status as a self-proclaimed film geek, a characteristic he flaunts proudly through his David Cronenberg-themed T-shirt and his initial excitement over seeing his screenplay about Scott Pilgrim's "precious little life" turned into a movie.
Another way this passion of Neil's is reinforced? Movie posters. Viewers keeping their eyes peeled in any scene set inside Neil's bedroom will spot various posters whose titles are obscured (likely for copyright reasons) but are clearly evocative of the posters for actual movies liked by "film bros" the world over. Most notably, one poster on his wall featuring a man clutching a bar of soap is a pastiche of the "Fight Club" poster, another features a creepy mask that could have been cribbed from either "Scream" or "Onibaba," while a third poster near the bedroom's entrance looks like it's promoting a movie starring Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name. These nods to vintage cinema reaffirm both Neil's interests and the cinema-savvy aesthetic of the "Scott Pilgrim" universe.
A pair of Cornetto Trilogy cameos
One of the first lines of "Whatever," the fourth episode of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off," belongs to a security guard at a movie studio warding off passionate fans who desperately want a peek at the movie being made about Scott's life. This character, and his shorter, slightly stockier security guard co-worker, is only seen sporadically throughout the episode, but viewers well-versed in the works of Edgar Wright will likely immediately pick up the familiar voices of these two figures. These guards are voiced by none other than Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the stars of multiple movies (comprising the Cornetto Trilogy) helmed by Wright. The characters reappear in the season finale for a brief cameo, chomping on the frozen treats that inspired the name of Wright's most famous film trilogy.
There wasn't really a role for either Pegg or Frost in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," thanks to it focusing on twenty-somethings in Toronto, Canada. But the duo have often shown public support for the movie itself, such as the time they made a guest appearance at a "Scott Pilgrim" San Diego Comic-Con Panel. As a result of the more stylized aesthetic baked into the very concept of an anime adaptation of "Scott Pilgrim," there was way more room for the leading men of "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" to cameo in "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" and further remind people of the filmmaker who first adapted this material years ago.
A very weird voice-over cameo
Speaking of voice-over cameos, Episode 5 of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off," entitled "Lights. Camera. Sparks?!," begins with a grave announcer declaring that almost all of the subsequent episode is comprised of footage from an abandoned documentary chronicling the making of an unrealized in-universe Scott Pilgrim movie. Though this announcer is trying to put on an air of faux-seriousness to communicate the gravity of the circumstances presented in the footage, that voice belongs to an incredibly iconic producer of ingeniously silly songs: "Weird Al" Yankovic, who is here credited as just Al Yankovic.
There are several layers of interesting details regarding the presence of Yankovic in this episode. For one thing, "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" joins a massive pantheon of animated TV programming (ranging from "The Simpsons" to "Back at the Barnyard" and everything in between) that has utilized Yankovic as a guest star. More importantly, though, "Scott Pilgrim" creator Bryan Lee O'Malley divulged in 2015 that one of his greatest influences as a writer were the works of "Weird Al." Specifically, the anarchist qualities of many of his songs inspired the unpredictable nature of O'Malley's writing. Knowing this information, it's no exaggeration to say that the discography of "Weird Al" Yankovic helped birth Scott Pilgrim as a character. It's only fair that this figure's first animated TV show would make room for a "Weird Al" cameo appearance.
The significance of Will Forte as Older Scott
In the penultimate episode of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off," viewers finally get some clarity on who exactly abducted Scott Pilgrim through a vegan portal. It turns out that it was a slightly older version of Scott in his late 30s, a figure whose voiced by none other than Will Forte. Forte's extensive experience with doing voice work makes it no surprise that he ended up in "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off," while this collaboration with younger Scott Pilgrim voice actor Michael Cera makes this anime program the "Extreme Movie" reunion (a 2008 comedy starring Cera and written by Forte) that nobody was expecting. However, the specific circumstances behind the version of Scott that Forte is voicing also make this role a homage to one of his most famous characters.
Considering that this older version of Scott is a schlubby man with a giant beard navigating a run-down version of our world, it's hard for this character not to remind viewers of "The Last Man On Earth," a Fox sitcom that starred Forte. That dystopian yukfest featured Forte with a similar physical appearance and surviving under similarly dire circumstances. Whether intentional or not, the parallels between this version of Scott Pilgrim and one of Forte's most high-profile roles just adds another interesting layer to the casting of this "Saturday Night Live" veteran in this particular part.
A Southland Tales homage ... yes, really
Older Scott Pilgrim gives younger Scott Pilgrim a tour of the lavish domicile they technically call "home" (even in the future, Scott is still mooching off roommate Wallace Wells). All the high-tech wizardry that's just commonplace in this era blows the younger Scott's mind. Chuckling at this astonishment over elements that are just part of his everyday life, the elder Scott notes that scientists have recently declared that "the future's more futuristic than expected!" Given that this comment is quickly followed up by the older Scott engaging in a tribute to the Konami Code, viewers may find themselves quickly forgetting that they just heard a homage to one of the most memorable lines of Richard Kelly's 2006 cult classic "Southland Tales."
Among the many oddball phrases uttered by human beings in this piece of bold sci-fi social commentary, it's Krysta Now/Krysta Lynn Kapowski (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who at one point observes that "scientists are saying the future is going to be far more futuristic than they originally predicted." The similarities between the two lines are too great for this to be a mere coincidence and solidifies the idea that "Southland Tales" has garnered a whole new pop culture life beyond its initially negative reception. Of course, if one isn't familiar with "Southland Tales," that's no problem: This pop culture reference can still work fine on its own merits as just another goofy pearl of wisdom from the mouth of Scott Pilgrim.
The synergistic significance of Scott's trip to Florida
In his time in the future, younger Scott Pilgrim is invited to gaze upon images on a virtual reality device depicting married life between himself and Ramona Flowers. Among those photos is an image of Scott and Ramona posing with a Minion at Universal Studios Orlando. This sight inspires Scott to make an excited remark about getting to visit Florida, while the older Scott notes that the trip was especially exciting since he got to meet Optimus Prime (the centerpiece of a popular Universal Studios ride). This glimpse into the potential married life of Scott and Ramona does more than just reassure viewers that Scott is eventually able to escape snowy Canada and catch some rays in Florida.
Specifically depicting Scott and Ramona at Universal Studios Orlando allows "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" to dabble in some synergy, since the theme park is owned by the same corporation (Comcast) as the company producing the series, Universal Content Production. This outfit is a sister company to Universal Pictures, which distributed the original "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" movie back in 2010. The stylized realm of Scott Pilgrim and friends can afford viewers plenty of unprecedented sights and sounds. However, even these characters aren't able to escape the obligations of synergistic product placement.
Even older Scott Pilgrim sure looks like Nega Scott
The final episode of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" largely focuses on the titular lead, Ramona Flowers, and the rest of the cast having to contend with yet another version of Scott from the future. This iteration of the character, named Slightly Older Scott Pilgrim and depicted as being in his late 40s, is an incredibly jacked being with remarkable supernatural powers. In his most powerful form, he also bears more than a passing resemblance to a familiar figure from the lore of other "Scott Pilgrim" media. Specifically, Slightly Older Scott Pilgrim's subdued gray skin and bright red eyes when he channels his full power make him look like Nega Scott from the original "Scott Pilgrim" graphic novels and film.
Nega Scott in the graphic novel was meant to be an embodiment of all the toxic traits of Scott, while the motion picture incarnation of the figure functioned as a subtle dark joke since he was, despite his "evil" appearance, the total opposite of Scott Pilgrim — and actually a "chill guy." In both cases, he's meant to represent internal aspects of Scott while his starkly-colored appearance (heavy on grays and reds) makes him look quite different from the rest of the cast. Slightly Older Scott Pilgrim is totally meant to be his own idiosyncratic character, but the most powerful version of this figure certainly bears more than a passing resemblance to Nega Scott from other Scott Pilgrim stories.