Guest Post: Scott Pilgrim vs the Animation

This Guest post was brought to you by Sara Allen of  www.inkandpixelclub.com 

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation is an animated short created to promote the live-action film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Both the short and the movie are based on Brian Lee O’Malley’s excellent Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. The short debuted on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block on August 12 and is still available to view on Adult Swim’s website.

The animated short tells how Scott met and briefly dated his band’s drummer, Kim Pine. This part of Scott’s history is fully explored in the comics – in the first chapter of volume 2 – but is only mentioned in passing in the movie. So it’s an ideal subject for a four-minute special. Because this story wasn’t originally meant as an introduction to Scott and his world or a stand-alone narrative, it may be more meaningful to people who have read the comics (which I recommend) or seen the movie (which I also recommend). But even if you aren’t familiar with the story already, the short will whet your appetite for the movie and give you and introduction to Scott, the world he lives in, and the video game styled boss battles he has to fight.

The voices for the main characters are provided by the actors from the film. Even the characters that don’t appear in the movie are voiced by actors who play different characters in the film. Normally it drives me crazy to see “face” actors taking parts that would otherwise go to professional voice actors. (I do consider Mae Whitman a real voice actor because of the large amount of voice work she’s done alongside her onscreen performances, most notably as Katara on Avatar: The Last Airbender.) But between the animation being a teaser for the movie and all of the actors actually doing a pretty good job, I’m happy with the results and I’m making an exception.

Since Scott Pilgrim began life in comics form, animation is an ideal medium to retell his story with. In fact, as much as I did enjoy the movie, part of me still wishes that it had been animated instead of live-action. I felt that way even before I saw Scott, Kim, and their various friends and foes in animation, and watching the short only made it clearer how well an animated Scott Pilgrim works. The style is just about as accurate to O’Malley’s artwork as it can possibly be. Flash animation can often result in characters that look like a group of cutout pieces being tilted back and forth to simulate movement, but that’s not the case here. Animation studio Titmouse Inc. has done quite a bit of work for Cartoon Network before and certainly isn’t slacking off on this project. Details like changes in the shapes of the characters’ eyes add to the illusion of life and the animation in the fight scene is surprisingly fluid and dynamic. It’s a lot of fun to watch and extremely faithful to the source material.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation is a lot of fun. It’s a great introduction to the tone and content of the Scott Pilgrim world for newcomers and a wonderful homage to the comics for longtime fans. So whether you loved the movie, loved the comics, or don’t know a thing about either, check out Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation.