Highlights
- The Scott Pilgrim graphic novels and the Scott Pilgrim vs The World movie are very similar in terms of their core story, dialogue, and visual style.
- However, the movie had to make concessions due to its shorter runtime, resulting in a more condensed timeline and less focus on Scott and Ramona’s relationship development.
- The importance of Kim, Scott’s friend and ex, is significantly increased in the books compared to the understated role she plays in the movie.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is an animated series based on the graphic novels, set to release on November 17th, 2023. Undoubtedly it will change a few things up from the source material, as every new adaptation of Scott Pilgrim has so far, ranging from the video game to the board game to of course, the live action movie. With Scott Pilgrim vs The World currently being the biggest adaptation since the books first came out, it’ll be important to know where it stands apart from the books before yet another new version releases.
RELATED: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off – What We Know So Far
How are the Scott Pilgrim Movie and Comics The Same?
At their core, the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels and the live action film Scott Pilgrim vs The World are very comparable to each other. The movie is one of the more direct adaptations out there, as not only is it a straightforward retelling, but a large amount of the dialogue and staging is taken directly from the books. Both tell the story of Scott Pilgrim, a reckless, immature twenty-something bass player dragging aimlessly through life. When he meets Ramona Flowers, he becomes instantly infatuated with her, but discovers that in order to date her, he will have to defeat her seven evil exes.
While obviously telling the same story, the graphic novels and movies also strike a similar visual style. The story involves a lot of over the top, anime style fighting, and so both versions employ a very flashy aesthetic. They also take a lot of cues from video games, such as characters performing combos and earning power-ups. These each have a real life twist to them, to humorous effect; a defeated enemy will leave behind coins, but they have to be picked up off of the ground.
How are the Scott Pilgrim Movie and Comics Different?
The biggest differences between the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels and film stem from the difference in medium. A six-book series has a lot more real estate to work with than a single two-hour movie, and as such, some concessions needed to be made. The timeline within the movie is much more brief than that of the graphic novels. In the film, Scott and Ramona’s relationship is still rather fresh by the end. The whole movie takes place over the course of a couple of week, and the plot revolves very heavily around the evil exes the whole time. In the graphic novels, the story takes place over a much longer period of time, giving Scott and Ramona’s relationship more time to develop. The couple date long enough to move in with each other and go on vacation with their friend group. The evil exes plot also fades out a bit when, after a while of things being tense, Ramona suddenly leaves. The shift focuses more on Scott reflecting on his actions and where they have led his life.
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Scott Pilgrim: The Books |
Scott Pilgrim: The Movie |
|---|---|
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More time to work with, therefore more detail |
Some story elements and details cut for time |
|
In-universe magic system |
Magic is replaced with tech or not explained |
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Originally planned for Scott to end up alone |
Originally planned for Scott to end up with Knives |
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Kim Pines is one of the most important characters |
Kim’s relevance is drastically reduced |
The other largest change made due to a lack of runtime was the importance of Kim. Kim Pines is Scott’s friend an ex, and in the movie she plays a relatively understated role. Her presence serves as constant evidence of Scott hurting the women around him and not making amends afterwards, and part of his learning the power of self-respect comes from finally apologizing to her. In the books, her importance in the story is drastically increased. Kim’s relationship with Scott is the second most pivotal to the story after Ramona, in particular the pair’s history together, and she has a lot of time and story beats dedicated to her.
A few smaller details also seem to be a result of having less time to work with. In the books, Ramona’s ability to travel through subspace using her Subspace Suitcase are explained via narration. The film does not do this, instead letting the audience assume that this must just be a quirk of this world. The graphic novels feature a storyline about Knives’ father pursuing vengeance on Scott for breaking up with his daughter, something that is not mentioned at all in the movie.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is available to stream on Netflix
Some of the biggest changes between Scott Pilgrim and Scott Pilgrim vs The World have to do with who Scott ends up with at the end, and this was because the movie was being filmed before the book series had been finished. Author Bryan Lee O’ Malley had originally planned for Scott to be single when all was said and done. Meanwhile, director Edgar Wright intended for Scott to be dating Knives Chau at the end of the film. O’ Malley changed course and determined that Scott would actually end up with Ramona at the end of the series, and subsequently it was decided that the same would happen in the film. Because Scott was originally not going to end up with Ramona, Wright wanted audiences to not grow too attached to her. As a result, Ramona’s movie personality is considerably colder than her novel incarnation. While in the books she grows plainly enamored with Scott and openly displays affection towards him, her movie version has more of a detached attraction to the titular character.
There are also some changes that seem to have been made not due to outside factors, but simply as creative decisions by Edgar Wright. The anime styled, superpowered fighting that Scott and other characters are capable of are directly spoken of in the graphic novels. Characters talk about Scott being the best fighter in the province and mention that he has reached a new combo count during his fight with the first evil ex. In contrast, no one ever speaks about the fighting taking place in the film, making it somehow feel like both more and less of a normal occurrence in this world. In the books, Scott defeats vegan Todd Ingram through pure luck. He loses his fight with Todd and is only saved when the vegan police happen to come to arrest Todd in that moment. In the film, however, he has more agency over the situation. He tricks Todd into drinking coffee with half and half in it, summoning the vegan police. In the books, the sword Scott earns before fighting Gideon is called the Power of Understanding, while it is called the Power of Self-Respect in the film. Lastly, in the books, Gideon is able to take control over Ramona’s mind with The Glow, a magical substance that can trap someone within their worst emotions. Likely due to being related to subspace, The Glow was left out of the film and Gideon instead controls Ramona with an electronic mind control chip.
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