Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is one of those movies that I mildly disliked upon first viewing, but has come to grow on me. It is based on a Canadian comic book series that I have never read. I recently watched the first four episodes of the new animated series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, which brings back most of the actors from the film to voice their old characters. I have decided, rather than reviewing it, to present the following things about the film and series that I continue to mildly dislike:

• The movie is funnier than the show. The show is taking everything way seriously. It’s less fun.
• Michael Cera is both an excellent and a terrible choice to play Scott Pilgrim. He knows how to mine the comedy from that character, but he’s a chicken-headed dork and it’s all-but impossible to believe that a) he could hold his own in a fight, and b) Mary Elizabeth Winstead would be attracted to him. I know he’s in a band, but he’s the bass player.
• Scott’s Rickenbacker bass is so cool that it doubles the tragedy of Stephen Stills playing an acoustic-electric guitar. Stephen Stills needs a Fender Mustang.
• Am I not supposed to notice that Stephen Stills has the same name as the guy from Buffalo Springfield and CSNY? Am I supposed to notice that, and appreciate the fact that it goes unaddressed, in the perfect inversion of Millennial Hipster Irony (I am saying “Millenial” because Scott Pilgrim is created by Millenials, for Millenials, and not as a substitute for “these kids today”. Millenials are approaching middle age and the Zoomers are going to all be out of high school soon. I know what I’m doing here, people)? Do Millennials not know who Stephen Stills is, and why is that the funniest answer?
• The songs that Sex Bobomb plays in the movie are way better than the songs they play on the show (with the exception of the bass & drum jam Kim and Knives do. That is tasty). The only time in the movie that I buy Ramona being all “okay, I’m into it” vis-a-vis Scott is when they’re playing “Garbage Truck”. That songs slaps.
• “Sex Bobomb” should be a good band name but isn’t. It is, however, a much better band name than “The Clash at Demonhead”. I refuse to believe anyone would ever attend a show by a band of that name unironically.
• Erasing the title character from half the episodes of the series is a bold choice, Cotton.