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Jem and the Holograms (2015)


Pipez
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While Jem was before my time, I did see the odd episode on Teletoon Retro way back when. I must say I was really not expecting a good movie to come out of the source material. I was sure the soundtrack would just be updated to be whatever generic pop the kids are into at the time. I was certain it would be stylistically similar to some lame teen drama.

 

but....but...the trailer has shown me that it will not be so bad after all.

 

It will be much, much worse.

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I am not familiar with the source material at all, but I couldn't even get thru the trailer.  My memory is fuzzy but "let's record her singing, put it up on youtube, get millions of hits, now all of a sudden the 'top producer' wants to sign us' " or something like that, all seems very horrible to me.  I try to have an open mind when I can, but I already vehemently do not want to see this.  Vehemently, I say.  Vehemently.

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Thanks to all of you kids making me feel old by saying that Jem was "before your time."  :razz:

 

The movie looks nothing like the source material, which is unsurprising, since they left the show's creator completely out of developing it -- much to the chagrin of the original show's fans.

 

Another nostalgia cash-in if I've ever seen one.  These types of movies are about where comic book movies were in the 1980s and 1990s (sans Blade): looking to make a quick buck with no reverence for the source material whatsoever.  We can only hope that nostalgia cash-ins get to where comic book movies are now (for the most part -- DC still has a LOOOONG way to go).

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I am not familiar with the source material at all, but I couldn't even get thru the trailer.  My memory is fuzzy but "let's record her singing, put it up on youtube, get millions of hits, now all of a sudden the 'top producer' wants to sign us' " or something like that, all seems very horrible to me.  I try to have an open mind when I can, but I already vehemently do not want to see this.  Vehemently, I say.  Vehemently.

You see in the 80's, Gem was outrageous. Truly, truly, truly outrageous. Her music: contagious.

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I'm sorry but I can't get behind this one.  I remember watching this show with my cousins when I was little and it wasn't one of my favorites, but I remember the antagonists being "The Misfits" (not to be confused with the great horror-punk band The Misfits), and the music being very eighties pop-rock.

 

I think at least they could've stuck truer to the material.  I think fans will be disappointed.

 

Sorry for being a hater and judging the book by it's cover, but ewww...sorry.

Edited by Devyn
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I too was too young to get into the Jem cartoons, being a toddler by the time it finished. But just from 15 minutes of reading up the show's premise BEFORE watching that trailer, I have to say it makes Michael Bay's TMNT movie look like the Magna Carta.

Seriously, if you're going to translate a beloved cartoon to the big screen, at least keep as many of the core elements as possible. Of all the ways they could have made Jem relevant for the 2010s, changing the original leading-double-life-and-helping-others toon into a into a tween rags-to-riches / personality identity story completely stripped its own persona.

Then again, I complain at almost every remake there is, so it may just be the cynical old lady in me talking. But at least I know that I'm still not alone.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm with OA. Every time I see some poster whine about some adaption being marketed to the "tween" generation or "today's kids" or whatever, I have to think the studios would respond with, "Dude, you're a man in your mid-30s complaining about a girls' cartoon from the 80s. Don't you have a physical you need to prep for?"

 

Adults making big deals about children's cartoons fills me with nausea.

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The problem I have is that it really doesn't feel like an adaption, from what I've seen.  It's like they started out with an unrelated project and added Jem names to it.  It looks like a generic "rags to riches" story.  Also, who is this really for?  The original fans will probably find it too loose and the tweens probably won't care about the Jem stuff.  Heard the comic series is decent at least.

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I'm with OA. Every time I see some poster whine about some adaption being marketed to the "tween" generation or "today's kids" or whatever, I have to think the studios would respond with, "Dude, you're a man in your mid-30s complaining about a girls' cartoon from the 80s. Don't you have a physical you need to prep for?"

 

Adults making big deals about children's cartoons fills me with nausea.

 

We're on a website that's dedicated to adults making big deals about video games and video game music from their childhood. It really shouldn't be a shock to you that cartoons would follow suit, especially in light of how many 80s cartoons have been getting the Hollywood treatment (and thoroughly butchered in the process in some cases).

 

And if you're going to puke, do it quietly and in the designated barf bags that can be found at the entrance and exit of each thread.

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I'm with OA. Every time I see some poster whine about some adaption being marketed to the "tween" generation or "today's kids" or whatever, I have to think the studios would respond with, "Dude, you're a man in your mid-30s complaining about a girls' cartoon from the 80s. Don't you have a physical you need to prep for?"

I'm sorry Meteo, but there's a fine line between changing something up radically and just catering for the market.

As Pipez said, it all comes down to whether the kids would actually catch on to it or not, and if they do, fair play. Nostalgia isn't going to get anywhere, but if it's something the kids had seen too many times before from different characters, it's absolutely not going to work. It's a shipwreck almost waiting to happen.

In relation to The Coop's posts about 80s cartoons being given the dreadful movie approach, may I also bring up Alvin and the Chipmunks? Sure, it started in the 60s as a novelty 'band' of sorts, but I grew up with the 80s cartoon and understood it kept its format from another Chipmunks show as done in the 60s,

Right now, I am in disbelief as to how they keep making so many films about them, especially since there's not much substance beyond 'singing rodents cause havoc and make a butt monkey out of their manager', and critic scores absolutely show.

However, the one redeeming feature for the Chipmunks is that in spite of all the modern music updates, it nails the original premise. Awful films or not, it's the Chipmunks as they should be.

Going back to Jem, we all already know at this point that we have a terrible loose adaptation coming that won't fuel nostalgia in any shape or form, and that to me is a new low just to get a quick buck. I don't know if there are any other movie adaptations that had gone as far as changing up the plot of their source material entirely, but unless any examples of these come to the surface, then I feel we 'adults-around-30-preparing-for-a-prep' have a reason have a reason to complain.

(Seriously, kids may be easily marketable, but they sure as hell aren't stupid.)

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