Since its first trailer, Jon M. Chu’s Jem and the Holograms live-action movie has been controversial for fans who loved the original cartoon. Because truthfully, the movie seems to have nothing in common with the cartoon other than the name. (Speaking of controversial, this video auto-plays and I apologize for that! E! does something weird with their embeds, and I can't work around it).
However, we’ve been told not to judge the movie on its trailer, and now a new behind-the-scenes video from E! seeks to get a few more things about the movie straight, as Chu explains the difficulties in adapting the story to live-action, saying,"There is a shift when you change the medium, so how do you ground this? How do you relate to her?" Hear what the cast and Chu have to say about that and more in the video below.
But am I the only one who is hearing some some reticence in the voice of cartoon creator Christy Marx when she says, “John [Chu] has a very interesting vision for ways that Jem could be updated." I hear an ellipsis in there, do you?
Jem and the Holograms (who are no longer holograms) stars Aubrey Peeples, Hayley Kiyoko, Juliette Lewis, and Molly Ringwald, and is set for an October 23rd release. If you take the movie just as a cute story with a family theme about finding your identity through the haze of fame, it doesn’t look so terrible. But that doesn’t make it Jem!
