Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) | Blu-ray Review

By thisguyoverhere | November 9, 2010

Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jason Schwartzman
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Written by: Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright
Genre: Action/Adventure

Rating:
Video: ★★★★★
Audio: ★★★★★
Extras: ★★★★★
Value: ★★★★★

Review:

Video: ★★★★★
Outstanding. It should be no surprise that a film so embedded within the digital realm would look this great in high definition, yet it still doesn’t cease to amaze. On the one hand there’s the great textures of the set designs and costumes – the snow, the shag carpets, the t-shirts, and the wigs! – and every granule of detail is preserved, but it’s not distracting. On the other hand, there is the barrage of delightful visual effects from the spectacle to the subtle, all lovingly maintained for this release. Scott Pilgrim exercises the full color spectrum, as well as beautiful blacks and flawless whites. There is a tendency for effects heavy films to begin to feel like a cartoon, and Edgar Wright’s careful hand keeps it from veering off into that direction. It’s good to see that translated into high definition.

Audio: ★★★★★
As edgarwright stated on Twitter: “@thisguyoverhere Test those surrounds!”

The sound design of this film is just as, if not more, detailed than the visual design of the film. Each and every clash of weapons, words, and personality is brought to us in lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio, and it.sounds.awesome. Now you’ll be able to hear each of the hundreds of music and sound effects cues that are affectionately crammed into this film. There’s rarely a second that goes by without a foley effect accompanying a visual effect in perfect harmony. The audio for this release is the sonic equivalent to the feeling of beating your favorite video game. And can we take a second to acknowledge Beck’s awesome music, which is also brilliantly presented?

Extras: ★★★★★
You’ll be hard pressed to want more behind-the-scenes material on Scott Pilgrim than is provided here – though there is plenty of extra stuff if you troll the internet. It’s almost as if Universal was aware that this film is precisely the type of film to find its legs on home video, and in an odd move, put everything they could into the initial release to avoid a future double-dip. Odd, but not impossible, I guess. I’m not questioning the reasoning – this Blu-ray release is fan-bleeping-tastic.

Feature Commentary with Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall
A great listen for those interested in the inception of Scott Pilgrim as well as it’s graphic novels. Director Edgar Wright and co-writer Michael Bacall are joined by creator of the comics Bryan Lee O’Malley to sit down and discuss adaption of the film for the big screen over a years-long process.

Technical Commentary with Edgar Wright and Bill Pope
Director Edgar Wright sits down with director of photography Bill Pope as they discuss the massive technical undertaking of creating the special effects and amplified style of Scott Pilgrim. A great listen for those interested in the practical side of filmmaking, which compliments the pre-production features very well.

Cast Commentary with Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, and Brandon Routh
This is a typical cast commentary as the actors recall their experiences with specific scenes, their reactions to the final product, and how they came to the project in the first place. Informative and fun – Jason Schwartzman makes anything lovable.

Cast Commentary with Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Kieran Culkin and Mark Webber
One of the weirder commentaries I’ve ever listened to, it appears to have taken place the morning after a gigantic cast party where exclusive shenanigans had taken place. Not going to lie, it was a little off-putting.

Deleted Scenes (HD, 27:12)
This compilation of deleted, extended, and alternate scenes is quite epic. It’s mostly character driven, though frivolous. Optional commentary by Edgar Wright is entertaining and astute.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The Bloopers (SD, 09:42)
A typical collection of line-flubs, prop accidents, practical jokes, and general mess-ups. Always a fun and welcome addition to any comedy.

Documentaries

Making of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (HD, 49:33)
A two part documentary on the production of Scott Pilgrim including interviews with cast and crew members discussing the immense undertaking it was bringing this story to the screen.

Music Featurette (SD, 16:27)
A great look at the intensive process of injecting the film with a sense of authentic alt rock music from music by Beck, Broken Social Scene, and Metric. Interviews with cast and crew, and behind-the-scenes footage make this very worth while.

You Too Can Be Sex Bob-Omb (SD, 02:42)
Musician Chris Murphy of Sloan teaches Mark Webber, and us, how to play the track “Garbage Truck” on the guitar.

Alternative Footage

Alternative Edits (SD, 12:21)
This is an interesting addition to the disc, which isn’t often seen. It’s a collection of scenes that are edited slightly differently than they appear in the final edit. Great reference material for budding filmmakers and editors.

Bits and Pieces (SD, 06:51)
A montage of odds and ends that acts as sort of a gag reel-slash-alternate takes-slash-deleted moments video.

Pre-Production (SD 01:27:32)
This massive collection of pre-production featurettes covers just about every topic of the film one would want to know, from casting videos, storyboards, animatics, rehearsal footage, building the sets, and otherwise building the specific and intensive world of Scott Pilgrim.

Pre-Production Footage

Animatics
Rehearsal Videos
Props, Rigs and Sets Montage
Casting Tapes
Hair and Make-up Footage

Music Promos

Music Videos (SD, 09:47)
Collected here are music videos of featured songs spliced together from footage throughout the film. Music videos include “Garbage Truck”, “Black Sheep”, “Threshold”, and “Summertime”.

OSYMYSO Remixes (SD, 09:27)
These odd videos are put together, I’m assuming, as some sort of promotional material. They are creatively edited one-minute videos all with a specific theme built around footage echoed throughout the film.

Visual Effects

VFX Before & After (SD, 14:37)
Technical footage which shows the final version of the scenes followed by the visual effects process in creating them. Very worth while behind-the-scenes material.

Roxy Fight / Ribbon Version (SD, 01:11)
Like the previous feature, this highlights the Roxy Fight scene showing the fight footage without the visual effects.

Phantom Montage: Hi Speed Footage (SD, 03:47)
A montage of footage that was shot with Phantom cameras to capture high speed (slow motion) images.

Soundworks Collection: Sound for Film Profile (SD, 05:43)
What collection of production supplements would be complete without the all-important aspect of sound being highlighted? Sound engineer discuss the rigorous process of creating the exhaustive soundtrack to the film.

Trailers (SD, 18:43)
You want trailers? Here’s nearly twenty minutes of them, from the numerous theatrical trailers (both teaser and official) and television spots, and even a few for the fun-looking video game.

Theatrical Trailers
TV Spots
Video Game Trailers

Adult Swim™: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation (SD, 03:48)
This short cartoon is voiced by Michael Cera, Alison Pill, and Mae Whitman, outlining a preface to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World with a small story that takes place during Scott’s high school years.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Censors: TV Save Version (SD, 04:11)
This fun piece pokes fun at the censorship process in translating a film to television. Alternate lines are given in place of the slightly more vulgar ones that appear in the actual movie.

Blogs (SD, 45:46)
A collection of fifteen video blogs that were posted during the production of Scott Pilgrim which are usually hosted by Edgar Wright and include exclusive behind the scene material with the cast and crew. It gives a very unique look at the goings-on of a film set, particularly one with such a large ensemble cast.

Galleries
Production photos, personal collections, promotional galleries, storyboards, and a whole lot more are featured here in these numerous galleries that will probably only appeal to hardcore fans.

Trivia Track
This fun feature enables a slew of trivia to pop-up whilst watching the film. It points out some things that might be easily overlooked, as well as gives some information on locations, actors, and other connections that might not be well known.

Storyboard Picture in Picture
Feature-length option that displays the storyboards while the movie plays.

Value: ★★★★★
Universal has good intentions, methinks, in delivering the best product possible. On the one hand, there is more material here than any single person might ever sit through, however most of it is in standard definition. Perhaps the poor box office return resulted in a smaller home video budget, and instead of spreading this material onto two discs, they opted to fit it all on one (plus the DVD version which is also included here). The other downside is that with this much material, Universal’s poorly designed menus really get irritating very quickly. Navigating from menu to submenu to submenu to submenu is a bit taxing, but at least they’ve included quite a lot of “Play All” options to avoid too much menu time. That being said, Universal needs to also get on board with the “Resume Playback” option, as it’s very aggravating to sit through their un-skippable logos. But those are all petty qualms. In the fight between Scott Pilgrim vs. The Blu-ray, Scott Pilgrim wins hands down.

Will There Be A Double Dip?
Ya know, considering the cult status that Scott Pilgrim has found since its release, it wouldn’t surprise me if Universal found some way to double-dip this film, however I cannot imagine a single extra ounce of supplemental material that would be included outside of some gimmicky bobblehead gift packaging. While there may be some sort of future version of the film, feel relieved that this version looks and sounds flawless, and has more special features than you’ll probably ever watch.