Last week the “Jem and the Holograms” trailer hit the web. The 2015 update of the cartoon that aired from 1985-1988 stars Aubrey Peeples as Jem/Jerrica, Stefanie Scott as Kimber, Hayley Kiyoko as Aja, and Aurora Perrineau as Shana.
Now, because I’m a child of the 80’s and I watched the cartoon as a kid, I of course couldn’t resist taking a look at the trailer. The seven-year old in me was really disappointed by what she saw.
With all the tools we have at our disposal now-a-days, the character Synergy (the A.I. that was designed by Jerrica’s late father, and the source of all things hologram), had the potential to be totally awesome. But as I watched the trailer, Synergy never appeared. No holograms appeared. So why have Jem say, “Showtime, Synergy,” while tugging on her star-shaped earrings? In the cartoon, that’s when the holograms happened.
Where are The Misfits? The Holograms’ rivals in every way, The Misfits were a band of troublemakers whose main purpose was to take Jem and the girls down. They wanted their fame, Jem’s record label (also inherited from her father), and basically anything the Holograms touched. The Misfits were crazy. But apparently they weren’t needed for the conflict in this “Jem and the Holograms” update as the conflict appears to come from within the band.
Other changes were made as well: Jem is a teenager, Jem has no business stake in the record label, and Eric Raymond has become Erica Raymond (played by Juliette Lewis). But these changes don’t bother seven-year old Lacey as much. However, when you take these changes and add the two missing components above, I feel like what we will be seeing in theaters this October is too far removed from the source material to be called, “Jem and the Holograms.” I’m hoping some surprises are thrown at us.
Watch the trailer below and let me know what you think.
The trailer looks horrible. I watched Jem as a kid too, and even though I don’t remember everything about it, it seems like the music would have been way better than this cheesy top 40 pop nonsense. I was really excited when I heard the movie was being made, but this is disappointing.