Music Times has written several articles over the past months regarding Scooter Braun and Jon Chu's film adaptation of classic '80s cartoon Jem (also known as Jem and The Holograms). Now a trailer has finally hit the web and fans are disappointed to say the least.
If you haven't watched the cartoon version, here's the most basic of summaries: Protagonist Jerrica Benton works for within the music ability, but thanks to her computer (named Synergy), she and her friends use hologram technology to become pop-rock superstars Jem and The Holograms. A typical plot line involves them foiling the plans of rivals bands The Misfits and The Stingers.
Anyway, that's the cartoon's plot. The new movie looks to have wiped all of that away to replace it with a more modern, feasible storyline.
Benton is now a regular girl, songwriting from home (with Molly Ringwald starring as her mother-figure, one of the few positives to take front the trailer), who makes it big when a YouTube video of her performing gathers the attention of Starlight Music (the record label that the animated Jerrica works for). The Holograms apparently make it big and Benton/Jem deal with the clichéd struggles of fame, alienating her friends and needing to win them back. The Misfits and Stingers don't seem to appear in the film (leaving room for a sequel, perhaps?)
The internet was not pleased with what it saw.
As Consequence of Sound pointed out, the number of "thumbs down" votes far outnumbered those for "thumbs up." We'll list the first comment we saw, which came from a commenter with a Tina Belcher icon (a good sign).
"I get it. You're out of ideas," Yas Mean wrote. "The create your own goddamned characters! Create new memories for them instead of destroying an entire generation's childhood idols!"
Another commenter replied by pointing out that her 10-year old daughter hated the trailer as well...not just 30-somethings.
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