Saturday, June 28, 2014

Jason Blum Confirms The Misfits WILL NOT Be in Jem The Movie

Jason Blum has confirmed in an interview with an Italian movie news site that the Misfits will not be the Jem & The Holograms movie.

Here is our horrible Google translate version of what was said:
"Among his future films will be Jem and the Holograms, directed by Jon M. Chu. It is rumored that the Misfits, historic rivals of Jem, will not be in the movie for a rights issue. It's all right?"
Basically a coming-out journalism. I really wanted to have in the background Cristina d'Avena. I know I'm just a ricchiona (???)  but the world must know.
And this was the response from Blum: "They will not be in the film. Since apparently in Italy everyone knows this series better than me, maybe I'll do a preview of the movie here! No, however there will be but the reason is not related to the rights ".
It's interesting that Jason says the reason the Misfits are not in the movie is not related to the rights. There had been rumors going around that there are still copyright issues with the Misfits due to the real life band of the same name. There's urban legend online the cartoon was forced to remove the Misfits and replace them with the Stingers (which is untrue). However, a copyright and trademark search shows that the real-life band doesn't have the name currently trademarked or copyrighted.

So, why no Misfits?  Here are the possible reasons:

1) Budget - It's a $5 Million dollar movie.  Having the Misfits adds more members to the cast, along with songs that need to be recorded.

2) Limiting the number of characters - When properties with a large number of characters get the movie treatment, there's a trend to limit the number of characters.  GI Joe and Transformers had this sort of treatment and the producers specifically limited the cast to a small group of characters - which they then never developed past being cardboard charitcurles.

3)  The Holograms Are the Mistfits - The leaked pictures of what Jem & the Holograms are wearing look more appropriate for the Misfits than the Holograms - even in the finale big concert.  And Jem costume designer Soyon An talked in a recent interview that the style for them is clearly punk & rock.

This is how Soyon An describes the characters and their styles: "For Jem aka Jerrica, she's indie rock-n-roll, but in a subtle, simple and fashionable way. Aja is totally punk rock and doesn't give a f*ck. Shana is a wannabe fashionista who's willing to try anything trendy and fabulous. Kimber is a girly-girl but in a tomboyish kind of way."

This doesn't sound like the Holograms, this sounds like the Misfits.  
In the original cartoon, Jem & the Holograms were the good girls who followed the typical get-along-gang mentality of 80s cartoon teaching elementary school kids right from wrong.  The Misfits were the baddies who were greedy and self-centered.  Cartoons even had educational consultants to make sure there was messaging to balance out trying to sell toys.

Now, the Jem movie is aimed at preteen girls and likely trying to separate itself from being too Disney.  Our guess is that the Holograms are somewhere in the middle between the Misfits and Holograms.  They won't be the "bad girls" like the Misfits trying to run Jem off the road, but they won't be squeeky clean singing about People Who Care. Their style will be more Misfit-like and they will fit more with the typical preteen rebellion.






4 comments:

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  2. This Movie is going to SUCK!!!! You can't have a Jem movie without the misfits. I dislike some of the changes. You seem to be forgetting about the true fans who are the ones who will pay to see the movie.

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  4. Your opinion is on point! If that's how they officially described them, then I agree. They are like a "the holograms and the misfists fusion".

    Who knows, if they do it right, we might get a sequel with the actual Misfits being more bad than good and the holograms can save them :)

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