Jem and the Holograms

Dir: Jon M. Chu

2015

*

Of all the terrible adaptations made in the last few decades, Jem and the Holograms is probably the most tragic. The original cartoon is an iconic slice of 80's kids TV and like many classic 80's cartoons, it only ever really existed to sell a bunch of toys. Hasbro had enjoyed success with their collaboration with Sunbow Productions and Marvel with G.I. Joe and Transformers and in 1985 it was decided that the girl market desperately needed tapping into. Christy Marx was put in charge of making a story and characters from the various lumps of colourful plastic and a brilliant job of it she did. I often wondered why I and many other boys at school enjoyed what was essentially a girls cartoon but when you realize Marx was also responsible for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Conan the Adventurer, G.I. Joe, Hypernauts, Captain Power among many, it really isn't surprising. There were quite a few action sequences added to appeal to a wider audience (boys) but the animation wasn't just a case of colour and movement, it's not right that kids will watch anything as long as it is on TV, a whole generation who actually watched Jem loved it. The toy was clearly in competition with Barbie and Sindy but Jem was so much more. I was never sure whether Barbie and Sindy were socialites, normal people or had split-personality disorders but they never really had a story. Jem appealed to kids for many different reasons. Firstly, she incorporated that post-punk, neon style that was then at the height of fashion, Holograms were also very popular and if you didn't have a holographic sticker on your lunch-box you weren't cool enough to even acknowledge. Fantasy and sci-fi appealed to all kids in the 80s, Jem had both. There was also the idea of secret identity that appealed, it was a bit superhero-like but it also appealed to kids who dreamed of becoming something, not necessarily becoming famous but successful, independent and responsible. Jem fostered twelve kids. Her message was very anti-fame when you think about it, most episodes revolving around her keeping her real identity secret. This is what the 2015 adaptation latched onto and got completely wrong. Jem should have been camp and rather riotous retrospective piece that empowered young girls and their creativity. 2015's Jem is catered towards the YouTube generation, the instagrammers and the people who are generally interested in fame over being particularly good at anything. I can see where they were coming from and it feels a bit hypocritical defending a big toy manufacturer but you can't ignore what the original cartoon has become, why the legions of fans still love it and all that has come from it. Sure, the girls were into fashion and looked after kids etc. but they were also talented, were all very different, independent and in charge. Girls just weren't portrayed in this way back then, not in cartoons and barely in real life TV. Girls still aren't treated equally in film, the 2016 Ghostbusters film is being celebrated for how the women are portrayed, indeed, they don't have a lot of the usual traits and clichés that women usually have in film but the remake isn't very good, it doesn't seem like real progress to me at all. Jem could have been that progress, aimed at a younger generation too but instead it is a mess of mixed messages, filmed over different social media methods and sending out the opposite message to what the original Jem stood for. It was just a cartoon and this is just a film I hear some of you cry, well no, it isn't, just as youtube, facebook, Instagram etc. aren't passing trends that no one takes seriously. Jem could have said you don't need any of those things to live your dreams, be successful or escape from reality. 80's Jem broke down stereotypes, 2015's Jem built them back up again. The songs were horrible, the acting worse and the direction nauseating. Even the kids hated it. Now leave our 80's classics alone!