Jem - General Discussion

[Actionmage]

I think it really needed to set up the story before we could get into everything.”

 

The show  didn't spend 90 minutes/ 2  hours for pure set-up.  They're rich, own a music company and are a band. The band are sisters and Jerrica has a crush on Rio/ Ryo. Eric wants to steal the company because he felt cheated and The Misfits want to beat the Holograms at everything and by any means possible. On to the heart of the first story.

 

I am of two minds: I want to go and support a female-led and female-centric film. Yet, I am not sure how to feel about things after the trailer.The way this is being pushed in the trailer as another teens-get-famous story as opposed to a JEM story has me wary.

 

I can't get too upset about an actress who probably has no say in what ends up getting left in or cut. I hope her " we can't put everything in the trailer" is just her trying to be diplomatic. Because I have had movies spoiled by trailers. Not many times, but enough. (I'm thinking of Synergy in particular. Why would they show her in the trailer if she's supposed to be a surprise?) 

 

Like Wonder Woman, I have trouble believing this set of characters is so hard to update ( and keep their cartoon ages!).

 

The cast hopefully had a good time making this. 

[WhitneyWhit]

Ugh, that trailer hurt my heart. Did they even watch the show? Jem/Jerrica was not some misunderstood, emo-teen, and neither were the Holograms. They've seriously sucked all the fun out of Jem. How can you have Jem without Synergy? The Misfits? I agree with the poster up thread who is tired of everything that involves girls must show them as the anti-girly girl in order for them to be considered deep or interesting. Maybe they don't know Jem very well, but yeah she was into fashion, and yes she was, and pardon me for this, "..truly, truly outrageous" but she wasn't some weak, shallow girl. She was a smart, tough woman who owned her own company and wasn't afraid to fight to protect it.

 

Sorry for the rant, but Jem is one of my all time favorite shows and that trailer made me irrationally angry.

[mtlchick]

 

but she wasn't some weak, shallow girl. She was a smart, tough woman who owned her own company and wasn't afraid to fight to protect it.

 

I can't 100% agree with the bold part (even though I know what you're getting at.)  Jerrica always second guessed herself if Rio loved her because he was pretty obsessed with Jem. Hell she even came up with another hologram in Greece to see how he would react.

 

 

I just don't get how you can have a Jem and the Holograms film in 2015 without ...holograms.

 

We now live in a world where Tupac and Michael Jackson can still "perform" at big events.  If anything this movie should have JUMPED on this angle. 

[mtlchick]

Now that I found out that season 2-3 are on Netflix, I've been making my way through them.  And I realize that "I'm Okay" (the Kimber/Stormer song) really hits me more now at an emotional level.  I think it's my favorite song in the series. 

[Actionmage]

Here are some sites that talk about Jem fahion, in case you weren't already on them:

 

http://www.pranceatron.com/jem/cartoonwardrobe.htm

http://www.hitfix.com/comedy/truly-outrageous-jem-fashions-we-dare-the-movie-to-resurrect

http://www.buzzfeed.com/juliegerstein/27-times-jems-looks-were-truly-truly-truly-outrageous#.dtlLNPZvoY

http://www.rockjem.com/cartoonfashions.html

 

Here's hoping that there is some outrageous fashion in the movie!

[mtlchick]

Went to the Minions tonight and there was a new Jem trailer with it.  A lot more exposition but 

A little more about Synergy. It's not really explained what it is yet but it's the size of a small robot that projected video messages from Emmett Benton.

 I'm looking to see if it is online.

[mtlchick]

There is now a "tribute" album to Starlight Records with a "remake" of Truly Outrageous.  

 

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/03/jem-holograms-tribute-album

 

Someone hold me. 

[Actionmage]

Maybe  Rhino will put out a retrospective of JEM songs if the tribute album and the movie do well?

 

::holds mtlchick::

[charmed1]

Me and my friends are Jem girls. Jem! Jem is my name. This show takes me back. I don't know if this fits here, but did any of you (I'm assuming most of us were between 6-12 during the show's run) have the Jem doll? I didn't, but my friends did. One of my other friends had Shana. They were freaking huge. They couldn't fit into any of Barbie's shoes or clothes and Jem was actually kind of a manly looking doll. Nothing at all like cartoon Jem. And the hair. Omg it was more Barbara Mandrel than Jerrica Benton. The best thing about doll Jem was her car. Which was also huge, to accommodate Jem's size 16 hooves.

Edited September 2, 2015 by charmed1

[DeathQuaker]

I really wonder why Hasbro hasn't released a collection of the music from the cartoon. Even if folks only bought it for nostalgia, it would make buttloads of profit--doesn't cost a lot to press a CD or upload an MP3. I know there are some possibly some weird rights issues with Hasbro having distribution rights while Ford Kinder and Anne Bryant would need to be paid songwriting royalties, but why be stingy? Jem nostalgia is high, the comic is amazing, and I guess the movie exists too, so why not just build on that?

 

I wanted to give the tribute album a shot but I listened to the previews on Amazon -- samey-sounding, unoriginal, canned pop music (the criticism is that it's awful, not that it's pop music) of the kind you could BARELY get away with putting in a kids' cartoon. It's sad when the actual stuff from the cartoon is far more original and brilliant. Review rating is 1.3 stars and the one positive review is from someone who is apparently connected to the production staff.

Edited September 8, 2015 by DeathQuaker

[DeathQuaker]

I had a number of the JEM dolls -- I had Jem and Glitter and Gold Jem, Rio, Roxy, Stormer, and Jetta. I could never find a Pizzazz to complete my Misfits collection. Unfortunately most of them got destroyed in what we shall call the "attic incident." I still have my Jetta doll, she sits with my action figure collection. Jem was a full inch bigger than Barbie--they didn't want to make them too similar to avoid cross merchandising with Mattel, but I liked their more realistic torso design better, and their feet held shoes on better. I loved fantasy stories, and I turned my JEM dolls, Barbies, and She-Ra action figures into different "fantasy races" to explain their size differences. :)

 

I also have a Stormer from the Integrity toys line from a couple years ago. The new Integrity dolls are GORGEOUS--if you really want something that looks like a glamour-fashin doll they're what you want--but they're high end collector dolls, and ridiculously expensive. I suggest taking a look at pictures of them though, as they really are beautifully made.

[DisneyBoy]

I didn't know they released a tribute album! What a neat idea! A shame it isn't generating much buzz. Releasing the original songs would be really cool though...

[DisneyBoy]

I suppose part of the direction of this movie is making them a bit younger so that younger audiences can get on board with her, but it's rather funny to think that the show back in the eighties featured a woman almost in her twenties and nobody doubted that the kids would relate to her...

[Actionmage]

I forgot to come here after I saw Juliette Lewis on James Corden's show promoting the movie. She did her cheerleader rah-rah stuff, but the audience didn't seem to remember or know JEM, on the whole. Juliette did say she had fun, so I hope that much is true. She seems like she would be the cool aunt of the set. (In fact, she brought one of her nieces to the Corden show. Nice score Lewis niece!)

 

I remembered that because I just caught Molly Ringwald on Today, hyping the movie. She said that "they" didn't know she could sing! WTF?! I haven't bought any of her albums, but I knew she's sung for a decade or two. Maybe even cut a couple of albums in France? That's just from my spotty memory.  If they were hoping to cast Molly effing Ringwald, why not go full dossier and sweeten the deal with a shot at singing something for the soundtrack or somesuch thing?  Maybe have a scene where she and the girls are singing a song that's important to the family in some way?  To be fair, Molly said maybe in one of the sequels, she might get to sing. *sigh*

 

So, my trust in those guys is near zero. That they didn't even Google folks before they started looking to cast... I just....

[mtlchick]

So spoiler alert (can we really call it that now?) 

[luckyroll3]

I downloaded the original songs off of Soundcloud.  Some kind soul was nice enough to upload every single one.  So great!

[luckyroll3]

Did any one ended up seeing this? I took a real hard pass on this after all the changes/updates.  And I'm a huge Jem fan.  Although, I did purchase the gold record compact mirror from Sephora.

[GHScorpiosRule]

On 7/20/2014 at 7:34 PM, kariyaki said:

I look back and don't really understand the POINT of the secret identity. The rest of the band didn't have them and they all lived in the same damn house. For that matter, how come nobody could figure out Jerrica was Jem? "The whole band + Jerrica lives at the house. But no Jem. And what is Jerrica's affiliation with the band? Hmmmm..." It's like Lois Lane levels of galactic stupidity that it doesn't get deduced. Especially by Rio, who made out repeatedly with Jerrica and Jem, he couldn't tell he was kissing the same girl?

And really, don't get me started on whatever Jerrica's complex was in that she kept getting Rio to cheat on herself.

THIS!!!! This frustrated me as a teen when I originally watched it(I was ALL INTO my toon couples and the soap opera-esque plots*) and also watching it as an adult now that it’s on Netflix. Aside from the big ass pink hair and pink eyeshadow-they looked and sounded the SAME!

As for Rio cheating on Jerrica with herself-she started that crap, and Rio rejected her at first, saying he barely knew her, didn’t even know her name, when she asked “don’t you like me?” Then she was going to tell him but of course, the Misfits had crashed that designer’s yacht and threw water at them or something and so she didn’t. As an adult I can’t understand why she, as Jem, would do something like that.???

On 7/23/2014 at 6:49 PM, Actionmage said:

You have a point, kariyaki- I'm going to have to find some episodes and see what the reason was behind the Jerrica/Jem thing. As to Jerrica's affiliation? She owned Starlight Records, the label Jem and the Holograms recorded on.   

Jerrica told her sister and friends it was because Rio was “very proud,” and she didn’t want him to think she had been making a fool of him.??? SOOOO ‘80s Harlequin Romance tripe. But then Rio didn’t resist too hard and was, as far as he knew, cheating on Jerrica, and it didn’t seem to bother him too much.???

I don’t remember if Jerrica ever came clean-I do remember when Eric started to rep that new group? Dude with the big hair, who wanted Jem? He and Rio got into a fight and Rio said how Jem wasn’t real, but a fantasy, but Jerrica was a real person and he loved her or some such. And Jerrica is just SO HAPPYYYY! because he chose her over Jem. But, but, BUT!!! He was still canoodling with “both” of them! I think the romance between Flynt and Lady Jaye, which was much better, had me abandoning Jem. That and how those Misfits and Eric never truly paid for the shit they did.

*Flynt and Lady Jaye from G.I. Joe

[Meedis]

Hearing about how radically different the movie was from the series, I took a hard pass as well.    I secretly preferred the Misfits music and enjoyed their crazy antics.   So for them not to be featured in the movie was enough to make me not see it.   Of course Mr. Meedis decided that he wanted to buy the DVD (since it was in the $5 bin).   He tried to get me to see it but I went to another room and watched something else.   He did say if you discounted everything about the cartoon and pretended it was a completely different story, that the movie was okay in that regards.    I refuse to find out though.  LOL.

[Meedis]

The Kimber/Stormer collab was among my favorite episodes.    I can see now how fanfics have always paired them up as a couple.    There was a scene when the Misfits briefly won Stormer back that she's sitting in her bed, wistfully looking at a photo of Kimber and her together.   

The remaining Misfits did have to eventually go to Starlight Music to convince Stormer to return to the group.    So in that sense they didn't give a rip about their friendship.

Even though the Misfits were bad to the core I definitely preferred their edgy music over the mostly sappy Holograms music.    But yeah they definitely would've been in jail in real life.   I did like Eric's throwaway line when asked how they're not in jail, that it's amazing what a good lawyer can do.    I need that lawyer on speed dial...LOL.

Speaking of sappy music, Taking A Train was IMO the worst Hologram song ever.    I can't really think of a really bad Misfits song...maybe Misfits In Hawaii but the video for that was hilarious.

[Meedis]

Even if Kimber was sensitive to Pizzazz's feeling, I don't feel Pizzazz at the time would've been receptive.   Pizzazz doesn't do sensitive...at least not very well...LOL.

They always seemed to write Kimber as bratty and a mini-rebel in the series.   Jerrica always seemed to get top billing with the parents and it felt like Kimber was an afterthought.   The dad even leaves earrings for Jerrica and nothing for Kimber.    It's a wonder she even wanted to be in the band.

Edited to say...I believe Kimber did get a portion of Starlight Music but still it seemed she suffered from Jan Brady syndrome.   "Jerrica...Jerrica...Jerrica."

Edited June 21, 2018 by Meedis