On the home front, the girls are a handful, demanding time and attention. Jerrica must now manage both businesses and it's not easy. He also ran Starlight House, a home for orphaned and foster girls. He owned half of the popular Starlight Music record label. When her father dies, Jerrica Benton is left with a lot of responsibilities. Nothing exemplifies the carefree clash of fashion and fame better than this animated wonder featuring the first ladies of girl power. Instead of being hopelessly dated and directly linked to its toy line, Jem today remains a wonderfully evocative and energetically entertaining show that captures a place and an era that has all but vanished from the pop culture scene. But Jem, Kimber, Aja and Shana managed to figured out a way - through some very talented people behind the scenes - to transcend their demographically accurate marketing strategy and become something of an anomaly in the standard Madison Avenue kid's show carnival. After all, it was based on a line of dolls from Hasbro and initially conceived mainly as a crass commercial tie in. About as pre-fab as the Monkees, this half-hour hit parade could have been a crass business bungle. Fans of flesh and blood combos can argue all they want for the Go-Gos superiority or the Bangles, but when it comes to the queens of pen and ink performance, no one can hold a hand drawn candle to the collection of creative musicians known as Jem and the Holograms. At least that part is realistic.Whenever the great girl groups of the rock and roll era are discussed, one animated band always seems to get shortchanged. What we can take away from this film, though, is that the susceptible public will latch on to any old thing and convince themselves it will change their lives for the better. That shouldn’t be a problem as such, the addition of a robot ensures this film is firmly set in a fantasy world, but Chu steeps this tale in realism with the use of social media, and that approach gloriously backfires when it becomes so difficult to believe in. The film presents an unrealistic representation of the music industry too, and just life in general. Let us imagine it, it’s less of a problem for us to suspend our disbelief and be blissfully unaware, than it is to be overly aware. Given the challenge in adhering to her stardom, it would make more sense just to not show the song. Her voice and song – while more than accomplished – isn’t special enough to warrant this campaign to reveal her identity and to have her signed up to a prestigious record label. Search ‘teenager sings acoustic songs’ in YouTube and you’ll be inundated with an abundance of individuals lending their ’emotional’ vocals to tracks they’ve written, or covered. The video posted online simply doesn’t sell it. What doesn’t help with our investment, is that we struggle to believe in her overnight success. It’s sickly sweet and a cappella singing is generally awkward at the best of times, and is a current fixture within this production, leading to many occasions where the only thing you can do as an audience member is rest your head in your hands and avoid making eye contact with the screen. It’s also horribly mawkish in parts and uncynical way beyond a point of endearment. It’s so much about being in the moment, and the role of social media in the protagonist’s career, it’s disregarded any hope of being relevant in the future. The film is heavily informed by social media, and as such it almost feels dated before you’ve even left the cinema. While enjoying all of the success, Jerrica becomes sidetracked by her dad’s invention a robot which seems to have messages for the young woman left to her from her father, who died when she was a child. Instantly signed to a record label led by Erica Raymond (Juliette Lewis) – she becomes her alter-ego Jem, and it’s the elusive nature of the pop-star that breeds so much publicity. Often clowning around and playing music together, when Jerrica’s lone recording of a song she had written is uploaded to YouTube by Kimber, she becomes an overnight sensation. Chu can be commended for at least modernising the narrative, and attempting to fit this story in to a contemporary landscape – it’s been done so in a horribly contrived, and unbearably saccharine fashion.Īubrey Peeples plays Jerrica, who lives with her sister Kimber (Stefanie Scott) and cousins Shana (Aurora Perrineau) and Aja (Hayley Kiyoko). Though screenwriter Ryan Landels and director Jon M.
#Jem and the holograms dvd special features series
While we here in Britain are scrutinising over the need to bring Dad’s Army to the silver screen, there will be many others pondering quite why the 1980s animated TV series Jem is being rewarded with a big screen endeavour.
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