Exclusive: First Video From The Scott Pilgrim Animated Short Produced By Adult Swim

A few weeks ago I got news of a pretty cool little project: as part of the promotional efforts for Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Universal approached [adult swim] about making something related to the film. The idea concocted by the folks at the network was to animate a piece of one of Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novels that didn't end up in Edgar Wright's movie.

Universal, Wright and O'Malley all got behind the idea, and the result is a four-minute animated short that illustrates the beginning of the friendship between Scott Pilgrim and Kim Pine. I got a look at the nearly-completed short during Comic Con, and now we can show you a clip from the finished project.

Early in the second volume of the graphic novel series, we get a flashback to Scott's high school career, where he meets Lisa Miller, who has a minor part in the fourth book, and Kim Pine, who eventually becomes the drummer in Scott's band Sex Bob-Omb. (And my understanding is that we see a different recollection of this scene in the recently-released sixth volume, which I haven't yet had a chance to read.)

This short animates the volume 2 flashback, and as you can see from the still above, is based very much on the art of Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Here's what producer Jason DeMarco had to say about the animation:

We were approached by Universal to do something cool around the release of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Being huge fans of the comic, and very excited about the film, we asked if we could produce an animated short in the style of the comic. The filmmakers and Bryan Lee O'Malley were into the idea, so we actually made it! Edgar Wright was kind enough to secure some of the talent from the film for us, so we have Michael Cera as Scott, Allison Pill as Kim, Mae Whitman as Lisa and Jason Schwartzman as Simon Lee doing voices in the short.

So, yes, Mae Whitman and Jason Schwartzman voice different characters here from those they play in the film. That idea, as I understand it, came from Edgar Wright. (Edit: Bryan Lee O'Malley says that casting Mae Whitman as Lisa was his idea.)

The actual animation was done by Titmouse, Inc., a studio which has done a good amount of work for the Cartoon Network and [adult swim] in the past, as well as several animated shorts.

Scott Pilgrim vs the Animation airs Thursday August 12th in two parts between 12 and 12:30 am, inside commercial breaks on [adult swim]. It will also be available in full on adultswim.com, and on the [adult swim] and Scott Pilgrim FaceBook pages the day after it airs. (I.e. the day of the movie's release.)

Here are the first few seconds of the short:

[flv:http://media2.slashfilm.com/slashfilm/trailers/spclip.flv 550 310]

And here's a commercial for the short, with a bit more footage:

[flv:http://media2.slashfilm.com/slashfilm/trailers/spcommercial.flv 550 404]