Not the end I’d wish for, lad…
 
If you don’t know by now, the new Hasbro toy-based movie, Jem and the Holograms, had made box-office history, just not the type you would hope.
 
Jem and the Holograms was about a girl’s toy with a rock star theme. Though Jem’s toy could not compete with Barbie, her show, which had rock music in mind but combined it with adventure and science-fiction, made for a memorable 80s cartoon. It was conceived by Christy Marx, who worked on G.I. Joe before Jem.
 
The problem they had was, while G.I. Joe, Transformers and even My Little Pony would stay in the public’s mind though numerous reinventions, Jem and the Holograms was about a toy that had been inactive since 1988. A lot of things changed during Jem’s disappearance from the public’s minds, so clearly some updating, and a lot of explanations, had to be done. I was happy to hear Jem was returning after so long (even to the point of having Jem act in the 2014 Happy Honda-Days commercials with Skeletor, Stretch Armstrong and Srawberry Shortcake), but the resulting movie was… eh. I practically forgot everything about it after I left, despite some hinting that they were building to something. In an attempt to make Jem identifiable, they made a nobody-to-superstar story through social media and YouTube.
 
But without any of the adventure and sci-fi that made the show fun, it almost felt like they were trying to remake the 2001 movie Josie and the Pussycats.
 
I am aware that while movies based on boy-targeted toys/shows seemed to gone through a lot of changes because obviously technology had evolved since then, they at least kept what we wanted to see intact; after all Transformers was still about Autobots vs. Decepticons, G.I. Joe was still Joes vs. Cobras and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was still Turtles vs. the Foot Clan. But when they adapt a girl-targeted toy/cartoon? It’s a total bastardization; even Christy Marx, who blessed them with the rights, wound up hating it. The older fans will see nothing they remember, while kids now will probably be wondering why a music band would need a robot.
 
Not exactly a 30th anniversary tribute I that I would have been wishing to do, but the movie was pulled from theaters after only two weeks after putting up dismal numbers and failing to make back it’s $5 million budget. It kinda seems doing anything else now would be pointless as well… it seems Jem and the Holograms has flatlined.
 
For this, I did this pic which I was discussing with my friend iconmasterghostunlimited I have at least one character from other Hasbro series here to pay respects–Duke and Optimus Prime as they would remember Jem making her debut, and Twilight Sparkle and Blythe Baxter as they would be hoping to start working with Jem but clearly won’t (I remember once asking back in 2009, how all those Recording Arts students would have felt once they heard Michael Jackson died).
 
R.I.P. Jem and the Holograms  
(1985-2015)
 
all characters are (c) Hasbro