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Steven Universe's Beautiful, Meaningful, Musical Gem of a Movie


When I was a kid it wasn’t uncommon for cartoon shows to have movies, and theatrically released movies for that matter: The Rugrats Movie, Recess: School’s Out, Hey Arnold!: The Movie, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, even crap like Teacher’s Pet. And while putting these movies in theatres was just a way for Disney and Universal to make a quick buck off the family market, it was kind of cool to see a show you loved on the big screen with higher production values and a grander plot than you’d see on any episode. Big screen adaptations of animated series have gone out of fashion in recent years for a number of reasons I won’t get into (with a few exceptions like My Little Pony and Teen Titans Go!), and I was thinking about this while watching Steven Universe: The Movie, which really should be seen in theatres.
Instead, the movie extension of Cartoon Network’s best series premiered on that network on September 2nd, but being confined to the same medium as its show doesn’t delineate its cinematic ambitions. And said cinematic ambitions at least give me an excuse to talk about one of my favourite shows. Since 2014, Steven Universe has been exceeding every expectation anyone could have had of it, going from a silly pastel-coated fusion of Jem and the Holograms and fluff anime to becoming one of the most thematically intrepid series and rich mythologies of the twenty-first century: a game-changer of childrens’ entertainment that has deservedly attained a following of all ages. After the incredible fifth season finale “Change Your Mind” effectively ended the grand series-long arc up to that point, I wasn’t sure how the upcoming movie was going to top it. But then, that’s not really a Steven Universe way to think about it. The movie is not at all what I expected, and I’m glad and impressed.
It’s plot is set two years after the end of the last season: Steven (Zach Callison) and the Crystal Gems Garnet (Estelle), Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall), and Amethyst (Michaela Dietz) have seemingly brought peace to the cosmos and are settling into their idyllic ‘happily ever after’ in Beach City when a mysterious new gem called Spinel (Sarah Stiles) shows up with a deathly weapon and a link to Stevens’, or rather his mothers’ past. Despite being drenched in continuity, the story is not dependent on it. The fundamental tenets of the foursomes’ individual character arcs are outlined in one of the earliest of more than a dozen musical numbers, “Happily Ever After”, and other important contexts can be easily gleaned. It very much has the flow and trajectory of an average episode or mini-arc, only expanded to feature-length proportions. In many ways it’s neither as epic nor cinematic as that Diamond Days run was, but Steven Universe has always done its small character dramas just as well as its big. “Mr. Greg”, “Storm in the Room”, and “The Answer” are just as powerful as “Reunited”, “Steven’s Dream”, and “Jailbreak” -more so even.   
It’s rather fitting after so much of the last season was concerned with the Gem Homeworld and the larger universe, that apart from a brief establishing moment early on, the movie never leaves Earth. This is tied to one of its’ core values being Stevens’ humanity, which he’s forced to rely on due to an unexpected impotence in his gem powers. And in fact the whole movie puts him through similar trials (the emotional rather than physical) to the ones’ he’s endured on the series in an effort to regain them, with equivalent albeit smaller beats for each of the likewise afflicted Crystal Gems.  Though the actions of Spinel create an urgency and real stakes, the movies’ pace is rather deceptively mellow as it progresses a step at a time towards its climax, piecing together a theme you’re not wholly aware of until a point where, though misunderstanding also plays a part, Steven suffers the consequences for his complacency and shortsightedness. As is expected from this series, Spinel is not a cut-and-dry antagonist, carrying a tragic backstory and severe abandonment issues that are in typical Steven Universe fashion, handled with maturity far surpassing the preconceptions of its colourful, family-friendly aesthetic.
Of course that aesthetic is pretty glorious, especially with the increased budget for a film. I don’t think anything on the show save for the brief James Baxter-produced moment from “Change Your Mind” has been so beautifully animated as any number of scenes from this movie. The textures are richer, the lighting and shadow much more pronounced, the images are crisp, you can see the hand-drawn skeletons beneath the computer rendered skins; the animation across the board just pops in a sensational way –which is saying a lot given the already high standards of the show. It’s diverse and experimental too. Particularly, director, co-writer, and series architect Rebecca Sugar seems to relish the chance to indulge in more cartoonish expression and humour than has been seen in recent years on the show. Spinel is modelled on early Disney cartoons, retaining their bouncy elasticity and naively silly personality. On the other end of things, the song sequences allow the animation to let loose with bolder expressiveness and capture a vibrant beauty, once more calling into question the near extinction of the traditional form in the western world.
Song sequences make up roughly seventy per cent of this movie, sung by a variety of artists that doubles as a partial catalogue of the musical talent Sugar has managed to get on the series in voice roles over the years: Aimee Mann, Kate Micucci, Lisa Hannigan, Christine Ebersole, and Patti LuPone, in addition to the regular voice talent with their superb capabilities, and newcomers Stiles and Ted Leo. The numbers are all good to one degree or another, but my favourites are “Happily Ever After”, “Other Friends”, “Who We Are”, “Independent Together”, “Drift Away”, and “True Kinda Love”. This music is versatile yet consistent, Steven Universe having crafted an identity wherein it can seamlessly blend multiple styles, rhythms, and genres sincerely.
The cast is great as usual, Callison finally getting the chance to play Steven with his natural speaking voice, and every beloved supporting character from Stevens’ dad Greg (Tom Scharpling) and best friend Connie (Grace Rolek), to secondary Gem mainstays Peridot (Shelby Rabara), Lapis Lazuli (Jennifer Paz), and Bismuth (Uzo Aduba), in addition to a whole host of others make appearances in what’s something of a celebration of the world that’s been created.
Really, this movie is a culmination of everything the show has built, not just in continuity and character development, but in the evolution of the storytelling and artistry that Sugar has shepherded better than just about any other showrunner in the modern T.V. landscape. The message of this movie is one of growth, and understanding the importance of how we’ve grown and will continue to grow, and I’m sure it will remain an overarching theme of Steven Universe going forward into season six, which I’m more confident than ever will happen in some form. I can’t wait!

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