Finally, a GOOD "Percy Jackson" adaptation. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for 10 ways the “Percy Jackson” TV show gets the source material RIGHT.
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00:00 "You're not as dead as we thought you'd be. Surprise."
00:03 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for 10 ways the
00:08 Percy Jackson TV show gets the source material right.
00:11 "Hey, baby!"
00:12 Number 10. Character ages. In the books and the show,
00:20 the main characters are all meant to be about 12 years old.
00:23 "Boys?" "Yeah?"
00:24 "I'm actually 24." "Hold on, please."
00:27 This is with the exception of Grover, who in the books is 28, making him 14, since satyrs age twice
00:33 as slowly as humans. In the show, he's now 24, so he matches Percy and Annabeth. The ages being
00:40 way off was one of the main issues people took with the movies.
00:43 "I'm not gonna grow a fishtail or gills or anything like that, am I?"
00:46 "Not likely."
00:47 While Logan Lerman was 17 during filming, Brandon T. Jackson and Alexandra Daddario
00:52 were both in their mid-20s.
00:55 "I can explain." "No, you can't."
00:58 Though the show's cast is slightly older, with Walker Scobell being 14 during filming,
01:04 they're far more book accurate.
01:06 "Are you stalking me, Annabeth?" "Yes."
01:09 Number 9. Personalities. Similar to the ages of the characters,
01:14 their personalities are also better realized in the show.
01:18 "She seems nice." "Ary's kids. They come by it honestly."
01:23 Part of this comes from the show having way more screen time for everybody,
01:26 while the movie condensed a lot of events into a two-hour runtime.
01:30 While Lerman's version of Percy definitely shone, Annabeth and Grover were absolutely
01:35 done dirty, with Annabeth in particular getting very little character development.
01:39 "I get the sense that you don't like me very much."
01:41 "It's possible."
01:43 In the show, we see them getting along and seeming like real friends,
01:47 and Grover becomes the heart of the story, as he should be.
01:50 "Oh golly, the road's getting bumpy, 'cause I got me some friends who just can't get along,
01:57 oh dear."
01:58 Ary and Simhadri does a standout performance as everybody's favorite satyr,
02:02 with the main trio all being integral to the story.
02:05 Number 8. Orange shirts. This one seems minor, but to long-time Percy Jackson fans,
02:12 the fact that the movie didn't have the iconic orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirts was blasphemy.
02:17 "This is a sacred valley, Percy."
02:20 That's why the orange tees were front and center in the marketing for the Disney+ show,
02:25 as a symbol of just how seriously Disney was taking its mandate to adapt this sprawling book series.
02:30 "Great care was taken to bring you here, and great sacrifice."
02:35 Of course, this largely means that Disney can make and then sell the shirts as merchandise,
02:41 but everybody who grew up with these books dreamed of the day they'd be
02:44 claimed by a god and taken to Camp Half-Blood.
02:46 "Demigods have always fought for glory. They used to call it kleos."
02:51 And part of that fantasy is those goofy orange shirts,
02:54 which apparently took 20 attempts from the costume department to get the color just right.
02:58 Number 7. Technology.
03:01 "Check this out."
03:02 "Good idea."
03:04 The first book in Rick Riordan's entire series,
03:07 Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, was written back in 2005,
03:10 only a little before kids of all ages had all manner of smartphones and gadgets at their disposal.
03:16 "You make a wonderful addition to my collection."
03:19 The movie appeared five years later and included a slew of bizarre references to modern tech.
03:26 We have Percy rocking those classic wired Apple headphones,
03:29 him using the mirror on the back of his iPod Touch to see Medusa,
03:32 and Luke having modern video games set up in his cabin.
03:35 "Welcome to the modern world."
03:37 "Cool."
03:39 The TV show is a lot more vague with its setting,
03:42 but we don't see any of the trappings of modern life on display,
03:45 which means it'll age better, not worse.
03:48 Number 6. Driving.
03:51 In the movie, the main characters drive throughout most of their cross-country journey,
03:55 only appearing on a bus in one small scene.
03:57 "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now that's how you get out of a casino. That's how you drive."
04:03 "Of course. Now that all makes sense."
04:05 Since they're all 16 or 17, it makes sense that they'd be able to drive.
04:09 But in the book and the show, they're way too young,
04:12 which leads to a lot of creative problem-solving when they take trains,
04:16 buses, and even hitchhike in the back of a Kindness International truck.
04:20 "How hard could this be?"
04:21 "My fault. That was me."
04:26 When they're given the chance to borrow Hermes' cab,
04:29 they struggle to get it going.
04:30 This all adds to the fun of seeing these characters travel all the way across the U.S.,
04:35 from upstate New York to L.A.
04:37 "But if this is so important, why didn't Chiron spring for plane tickets?
04:40 This seems kind of low priority, doesn't it?"
04:44 Number 5. No inappropriate jokes.
04:46 "I'll take very good care of him."
04:50 Unfortunately, the characters being older in the movie
04:54 didn't only lead to the plot convenience of them being able to drive a truck
04:58 across the country.
04:59 It also led to a barrage of not-safe-for-work jokes, largely centered on Grover.
05:04 "Ooh, the Daughters of Aphrodite. Okay. All right, guys, you guys got a lot of
05:09 catching up to do."
05:10 He pursues the Daughters of Aphrodite, makes risqué jokes about Medusa
05:15 (even after her head has been severed),
05:16 gets waylaid by women at the Lotus Casino,
05:19 and flirts with Persephone.
05:21 "Dude, we're heading to the chapel. We're getting married."
05:23 "Romantic!"
05:25 This was all deeply bizarre, and completely against the spirit of the books
05:29 and their cast of preteens.
05:31 All of this is, thankfully, completely gone in the Disney version,
05:34 and it's all the better for it.
05:36 Number 4. Percy getting claimed.
05:40 "You haven't been claimed, Percy."
05:42 "Well, when do I get claimed?"
05:45 "Well, the gods reveal their design in their own time."
05:47 In all three versions of the story, we see Percy using his powers right from
05:51 the beginning, though he doesn't know that's what he's doing.
05:54 The movie opens with Lerman holding his breath for 10 minutes,
05:57 while the book and the show have Percy accidentally attacking Nancy
06:01 and then Clarice with water.
06:02 "Percy?"
06:03 "Percy, push me!"
06:12 But what makes this different is that, in the movie,
06:15 they realize that Percy is a son of Poseidon right away,
06:18 while in the book and show, they don't work it out until Percy is claimed
06:22 at the end of Capture the Flag.
06:24 This is a landmark moment because it's proof that Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades
06:28 have broken their vow not to father more children.
06:30 "Your dad's calling."
06:32 Number 3. Hephaestus.
06:36 The nature of adapting any book for the screen means that certain characters
06:40 are going to be left out.
06:41 And that's the beauty of seeing Percy Jackson now turned into a TV show.
06:45 "You really don't want to start with this guy."
06:47 "He's starting with me."
06:48 "Percy, the D is for Dionysus. That's Dionysus."
06:54 Dionysus, a camp counselor and the god of war,
06:57 was completely absent in the movie, but he returns in the series.
07:01 Another notable absence from the movie who appears in the show is Hephaestus,
07:05 who sets a trap designed to catch Ares.
07:07 "I'm not leaving without my friend."
07:09 "Yeah, that isn't really how it works. It's kind of a one-way sort of thing."
07:13 Annabeth is able to appeal to Hephaestus' better nature,
07:16 as he's one of the few gods who has one, to free Percy.
07:20 And of course, Timothy Odmondson steals the scene.
07:23 In real life, Odmondson's daughters are fans of the series,
07:26 which is why he took the role.
07:28 "Some of us don't like being that way either.
07:30 You're a good kid, Annabeth."
07:34 Number two, the pearls.
07:36 "Each will provide one of you safe passage back from the underworld."
07:40 Poseidon's pearls are very important to the plot,
07:42 because they're the mechanism by which the characters can escape from the underworld.
07:46 But the movie changed all of this.
07:49 Instead of the pearls, the characters are now the pearls.
07:52 And they're not just pearls.
07:54 They're Persephone's pearls.
07:55 And they're not just pearls.
07:57 They're Persephone's pearls.
07:59 And they're not just pearls.
08:00 They're Persephone's pearls.
08:02 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:04 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:06 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:08 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:10 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:12 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:14 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:16 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:18 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:20 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:22 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:24 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:26 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:28 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:30 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:32 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:34 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:36 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:38 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:40 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:42 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:44 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:46 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:48 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:50 And they're Persephone's pearls.
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08:54 And they're Persephone's pearls.
08:56 And they're Persephone's pearls.
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09:00 And they're Persephone's pearls.
09:02 And they're Persephone's pearls.
09:04 And they're Persephone's pearls.
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09:12 And they're Persephone's pearls.
09:14 And they're Persephone's pearls.
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09:20 And they're Persephone's pearls.
09:22 And they're Persephone's pearls.
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09:50 And they're Persephone's pearls.
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10:00 And they're Persephone's pearls.
10:02 And they're Persephone's pearls.
10:04 And they're Persephone's pearls.
10:06 And they're Persephone's pearls.
10:08 And they're Persephone's pearls.
10:10 And they're Persephone's pearls.
10:12 (upbeat music)