(Author's Note: I know this post is late. I was going to post Thursday night, but my video card burned out on me and I couldn't replace the card until Saturday and I've been busy with my work at The Daily Cougar. Instead of doing two different posts - one about newgrounds.com and the other about Neurotically Yours, I am just going to combine the posts into one and go from there.)
Newgrounds.com - the name strikes nostalgia in anyone into anything Flash - be it animation or games. Created by Tom Fulp as a Neo Geo newsletter in 1991 and hit the web in the late-'90s as two sites: New Ground Remix and New Ground Atomix. The sites were originally used as means to host Fulp's pet projects during the early days of the Internet, and soon gained a cult following. A year later Fulp combined the two sites in to one, renamed the combined website Newgrounds, and started hosting new content based on a relatively new style of animation - Flash. As the 2000s rolled along, Newgrounds only got bigger as flash artists from all over the web used the site to show off their talents, and among the rather amateurish animation came artists of exceptional quality. One of them debuted on Newgrounds in January 2003.
His name: Johnathan Ian Mathers; the series: Neurotically Yours.
(Author's Note: the video above contains vulgar language, hand gestures, and is of a controversial nature. Viewer discretion is advised.)
Mathers originally started his cartoon about a Goth girl and her pet squirrel as a comic book, but by 2003, he started to transform his creation into a webtoon series. Over 10 years later, Mathers's creation is still going strong, complete with his own website, illwillpress.com, as well as hosting his work on Newgrounds and, as of 2009, YouTube.
The original concept behind Neurotically Yours followed the antics of the aforementioned Goth girl, Germaine as she deals with everyday life, with her hyperactive pet squirrel Foamy providing occasional commentary. As the series transitioned to the web, the starring roles switched, as Foamy became an instant hit with fans as Germaine slid into the role of eye candy/comic foil for the vulgar, cult-leading squirrel.
As Foamy's popularity grew, his voice was slowed (though still high-pitched) and his movements became less erratic, letting his eye expressions and hand gestures (obscene and not) tell more of a story. Then came Foamy's rants. The video above is a prime example of a Foamy rant, though it's not one of the originals. Never long rants, but all the same potent with striking social commentaries ranging from the silly to the controversial, these rants became a thing of legend on Newgrounds and launched the series into Internet stardom.
Later this week I'll post more examples of Mathers's work, but only the Foamy rants as this blog focuses on reviewers and critics, and Foamy's rants can be considered a critique on society and Foamy the Squirrel himself can arguably claim the title of the Internet's first comedic critic.
Look for My 12 Recommended Foamy Rants later this week. You'll find examples of Foamy rants in the video bar on the main page.
After a a bit of a delay, here are the 12 Nostalgia Critic episodes I recommend checking out (formerly My 12 Favorite Nostalgia Critic Episodes). These aren't ranked, but are set in chronological order.A reminder - all of these episodes have strong language in them, so viewer discretion is advised. I will preface this list by saying I'm listing anything that would require any extensive prior viewing, as this list is for anyone looking to get into the show for the first time. Let's get on with the review!
12. "Batman & Robin"
For anyone growing up in the '90s, the "Batman" movies were some of the best action movies out there, or at least half of them were. The quality of the movies just got worse with each sequel, and this movie was the campy bottom of the barrel. If you love watching someone pretend to absolutely lose their mind over a bad movie, this review is for you.
11. "Tom and Jerry: the Movie"
Having turned 30 last week, I am probably one of the last generations to grow up with easy access to classic cartoons. Having grown up in the infancy of cable and niche programming, these new stations needed content and old cartoons like Tom and Jerry filled a programming need until newer, more hip programming came along. The '90s saw a need to try to bring classic cartoons to the hip new generation with movies like Space Jam, and this abomination. More of Doug Walker's own opinion and less scripted material in this episode makes it really shine.
10. "FernGully (w/the Nostalgia Chick)"
Another bad trope of the '90s involved really pretentious and preachy environmental films aimed at children, and FernGully: The Last Rainforest, while not the worst of these films, still rates up there. This review marks the first crossover with the Critic female counterpart, the Nostalgia Chick, portrayed by Lindsay Ellis. I'll get more in to her character and concept next month, though you don't need to watch any of her reviews to get any set-up for this episode. The two play well off of each other and the comedy is rather high (faux fight scene, aside).
9. "The Good Son"
While not the first review to come to mind when talking about the Critic's best reviews, this one certainly is under-appreciated. The writing has a unique premise - what if the guy who usually screams and whines about everything finally loses his voice and has to conduct the whole review in silence. While it sounds like a recipe for disaster, Walker actually pulls it off quite well with clever writing and very effective facial expressions. It also helps that the subject material takes itself so seriously, it was absurd before Walker even touched it. For creativity alone this deserves a watch.
8. "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog"
Literally the next episode after "The Good Son," Walker reverted back to the traditional Critic comedic formula, but executes that formula well; one of his best performances. What makes this episode unique is that he compares and contrasts the title Sonic character series with another show featuring the same character that ran simultaneously. It ends with a very thoughtful, if comically-played, analysis of the difference between a story with little effort versus a story with real effort.
7. "The Top 11 Nostalgic Mind F---s"
This episode came right after Sonic and two episodes after The Good Son, setting up a nice trio of videos in February 2009. One of the staples of the Nostalgia Critic is his "Top 11" lists. This list looks at some of the most bizarre moments in games and animation. The strange subject material aside, Walker provides some great analysis while maintaining a light and surreal tone. This episode should come with a warning for first-time viewers: keep your volume a little low - this episode can get loud at times.
6. "North"
Fast forward to June 2009 and what we have here is a universal fan favorite - the "North" review. By any standard, the movie "North" was horrendous; a movie critics Siskel and Ebert panned venomously. This is s movie directed by Rob Reiner, the cast filled to the brim with stars, and yet, is filled with terrible jokes, offensive ethnic stereotypes and one of the most poorly written movies I've ever seen, personally. Oh, and the Critic's review is quite entertaining, much in the vein of the "Batman and Robin" review.
5. "Top 11 F--- Ups"
From September 2009, this is another great "Top 11" list and is exactly what you think it is - a list of Walker's worst mistakes, whether it's an editing mistake, a writing mistake or otherwise. Walker introduces another fan favorite character, the obnoxious nit-picker, Douchey McNitpick, to ridicule the Critic through each item on the list and it's great to see Walker have a sense of humor about his mistakes.
4. "Battlefield Earth"
While I could continue to list some really great reviews from 2009, which might have been the best year for the Critic, I would be remiss not to list some of the best reviews from this decade. Feb. 2, 2010, Walker released the 100th episode of the Nostalgia Critic, complete with great cameos from Bhargav Dronamraju (as Ma-Ti from "Captain Planet") and Noah Antwiler (lampooning Terl, the over-the-top villain in "Battlefield Earth" portrayed poorly by John Travolta). A movie based off a book by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, "Battlefield Earth" is universally considered one of the worst movies of all time. Walker has a ton of fun comically ripping this movie apart, and the scenes with Antwiler playing off Walker are brilliant.
3. "The Room"
Debuted in July 2010, this review was a special request by a fan. Walker bent his own rules for reviewing this material by looking at a film past his cut-off date to be considered nostalgic. This review has a ton of laughs, a ton of hilarious cameos, and the movie itself, also regarded universally as one of the worst of all time, is a ton of laughs despite itself. The movie is so terrible, many viewers consider it hilarious, so the combination of the Critic and the cameos make it arguably his best review. This review also sparked some controversy, as Wiseau Films, the production company that made the film, pressed Walker with legal action to pull his review. Walker did so and responded with a biting satire of the whole affair. With help from intense fan pressure, Wisaeu Films backed off and the review was restore to Walker's website in December of the same year.
2. "Nostalgia Critic Musical Review: Moulin Rouge"
Released in November 2011, this review is arguably the best Nostalgia Critic episode. Even Walker himself listed this episode #1 in his "Top 11 Nostalgia Critic Episodes" review in a Sept. 25 video. It's hard not to see why - excellent writing - not just the dialogue, but also the musical numbers. There are a ton of cameo appearances in this episode, including Brent Black, a.k.a. Brentalfloss, a talented video game parody musician (yes, that exists). The video is well-shot and parodies the source material expertly. In fact, this video did its job too well, as it was after the filming of this video that Walker decided there was nowhere else he could go with the Nostalgia Critic and began writing the character's retirement, which would come to fruition less than a year later.
1. "The Grinch"
Arguably the last great Nostalgia Critic review, this episode debuted a month after "Moulin Rouge" and definitely deserves bonus points over the other possible final choice because of its originality. In keeping with the spirit of Dr. Seuss, Walker wrote the entire dialogue for the episode in rhyme. The result is actually very true to the spirit of the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and his rhyming, while it stumbles a bit at points, is perfectly on key.
A quick note on the Nostalgia Critic in 2012: As last year was supposed to be the farewell tour for the Critic, most of the reviews certainly felt that way - not so much delivering a final collection of great performances as much as rushed performances. None of the 2012 reviews are particularly bad, they just feel as if Walker was trying to quickly get the months over with until his final review, "Scooby-Doo (the live-action movie)" in August. If I had to recommend any review from last year as worth seeing, definitely take a look at his Patch Adams review - it's very insightful about the real Hunter "Patch" Adams and how the movie gloriously botched telling his story.
Well, that's all for my look at the Nostalgia Critic. Check back Thursday night as I take a look at one of the Internet's original well-springs of user-generated content - newgrounds.com, followed Friday by a look at a product of Newgrounds that still thrives today - Neurotically Yours.
Finally, here's the review I'm building up to: this is my review of Nostalgia Critic episode 223 "The Odd Life of Timothy Green."
(Author's Note: this video contains coarse language. Viewer discretion is advised.)
This episode marks the first Nostalgia Critic episode in nearly six months, dating back to Aug. 14. That episode, no. 222 "Scooby-Doo," essentially "killed off" the character, though it's actually non-canon; the canon ending of the Critic occurred during the Channel Awesome movie, "To Boldly Flee." Walker ended the Critic's 200-plus episode run, feeling the character had peaked, he grown tired of the character and wanted to try new ideas. After a couple of those new ideas did not pan out, Walker decided to bring the Critic back, starting with the special, "The Review Must Go On," the title taken from the Critic's musical number in the hit episode, episode 189 "Moulin Rouge," which in and of itself is take off of Queen's "The Show Must Go On." So popular was the song that Critic's new theme song is a remix of "The Review Must Go On." Now, with that background out of the way, on with the review.
We start with something new for Nostalgia Critic reviews - an opening title sequence. Older episodes (which I have provided examples of in the Video Box and in my last two entries) always started straight to the Critic's opening catchphrase. For the return of the series, there's a new opening sequence featuring a montage of moments from past Critic episodes and some good effects work. I actually like it; it gives a feeling of "things just got real."
Another change is in the selection of movie. Walker had a rule for Nostalgia Critic episodes that he wouldn't review anything that wasn't at least 10 years old. He made exceptions for this, such as his 100th episode reviewing "Battlefield: Earth," and the Critic's review of "The Room." As revealed in the special, "The Review Must Go On," Walker has tossed out the old rule, saying that he wouldn't review anything in currently theaters and that wanting to see anything again after a month certainly qualifies as nostalgia.
***SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT***
After the catchphrase we getting a brief synopsis of the movie and then ... a really flat joke. Yeah, I don't get why he went with the "cat-killingly bad" joke either. Follow that up with a really flat and forced reaction and it's not a very good beginning to a comeback.
The second joke, a skit at around 3:00 comes off a bitbetter. Rachel Tietz does a good job playing off Walker as the teacherA lot of us know that friend from school (maybe evencurrently in school) who tried to use some sort of "loophole" answer, trying to B.S. our way into getting credit for wrong answer, so I can relate, though the end to the skit is it a bit weird and seems more like a tie to the movie than the skit, which comes off as odd in context. Plus notice the hat Walker's wearing - it'll make a second appearance in this episode.
The third big joke comes at 4:57 and it's the return of the ? Cap from the previous skit, as worn by Malcolm Ray. This skit is actually the best one so far. The actor does a great job of overacting for comedic effect and the writing's pretty funny, ending much better this time around with a "walking away" sting made popular in Looney Tunes cartoons.
The next big joke comes in at 7:16 involvingwhat I call a"sight joke," a list of "Horrible Pieces of Human S---." Walker employes a lot of sight jokes, which are jokes that usually come with a visual representation of the joke to help drive it home. TV uses this kind of joke occasionally, movies rarely, but it sees a lot of use on the Internet, where editing software allows textual edits in videos. As for the joke itself, I would have included the whole cast plus the director and producer of this schlocky movie, but that's just me.
8:31 - yet another sight joke, this time involving a legal pad with some "crazy" scribbling on it. A good lead in to the joke and the joke itself earns a little giggle, but more because it's tied in with the "Looney Tunes" theme. In past retrospective videos and conventions, Walker has admitted the Nostalgia Critic character borrows heavily from the cartoon character, Daffy Duck, so many of his videos will involve jokes and gags that borrow from Looney Tunes. Sometimes they work, and sometimes not. It was used more effectively here than earlier, though the joke loses some freshness since we just had a sight joke about 75 seconds prior.
9:47 - the Critic describes this movie in a nutshell. One thing I've always liked about Nostalgia Critic reviews is that between the gags, running jokes and memes, there is actually thoughtful analysis to be had.
10:49 - this is the best gag in the review at this point, and one of the better Nostalgia Critic skits I've seen in a long time, along with a nice visual gag at the end. Well-timed, well-written and well-edited to match the expressions of the character from the movie, the only thing missing is Walker crying at the end. That kind of humiliation would make any man cry.
12:50 - "Let's play 'politicians'." Some times, the best joke is the one the movie makes for you. All you need is some clever editing and BAM - a joke is made. Finish the joke off with classic Nostalgia Critic rage and scene.
14:20 - we break for a commercial and go into a Saturday Night Light mock commercial skit with Tietz and Ray. We start outwith the use of schadenfreude, pleasure from the misfortune of others, and the actors do a great job with their expression; it's just the joke that's written awkwardly. However, that's all set up for the big joke of the episode - Chia Child. Whoever invented Chia Pet belongs in the "Dumbest, Commercially-Successful Ideas" Hall of Fame, right along side the Pet Rock and Star Trek V. A funny bit that segues right into the actual commercial break.
17:58 - back from commercial and now we have some clever editing and some overacting that actually got a chuckle out of me. I wish I had a magical pencil that shines with divine power.
18:34 - a creepy joke followed by the return of the sight joke from 7:16. There's nothing wrong with reusing jokes as long as you don't overdo it, unless, that is, you mean for it to be a running joke (which can still be annoying if executed badly). Right after that, the creepy factor is ratcheted up by plugging some audio from James Cameron's "Titanic," and a great example of how take a bit of dialogue and turn it into something disturbing by changing the context. I face-palmed as I laughed the first time I saw and heard this joke.
By the way, this movie,this atrocity of cinema. If I didn't have this review to keep my mind occupied, I wouldn't mind seeing every print of this film burned and every digital copy erased from existence. Even with this review, this movie is still painful to watch. Whoever wrote this dreck needs to be smacked with produce, preferably oranges.
What? Orange-u glad I didn't say cement blocks?
28:35 - We start a classic, two-minute long Nostalgia Critic rant full of screaming and cursing that for some comes off as whining, but for others like me, it's that feeling of schadenfreude that gets a kick out of watching this guy lose his mind (or pretends to). He ends the rant with a thoughtful counterpoint, leads into the catchphrase and that's a wrap.
How was the Nostalgia Critic comeback show?
Well, the average fan rating on the host website is over 4.8 out of 5. Granted, I didn't go over every joke, and there were smaller nuggets of jokes and sarcasm. Does it deserve the high score?
Not really, no.
The jokes come quickly and often enough, though, with an abundance of jokes, some are bound to come off as flat. The skits with Ray and Tietz come off fairly well and add a nice change of scenery with some acting that might actually be better than Walker's. The problem lies more in the source material.
There's bad and then there's BAD. This movie is so bad, it's not even funny-bad - something so painstakingly horrible that you actually find humor in just how badly the cast and crew screwed the pooch. A movie so bad, I didn't even know it existed and I'm sure very few people I know knew existed either, and that's part of why this review falls a bit flat for me. Bouncing jokes off of something that's just too bad to find to find the humor within just leaves you wanting to laugh, but you just can't. Still, I can't fault Walker's writing (mostly); the Chia Child skit did leave me laughing. Is it so close to a full "5 out of 5" rating? No, but it's still good and deserves a watch
Final Rating: 4 Chia Children out 5
Come back later tonight as I list My Favorite 12 Nostalgia Critic episodes in part four of The Review Goes On.
"Hello, I'm the Nostalgia Critic - I remember it so you don't have to!"
That is how Doug Walker opens his iconic show and has been one of the most recognizable catchphrases found on the Internet in the last few years. It's catchphrases like these, his Sam Kinnison-esque screaming, liberal use of profanity, incorporation of animation and well-timed humor that has allowed Walker to thrive as one of the pioneers entertainment.
Born Nov. 17, 1981 and a native of Chicago, Ill., Walker is a graduate of Northern Illinois University with a degree in Communication Studies. Before stepping into Internet fame, Walker worked as an animator. In fact, one of Walker's videos includes him quitting is day job in 2009, following his breakout year of 2008. Walker initially found success on YouTube posting "5 Second Videos" - a comedic summation of a movie in the namesake amount of time. Walker followed up his success with the birth of The Nostalgia Critic. The following is an account from his brother, Rob, on Walker's entry on the Channel Awesome Wikia page, talks about the inspiration behind the Nostalgia Critic:
"It was sort of organic. Not really spur of the moment, nor totally
planned either. Before he did any of this, Doug went through like a
mid-midlife crisis. He got big into all the things he watched as child,
including ordering a DVD of old 80s commercials," Rob Walker said.
"Of the shows and movies
he tracked down, some still held up. Some did not. Some things I didn't
recognize at all, but there was a 2 year age difference, so
occasionally we saw something the other missed. Point being, he made it
his quest to track down old things he remembered and I constantly made
fun of him for it. ... For a while, I think he wanted to exorcise his inner Lewis Black. We
used to film stuff all the time in high school and college, and I think
he was just rediscovering how fun it could be."
Rob Walker goes on to say that the final straw came when they visited several "Generation X" website doing written reviews on 80s nostalgia, and so the Nostalgia Critic was born. In April 2008. The following video is the first video done in his now familiar style, Nostalgia Critic Episode 2: "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue."
(Author's Note: this video contains coarse language, viewer discretion is advised)
Now that proper background on the man has been established, Part 3 will focus on Walker's latest Nostalgia Critic and in Part 4, My Favorite 12 Nostalgia Critic reviews.
Way back in the far off year of 2001, I had just graduated high school, got the Internet as a graduation present. In the beginning, I only used it for research for class, fan fiction writing, and other things; however, I didn't discover Internet entertainment until 2004 while bored at work. I discovered the video above while on a site called newgrounds.com. I received a recommendation for the site from a classmate while making small talk before class. The video above is an animation coded in Micromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash), as all of Newgrounds's videos were. The show, called Neuoritcally Yours, created by Jonathan Ian Mathers, introduced me to Internet entertainment. We'll come back to this show later, as well as Newgrounds, at a later time.
By 2007, I had grown bored with Newgrounds, and YouTube had never particularly had any content that interested me, so for awhile my Internet usage waned. The next year, I transferred to UH and shortly after the fall 2008 semester began, I attended my first Anime no Kai meeting. As the name implies, Anime no Kai is the university's anime club. While there was a delay before the first meeting, one of the members brought out his laptop and asked us if we wanted to watch something called, "The Nostalgia Critic," while we were waiting. I wasn't interested initially, but between the maxed volume of his laptop and the acoustics of the room, I didn't have much choice but to listen. What happened next changed the way I would kill time between classes and at work forever.
(Author's note: there is some bad language in this video, so viewer discretion is advised.)
The video above is one of Doug Walker's best Nostalgia Critic episodes: his review of the final 90s Batman film, "Batman and Robin." My first impressions left me struggling to hold back my laughter through the beginning of it, that is until Walker's "Bat Credit-Card" sketch, which left me laughing hysterically, and still does to this day. After the video was over, the club member wanted to play a video in which the Critic does a crossover with James Rolfe's Angry Video Game Nerd, though the delay ended before we could get to the video. Oddly enough, by the time I got home, what I searched for wasn't more Nostalgia Critic episodes (though I would do that eventually), but instead searched for the Angry Video Game Nerd. Growing up both a nerd and a gamer myself, the infusion of something I love with comedy sounded like a match made in heaven. This is what I found:
(Author's note: If you thought the previous video had some bad language, your virgin ears are bound to be accosted by this video, so remember, viewer discretion is advised.)
I was hooked immediately. I found true enjoyment from these videos and stayed with them as the characters evolved, as did the creators. Walker, with help from webmaster Mike Michaud, would eventually leave YouTube and form their own website, thatguywiththeglasses.com, and with the new website, I and everyone else were introduced to several Internet personalities which, for the most part, endure to this day. These humorists literally made a living off their videos, and would be joined by others far across the world, all connected by YouTube, blip.tv, justin.tv and other video-hosting websites all over the Internet.
If I were going to look at these auteurs and their works in chronological order, I would start with Neurotically Yours and Newgrounds; however, in honor of bringing a beloved character back, I am going to review the show that brought me back to Internet entertainment - Walker's Nostalgia Critic. This week, I am going to review Walker's comeback show, "The Nostalgia Critic and the 'Odd Life of Timothy Green'" as well as list off My Favorite 12 Nostalgia Critic Episodes, but I'll preface my reviews with a little back story on Walker, the character and his website. Stay tuned.
Eleven years ago, user-generated content on the Internet was limited primarily to animation using Micromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash). Due to the relatively low file size of flash animations, they were more fluid and of better quality than most of the early Internet-posted videos.
A few years later, as video quality improved and bandwidth speed increased, watching videos on the Internet soon became the new thing. YouTube came along, and with it, a wild frontier for posting videos on the Internet.With little concern for copyright infringement, people posted whatever they wanted, whatever they thought was entertaining. Cat videos and videos of people doing stupid things roamed the untamed YouTube channels. Eventually, as editing software also improved, people discovered they could do more than make monotonous music videos collages, but actually make well-thought, well-shot, scripted videos. These early artists latched on to popular culture and nerd culture, carving well-entrenched niches and not letting go.
The first of these major successes launched in 2006 with the advent of the Angry Nintendo Nerd (now the Angry Video Game Nerd), a show written and directed by James Rolfe. His video parodies about an angry nerd reviewing video games would inspire a new generation of aspiring film makers with no budget and none of the other advantages.
Two years later, another great success popped up on YouTube with a more universal appeal to nostalgia for those of my generation - Doug Walker's Nostalgia Critic. Walker would inspire others to follow him as well, and soon sophisticated websites appeared, hosting the videos for these artists, living off of the advertising revenue generated by video views. Today, YouTube is filled with original content created by users, and other video-hosting websites like Blip and justin.tv have flourished around user-generated content.
Join the Texzilla as we examine these artists, review their work, and maybe have a few laughs of our own. This week's artist is:
Doug Walker and the return of his breakthrough show, The Nostalgia Critic. Check out some of his work in the video bar and look forward to another post tonight.
