Nostalgia Critic
Nostalgia Critic is an American review comedy web series created, directed by and starring web comedian Doug Walker. The series initially launched on YouTube in July 3, 2007, before moving to Walker's own site, That Guy with the Glasses, then to Channel Awesome. The show follows Walker as the title character, a bitter and sarcastic critic who mostly reviews films and television shows from his childhood and recent past, usually with comically exaggerated rage. The show often alternates the Critic's angry rants and humor with legitimate analysis of the episode's subject.
Walker briefly retired the series in August 14, 2012, to work on other projects, even writing the character out of existence in the Channel Awesome film To Boldly Flee. On January 22, 2013, Walker announced the show's return in a narrative video called "The Review Must Go On". The show subsequently returned with a more narrative and sketch-driven sixth season, beginning on February 5, 2013, with a review of The Odd Life of Timothy Green. Due to copyright infringement, some episodes still retain the original clip using format.
History
The series was initially launched on YouTube in July 3, 2007, with a review of Transformers but episodes were frequently removed by the website following complaints of copyright infringement. In April 2008, the videos were removed from YouTube but an arrangement between the company and content host Blip in 2009 resulted in them being featured on YouTube once more.as the Angry Video Game Nerd and Doug Walker as the Nostalgia Critic in 2008
The announcement of a spin-off, called The Nostalgia Chick, was created in "The Search for the Nostalgia Chick". The concept was for a female host to review female-targeted "nostalgic" films and television. The contest ended in a three-way tie between Lindsay Ellis, Krissy Diggs, and Kaylyn Saucedo. The competition was won by Ellis, then using the name "The Dudette", as announced on the site, "Nostalgia Chick Winner!". Diggs and Saucedo would still join That Guy with the Glasses as That Chick with the Goggles and Marzgurl, respectively.
On September 14, 2012, Walker announced the retirement of Nostalgia Critic and that it would no longer be a weekly production, as he and his brother felt that they had gone as far as they could with the series. On January 22, 2013, Walker released a sketch short film titled "The Review Must Go On", that also announced the return of the Nostalgia Critic. On December 30, 2015, Nostalgia Critic aired its 300th episode, a review of . On October 10, 2018, Nostalgia Critic aired its 400th episode, a countdown of the top 11 Stephen King movies.
Episode format
The series focuses on the Nostalgia Critic, a short-tempered film reviewer looking back at films usually from his childhood and adolescence. GigaOM describes it as "high energy and shamelessly nerdy". Reuters described him as having "offbeat personalities". In each episode, the Critic restates important plot-points guiding the viewer, while making jokes out of notable or questionable scenes. The reviews are interspersed with recurring memes, false/satirical dubbing of dialogue, comedic sketches and pop culture gagssuch as making fun of famous actors who starred in lesser-known roles before their rise to fame. The show also features special episodes, such as the "Top 11" list countdowns for his favorite/least favorite films, villains, or moments in television shows; and "Old vs. New" which compares the reboot of a popular film or series to the original.Since the revival of the series in 2013, Walker occasionally produces an editorial which discusses relevant film topics; while still featuring the Critic persona, these videos are much less comedic and contain no sketches or other actors. Beginning with Jurassic World in June 23, 2015, the series also occasionally features "clipless reviews" of films that are still currently in theaters to avoid copyright infringement instead of stills and clips. These reviews instead feature scenes from the movies re-enacted comedically by Walker, his family and other Channel Awesome contributors.
Walker describes his philosophy thus: " because everybody already does it. When we look at movies and shows from our youth, they're rarely as good as we remember them, and oftentimes it's quite humorous to compare what you liked then to what you like now. That's basically what the Nostalgia Critic is about, looking back at just how much nostalgia cloaked our vision in heavenly bliss and how bizarre the reality is." This is mostly reflected in the series, but sometimes he reviews whatever is popular at the moment.
Walker has stated that the Nostalgia Critic character is primarily inspired by Daffy Duck and the Queen of Hearts, as well as by comedians Lewis Black, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Murray.
Main cast
- Doug Walker: Nostalgia Critic, the aggressive, childish and short-tempered film critic and a fictionalized version of Doug Walker himself. He is characterized by his angry rants and hatred of bad movies. All of the reviews star him as the main character, and feature him providing commentary and criticism while talking directly to the audience.
- Rob Walker: Rob is Doug's real-life older brother who appears in most of the Critic's videos as "The Other Guy" as well as different minor and major characters, notably Santa Christ.
- Malcolm Ray: Malcolm is one of the Critic's friends who appears on the show and works with him on his videos. Malcolm often plays many secondary characters, most notably as the Devil in some of the sketches.
- Rachel Tietz: She is a friend of the Critic's who worked with him and Malcolm on the show. She played multiple characters, including Evilina and Rita Repulsa. She later left the show after season six to pursue her career in Los Angeles but has made some cameos in later episodes, most recently in the review of Con Air.
- Tamara Chambers: After Rachel left the show to pursue a career in Los Angeles, Tamara stepped in to take her place. She has her own short series called Tamara's Never Seen, where she opens talking about an iconic movie that she is about to watch for the first time, followed by her immediate impressions. She also plays a recurring character called Hyper Fangirl. She also has a second short series called Tamara Just Saw, where she opens talking about a brand new movie that she has just seen.
- Jim Jarosz: Jim is a friend of the Critic's who often works with Tamara and Malcolm, though he is not present in every episode as Tamara and Malcolm are. He is mainly responsible for most of the props and set pieces in the show, most notably for the review of .
Reception
In 2014, Walker and Dante Basco collaborated in a countdown of the top eleven best episodes of the television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, on which Basco had played the character Zuko. Both Bill Farmer, the voice of Goofy, and Jason Marsden, the voice of Max, praised Channel Awesome after watching the Critic's editorial, Is Goofy Secretly Badass? On August 27, 2017, the Critic did a crossover with fellow Channel Awesome critic, Nash Bozard. For Here There Be Dragons, Bozard's review series about fantasy films and adaptations, the Nostalgia Critic and Nash reviewed the short-lived Syfy series The Dresden Files.
The series is unofficially translated into many languages. On YouTube, one can find versions with Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish subtitles, as well as a version with Russian dubbing. However, of all of them, only Poland, where Nostalgia Critic is a cult series, has its own unofficial website devoted to Channel Awesome's reviewers and its YouTube channel. Doug Walker has also participated in many panel discussions at con-events, such as the "Movies Everybody Disagrees with You On" panel at the 2015 Animecon event in Kuopio, Finland.
On September 18, 2019, Doug Walker uploaded a YouTube video titled Nostalgia Critic's The Wall, a parody review of the film Pink Floyd – The Wall adapted from the eponymous album that consisted primarily of parodies of The Walls songs, with Walker himself providing the vocals, as well as recreations of the movie's scenes featuring Corey Taylor. The video received roughly 1.16 million views and a negative reception, with 20,000 likes and 68,000 dislikes as of July 24, 2020. The video was panned for what many considered to be unfunny jokes, poor animation, and intentional misunderstanding of the film by Walker. An album of the song covers was released online alongside the video, receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews on multiple music sites and YouTube commentary channels.
Miniseries
The Nostalgia Critic character has appeared in three online miniseries for Channel Awesome: Kickassia, Suburban Knights, and To Boldly Flee. Each series was produced annually in commemoration for the website's anniversary.In Kickassia, Nostalgia Critic and several other Channel Awesome trying to claim ownership of the micronation of Molossia.
In Suburban Knights, the Critic and the gang cosplay as fantasy characters while on a quest searching for a mystical, powerful gauntlet in the Chicago suburbs.
In To Boldly Flee, the Critic continues to blame himself for Ma-Ti's death from the previous anniversary special. Meanwhile, a series of mysterious events begin to unfold, which could shake the very fabric of internet critics as we know it. The film was initially going to retire the Nostalgic Critic character, as the character sacrifices himself in the end.