I wish I could remember the exact date, but it was right about this week five years ago. I know the general time because the first new episode I watched was the Airborn review.
I suddenly lost my job and had been very depressed. Things were about a bleak as they had ever been. Then one night I stumbled onto the Nostalgia Critic. Ive mentioned it before, how I couldn’t stop watching and laughing my ass off-to the point where I had to force myself to go to bed because it was after 1 in the morning. I have been a fan ever since.
I pretty much ignored the rest of the site until a little movie called Suburban Knights came along. I loved this movie and have watched it a million times. That got me interested in the other personalities, and I discovered my other favorite. Linkara. I am ashamed how long it took me to discover him but “AT4W” didn’t mean anything to me, I sure didn’t get that it was about comic book until I looked into it. After I got all caught up I was a major fan, especially when we got to the end of the Entity story arc which was just fantastic. After about of year of watching and catching up on older stuff, To Boldly Flee came long and it was big. Then came the news that The Nostalgia Critic was ending, and I was disappointed like the rest of the online world. I don’t think Doug Walker realized how important that character had become to people. Thankfully it didn’t last, six months later after Demo Reel tanked (I still can’t believe they thought that would work) and along came one of the best things I have ever seen. It was The Review Must Go On. I can’t praise that film enough, it was just absolutely brilliant.
So then Nostalgia Critic 2.0 (as some called it) came along. It was different, with the sketches and other people. But to be honest, I really grew to like that style. When I look back at the older stuff I kind of feel something is missing with Doug just talking to the camera for 20 minutes and the same old gags over and over. This is what he tried to get across in his “Christmas with the Kranks” review. Malcolm is funny and I loved Rachel. At first I didn’t know what to make of Tamara but she grew on me, I love her character Hyper Fan Girl. When she plays her I see a character with depth, not just Tamara wearing a silly wig. And what do I think of the clipless reviews? Eh. The only real problem with them is that if you never saw the movies you could be lost. For all the work he put into the Mad Max review I have never seen those movie, so I’m sure my appreciation wasn’t as high as it could have been. Pixels was well done, it was one his best reviews last year. As for AT4W, I still love and still watch it. Two years ago when the 300th came around I watched almost all eight hours of the live stream done the day before. And in a few months it’ll be the 400th episode, wow!
It’s true that Channel Awesome has changed, in fact I hardly watch anything on the site anymore. I miss the old days with Film Brain, Lupa, Phelous, and others I liked to watch. Yeah they’re still around but when they were all on the same site it was reallt cool, there was a real sense of community which isn’t there anymore (this was reflected in the awesome anniversary movies). But after To Boldly Flee that changed, sadly. I visit Linkara and Snob’s web sits for their stuff (or use YouTube). Even the people still there like Film Brain and Mike J seem to hardly post anything anymore.
But this has going on to long and rather than drone on, I decided to share some clips. I can’t lie, I am using what I found on YouTube. My hope is that this will be a fitting tribute, and maybe get the people who have never checked either of them out interested in doing just that.
The funny thing is I couldn’t find a clip for their respective show openers. Weird. Let’s start with one of the most famous bits, the reaction to the Bat Credit Card
This clip from The Tom & Jerry review is a great moment, showing how clever he can be with his fake Shakespearean soliloquy
Since I would be here all day if I tried to find a video for every running gag he had, I settled for the video I found which covers a lot of them in one go.
This is hands down one of my favorite moments because the movie and scene is just so ridiculous that his simple reaction is enough.
The commercial specials are fantastic, I could do a whole list of just those. Here is one segment which I always had a fondness for.
One of the best moments ever was when Mara Wilson schooled him. This scene is a classic and will never get old.
So after he left, and came back, we had The Review Must Go On. As I said it is simply the best thing ever. This last scene is my favorite, it still makes me smile four years later! By the way there is another reason I love this, a personal one. At the time my father was going through a medical issue the day this was released. It was nice to have something happy to think about that day.
When he came back after The Review Must Go on he suddenly had a theme song. Here is one of them (they rotate ever year).
I wanted to show a clip from his more recent stuff, and this one from The Wicker Man review fits the bill just fine. We see that there is still some of that old critic still there.
And here is his more evolved style of today, yeah the clipless reviews have there pro’s and con’s. It helps if you’ve actually seen these movies! But you has to admire the work that went into it, what a change from the early days
Finally the Nostalgia Critic Anthem
Here are some from AT4W now. I wish I knew what it was that makes me keep coming back to this show. AT4W focuses on a medium I have always loved, comic books. Linakra is a good reviewer and knows how to make things funny. And Lewis Lovhaug seems like a nice enough guy in real life.Here is the full theme song for your enjoyment…
I always wanted to do favorite AT4W jokes articles but that’s harder than with Nostalgia Critic because the jokes are different. Some of them go so fast that you almost miss them, and except for a few exceptions none stand out the same way as NC’s. Here are some clips I found on YouTube. Some random and two of them are moments are truly do love.
Starting with the What The Monitor’s did during “Countdown”
Linkara’ freaks out to Combine Harvester
Here is one with Nostalgia Critic, where Linkara explains just why the plot to Superman IV Is sooo dumb.
Frank Miller always gets Linkara aggravated, and this freak out is one of his best
Linkara makes the Thunderdome joke
Here is one which makes me laugh every single time I see it. It’s from the Adventure of Jello Man review :
How popular is Linkara? This clip should clear that up
Finally, the ballad of Linkara
I wanted to leave with one last clip, and this was the best one I could think of. Even if it features two reviewers I’ve hardly talked about. But I think it’s a nice ballad for what these two, and the others like them, do and remember when I talked about Ear Worms? This is a huge one for me!
This was from the Les Miserables review by the way.
Ok I think that’s enough. The truth is I owe Doug Walker and Lewis Louvhaug more than just good laughs. These videos have expanded my horizons on movies and TV and comic books. I am familiar with artists I never really knew about before like Don Bluth, Rob Liefeld, and M Knight Shamalyan. I stopped being ashamed to like comic books and even started collecting again. And it goes without saying that without Nostalgia Critic I would not be doing this article, in fact there would be no blogging and I would have never heard of Manic Expression or the great people I have met on here. Not to say anything for the hours of laughs and entertainment. There aren’t very many people I would like the meet but I would like to meet Doug Walker once just to thank him for all the laughter he has given me over the years.
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