Nostalgia Critic

History

The series was initially launched on YouTube in July, 2007 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.

The announcement of a spin-off, called The Nostalgia Chick, was created in "The Search for the Nostalgia Chick" (August 10, 2008). 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 (who reviewed Disney's Pocahontas), Krissy Diggs (who reviewed Sailor Moon), and Kaylyn Saucedo (who reviewed The Last Unicorn). The competition was won by Ellis, then using the name "The Dudette", as announced on the site, "Nostalgia Chick Winner!" (September 15, 2008). 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 23, 2013, Walker released a sketch short film titled "The Review Must Go On", that also announced the return of the Nostalgia Critic. In December 2015, Nostalgia Critic aired its 300th episode, a review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Episode format

The series focuses on the Nostalgia Critic, a fictional character invented by Doug Walker. GigaOM describes it as "high energy and shamelessly nerdy". Reuters described him as having "offbeat personalities". The shows mostly focus on the Critic watching a film as he makes fun of the movie's problems, usually with recurring memes and pop culture gags. One of his most well-known gags is making fun of famous actors that starred in lesser-known roles before their rise to fame. The critic has created other segments, such as the Top 11 lists countdowns for his favorite films, villains, or moments in television shows. Occasionally, Walker produces editorials which discuss relevant film topics; while still nominally in the Critic persona, these videos are much less comedic. This has become more frequent as he alternates between reviews and editorials every week.

Walker describes his philosophy thus: "[We need a critic of nostalgia] 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."

Main cast

Notes:

Nostalgia Critic: Nostalgia Critic is the temperamental main character of the show. He is shown to be incredibly bitter about many things but has a soft spot for nostalgic things. He expresses special fondness for holidays, Christmas above all. The Critic has many rivals (particularly the Angry Video Game Nerd, Nostalgia Chick and Cinema Snob) and regularly also has to take on many characters, some recurring, some appearing only in that episode or series.

His catchphrase is "I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it, so you don't have to!", which he regularly announces at the beginning and the end of each episode. Another recurring catchphrase is his explanation for why he does "Top 11" countdowns rather than the more common "Top 10": "Because I like to go one step beyond."

Rob Walker: Rob is the Critic'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. Occasionally he appears as himself with the head of a Dinosaur, where he typically ends dialogue with his catchphrase "I'm a dinosaur".

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 works with him and Malcolm on the show. She played multiple characters, including Evilina, the daughter of the Devil, and Rita Repulsa (though her voice was dubbed by Walker in that role). She later left the show after season six to pursue her career in Los Angeles but has made some cameos in later episodes.

Tamara Chambers: After Rachel Tietz left the show to pursue a career in California, Tamara came on during the "Nicolas Cage Month", making her appearance during the Wicker Man movie review (although she appeared during the Catwoman review before that) and continues to appear alongside Malcolm throughout as the primary female cast member. She, as well, plays many characters, including Hyper Fangirl.

She now 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.

Jim Jarosz: Jim is a friend of the Critic 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 Mad Max: Fury Road.

Note: All of the cast members often play fictionalized versions of their real counterparts.

Reception

Nostalgia Critic received a mostly positive response with many praising the humor, characters, and Walker's performance. The series eventually garnered a cult following. Greg Weisman, producer of Gargoyles, stated that he enjoyed the Critic's review of it. Roger Ebert called the episode "A Tribute to Siskel and Ebert" "the best, funniest video about Siskel & Ebert I've ever seen". Walker later stated in his editorial titled "Farewell to Roger Ebert" that he has since had the quote framed and hung up on his wall, and in "The Making of A Nostalgia Critic Episode", it can be seen on his desk. Animation writer Paul Dini also thanked the Critic for his episode "The Top 11 Batman: The Animated Series Episodes". Seth Kearsley, director of Eight Crazy Nights, praised the Critic's review of the movie on his Twitter account. WatchMojo.com placed the Nostalgia Critic at #2 on their Top 10 YouTube Movie Critics list. Jacob Davich, who portrayed Linus in the film, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, highly praised the Critic's review of the film. 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? Animation director Ralph Bakshi praised the review of Cool World, finding it "very funny".