Nostalgia Critic

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.[4][5]

James Rolfe 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" (August 10, 2008). The concept was for a female host to review female-targeted "nostalgic" films and television.[6] 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).[6] 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 Star Wars: The Force Awakens. On October 10, 2018, Nostalgia Critic aired its 400th episode, a countdown of the top 11 Stephen King movies.

Since 2019, most of Nostalgia Critic's recent reviews run at 60 frames per second.

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".[7] Reuters described him as having "offbeat personalities".[8] 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 gags–such 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 a 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: "[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."[9] 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 comedians Lewis Black, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Murray.[10]

Doug Walker as the Nostalgia Critic at the ConnectiCon in 2012.

• 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 (the daughter of the Devil and Kim Kardashian) and Rita Repulsa (though her voice was dubbed by Doug 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, most recently in the review of Con Air.
• Tamara Chambers: After Rachel Tietz 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 Mad Max: Fury Road.

(Note: All of the cast members often play fictionalized versions of their real counterparts.) (Note 2: The series has also featured guest stars Mara Wilson, James Rolfe, Tom Ruegger, Sherri Stoner, Greg Sestero, JonTron, Dante Basco, Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche, Cree Summer, Kyle Hebert, Corey Taylor, Michael Salvatori, and Don Bluth as themselves; co-reviewing, acting in sketch segments, or making a cameo appearance)[11]

Nostalgia Critic received an initially positive response with many praising the humor, characters, and Doug Walker's performance. However, the later sketch-driven seasons have received a much more mixed to negative response. The series has garnered a cult following. Greg Weisman, producer of Gargoyles, stated that he enjoyed the Critic's review of the show.[12] Roger Ebert called the episode "A Tribute to Siskel and Ebert" "the best, funniest video about Siskel & Ebert I've ever seen".[13] 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.[14] Animation writer Paul Dini also thanked the Critic for his episode "The Top 11 Batman: The Animated Series Episodes".[15] Seth Kearsley, director of Eight Crazy Nights, praised the Critic's review of the movie on his Twitter account.[16] 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. 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.[17] Both Bill Farmer, the voice of Goofy,[18] and Jason Marsden, the voice of Max, praised Channel Awesome after watching the Critic's editorial, Is Goofy Secretly Badass?[19] Animation director Ralph Bakshi praised the review of Cool World, finding it "very funny".[20] 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.[21]

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.[22] 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.[23][24]

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 Wall's songs, with Walker himself providing the vocals, as well as recreations of the movie's scenes featuring Corey Taylor. The video received roughly 886,000 views and a negative reception, with 18,000 likes and 51,000 dislikes as of January 1, 2020.[25] The video was panned for what many called out the unfunny jokes, poor animation, and intentional misunderstanding of the film by Walker.[26][27][28] An album of the song covers was released online alongside the video, receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews on multiple music sites and YouTube commentary channels.[29][30][31]

The Nostalgia Critic character has appeared in three anniversary films for Channel Awesome: Kickassia, Suburban Knight, and To Boldly Flee.

In Kickassia, Nostalgia Critic and several other Channel Awesome trying to claim ownership of the micronation of Molossia.

In Suburban Knight, the Critic and the gang searching for a mystical, powerful gauntlet. They have to play a game which involves dressing up and acting as fictional characters to figure out riddles leading to the location of the gauntlet. During their quest, they will run into evil-doers looking to take the gauntlet for themselves. These people possess magic powers and turn the tables on our heroes, effectively changing what was a game into a battle of life and death.

In To Boldly Flee, the Critic continues to blame himself for Ma-Ti's death from the previous anniversary specials. 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 end the Nostalgic Critic character, as the character sacrifices himself in the end.

• Channel Awesome
• Angry Video Game Nerd
• The Cinema Snob
• CinemaSins
• How It Should Have Ended
• Screen Junkies

Quotations related to The Nostalgia Critic at Wikiquote

• Official website
• Nostalgia Critic on IMDb