Ten
years ago, on July 3rd of 2007; an illustrator from Chicago uploaded
a small video onto YouTube; a two-minute review of the Michael Bay film, Transformers. Inspired by James Rolfe
and his unique style of videos; the man would become an iconic figure in the
history of online filmmaking. He would later inspire content creators such as
Lewis Lovhaug (aka Linkara), Eric Rodriguez (aka Blockbuster Buster), Mat
Brunet (aka AniMat), and myself (aka the creator of this video). To this day,
this man has achieved fame, stardom, and a loyal fanbase that grows by the
second. To the average viewer, I bet you are wondering “who is this guy?” This
man can only be summed up with one phrase: “I remember it so you don’t have
to.”
Before
we dive into the history of Nostalgia Critic, let us take a moment to explore
the backstory of the man behind the character. On November 17th ,
1981 in Naples, Italy; Douglas Darien Walker was born. He was born to parents
Barney Walker of the US Navy; and the late Sandra Walker, a former opera singer
and therapist). His grandfather was a pioneer in the frozen food industry,
responsible for inventing a pie filling that could be frozen without the worry
of the sugar crystallizing. On top of being from a family of innovators and
military men, Walker was also born as a descendant of composer Heinrich Schutz.
As a child, Walker was always intrigued by the art of cinema, along with many
of the franchises young boys were enamored with in the 1980s such as Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (both of which would become subjects for
many of his iconic reviews).
Little is known
about his childhood, aside from him being bullied in the ‘90s due to his name
being similar to a certain Nickelodeon character.
He would finally pave the path to his destiny when he started attending
Northern Illinois University, majoring in film and communication. After his
college days had run their course, he would start a career as a simple
illustrator. It was at this moment Walker and his brother (Rob Walker) would
start paving the way towards Nostalgia Critic’s conception.
According
to a post on the forums of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses,
Rob Walker stated:
"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. 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 two 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. Finally, I
asked when this whole freaky phase was gonna pass, and he said, 'Now. I think
I'm done. I'm all out.' So that nostalgia thing was DEFINITELY there…”
Doug
was far from done. This obsession with his childhood would not die; matter of
fact, it kept growing stronger by the minute. He wanted to relive his childhood
and express his opinions to the world; the question is, how was he going to do
so? This is when a fledgling site known as YouTube
became a major player in shaping Mr. Walker’s destiny. In 2007, YouTube was still in its infancy (only
being live for two years prior), as well as the “streaming video” industry as a
whole. Very few innovators came before Walker, one being the legendary James
Rolfe (aka The Angry Video Game Nerd).
Walker’s first
series of videos was known as Five Second
Movies, a series of short videos which summarized a film in a severely
truncated (and comedic) amount of time. This series paved Doug’s path to
stardom, and allowed him to express his opinions on movies in a satirical way.
An effect of this set of videos created a trend amongst other content creators,
as many began to create their own “Five
Second Movies”. The trend would
later catch the attention of The Times
and unfortunately, YouTube’s copyright
system. Doug Walker instantly became a YouTube
icon from something he merely considered a “hobby”, simply by combining
humor with his love for cinema. He knew he wanted to raise the bar and see if
he could do that while actually being on camera, so the viewers could see the
true extent of his humor.
According to
Walker himself, “At the time, I wanted to see if I was actually funny; (you
know, not my Five Second Movies and
my editing) I wanted to see if I was actually funny, so I came up with this
character that was betrayed by his childhood. He actually felt really p****d
off that his childhood wasn’t as good as he remembered it, and gets really
angry at it and annoyed.” The character he intended to create was inspired by
icons such as Daffy Duck, Lewis Black, Stephen Colbert, Bill Murray, as well as
infusing aspects of himself for a personal feel. After the character was
conceptualized and given a “halfway-professional” appearance, it was time for
Mr. Walker to start work on his first review. This begged the question, “what
was going to be his first review?” Of course, his first review on July 3rd
2017 would be an adaptation of one of his childhood favorites; the 2007 Transformers movie.
In retrospect,
his first review was significantly different from his current style of
reviewing movies. Matter of fact, his first review was similar to what is
currently known as a “vlog”. There were no clips from the movie (as it was
still in theaters at the time), and it was mostly Walker rambling as a
character named “The Nostalgia Critic”. This first iteration of the critic was
portrayed as easily excited and hyperactive, similar to a later character he
would create. Matter of fact, the format of this review would be used again in
later reviews starring said character. The end of this video foreshadowed what
was yet to come from Doug Walker; more Nostalgia
Critic episodes. Walker was quick to deliver upon this promise, as another
video was reportedly released later in July of 2007.
The next video
featured a different format than the previous one; the overall format was
similar to his later “clipless reviews”, as there was a significant lack of
usable footage. To compensate for this, he created his own illustrations
summarizing the plot. This time around,
he was giving his thoughts on the trailer of 2008’s Cloverfield. While Doug was closer to establishing his classic
formula, it would not be fully established until the next episode; the review
of ABC’s Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
This review would be the first time he would open and close with his iconic
catchphrase, “Hello I’m the Nostalgia Critic, I remember it so you don’t have
to!” He would also begin to supplement his claims with visual aids such as
images and video. However, there was a Catch-22 with using these visual aids;
particularly the video clips. As a result, his videos would either be blocked
from viewing or removed entirely from YouTube
(The site was as strict on copyrighted material as it is now, maybe even
more than in modern times).
To alleviate the burden of YouTube’s severely flawed copyright system, Doug collaborated with Mike Michaud of Channel Awesome to establish a website for himself and many other
reviewers. The site would have Doug and his characters serving as the mascot,
and would be named after his YouTube channel
ThatGuyWithTheGlasses. In Doug’s
personal life, he decided to pursue a full-time career as a content creator. In
doing so, he also decided to quit his job as a janitor; and he did it in style
(Unfortunately if his video career ever goes under, I think he might be on some
employers’ blacklists)! During the same time as the site’s conception, more
content creators began to post reviews in a style similar to Walker’s Nostalgia Critic; giving rise to other
online shows such as Atop the Fourth Wall
(starring Lewis “Linkara” Lovhaug) and The
Blockbuster Buster (starring Eric “ERod” Rodriguez). Doug would later
search for a female critic for the purpose of female-oriented reviews. In the
end, the finalists were Lindsay “TheDudette” Ellis, Kaylyn “Marzgurl” Dickson,
and Krissy “ThatChickWithTheGoggles” Diggs. Ellis won the position of
“Nostalgia Chick”, but Diggs and Dickson were also offered positions as
reviewers of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.
Surprisingly, Dickson is the only one of these three that is still affiliated
with Channel Awesome. However, with
the fame and connections Doug was gaining; there would also be scrutiny lurking
around.
Fans of James
Rolfe’s Angry Video Game Nerd and
Walker’s Nostalgia Critic were quick
to make comparisons between the two characters. To cash in on these fan
debates; Rolfe and Walker decided to stage a long lasting, satirical feud
between each other as a form of cross-promotion. The feud consisted of videos
being made as responses to the other, along with staged fights upon
encountering each other. The staged feud primarily consisted of:
·
Nostalgia Critic “calling out” the Nerd in
response to the commenters
·
Critic decoding a message from Nerd’s comment
towards the aforementioned video on ScrewAttack.com
(the comment in question was Rolfe’s opinion on Walker’s videos)
·
Critic responding to Nerd’s review of The Wizard (the film essentially being a
feature length Nintendo commercial) and accusing him of plagiarism (as well as
reviewing the film before he did)
·
Nerd responding to Critic
·
Critic challenging Nerd to reviewing a terrible
movie
·
The first of three battles between the two, as
well as Nerd challenging Critic to review a terrible video game in the same
video.
·
Nerd reviewing Ricky 1, a parody of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky
·
Critic reviewing Bebe’s Kids, a video game based on the movie of the same name (the
latter of which he would review in a future episode)
·
A prelude to the “final battle”
·
The aforementioned final battle
While Rolfe’s character seemingly
won the battle, the war was far from over. To celebrate the first anniversary
of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, Rolfe and
Walker collaborated again to finally settle the feud between the two
characters. As an act of peace, Nerd and Critic collaborated to review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out of
Our Shells. Afterwards and in between battles, things resumed as normal.
Rolfe would become a frequent collaborator with Walker, and vice versa. In each
anniversary special for ThatGuy,
Rolfe would be given a cameo or a supporting role.
Walker
would continue to achieve varying degrees of success in the years to come; with
some episodes being critically acclaimed, and some (such as his episode
covering Bart’s Nightmare) would be
critically panned. However; while his success was rising, he was slowly going
into creative burnout as a result of doing weekly episodes. In late 2012,
Walker made the decision to permanently retire the Nostalgia Critic and move on
to other projects. He intended to end the series with his review of the
live-action Scooby-Doo movie, and
then permanently retire the character in the third anniversary movie To Boldly Flee. (Personally, I was
devastated to hear of the critic’s end) One of the previously mentioned “new
projects” was a series known as Demo Reel,
which premiered in October of 2012.
Demo Reel achieved a level of success
similar to the Bart’s Nightmare
episode, the fans did not enjoy it; they wanted the critic to return from his
long absence. However, there were some positives to this new show that would
benefit future projects. Audiences were introduced to Walker’s new co-stars,
Malcom Ray, Rachel Tietz, and Jim Jarosz; along with a new studio location for
higher production value. Unfortunately, bringing production to a new standard
was not enough. Doug Walker has a specific style of storytelling; it is
comedic, it is satirical. Demo Reel,
while comedic and satirical, was meant to be dramatic and character driven. The
overarching storyline seemed like it was an afterthought, and the sets looked
like they were slapped together during the previous day. Episodes of Nostalgia Critic were known for having
low-budget special effects, but Demo
Reel’s effects looked like they were made by a teenager in a high-school
video editing class. In early 2013, Doug gave in to the fans’ demands and
decided to bring the critic out of retirement. To serve as a series finale for Demo Reel and a premiere for a Nostalgia Critic revival, Walker created
a short film titled The Review Must Go
On.
The
film was set after the events of Demo
Reel and To Boldly Flee, and
centered around Doug debating if he should revive a certain loudmouthed and
profane critic. In the Demo Reel universe,
it was revealed that series protagonist Donnie DuPre was the reincarnation of
the critic after an encounter with the plot hole. He steps through the hole and
the critic was reborn, albeit with some changes to his show:
·
Full reviews would be bi-weekly, rather than
weekly as previously established (Critic would do editorials in the weeks
between these reviews, discussing topics related to cinema)
·
Current movies would be reviewed, however films
still in theaters were excluded because he would not be able to use footage
from this review (he would later discard this rule with his review of Jurassic World; as he found a workaround
by reenacting key scenes from the film without the use of movie footage)
·
Rachel, Malcom, and Jim would become members of
the show’s cast (unfortunately, Rachel would later leave the show and be
replaced by Tamara Chambers)
Nostalgia Critic was back in action on
February 05, 2013 with his review of 2012’s The
Odd Life of Timothy Green. The show’s new format combined classic elements
of the show’s previous incarnation, as well as some elements from Demo Reel; such as the comedy sketches
and the inclusion of his co-stars. The Critic was back and he was here to stay,
and he still remains to this day! While many of his former collaborators such
as Lindsay Ellis, Noah Antweiller, and the late Justin Carmical had moved on to
achieve their personal careers, Doug Walker has stayed faithful to Channel Awesome. Happy tenth anniversary
Mr. Walker, and here’s to ten more years of Nostalgia
Critic! Now without further ado, the review must go on!
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