Channel Larry (EDIT: Channel Awesome renamed to just Nostalgia Critic)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Come to think of it, I never even finished watching last year's Disneycember. I remember disagreeing with a lot of Doug's opinions, though, but that's never too uncommon, as it is. I just feel that the videos themselves felt a bit to "rambly" for my taste, which is why I stopped keeping up with them. Hopefully this year he can keep them a bit briefer and much more concise.

[Avaitor]

Eh, while I do agree with him on parts of Song of the South, a lot of his same problems are still present. His trying to speak for everyone, unnecessary repeated phrases like "I dunno", inconsistent critiquing.

I'm still interested in this set since there's a handful of live-action Disney movies I'm very interested in seeing tackled, but I wish he could do his homework.

[No-Personality]

I couldn't have discovered harder last year that all the research in the world isn't going to change your reaction to these movies. So, I didn't bother: I spent almost $300 on building up a collection of these movies and, after really sitting through them again, I could have saved a lot of that and put it to better use. I thought that nostalgic magic feeling would take over and make up for the flaws (of films running rampant with them, such as Old Yeller). This was not the case.

Not sure how this relates to Doug but, he's got a mighty lot of flicks to check out here, to hopefully make this month complete. I do wonder something... is he going to only do 1 review a day? So, he's only going to choose 31 live-action movies?

Just got finished watching his video (I downloaded it in the middle of writing this reply) and, if anything, his "ehhh"ness is a good reflection of what this movie does to unbiased people. Again, I have to say what I said on the Disney board- whether the filmmakers meant to be racist toward the audience, the Animated Characters are still clearly racist depictions of black people. The bear character is portrayed as mentally-handicapped to the point where only his having been inbred would explain how his extreme gullibility could even be possible, the fox character is a classic representation of black people as vicious, self-hating killers (at one point, he literally has "his prey" in a hangman's noose- ...suuurre, that's not suggestive of anything at all in the history of things; sorry, but this goes WAY beyond "nature makes the fox and rabbit enemies"), and the rabbit is a slippery, smooth-talking weasel with no self-respect. If he were an adult, he'd practically be the pimp character in Warner Bros.' Coal Black and Da Sebben Dwarfs.

So, let's play a game of what movies you saw in the clips. Go: Parent Trap, Santa Clause, Darby O'Gill, 20000 Leagues, Return to Oz, Tron, Babes in Toyland... Princess Diaries (uh...), Hocus Pocus (oh, I can't freaking WAIT for that!), The Rocketeer, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, Mary Poppins. And Pirates (never bothered with those) and I guess Narnia (who cares about this one though?).

[Commode]

Just got finished watching his video (I downloaded it in the middle of writing this reply) and, if anything, his "ehhh"ness is a good reflection of what this movie does to unbiased people. Again, I have to say what I said on the Disney board- whether the filmmakers meant to be racist toward the audience, the Animated Characters are still clearly racist depictions of black people. The bear character is portrayed as mentally-handicapped to the point where only his having been inbred would explain how his extreme gullibility could even be possible, the fox character is a classic representation of black people as vicious, self-hating killers (at one point, he literally has "his prey" in a hangman's noose- ...suuurre, that's not suggestive of anything at all in the history of things; sorry, but this goes WAY beyond "nature makes the fox and rabbit enemies"), and the rabbit is a slippery, smooth-talking weasel with no self-respect. If he were an adult, he'd practically be the pimp character in Warner Bros.' Coal Black and Da Sebben Dwarfs.

It's kind of ironic that you feel that way, since the animated segments are the ones Disney has been most inclined to actually release.

[No-Personality]

Oh, I live in a world of my own and I know it: neither Nostalgia Critic or Chick found any of this in the animated sequences or, truthfully, analyzed their storytelling at all.

For some reason, people are inclined to read all sorts of bad messages in The Little Mermaid's depiction of Ariel or Pocahontas's entirely par-for-the-course Disneyfication of history. But, for Song of the South, it's just "wacky, over the top animation." Hell, some are even willing to half-criticize Belle for her Stockholm Syndrome. But the B'rer Pack? Nada.

[Avaitor]

Here's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

[No-Personality]

Yes, I'm too lazy to fetch links (feel free to edit me to add them, y'all are moderators here anyway)...

Doug's Top 12 Santa's Video. When I saw it was almost 30 minutes, I was sure it'd be 12% skits (at least). Nope. 20 second ad thingy at the end for The Awesome Store, but the rest is all Doug, all gushing over Christmas, and thanks to him, I will definitely be checking out Ernest Saves Christmas this year.

Oh yeah, and Lupa has a new Baywatch review. And it's just as good as the first (though it's about half the length), so make that (and the first if you haven't seen it) a priority watch.

[Avaitor]

Here's the video. I'm watching it now, but I have to admit, I don't get Doug's, or most people's, love for Christmas. Maybe I'm just too Jewish to. :p

And here are Doug's takes on the two Davy Crockett movies. I hope Doug realizes that these were first aired on the Disneyland TV show before being put into theaters.

Edit: Huh, is the Wonder Years Christmas episode not on Netflix? It shouldn't be that hard to find. Wait, and why did he go with the colorized version of Miracle on 34th Street?

[No-Personality]

Onto quick TGwtG business that I forgot to mention previously: I've been doing a lot of criticizing of The Cinema Snob this year but I want to recommend his recent episode on Basket Case, one of my Top 100 Horror Films. Linky - http://blip.tv/the-cinema-snob/basket-case-by-the-cinema-snob-6692509 . It was legitimately in good spirits and makes me really want to watch the movie again (even though I've seen it 3 times). For...some reason, I've actually been following him closer than usual the last couple months and want to also mention his review on Halloween was excellent, while his 2-part review on some shitty Christian propaganda documentary was a real misfire. Though I see where his heart was at, this highlights again my problem with him as a reviewer- he doesn't know where his Snob attitude belongs. He smugly reviews certain bad movies like they've actually been given an unfair shake, good movies like they're actually trash (granted, this doesn't happen often but when it does it really bothers me), and then he literally reviews this silly preachy video like it offends him personally. Even though it's clear from the getgo that this was like a fart at the RNC- only circulates with people so surrounded by the smell of dung that they won't notice. Get hip, Snob, the big online conspiracy theorist money's in "exposing" the Illuminati. (That is, the imaginary branch of said organization charged with taking out mobsterian hits on Whitney, Michael, and David Carradine. Because... that's how you terrorize America. By going after clearly troubled people with a wealth of personal problems or tabloid scandals. Wake up, America. They'll come for you too! Once you become rich and famous, have your skin color change radically, become a teen idol, and a drug addict, have children with veiled women, and they make MadTV sketches parodying you. Wait... wasn't MadTV canceled?)

Here's the video. I'm watching it now, but I have to admit, I don't get Doug's, or most people's, love for Christmas. Maybe I'm just too Jewish to. :p

Nostalgia. Commercialization is beautiful to a kid. It's one of the reasons we cling to so many ridiculous things from the era of back-when, way past the point of "I know they're embarrassing and you're right." It's impossible for us to completely care about the flaws something has (this is always a case-by-case basis thing, there are exceptions) if it's something we loved as a kid (if we remember something that we loved hardcore, a good chunk of that love will stay alive, if we remember something we liked or showed mild, fleeting interest in, we could look at it much more objectively). Clearly, nostalgia in this case is a symptom and "the disease" (some will consider this a really bad thing, others will just accept that most people are affected by it) is that you look at your childhood fondly if you remember feeling safer or having a great deal less responsibility as a kid. Or if you were abused or were just on hard times and your escape from reality was Thundercats or Eureka's Castle or Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or family trips to Burger King or Lite Brite or Power Wheels or whatever. You know.

There just happens to be this big common experience most American kids (especially born in the 80's, when of course Denying All Our Problems and hiding behind your material things was at the height of popularity) have with Christmas as this commercial-capital cultural mecca and they see it as harmless (where, religious or not, that might be a dangerous thing) and... in a way, maybe I won't go that far. But I do think it's like this weirdly unspoken-connection form of art we all recognize if your family had this insane amount of traditions centered around the stuff we view as nostalgic about the holiday: ornaments, wrapping paper, miniature colored light bulbs, garland, extention cords, tinsel, songs by people whose names we can't remember (Feliz Navidad, those Snoopy / Red Baron serials, all those songs from Home Alone), etc. It all melts together into this odd mosaic of electrically warm, fuzzy memories and shiny artificial happiness. And it's kept alive by the people who loved it as a kid because there's always something we seem to want to escape. Like: self-analyzation and the trend of ironic superficiality (or The 90's). Or The 80's, Part 2 (aka: the "Dubya" Years).

And, did you ever think there might be more to it that Doug does this Disney thing in December? Any Disney fan of internet age (a term I'm just using for someone savvy with social networking) should be keenly aware of how hard people cling to their Disney nostalgia. It's the same thing with Christmas. (Even if Disney doesn't seem to care as much about making money off of all their nostalgic things with fans of the Disney Afternoon era channel. I guess as long as they have so many stupid new franchises raking in Stupid Kid dough, they don't care about the stupid kids of yesteryear.)

And I thought the same thing you did about The Wonder Years. Although, I think he would say the same thing if the only clip he could find was some YouTuber clipping just 90 seconds of some actor they like playing a side character (or some woman smoking- that is Way too big a thing on YouTube).

[talonmalon333]

I don't plan on ever seeing Song of the South. Not just because it sounds like a "meh" movie, but to me, those cartoon segments will always be Splash Mountain.

[Avaitor]

More Disneycembers-

Darby O'Gill and the Little People
Both Parent Traps

I really like Darby O'Gill and the original Parent Trap. The Lohan version has its merits too, but I can't remember the last time I've seen it.

But did Doug really say that Hayley Mills got her start with Parent Trap? Not only was that not even her first Disney movie, she started out in England before meeting Walt. Silly Doug.

[No-Personality]

New Brows Held High today:

http://blip.tv/brows-held-high/brows-held-high-shame-6700054

The last 8 minutes are especially good.

[Avaitor]

Us Jews don't talk about this movie.

[Peanutbutter]

Never saw Eight Crazy Nights, but I don't have to in order to know it wasn't "Garbage Pail Kids BAD!" as Rob put it. The phone joke, Gollum, and his apologizing to Man of Steel (even though he accidentally said Batman) were funny, but the rest was boring.


His one next time should be better.

[Avaitor]

I think it had some of Doug's best jokes in a while, personally. I loved the Popeye bit and anything with the Happy Gillmore crowd.