Anvilicious / The Nostalgia Critic

• If an innocent child is getting mistreated in a movie, he will more often than not stop the review for a long rant about it. Nice enough, but then you remember that the character is supposed to have been badly abused as a kid. It's almost poignant in a sense.
• In his The Legend of the Titanic review, he makes it clear, several times, that what the film did (outright deny the deaths of hundreds of people in favor of a "SAVE THE WHALES" aesop) is completely disrespectful to those who died on the Titanic.
• He says over and over again that just because something is a kid's movie, doesn't mean it has to be worthless or have no effort put into it. Depending on how much he suffers in an episode, this can vary in desperation.
• Relating to that, non-stop loud music, sound, or talking is annoying and takes away from building a kid's appreciation for building up atmosphere.
• The Moulin Rouge! review has "Even if I don't like the film, maybe you do, and neither of us are definitely wrong" as well as "Guilty Pleasures are nothing to be ashamed of."
• The Critic's favorite episode of The Simpsons is "Bart Gets an F", which involves Bart needing to pass a test to avoid having to repeat the fourth grade. Bart buckles down, studies harder... and still fails. The Critic praises the episode for teaching a Hard Truth Aesop that many shows are afraid to touch: that you can try your hardest and still fail.
• In his review of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Critic is puzzled by the positive comments from people who loved the film despite all the stuff he said about it and the narrator explains that the Critic shouldn't force his opinions on others and that "everyone is different like every flake of snow".
  • Which is quickly dismissed as idiocy by the Critic.
• His review of The Cat in the Hat has the message that market research is not the be-all and end-all of entertainment. The masses don't always know what they want, and if studios keep pandering to their comfort zones, then they never will.
• Similarly to that, his review of The Lorax (2012) included the message that "fad is only one letter away from fade", showing that just doing what's popular for the moment will result in a lackluster product that is quickly forgotten.
• His overall premise is reminding viewers how every decade has their share of lackluster works.
• His video "Top 11 GOOD Things in the Star Wars Prequels" states that even if people think that a director's work is bad, it still deserves credit when it does something right.
• His review of Alice in Wonderland (2010) has the message that even good directors and writers will create bad stuff sometimes, and that part of being a creator is taking risks, even if they don't always pay off. Those creators shouldn't be glorified as someone who can do no wrong, nor should they be reduced to the punchline of a joke because of one flop in a career full of successes.
• "I'll Be Home For Christmas"
  • There are better ways to solve your problem with a person, even if you hate them you should still treat them kindly and hospitably. Screaming and yelling at them until they change will only contribute to the problem as you'll never know when they'll finally listen to you.
  • If you want someone to change for the better, you should lead by example by proving that you're able to change as well.
  • One good deed doesn't undo two bad ones, especially when one of those good deeds is something you should have already been doing. People won't tolerate a bad person just because they're capable of doing one good deed once in a while.
• The Critic's discussion on the ending of The Graduate does explain an alternate opinion on the ending. You shouldn't rush your decisions or make them on rebellious impulses because you can be stuck with the irreparable consequences.
  Nostalgia Critic: It's always best to slowly figure out what you want rather than rush into something you're unsure about, because fighting too quickly for your freedom can result in making your prison bars even stronger.
• Kim Possible: Having a movie that's supposed to inspire and empower people isn't new, but making it a movie's sole defining trait that holds it together will result in the final product being lacklustre and forgettable. As empowering as Kim Possible is, it means that should the theme fail then its bad writing and lack of entertaining elements will be its downfall because the movie made empowerment the only thing that held it together to begin with. Creators need a balance of theme, story and entertainment to make their final product relateable, long-lasting and memorable. It should appeal to everyone and shouldn't be made to pander to only a fraction of the target audience.
  Nostalgia Critic: Kim Possible was a fun, clever show that allowed kids, both boys and girls, to imagine themselves fighting hilarious supervillains, with tongue-in-cheek humor and likeable characters, no more, no less. This feels like it's trying to be sensitive, and empowering, and standing up to the status quo, but when you go in with that intention first, rather than telling a good story with good characters, it backfires. Kim Possible was an empowering show because it didn't tell a story about a girl who was a hero, it told a story about a hero who was a girl. And it never drew attention to it, it just kind of did its own thing. It had fun entertaining everybody who watched it, no need to play to a particular gender or age. Anyone could watch it and get something enjoyable out of it. This just has that bad Disney Channel movie feel to it, where it's more about trying to get across a message, not because it's ethical, but because it's popular. I'm not saying that was the intention or the idea, I'm just saying that's what it feels like. Well, they're missing what made Kim Possible popular then, because it wasn't trying to be a trailblazer, it was just trying to be fun, which there is very little of here. Simply put, this movie may think it's all that, but it's not.
• The discussion and the eventual review about the 2020 remake of Mulan deconstructs near flawless leading females as supposedly empowering. The Critic repeatedly points out that these types of characters are not only unrelatable but they display a very toxic lesson lesson to audience: "Be born perfect and convince the world they're wrong". The critic believes that having a woman show vulnerability and struggle makes them relatable and long-lasting, it can also inspire the audience to be better people. Claiming that women are naturally perfect and that society is always to blame when it doesn't accomodate you is sexist in of itself, as the leads are still being objectified by only being protrayed as flawless bastions of virtue. The Critic sincerely believes that women can be portrayed as more than just a flawless lead, a misunderstood villain, or misunderstood hero.
  The Critic: "Like I said, changes are welcomed, but this isn't what Mulan's struggles were about. She didn't know where she belonged, she had to find out through risk, pain, sacrifice, and determination, astonishing everyone, including herself. Here, she's already a Marvel superhero, because apparently, she has really good chi. Well, that'll be an interesting journey, going from flawless to stupidly flawless. Yeah, can you guess what the moral is? It's the same moral if you're female in a Disney live-action remake, "Be born perfect and convince the world they're wrong.""
• In the movie Frozen II, Nostalgia Critic praises Disney for pulling off some ballsy move at the climax, but became furious when it was subverted. The lesson here is that it is necessary for films to take risks, but only if they stick to it, so the impact will be felt. Subverting the risk by showing no consequences of their actions will cause the viewers to be kept in their imagination and be unwilling to face the harsh reality, where bold choices are common in every day life.

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