The Cartoon Hero - Television Tropes & Idioms

Eli Stone is a reviewer who is a member of Space Monkey Mafia Studios. Although he is one of many reviewers who follow the tradition set by Doug Walker, he notably also has shades of Atop the Fourth Wall and claims that one of his biggest inspirations is Chad "CR" Rocco of Familiar Faces. Eli is aware of the fact that he is not the first to do this, and lately references this wiki a lot. As his name suggests, his character is a bitter superhero with the power to command cartoon clichés—which sometimes feel more like tropes—who specializes in animation criticism.

If anything is notable about his series, it's that Eli constantly gets better as time passes. The storyline becomes deeper, the camera quality gets better, and (perhaps not coincidentally) he references TV Tropes more and more. Either way, you can find him here

This review series contains examples of:

Accentuate the Negative: Played straight in the first few episodes—Eli even regrets that he claimed Batfink was a bad show—but notably averted in the later ones. Even if the movies he reviews are bad by his admission, he always goes out of his way to highlight the best moment of said movie. He even said that he hated doing a negative review of Osmosis Jones because of how much potential it had.
And Show It To You: The Cartoon Villain does this to Asura, of all people.
Art Evolution: It seems like the Hero gets better at making reviews the more of them he makes. This might actually work in his favor, as it's fun to watch him grow as a reviewer.
Artifact of Doom: In-Universe example: In Search of the Titanic.
As the Good Book Says: "And by whose authority do you stand against me?" Quoth The Cartoon Villain.
Author Appeal: Superheroes. Enough said.
Badass Cape: Your Mileage May Vary on how badass, though.
Big Damn Heroes: Ironically, The Hero has only done this once—in fellow reviewer The Hardcore Kid's review of Fritz The Cat. This also happened in his series, but instead of him, it was the gods of Ōkami that saved him at the last second.
Big Lipped Alligator Moment: invoked He defies calling one out when reviewing The Magic Voyage, saying that it does not qualify due to the rest of the movie having no logic.
- When calling "Pinkie Sense" the worst episode of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, he points out how Pinkie Pie's "Pinkie Sense" is never brought up again, thus becoming a Big Lipped Toothless Alligator Moment (in reference to Pinkie's pet alligator, Gummy).
Big "NO!"/ "No. Just... No" Reaction: Happened in the Cosprayers Episodes 5-8 review when he found out that the heroes were working to fulfill the evil goddess's goals all along.
The Cape: Arguably, the Hero is one of the few reviewers who seems genuinely heroic in personality, and according to Word Of God, that's why he was created.
Caustic Critic: He may hold back against his opponents, but God help the movie that rubs him the wrong way...
Chivalrous Pervert: If this quote is any indication...
Nadeshiko: W-white...
Hero: Ooh, my favorite—I mean, what the hell, Keita?
Cluster F-Bomb: The swearing has gotten less frequent in recent episodes, though.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Hero—classic red and blue color scheme. Villain—red and black.
Comes Great Responsibility: Eli is a self-confessed Spider-Man fan, after all.
Cross Over: Has appeared in several other reviewers' videos, mostly those who are also members of Reviewers Unknown.
Deadpan Snarker
Expy: The Hero's reviewing style feels like some bizarre combination of Atop the Fourth Wall, The Nostalgia Critic, and Familiar Faces. And his origin story has shades of Captain Atom and Batman.
Follow the Leader: As with most Internet reviewers, he was inspired by That Guy With The Glasses. However, he's said that his biggest inspirations were Linkara and Chad "CR" Rocco of Familiar Faces.
- Ironically reversed in that he reviewed one of the animated Titanic movies and Quest for Camelot before Doug did.
Guilty Pleasures: Batfink and Girls Bravo, according to him.
Heroic BSOD: Has one in his Inukami! review, set to "Everything You Know Is Wrong."
Knight of Cerebus: Two arguable examples:
- When Diamanda Hagan made her first appearance, the Hero gained an archnemesis, and more of a backstory.
- Also, The Cartoon Villain.
Mirror Universe: Complete with an evil Hero and a good Hagan!
New Powers as the Plot Demands: Played with in a few different ways. With the nature of the Hero's one ability—control of all cartoon clichés (his words, not ours)—new PARTS of it are revealed as the plot demands. To wit, he has his trusty TNT, can make it RAIN ANVILS, has a Falcon Punch, and in the origin comic, he has Super Speed, can throw an ACME bomb that's actually a smoke bomb, and can pull a giant mallet-style hammer out of nowhere. The fact that he can get new abilities this way is actually lampshaded in his review of said comic as Linkara.
- He also got a completely new set of abilities courtesy of the Celestial Brush gods. He lost the ability to use it one episode later.
Power Creep, Power Seep: The Hero in Superpowered Evil Side mode was able to kill Asura. ASURA. This is explained later on as the villain who brought him into our world wasn't able to bring him here at full power, but still...
Precision F-Strike: Happens a lot lately.
The Rival: Diamanda Hagan. According to Word Of God, they first met when the TGWTG forum users collaborated on The Land Before Time sequels. Their reviews happened to be next to one another in the collab. The rest is history.
Self-Deprecation: He calls the dialogue in The Last Airbender "more forced than most of my jokes".
Shout Out: Just to name a few...
- When The Cartoon Villain first showed up in our universe, The Terminator theme played.
- Followed shortly by a shout-out to Nightmare on Elm Street.
Skyward Scream: YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, CARTOON HEROOOOO!!!!!
Something Completely Different: His "Elseworlds Month" specials. Justified in-universe as In Search of the Titanic distorted the fabric of time and space, offering glimpses at other universes.
Space Monkey Mafia Studios: Though as he is quick to point out, Eli was on a smaller site called Reviewers Unknown first, and he considers himself primarily one of them.
Spell My Name with a "The": It's THE Cartoon Hero. Though he mostly goes by "Hero."
Stuff Blowing Up: Considering the nature of the Hero's abilities, this is inevitable. Notably, a stick of TNT is one of his preferred weapons.
Superpowered Evil Side: In Season 3, The Cartoon Villain became this.
Tempting Fate: For someone who's supposedly Genre Savvy, the Hero does this far too often for his own good.
Thou Shall Not Kill: The Hero is very clear that he will not kill, especially in his recent videos. And according to his comic origin, it was actually because of Hagan.
Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Shyamalanicon. It's VERY clear what it's supposed to be parodying.
Unstoppable Rage: Inukami! reduced him to this. Supposedly.