Release: September 27, 2016
Film: The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
Tagline: After years of being asked, the Nostalgia Critic looks at the animated dud that bored the world... but was it worth the hate?
This review contains examples of:
- Adaptation Decay: Deconstructed, as the Critic struggles with the possibility that in its hit-or-miss brand of humor the film stays faithful to that of the original cartoons — equally hit-or-miss, but no less endearing for it.
- Call-Back: Tamara threatens to drink all the Ecto-Cooler left at the office unless the Critic snaps out of his Heroic BSoD.
- The Cameo: Awesome Comics cast member Walter Banasiak reprises his role as Fr. Venkmann from the Ghostbusters (2016) review.
- Critical Dissonance: Much of the Critic's anguish stems from the fact that he finds the film much better than its poor critical ratings and box office numbers suggest.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: The fact that that the Rocky And Bullwinkle movie does a far better job at staying true to the source material than other better and more deserving properties have ever done sends the Critic to insanity.
- Interrupted Suicide: Double subverted. Malcolm and Tamara storm the Critic's room to find him with a pistol on his head. Malcolm replaces his standard pistol with a 9mm, but when Tamara reminds him of what's happening, he comes to his senses and instead knocks the Critic unconscious.
- Heroic BSoD: The Critic spends the rest of the review in a dour mood.
- Shout-Out: Much of the underlying sketch takes cues from the Framing Device of Amadeus, where Antonio Salieri confesses to a priest about his "murder" of Mozart, with the Critic and Fr. Venkmann taking on the roles of Salieri and the priest, respectively.
- Take That!:
- Malcolm tries to pull the Critic out of his Heroic BSoD by inviting him to take a target practice at Raja Gosnell's (of The Smurfs and Scooby-Doo (2002) infamy) house.
- The Critic confesses to Fr. Venkmann that the film's trailer is one of the most maligned since several trailers for 2016 films, showing in particular posters of Ghostbusters (2016), Star Trek Beyond, Sausage Party, The Angry Birds Movie, The BFG and Independence Day: Resurgence.
- After Fearless Leader states his intention to make a live-action adaptation of a cartoon from The '60s, the Critic sarcastically claims that adaptations of 60s works always equals cinematic success, while showing a poster of Wild Wild West (which the Critic reviewed a month ago).
- The Critic interprets Fearless Leader, Boris and Natasha's agenda of hypnotizing the masses with the RBTV (Really Bad Television) channel as an allegory for such modern-day shows as 2 Broke Girls, The Big Bang Theory, The Middle, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Selfie, Chasing Life, NCIS and the entirety of TMZ.
- The scene where Fearless Leader uses the RBTV to brainwash people into supporting him leads to the Critic questioning whether or not it would make a good Hillary joke or a Trump joke before giving up and letting the audience decide.
- The Whoopa Chopper pilot's rant over his helicopter being stolen by Boris and Natasha, followed by a laugh, made so little sense the Critic thought his actor Jonathan Winters was senile at the time of filming, which would also explain his casting in two Smurfs movies (of which the first the Critic already reviewed together with Andre the Black Nerd).
- When an Oklahoma State Trooper played by John Goodman denies looking like the real-life Goodman, the Critic takes this as an allegory to Goodman being ashamed for being cast in Blues Brothers 2000.
