What We Had to Watch is a video review series written by and starring Garrett Snook, aka Il Neige (formerly DJ Il Neige), who reviews mediocre movies of the last 10-20 years, generally movies kids of the 00’s would have grown up with, as opposed to the Internet’s usual fixation on nostalgic 80’s and 90’s media. Citing influences from various current and former contributors of Channel Awesome, Il Neige takes them down with a good sense of humor and dry commentary along the way. You can also watch his work on Geekvision and The Agony Booth.
His YouTube page, containing mirror uploads of many of his older reviews, as well as a few Vlog videos, can be found here
. He was added as a producer to Channel Awesome during their talent search in 2014, then left the site in April 2018. He had also set up his own Vidme account, but it is effectively defunct after the site shut down.
Though he didn't upload a proper review in a few years for the series, Neige official ended the series in mid-2019, announcing he was just going to focus on his music parodies, although he hasn't made any significant updates on his channel for over a year. He's also created the theme song for Atop the Fourth Wall's Late Night Double Feature section.
Relevant tropes:
- Aborted Arc: A few.
- Initially, he called himself "DJ Il Neige," which was a reference to how he wanted to review musicals. However, when he realized that wouldn't leave him with a lot of films to review, he dropped that part of his act.
- In 2013, Neige made an announcement video after his Pokemon Movie 3 review talking about plans he had for "Season 2," naming several movies he had in the works to do reviews on (including the third Twilight film, Dragonball Evolution, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). He then cancelled these plans at some point after due to how his real life schedule had overtaken his ability and want to write, shoot, and edit said reviews due to having graduated college and got a job in video editing, as well as his real life musical career still being a thing. He subsequently did his Pokemonth reviews and reviews of the first Spongebob movie that was teased a few times in previous reviews, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (the original theatrical release), and a defense video of Dragonball Evolution (one of the movies he promised to review as part of "season 2" years prior) before hanging it all up in 2019 to focus primarily on his song parodies. Although, he also promised to do a video on the later editions of Advent Children at the end of that video that never came to fruition for some reason.
- His joining of Channel Awesome in 2015 seemed to signal he'd be doing more regular reviews again, but he didn't produce a lot of them afterwards. And after the #ChangeTheChannel controversy in 2018 cause him and many other reviewers on the site to leave, this didn't come to fruition.
- Affectionate Parody: The April Fool's Day video is one for Film Brain.
- Berserk Button: Characters that he deems as loud, obnoxious and overall useless characters that function solely as lame comic relief, especially Goon from Titan A.E., Mole from Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Snails from Dungeons & Dragons (2000), Louis from Kangaroo Jack, and BEN from Treasure Planet.
- Bilingual Bonus: Though the name isn't really related to his review style or content, "il neige" is French for "it snows".
- The Cameo: He did one in the crossover of The Rap Critic and Marc Mues.
- He also has a small role in the The Legend of Zelda fan film The Sage of Darkness, where he plays Link's father.
- He appears in Episode 6 of The Reviewaverse Saga, leading the "Topia Wing" in the battle against GEAR.
- He has a recurring guest role on Some Jerk with a Camera, alongside The Wire and Spazzmaster.
- He also makes a cameo in The Unusual Suspect's reviews of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Phantom Menace, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- British Accents: Affects one in some of his reviews that have British characters to parody situations they're in with jokes. Notably affects one in his review of Snakes on a Plane to signal Film Brain having taken over his body, though it's not the same one Matthew Buck usually speaks in, nor does he get the delivery down quite right.
- Caustic Critic: Mostly subverted. While he is quick to point out flaws in a movie and tear them a new one, he is willing to acknowledge when he feels they might get something right.
- Dull Surprise: In his own review of the Dungeons & Dragons (2000) movie, he points out that even the bad acting from high guardswoman with the "armor nipples of doom" can't top Thora Birch as the Empress.
- Later pariodied in his April Fool's Day video, where the character goes through an identity crisis and a split personality tries to give Il Neige a Hannibal Lecture about his "lack of originality," but thankfully, Il Neige does snap out of his Heroic BSoD.
- He criticizes this as a serious flaw of the The Hero of Time Fan Film. He feels that the acting for Link is either being too overly dramatic when it isn't appropriate, or underselling his reactions to the point of coming off as bored or lacking any emotions.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Minus some minor examples, Neige tends to not use swear words much. Even censoring himself, like in his Yugioh: The Movie review where he says, "Then this kid (Yugi) came around and effed it all up."
- Infodump: Isn't too impressed with how the The Hero of Time film does this in regards to its exposition, feeling that it relies too heavily on people having prior knowledge of the Zelda series to be understandable, while being much harder to get into if you're completely unfamiliar with the terminology of the franchise.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: It gets broken very easily, and Il Neige is constantly in danger from explosions, fires and other weapons that come out the screen.
- Mauve Shirt: Points out how this wasn't handled well in Atlantis: The Lost Empire in the scene when the other characters just sum up their life stories immediately after the big action scene without giving the audience a chance to attach themselves to the characters first.Il Neige: "Honestly, the leviathan could've killed off any one of these characters, and I wouldn't miss any of them because I didn't know anything about them."
- Money, Dear Boy: Il Neige theorizes that this is why many good actors took on the bad roles in their films.Il Neige: [concerning Jeremy Irons' over-the-top performance in Dungeons & Dragons (2000)]: "Okay, no joke, I think he [Jeremy Irons] was just wasted. I do. I think at this point in production, Irons was so fed up that he just got progressively more drunk while he waited for his paycheck."
- My God, What Have I Done?: During the Monster House review.Il Neige: [in regard to Mr. Nebercracker] Just die already! Just die just die just die!*Nebercracker apparently dies*Il Neige: Oh god, what have I done?
- Nostalgia Filter: Somewhat subverted in the Treasure Planet review - the things he liked as a kid, he started to take issue with as an adult, and vice versa.
- Obviously Evil: Literally points this out with Commander Rourke in Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
- Pet-Peeve Trope:
- Easily Forgiven: In regard to Jim forgiving Silver in Treasure Planet despite the latter betraying him, Il Neige himself took issue with how happy this ending came off in comparison to the more Bittersweet Ending in the source material and other adaptations, like Muppet Treasure Island.
- Poe's Law: His Nintendo Song is meant to be a satire of people who deride Nintendo for being samey, yet absolutely praise certain non-Nintendo franchises that do the exact same thing, but worse. That said, there were some who didn't get the joke.
- Running Gag: Cheesecake, usage of Star Fox 64 quotes ("Do a barrel roll!") and his fourth wall barrier getting broken.
- Another in his Dungeons & Dragons (2000) review of not even bothering to get The Dragon's name correct, from calling him Didgeridoo, Daisy Dukes and DanceDanceRevolution.
- Anytime the characters pull off some crazy stunt, he yells, "EXTREME!!!" to a guitar riff.
- Shameless Self-Promotion: His review of The Sage of Darkness may have been motivated by the fact that it was made by his friends, and he has a bit part in it. Nonetheless, he claims to have been impartial.
- Shared Universe: Becoming a Channel Awesome reviewer made him part of the Reviewaverse, though the cameos and crossovers helped beforehand.
- Shirtless Scene: In Rap Critic and Marc Mues' first crossover.
- Shown Their Work: Especially in the Top 10 Fictional Bands list.
- Shot-for-Shot Remake: An element that he feels actively harms the The Hero of Time fan film, especially since he notes that it's applied very inconsistently, being so devoted to getting certain elements of the story nearly beat for beat with the game it's based on to the point of taking up a lot of screentime, while simultaneously not fleshing out the elements that Ocarina of Time overlooked in a compelling manner. Also zigzagged in that he notes that the unique elements are also weirdly utilized in a way that doesn't gel very well with the faithful parts, leading to a far less coherent film.
- Something Only They Would Say: Spazz says this when he's about to beat the British out of Il Neige. His answer Oh come on!
- SpitTake: In the Kangaroo Jack review, the main characters and Il Neige partake in this after hearing what the main characters are drinking will make their testicles fall off.
- Unusual Euphemism: Cheesecake for anytime there's Fanservice on screen.
- Viewers Are Morons: He especially hates it when works aimed at kids talk down to their audience and/or are condenscending in manner (such as the musical segments being mediocre to bad just because they're aimed at children).
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Whenever his fourth wall gets broken.
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Invoked. Points this out whenever a movie that's supposed to be aimed at children has either copious amounts of Family-Unfriendly Violence, vulgar jokes, or both.[after a crude joke was made] Il Neige: "Kangaroo Jack - an action comedy for the entire family!"
- World of Weirdness: Set in the Reviewaverse, allowing a bunch of weirdness.
