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"Greetings! I am The Cartoon Hero, because with great nostalgia comes great responsibility."

Eli Stone is a reviewer who was a member of now-defunct site Reviewers Unknown, and is a member of Space Monkey Mafia Studios and The Rosen Hacker's website. Although he is one of many reviewers who follows 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 while the self depreciating humor seems to share some shades with that of LittleKuriboh. 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.

Notably, the show's quality gets increasingly 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 on his blog here. He also has a Dailymotion account here, where most of his videos can now be found, though he had to upload a few to Google Drive. He had a Blip.tv account, but it got deleted during one of Blip's purges. He was also on Reviewers Unknown, but that site closed down October 18, 2014.

Eli has also started his own retrospective project on the Ace Attorney series. Much like Linkara's History of Power Rangers videos, he has stated that each game will have three videos to cover it – two to go over what happens in all four-five cases in said game, and one to go over characters and general thoughts on the game in question. However, also like that series, there will be no set schedule. As of July 2019, the series is complete at 350 episodes, though he is currently working on a slew of Patreon requests and has started a sort-of podcast series.


This review series contains examples of:

  • Ac CENT Uponthe Wrong Syl LA Ble: He tends to pronounce genuinely like the german word Ein. So it sounds more like genu-Ein-ly.
  • 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.
  • Acting for Two: Eli has played the Hero, the Villain, and the new character known only as Number Six. This is actually justified in-universe as the Villain is an Evil Counterpart of the Hero from an alternate universe, and Number Six is a time-traveling clone. He also plays the Hands of Chaos, but those are Faceless Mooks anyway. However, he isn't the ONLY actor in the series – Hans Norberg, his roommate at the time, played Agent Smith (all of them) and Asura.
  • Adult Child: As Eli himself puts it, "I'm an adult... physically, if not mentally."
  • Always Wanted to Say That: Invoked in the Pokémon Heroes review, doubling as a Shout-Out to Chuggaaconroy.
    Hero: NO, Nintendo! You do NOT endorse bestiality in your movies! This is not Sonic Next-Gen!
    *Beat*
    I've always wanted to say that.
  • Ambiguously Evil: Mr. Anderson.
  • And Show It to You: The Cartoon Villain does this to Asura.
  • April Fools: In 2013, he started off his review by saying that he didn't get why people loved The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and that he was going to bash on it… which he did, but the footage was taken from Hotel Mario and The Legend Of Zelda C Di Games.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Delivered by Anderson in the Looney Tunes: Back in Action review. This leads into an Armor-Piercing Speech which actually leaves the Hero nonplussed.
  • 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.
  • Artistic License – Biology: He REALLY was annoyed with the fact that the male cows have udders in Barnyard.
  • As the Good Book Says...: "And by whose authority do you stand against me?" Quoth The Cartoon Villain.
  • Attack Reflector: Part of the Hero's repartee, since he has access to Power Slash.
  • Author Appeal: Superheroes. Enough said.
    • Also the Ōkami games. Not only does he have the powers of the Brush Gods now, but he also accused CosPrayers of slandering the name of Amaterasu.
  • Badass Cape
  • Bad Future: New character Number Six apparently comes from one where the Hero caused Armageddon.
  • Bash Brothers: The Hero and Six become this eventually.
  • Beyond the Impossible: The Hero was able to use spiral energy to break out of the Absolutely Safe Capsule. You know, the one designed to be unbreakable.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Bittersweet Ending: In the series finale Hero dies at the end after saving the world for one last time. However: Six decides to spirtually sacrifice his own life by spirtually merging with the hero and having them both reincarnated into a newborn child in another universe where they shall live on within a new mind.
  • Bond One-Liner: "I don't have to, Villain. We're already dead."
  • Book Ends: Season 2 started with a review of the Inukami! anime and ended with a review of Inukami! The Movie.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: A heartwarming example in the Tokyo Godfathers review, with all of the characters wishing the audience a happy holiday.
  • Call-Back: In the aforementioned "Mare-Do-Well" review, Don East of Anime Abomination pops in and mentions how the Hero left a script for an Inukami! review on his computer. Believe it or not, this is a reference to an episode from over two years earlier.
  • The Cameo: Nash appeared at the end of his Balto review and Kyle Kallgren in his Atlantis: Milo's Return review.
  • 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...
  • Cerebus Syndrome: He started out with very little story, if any, and by now the story between reviews has gone full-on superhero story – well, on a budget, but still...
  • Chekhov's Army: In the finale to the EarthBound review, the Hero figures out that he can move between his Hammerspace and those of his clones. So naturally, he brings the clones with him to fight Chaos.
  • 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.
  • Combat Pragmatist: The Hero couldn't win in a sword duel against the General Hand so he stabbed him with his underling's dagger.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: Eli is a self-confessed Spider-Man fan, after all.
  • Continuity Snarl: His reviews of the animated The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Elseworlds Month specials that followed them prominently featured one of his colleagues, Arthur Knowledge of The Quest for Geekdom – the former even featured a storyline involving a prophesy, two rings harnessing the power of nerd rage and the joys of geekdom, and implying that Arthur's "Apprentice" title meant that he was apprentice to the Hero at one point. This is never brought up again after the Elseworlds Month specials, but in this case, there actually is a reason. In The Quest for Geekdom, aliens invaded and would have destroyed the Earth, but to save it, a universal reboot occurred, causing the Hero and Arthur to have never met, and revamping Arthur's character into less of a Green Lantern and more of a paladin. It is unknown what became of the new villain, Razor, or the rings, or if they will ever be brought up again. Even the Hero acknowledged that this probably confused a lot of people.
  • Crisis Crossover: Season 4 ended up with one of these.
  • Crossover: Has appeared in several other reviewers' videos, mostly those who are also members of Reviewers Unknown.
  • Darker and Edgier: Season 8 became far less comical in tone and way more cynical in terms of humor and the storyline altogether.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Defied Trope: In Home on the Range, after pointing out a scene with lesbian overtones, he starts to cue up "This! IS! SPARTA!" but cuts it off because "this movie's dumb enough."
  • Determinator: What else can you call it when he's been through moving halfway across the country and at least three different computers, and yet the show's barely slowed down?
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: It's now become a Running Gag that the Hero actually has his own theme tune as his ringtone during each season—sometimes using the previous season's theme before the new theme is revealed in the opening sequence. This is a reference to Ace Attorney, where Godot has his own theme as his ringtone.
  • Dude, Not Funny!:invoked When addressing the fact that the creators DID know that bulls don't have udders in Barnyard, he demonstrated that just giving a character the traits of the opposite gender doesn't qualify as a joke unless they do something with it – and in fact, that that way of thinking is a bit outdated due to the real problems transgender people face.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Chaos in Season 4.
  • Electric Torture: Inflicted on the Hero courtesy of a mysterious enemy called The Sorceress at the beginning of Season 5, in the form of a shock collar.
  • Even Better Sequel:invoked In his opinion, 102 Dalmatians is, while not great, still better than the 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians.
    • Most of the top half of his Top 10 Animated Sequels list consists of these, including Shrek 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Rescuers Down Under, and Toy Story 3. He also mentions that Toy Story 2 came close.
  • 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.
  • Faceless Mooks: The Hands of Chaos.
  • Fate Worse than Death: The Villain tried to do this to the Hero by taking away his ability to use his powers – possibly to prevent him from saving anyone. This backfired, and the Hero recovered.
  • Follow the Leader: As with most Internet reviewers, he was inspired by Channel Awesome. However, he's said that his biggest inspirations were Linkara and Chad "CR" Rocco of Familiar Faces.
  • Foreshadowing: Huh...so the intruder didn't show up on a DNA scanner, even when combing the entire state?
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the Eight Crazy Nights review, there's a quick subtitle that pops up at the end of the clip he shows of Adam Sandler's "The Hanukkah Song" that says "Laughing at your own joke. Classy."
  • Fun with Acronyms: Now we have the recently-activated security computer, DENNIS—Dynamic Energized Nanotechtronic Network of Internal Security.
  • Gods Need Prayer Badly: Hence why they hooked up with the Hero and lent him their power, as he was one of the few people who remembered Ōkami—well, that and he has powers similar to theirs already.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: Even after he tried to kill him, REPEATEDLY, the Hero still has invited Number Six into his home.
    • And even before that, he works with fellow Unknown Reviewer Ozzie Arcane, a(n admittedly retired) villain, which he even collaborated with to review the Sengoku Basara anime. This is even after Ozzie sent Asura after him!
  • Guilty Pleasures: Batfink (which he says is So Bad, It's Good) and Girls Bravo, according to him.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Delivered out-of-character to the creators of Barnyard when he found out that the male cows having udders was intentional because the creators thought the idea was inherently funny. He slammed them for being insensitive to transgender people, intersex people, and transvestites.
  • He suffered a less humorous example in his Tales of Symphonia review. Six was killed off in the previous episode, so he starts off the review on the verge of tears. And his acting is actually pretty believable.

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