| Creator: | Doug Walker |
| Developer: | Doug Walker Rob Walker |
| Director: | Doug Walker |
| Theme Music Composer: | Michael "Skitch" Schiciano[1] |
| Opentheme: | "The Review Must Go On" (2013–present) |
| Endtheme: | "The Review Must Go On" (2011; 2013–present) Various |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 17 |
| Num Episodes: | 694 |
| Executive Producer: | Michael Michaud |
| Producer: | Doug Walker |
| Editor: | Doug Walker |
| Location: | Downers Grove, Illinois (2007–12; 2020–21; 2023; 2024-present) Lombard, Illinois (2013–2020; 2021–2023; 2023-2024) |
| Camera: | Single-camera |
| Runtime: | Various (avg. 15–30 minutes) |
| Company: | Channel Awesome |
| Last Aired: | present |
Nostalgia Critic is an American review comedy web series created, directed by, and starring comedian Doug Walker. The series initially launched on YouTube on July 3, 2007, before moving to Walker's own site, That Guy with the Glasses, and finally to the online production company Channel Awesome. The show follows Walker as the title character, a bitter and sarcastic critic who reviews films and television shows from his childhood and recent past, usually with comically exaggerated hysteria. The show focuses on analysis of the episode's subject, often incorporated with sketches, rants, or embedded storylines. Many of the films reviewed—such as , The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Batman & Robin, and Foodfight!—are generally considered as the worst films ever made.
Walker briefly retired the series on August 14, 2012, to work on other projects, even writing the character out of existence in the Channel Awesome film To Boldly Flee. On January 22, 2013, Walker announced the show's return in a narrative video titled The Review Must Go On.[2] The show subsequently returned with a more narrative- and sketch-driven sixth season, beginning on February 5, 2013, with a review of The Odd Life of Timothy Green. Most episodes still retain the original clip-using format.
All of the cast members play fictionalized versions of their real counterparts as well as other characters during sketches. The series has also featured guest stars Dante Basco, Don Bluth, Kyle Hebert, JonTron, Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, James Rolfe, Tom Ruegger, Michael Salvatori, Greg Sestero, Sherri Stoner, Chris Stuckmann, Cree Summer, Rob Scallon, Corey Taylor and Mara Wilson as themselves; co-reviewing, acting in sketch segments, or making a cameo appearance)[3]
The series was initially launched on YouTube on July 3, 2007, with a review of Transformers, but episodes were frequently removed by the website following complaints of copyright infringement. In April 2008, the videos were taken down from YouTube but an arrangement between the company and content host Blip in 2009 resulted in them being featured on YouTube once more.[4] [5] A spin-off, called The Nostalgia Chick, was announced in the video The Search for the Nostalgia Chick (August 10, 2008). The concept was for a female host to review female-targeted "nostalgic" films and television,[6] and though it was presented as a contest, it was predetermined that all three candidates would end up on the site:[7] Lindsay Ellis (who reviewed Disney's Pocahontas), Krissy Diggs (who reviewed Sailor Moon), and Kaylyn Saucedo (who reviewed The Last Unicorn). Ellis, then using the name "The Dudette," took the Nostalgia Chick title, as announced in a video on the site, Nostalgia Chick Winner! (September 15, 2008). Diggs and Saucedo then joined That Guy with the Glasses as That Chick with the Goggles and Marzgurl, respectively.
On September 14, 2012, Walker announced the retirement of Nostalgia Critic and that it would no longer be a weekly production, as he and his brother, series co-creator and co-writer Rob Walker, felt that they had gone as far as they could with the series. The Walker brothers then focused their efforts on another web series they had in the works since 2008 called Demo Reel, which revolved around a production company run by an over-ambitious and egotistical filmmaker that aims to recreate old and new movies in order to gain Hollywood's attention. However, the series was not successful and on January 22, 2013, Walker released a sketch short film titled The Review Must Go On, announcing the return of Nostalgia Critic and the end of Demo Reel. Joining the Walker brothers in the revival were frequent collaborator Jim Jarosz and Demo Reel co-stars Malcolm Ray and Rachel Tietz (later replaced by Tamara Chambers).[8] In 2014, Walker and Dante Basco collaborated in a countdown of the top eleven best episodes of the television series , on which Basco had played the character Zuko. On December 30, 2015, Nostalgia Critic aired its 300th episode, a review of . On October 10, 2018, Nostalgia Critic aired its 400th episode, a countdown of the top 11 Stephen King movies. On October 14, 2020, it aired its 500th episode, a review of The Stand. On November 9, 2022, the series aired its 600th episode, a review of Anastasia.
The series focuses on the Nostalgia Critic, a short-tempered film reviewer looking back at films usually from his childhood and adolescence. GigaOM describes it as "high energy and shamelessly nerdy".[9] Reuters described him as having "offbeat personalities".[10] In each episode, the Critic restates important plot-points, guiding the viewer, while making jokes out of notable or questionable scenes. The reviews are interspersed with recurring memes, false or satirical dubbing of dialogue, comedic sketches and pop culture gagssuch as making fun of famous actors who starred in lesser-known roles before their rise to fame. The show also features special episodes, such as the "Top 11" list countdowns for his favorite or least favorite films, villains, or moments in television shows; and "Old vs. New" which compares the reboot of a popular film or series to the original.
Since the revival of the series in 2013, Walker occasionally produces an editorial which discusses relevant film topics; while still featuring the Critic persona, these videos are much less comedic and contain no sketches or other actors. Beginning with Jurassic World on June 23, 2015, the series also occasionally features "clipless reviews" of films that are still currently in theaters to avoid copyright infringement instead of stills and clips. These reviews instead feature scenes from the movies re-enacted comedically by Walker, his family and other Channel Awesome contributors.
Walker describes his philosophy thus: "[We need a critic of nostalgia] because everybody already does it. When we look at movies and shows from our youth, they're rarely as good as we remember them, and oftentimes it's quite humorous to compare what you liked then to what you like now. That's basically what the Nostalgia Critic is about, looking back at just how much nostalgia cloaked our vision in heavenly bliss and how bizarre the reality is."[11]