The Nostalgia Chick/Headscratchers


 * Did Lindsay watch All Dogs Go to Heaven before the Ferngully review? The original Big Lipped Alligator Moment ISN'T a Big Lipped Alligator Moment! The Alligator carries the main characters home, if that doesn't advance the plot, I don't know what does...
 * Does he carry them home? Yes. Does that explain the presence of the Esther Williams tribute? No.
 * But the only reason they needed to be carried home was because they were brought to the big lipped alligator's place to begin with. If that scene never happened, they wouldn't had been brought to a place they needed a ride home from.
 * Here's how this troper sees it: it's like the below-mentioned death of Screweyes thing. It's not a BLAM that King Gator is introduced, it's the fact that he launches into a full-blown water-ballet number for absolutely no reason. It's also worth mentioning that the Chick said that a BLAM has little to no relation to the plot, not "none at all". Splitting hairs yes, but still...
 * The Alligator shows up again and rescues Charlie at the end. He's apparently also responsible for the antagonist Carface being in the afterlife at the very end, since he's last seen licking his lips and chasing after him...I'd say that he's pretty integral to the plot resolution myself. The point of the musical number, as far as I could see, was to set up his reason for feeling so protective of Charlie in the first place...he enjoyed "making music" with him. Slightly rickety plotting if you ask me, but hardly a BLAM (and certainly no more so than any other song and dance number in any other animated musical). Oh well, it's too late now - the name's stuck.
 * Also, in We're Back, how is Professor Screweyes dying a Big Lipped Alligator Moment? The main antagonist of the movie is killed! How does that not advance the plot?
 * The fact that he dies isn't a Big Lipped Alligator Moment, the fact that he's devoured by crows is. The crows come out of nowhere with no explanation, their presence makes no sense, and the crows are never referenced again.
 * Except that the crows have been around Screweyes the entire movie, and prior to his death scene they were implied to be his pets or something. The fact that they were just waiting for a chance to eat him was a minor plot twist.
 * Okay, since when do crows eat people, and what caused him to attract the crows to him like that?
 * IIRC, there is a deleted scene that can be found in which Screweyes explains his history with crows and how not only did they eat his original eye, but he keeps them around to keep himself in a constant state of fear, going on his whole fear circus routine.
 * The trope "is named after the random musical dance number". It's the dance number people that constitutes the BLAM, not the alligator. Also, the crows just land on Screweyes in a bird-shape, sit there and then he's gone. They don't eat him, he's just gone. THAT's the BLAM.
 * Yes, but the purpose of the musical number in question was to set up the alligator's reason for a) not eating Charlie and b) later returning and saving Charlie from drowning (and killing his enemy) - he thought Charlie had a beautiful voice and enjoyed making music with him. I agree that Bluth could have found a less contrived way of freeing Charlie from the anchor and getting rid of Carface in the end, but what can you do? Oh, and my guess is that the crows from "We're Back" were supposed to be symbolic. Screweyes was consumed by his own fears.
 * You know, for kids!
 * They established that King Gator was enamored of Charlie's voice in the bit in which Charlie howls and King Gater spits him out right before the music number. And then the scene morphs into a completely different location with a giant freaking clam, for no reason whatsoever, never mentioned again or commented on. So no, King Gator's presence and his liking of Charlie's voice isn't a Big Lipped Alligator Moment, the actual water ballet number is. It's established right before the number starts that King Gator likes Charlie's voice. You could take the entire number out and still get Gator happily saying "How can you expect me to eat a voice a sumptuous as this?" which would pretty clearly indicate that he likes the sound of Charlie's voice.
 * Here's the thing though, and this is truly where the BLAM falls apart, King Gator DOES refer to the musical number. When he returns for the climax, he sings the "Togetherrrr" part of the song. Rumor even has it that Doug & Lindsay found out they were wrong about King Gator's song being a BLAM and apologized on the TGWTG Forums, but by then, it was far too late (but not too late for them to stop using the gag, which they both seemingly have).
 * Rumour? And besides, the last time Doug used it was a bored variant in his Flubber review, which was only a month or so ago.


 * How in the heck is Enchanted a Cinderella retelling?
 * It's not a retelling but more on a comparison and analysis on a modern take of the traditional fairy tale archetype.
 * It also has a poor, downtrodden girl who is being targeted by a wicked stepmother who dreams of meeting her prince charming and living happily ever after.
 * That's also the premise of Snow White. Enchanted was a parody of Disney movies and fairy tales in general, not a retelling of Cinderella.
 * Probably a bit of personal appeal for Lindsay. She mentioned in a previous review how she liked Enchanted and thought it was underrated. She probably just figured it could fit in and wanted to talk about its interesting take on fairy tale relationships in the real world.
 * Trivial but curious... The Chick notes that three months have passed between her Transformers and Armageddon reviews. Meanwhile, the Critic wakes up from her chloroforming him. Was he slumped on his desk for three months?
 * yes.
 * While I did find her skit about rules every Mad Scientist should follow to be pretty entertaining, I couldn't help but be bugged by the fact that she utterly missed the Most Triumphant Example of "Don't put your dick in it". Four words, people-Rocky. Horror. Picture. Show. I mean, the whole conflict of the movie was due to the fact that Frank (disguised as Brad) screwed Janet, Frank (now disguised as Janet) screwed Brad, Janet sees Brad and Frank together on a monitor, Janet feels betrayed and has sex with Rocky out of spite...Frank finds out and gets insanely jealous, and, well, you see where this is going. Plus, it doesn't help that Rocky was pretty much created for no other purpose other than for someone for Frank to fuck to his heart's content and that Rocky has no self-control of his libido...So why would Lindsay NOT include this as an example of "Don't put your dick in it"?
 * Probably because Rocky Horror is more of a comedy than straight sci-fi. Also, she had plenty of other examples to choose from.
 * And there's also the fact that the characters in Rocky Horror are all human, or at least humanoid, and therefore acceptable to stick you dick in it. It's far less acceptable to stick your dick in, say, the pseudo-homunculus from Splice, or a dish-doing robot slave.
 * I'm just sorta curious if anyone else noticed this - I don't watch her reviews too often, only I saw a few of them recently and noticed something. Does anyone else think she kind of imitates Mr. Plinkett at times? Her question to Hades - 'Why do you have that? Hey I asked you a question - why do you have that?' And a few others instances I can't remember too well - interestingly enough, it almost sounds like she's been watching Plinkett, did anyone else happen to think so? (I assume as a part of the reviewer community, she's familiar with RLM.)
 * I noticed this too. Her 2nd Roland Emmerich review ended in a way VERY reminiscent of Plinkett's Baby's Day Out review.
 * It's starting to bug me that she constantly plays music in the background nowadays. Every now and then it can work for comedic effect, but when it's all the friggin' time it's just distracting. Like what was the point of playing "Dancing Queen" in the background during part of her review for "the Man in the Iron Mask"? If it was just for a gag then play it for five seconds and be done with it.
 * Because she thought just the sound of her voice would be monotonous and boring maybe? It's not like the music was really that noticeable in that video anyways..
 * Your Mileage May Vary on that. I found the music seriously distracting.
 * Is the reasoning behind the gospel theme in Hercules really that obtuse? I kind of thought it was kind of an obvious meta-joke about using the stylings of modern religion to tell a story about ancient religious figures. Yet she seems baffled by the decision like there was no reason for it whatsoever. If you think it's jarring and doesn't work, fine, but at least admit that it makes a sort of sense.
 * Opinion Myopia
 * I hate to bring back the MacGuffin thing but isn't her definition of it more like Applied Phlebotinum now? I mean jar of mayonnaise that is teleporter because it's needed by a plot doesn't sound a bit like MacGuffin to me.
 * Didn't she say in on of her reviews (was it Fifth Element?) that she was actually using the term in not the strictest sense, at least for the sake of the review. Not that it makes it "better", but she owned up to it, anyway. Besides, MacGuffin is much easier to say.
 * Really minor, but when Nella shows up at the end of the X-Men review, Lindsay says, "Nella, you're wearing lipstick." Why not, "Nella, you're alive?" Just an odd thing I noticed.
 * Rule of Funny?
 * That's the joke, dear.
 * In her review of Roland Emmerich's Disaster movies while she is discussing the cliched characters that appear in the films she refers to Harry Connick, Jr. as Will Smith's "scrappy black friend", twice. ...Umm, What
 * I believe she means that he fulfills the roll of the standard "scrappy black friend" despite not actually being black.
 * Not really complaining because it was hilarious, but why was the Chick bemoaning that she hadn't got laid in ages when she could, uh, void her robot's warranty all night long?
 * Unless she somehow got a real, working penis hooked up there, the thing's basically a glorified masturbation machine.
 * And also, even if those rumors about Chick/Critic being confirmed are true, then I really doubt her ego would let her ask him for a good lay.
 * Okay, yes, this is nitpicking to the nth degree, but in 'Date With Doug', he says they can't go out to eat because he doesn't have a car. But Lindsay had to get there somehow, didn't she? Even if she didn't drive herself there, there must be cabs or buses around, or an urban area within walking distance, or...well, you get the point. Like I said, just nitpicking, but it's something that's always kind of bugged me.
 * Maybe Nella drove her? She's pretty much the Chick's slave anyway.
 * Forgive me if I misheard, but didn't Lindsay say in one of her videos recently that she was putting her review of Dune back on the site, even though she herself doesn't like the review that much? Because it's still not there, and I was just curious.
 * No, show's replaced it with an iRiff w/Spoony.
 * Did she actually list any specific song in "Top 10 songs about fucking" when discussing Rent? It seemed like she wasn't listing examples of any songs because she was getting a little distracted trying to explain why she didn't like the musical.
 * She listed the entirety of Spring Awakening
 * Well, that's because pretty much the entirety of Spring Awakening's music is about sex. But there's only a few songs I can think of in Rent that I would describe as being about sex, with only Contact coming to mind, and maybe Out Tonight.


 * Yet another baffling "Did we watch the same movie?" moment for me. In her review of The Worst Witch, she talks about how she doesn't like "Chosen One" movies (with the exception of Harry Potter) and cites Kung Fu Panda as an example. Again, did we watch the same movie? Kung Fu Panda's message was pretty much that being the "chosen one" didn't automatically make you "super special awesome". That you actually have to work hard and use your own unique skills to achieve your goals.
 * This will have to be a Your Mileage May Vary thing, because This Troper definitely agrees with the Chick. Yes, Po had to work to gain kung fu skills, but the fact is that "destiny" passed up on six or seven people who were already masters, who get beaten soundly by Tai Lung while Po, with only a few days' training, is somehow already better. And in the end Po beats Tai Lung with a move that Shifu already knew anyway, so what was the point of Po having to be the one to do it? "Chosen Ones" often have to work for it, but being "Chosen" still seems totally arbitrary.


 * Has she ever actually reviewed a real nostalgic movie? I mean, a movie that she liked when she was a kid and still likes. Not "I liked it as a kid, but I was stupid back then and liked stupid movies." Even Doug does stuff he currently likes every now and then.
 * She gushed on The Lion King in that Disney retrospective and did a tribute to Daria. But remember it's not her character to be all fangirly; Critic's still basically a child with his heart on his sleeve, she complains about how human emotions suck.
 * If we're including teenage years with stuff you liked as a "child": She reviewed the X-Men cartoon, TLC (not a movie or show, but still nostalgic for her), Kate and Leopold, Titanic, Showgirls (she admits to having a strange fondness for the movie), Labyrinth, and Mulan (and Disney in general). That's all I can think of, and with the Lion King and Daria example above, there's plenty of stuff she's reviewed that she likes.
 * For the most part, both she and Doug share a similar opinion that they don't really like doing reviews on movies that they generally really like or think were well made. It's more entertaining and easier to give lengthy critiques on stuff that is really bad, or things they enjoy but in a self-aware ironic way.
 * What happened to her TLC and the 90s video?
 * Lindsay has a tendency to quietly take episodes she doesn't like down from the site. Rapping About Rape, The Fifth Element and Dune are all gone too. It's disappointing, but you can still find them on youtube.
 * Why? This comes across as kind of hypocritical of her. In her Song of the South review she called Disney out for vainly trying to cover up a movie they were ashamed of, but then turns around and does something like this!
 * Also, you can't find the Dune review. Like, anywhere.


 * I remember finding this Jem joke funny, but Fridge Logic: wouldn't "engage in a little desegregation" mean the exact  opposite of a Token Minority Couple?