I Have Mixed Feelings About The Channel Awesome Anniversary Films

I think we all have that one thing from our childhood that is fundamentally flawed, but we care about it anyway. Whether it’s a game, book, TV show, or film. Something that is by no stretch of the imagination good, but we find ourselves absolutely in love with despite it all. For me, that something in is the Channel Awesome anniversary specials.

For those not in the know, Channel Awesome was (and, on a much smaller capacity, still is) an online media company created to host and promote several review channels, including The Nostalgia Critic (Doug Walker). In its heyday, the Channel Awesome website included reviewers such as the Nostalgia Chick (Lindsay Ellis), Linkara (Lewis Lovhaug), and Todd In The Shadows (Todd Nathanson), just to name a few. For the three years, multiple creators were asked to collaborate in films created by Doug and Rob Walker to celebrate the website’s anniversary. Kickassia, a comedy about the cast taking over a micro-nation, Suburban Knights, a fantasy adventure treasure hunt, and To Boldly Flee, a long and frankly baffling sci-fi story that might be granted its own article one day in the future (emphasis on might).

These films have drawn an awful lot of criticism over the last few years, particularly the three-hour-long mess of references and subplots that is To Boldly Flee. This isn’t without a reason. To put it bluntly, none of these movies are very good. In fact, in many places, they’re pretty bad. Badly written, badly shot, and (if behind-the-scenes testimonies are to be believed), badly directed. This on top of the reports of poor treatment towards content creators that come from the Change The Channel document, created and compiled by former Channel Awesome producers to highlight abuse on the site, makes it very hard to see anything in these creations than a bad movie night opportunity. Yet, somehow, even with everything I know, I find myself unable to hate them. In fact, part of me still has a strange sort of love for these monstrosities.

So, how? How can I wholeheartedly, without shame, say I still like these movies? It’s a question I’ve been trying to answer myself for quite a while. If I was to answer honestly, I’d say it likely had very little to do with the films themselves, and everything to do with when I watched them.

I first stumbled across Channel Awesome around the age of fourteen or fifteen, starting with the Nostalgia Chick and moving onto the Nostalgia Critic. The chaotic and shouty humor definitely appealed to my teenaged self, but the website served as a gateway to one of my favorite pastimes, media analysis. Even now, after Channel Awesome as it used to be completely collapsed, some of the creators I discovered on there remain regular viewing. I don’t think I’d be who I am today without it. The articles you see on this Vocal page certainly wouldn’t exist.

At the time, the anniversary movies felt extremely genuine to me. I always knew they were far from Hollywood quality, but they seemed like triumphs of independent creators. They were my favorite online personalities (and, in my naïve mind, a close-knit community), coming together with the resources they had and have a great time. I liked them not because they were good, but because they were fun. If this little group of random people could create something so enjoyable, then anyone could.

Of course, I know now that making these films wasn’t remotely fun for most people involved, with the sets being unorganized, stressful, and at points dangerous. In some ways, learning about how hostile Channel Awesome really was felt like a personal betrayal after I spent as much time looking up to them. I’d created such an idealized image and now that was gone. It had never been real in the first place.

However, the feelings those films and the Channel Awesome producers gave me were still real. The idea of people coming together and creating still filled me with passion and my love of media persisted. Because I loved what these films had represented to me personally, I continued to broaden my love of media and ended up learning things that I never would have if I hadn’t cared so deeply as a teenager.

I haven’t rewatched the anniversary movies since the document came out. Knowing what was really going on, they feel tainted now, and the idea of watching feels more like a chore than a treat. Still, the memory of them stays pure. I’m not ashamed to say I still love these films. They were special to me once. They always will be.

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