I love the idea that you cynically chose disney channel original movies, knowing the algorithm will no doubt promote it. Lots of buzz about Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. No doubt you had sponsors throwing themselves at you. You'll probably need not work another day in your life.
But…wasn’t your video the exact opposite? I haven’t watched all of it yet, but unless it changes direction in the last two hours, you took all films seriously and genuinely analysed them.
Did they even watch the video? You weren't clowning on them (well most of them). You actually took them very seriously. Honestly the whole vibe of the video was "we're teen girls at a sleep over talking about our favourite dcoms" I loved that
I'm an early millennial without access to DCOMs as a child (might be the UK upbringing too for the earlier ones), so I've never seen any of these films. Lemme tell you, I was hooked the whole time.
I feel like the running joke in the video was that whatever obvious budgetary shortcomings these films have, Big Joel kept analyzing most of them as though they were legitimate art with themes and messages
but they definitely are art with themes and messages. some communicate their themes and messages poorly, many choose safe/samey messages like “be authentic”, but that doesn’t exclude them from being art or having themes and messages
Joel looks for in-universe explanations for everything, which I think is the best way to respect a story. Resorting to real-world explanations cheapens the experience IMO
Google Doylian vs Watsonian criticism if this is interesting to you
I mean I think I would say that to best respect a story, both Watsonian and Doylian analysis are necessary, and it's particularly good when you can see the way each informs the other.
Seriously. Yasmin couldn't have actually watched the video. It seemed Joel really like a bunch of them, or at least found something enjoyable in a lot of the others.
What's tripping me up about the second comment here is I think it's sarcasm? She's just bad at it? Maybe that's just me *wanting* it to be less snide than it is, but the pairing of "choosing to" with "disabled/trans" feels like too much of a misnomer to be genuine without subtext hiding somewhere
Like I could very reasonably see this woman as some kind of defender nobody asked for, snarking at someone for chastising media analysis they clearly didn't watch at all before giving an opinion.
But again, maybe that's just me.
For what it’s worth I’ve loved this video (5 hours in). Apartheid enjoyer kid movie and the history of zombies are just a few tidbits that were really engaging (plus the Joel slide show side tangents). Children’s media should be good.
Easy to put on, watch a few segments, I don’t see the big deal.
Yeah sure, making 6 hour long videos on low budget Disney channel movies is definitely the way to avoid poverty. If everyone just did that no one would have to be homeless anymore
I love the idea that it was between abject poverty and death and making a fun video about how fun the Disney channel movies are, and that I perhaps should have chosen death
On a serious note, think people are especially cynical about YouTube videos tbh. Profound sense that they’re completely creatively bankrupt and just trying to cash out. Pretty sad imo, watching and reviewing a bunch of old movies is clearly a very good job lol? Everyone once understood this I feel
For what it's worth I enjoyed the video. Every time you started talking about a guy I thought to myself "I wonder if he'll like the little son of a bitch" and it seems like you gave them all a fair shake.
Just chiming in well after the fact to affirm that I get 200% more recommendations for YouTube videos that legitimately are cynical efforts in creative bankruptcy, and that your cool fun stuff represents an especially hard to locate minority in my beloved genre of well-meaning nitpicky media.
for the record, I have received next to zero haters lol. I actually have been super happy with the response. I wanted the video to truly just feel happy, and one good sign for me is that DCOM lovers seem to be enjoying it :-)
Like... film critic is an actual job that exists. These people must know that, right? And there's just as much value in also having modern eyes evaluating older media for a modern audience because tastes change and some media might not hold up.
I also think the attitude many have towards "kids media" ~(it having little to no value because its made for kids) isn't very good for the wider state of media. If you think its ok for kids to just consume slop then they may grow up with lower overall standards
Absolutely loving it, watching it in hour increments with my partner. Extremely funny commentary, but also really appreciate when you have more to say about the construction and societal issues embedded into the films. Definitely one of your best videos to me.
that part where i thought you were gonna talk about dadnapped, but instead you talked about how much fun you had playing balatro instead? incredible gag. ten outta ten
This video is so good! I like the length because it means spreading it over a few days, and I aged out of DCOMs long enough ago that I'm seeing a lot of nonsense I had no awareness of. A+
Joel I'm saying this as someone who loved the vid so take it constructively when I say screenshotting a mean tweet from a small user to vent makes you the weenie in this equation
The video is objectively great. I’ve been slowly watching it 20 minutes at a time or so since it released and I’m just coming to the realization that I only have 30 minutes left. That the cute funny big Joel dcom reviews are not endless and soon I will run out of dcom reviews to watch and listen to.
As a certified Disney Channel hater, I also enjoyed it. Despite obviously having fondness for the genre, you weren't afraid to get real either, and it was an interesting examination of a part of pop culture I refuse to experience myself.
I loooved the vid, as both a dcom lover AND hater! Kept me company through wrapping presents and doing some last minute work. Plus it reminded me of some old favs and gave me lots of new stuff to check out. A rly rly great piece :)
Especially because all the worst movies get like 20 seconds of "this fails to do a single good thing that films should do, 1/10" and then we immediately move on to an optimistic review of a 5/10 movie.
anyway thank you for such a fun video! It's given me lots of smiles
ngl one of my favs of the year, it kept me company for some tedious work and i found out there was more to that particular little branch of media than i thought. DCOMs seem way more adventurous than i ever would have assumed, as a no-cable-tv-haver for most of my life lol
A single 6 hour video that probably took dozens of hours of viewing movies is definitely what I would do if I wanted to rake in the big bucks with no effort
The thing that's weird to me, is that not only have they seen none of your video, but they've just invented a genre of video to pretend yours is a member of. These long explorations of pieces of children's media that I've seen are at least net positive. Nostalgia Critic type videos are largely dead.
Nostalgia Critic committed the original sin of being an adult man who watches kids' shows and also being cringe, and it's permanently tainted the genre for some people I feel.
I’ve noticed the left flank of this hate bandwagon. people are for some reason salty about the idea of breadtube, acting like it’s a more coherent, unified, and prominent coalition than it actually is.
I think it's more a criticism of YouTube than the commentary tbh. Obviously I'm not in their heads but I know I personally just associate the name YouTube with cash grab because of people like Mr beast and sssniperwolf. And it definitely is an expanding thought because of smaller channels sandals.
TBF there is some serious garbage out there getting millions of views.
And your is presented with some of the standards that gets views on Youtube (long runtime, front face view of you) so it's easy to assume the worst.
I think people just forgot they can turn off a video after starting if they don't like it, watched a few reviews they didn't mesh with, and wrote off the genre. Like even if some reviews just phone it in, that doesn't mean all, or even most of them, do.
I admit i didn't click at the time bc without context the miniature gave "and it broke me" vibe, so yeah i fell in the same misinterpretation, I was like no, i dont want to sit through a long exhaustive list of kid films being roasted
It's a shame that people think that way. I mean yeah sure there is definitely a gigantic content-industrial complex and YouTube keeps encouraging them with shit like Shorts. However there is also a LOT of really cool and good people making extremely good videos.
imo the cynical attitude is probably related to what i just mentioned over in shaun's direction. people are basically using YT wrong, you don't have to expose yourself to the garbage, just sub to who you like and stay on the subs page. https://bsky.app/profile/pileofgarbage.net/post/3lej3wgm5b224
how exactly am i supposed to find pepl i want to subscribe to in that case? it's not that hard to click "don't recomment the channel" and deleting vid from yt history so it doesn't pollute your recomends. maybe like, just don't watch garbage in the first place? what a bizarre take, honestly.
I'm not there on the hate wagon, but I am feeling like I'm developing a new relationship to art that might at its end exclude things that are possible to find. Like, if an algorithm can serve it to you then it's not pure and good enough or something. I'm turning away from presentation or something
You are describing ‘the underground’, only in its current generation. The idea that the mainstream has become less about the art and more about the money, so the only way to find “authentic” art is outside of it.
I think in short I might be headed towards an endgame with art where I concede that every artist that became a recluse and just stopped showing things to people was correct and good and no one else matters.
I am also feeling the inevitability more and more of our perilous slide into a cyberpunk dystopia and how that will change our relationship to art and philosophy and thought writ large and how I might best appreciate and or preserve what we have now while we have it
I suspect it's influenced by burnout from watching Tiktok, Shorts and Reels where almost every video is cynically monetized and made way longer than necessary, or cut into more parts or whatever in order to "game the algorithm".
Also anyone who starts a youtube channel for the sole purpose of monetization is self confident to the point of foolishness. The unmonetized are still creating for the love of creating - even if they have dreams of monetization, it's pretty ridiculous to rely solely on that dream in the beginning.
Even some creators that still do ad reads like Drew Gooden at least work to make them fun skits that fit into the theme of the video. I feel like once you get into the "mid-range lefty/popular/surviving on patreon/nebula" accounts there's huge wealth of content, and they all know each other
Grimbeard, Foreign Man in a Foreign Land, Mother's Basement, Shaun, Angela Collier, hbomberguy, Philosophy Tube, Contrapoints, CJ the X, FD Signifier, Adam Something, Quinn's Ideas, Rebecca Watson, Chad Chad, Internet Shaquile, Just Write, the list just goes on and on
Some dude wrote a whole musical about the odyssey on TikTok over the last couple of years that slays, really stole Chistopher Nolan's thunder, that guy, lol
I do tend to assume that any video from an unknown source that the algorithm belches up at me is some kind of bait, be it click or rage, and therefore never interact. I don’t think it’s a bad assumption, exactly, but now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t rethink it.
The biggest creators on the platform seem to (in my opinion) make videos for profit, not because they like it, and it shows in their videos. Randos on Twitter not familiar with you or anyone who enjoys making content might be legitimately unfamiliar with the concept.
Not just that, her *transition* was also at stake! The only other gender alternative was remaining in the closet and making youtubes dunking on Disney!
I also love that both of them couldn’t take twenty minutes to watch the first couple of them, you put some bangers right at the front and they would have at least seen you’re not just ragging on them!
Which you can do (it is a useful shortcut), but doing that and THEN complaining about someone not giving something else (Disney movies) a fair shot and instead tearing it down?
I don't have a fave, I haven't even had access to the Disney Channel for 20+ years lol
If your babygirl is going to get offended when people think his videos sound miserable based on the title and thumbnail, maybe don't market them that way
As the potential target audience would say, skill issue
Hugely important point. Mental health and wellness benefit from being able to give yourself some time to unwind and escape, whether it's in the pages of a book, or the visuals of a TV show or film.
for real. back when i was on twitter, i was totally miserable and everything seemed hopeless. now i'm like "yeah i'm struggling to make ends meet but watching basketball is fun :)"
It feels disingenuous to say you were just clowning on them. It was all pretty fair and considered. You liked some, you disliked others. Sure they're kids movies. But not really any kids who do movie reviews. So who else is going to but adults?
I mean the clear solution is just start a crypto scam with your channel like all the other youtubers instead of making original content for the purpose of entertainment. That'll show 'em!
Honestly i feel this person cuz i do not trust myself to make vids on YouTube for fear of losing my soul trying to court a bigger audience. (Not saying you do that but that i don't want that pressure I'll take my dumb being exploited job)
The genre is “grown adult is serious about the themes of a movie made for children” and it’s one of my favorite genres. Anyone else watched John the Duncan’s Chicken Run videos? True classics.
The thing that caused me to leave twitter was specifically a guy announcing their intention to commit suicide over the negative responses to their opinions on cartoons. I don't believe they did kill themselves, but it was enough for me to throw my hat in, at least until bsky, years later.
I feel like you're pretty reasonable in the video. I don't blame them for not watching the 6 hour video before posting but it definitely just feels like they saw the title and thumbnail, got reminded of something they didn't like, then posted about it assuming it's like that thing.
they're a bit mean about it, but I come to Joels both Big and Little for good vibes or interesting vibes
the vibes of a six hour video discussing Disney products are pretty rancid
I don't mean to sound critical, I've watched a small sliver of the vid so far and I'm enjoying it. There's a lot of "trying/watching every single..." videos out there and they do seem exhausting to even look at their run time but, in truth, they are more about the creator and how much I care.
I like you and your takes are interesting and it feels like hanging out with a pal and I don't care that much, that deeply, about the content, just about palling around. Not to sound like a creep.
you weren’t even clowning on the movies like at first i thought you were gonna give each one a 6/10 or higher score because you seemed to like them so much
the adjective is "bourgeois", e.g. "Owning the means of production is bourgeois."
Bourgeoisie is the noun for the bourgeois class, e.g. "The bourgeoisie care little for 6 hour YouTube videos about DCOM."
Yeah, it all boils down to this. Like, why wouldn't someone take a tour through a series of movies if it sounds interesting as a concept? People watch all Lord of the rings movies all of the time because they can and it's fun, even if it's also exhausting.
Personally I kinda think we need to abolish people getting weirdly defensive about the low budget low effort movies tossed at children by the multibillion dolor corporation.
I think a Mom in Tarnation is making a very confident statement about her abilities to be successful on YT, that she's "choosing" not to do it, when YT is often just luck anyway. She acts like it's in the bag for her, that she can do it to begin with. But can she? Can she? 🤔 Make a video queen
the available "follow back" button is my favorite part - hope we can lift her out of abject poverty and into monetization by following this sick burn 2 her channel. may all of our ships rise on the tide of dcoms
I love how painfully obvious it is they didn't even attempt to SKIM the video, and I also love the implication that they think that Disney Channel movies are super algorithm friendly right now and that you made this video entirely for the money.
What level? The level where you do things you want to do, and make videos about it, and build an audience that appreciates your work? That level?
Genuinely, fuck cringe culture. Let people do things they enjoy! Let them make silly niche shit! You don't have to "get it" in order for it to be valid.
Hi! It's me, Ditch Life Girl, coming to you from my new ditch digs with a fresh new vid! First, can we talk about how FUN winter is when you live in a ditch? That road slush, amiright? So today I have 10 Uses for Slush for you! What I like to do is
I feel like if you were going for monetization you did it horribly wrong. Posting one 6 hour video instead of making it a series of 30 minute videos (or shorter!) is not what you do when your goal is monetization.
Big Joel my favorite moment in the video is when you didn't even pay attention to the movie and played a card game on your app the whole time, not even sponsored. I am not joking. I admire you for that one.
get rekt, Joely. honestly, what kind of grown man would allow themselves to enjoy a window in time of whimsy and for such clearly selfish motivations and intentions?
(fr though, your og video on Disney animated dtvs got me through some bad times doing bereavement manual labor.)
I mean, the only thing I didn't like about that video was the title card. Not the painting, but the caption "welcome to my nightmare" when the video was actually overall pretty positive and wholesome. It gives the wrong impression, makes people think it's going to be just rage bait. So while I know
these people are wrong, it's hard to tell them "well, shows you didn't actually watch the 6 hour video, otherwise you'd know he's not clowning, but providing a lot of positive vibes" when your title card already pushed them away in the first place.
This is where I'm at. The Algorithm suggested this video to me but the thumbnail entirely fits into the genre of "grown man recenters children's media on himself and pisses about it" so I had zero interest in watching it. When you make a clickbait thumbnail, people gonna expect clickbait.
I'm just a biased fan but I really liked the video compared to the rest of the "I watched every ..." genre. It felt less like a torture-show, although some of that as well, and more like a retrospective on the dcom era. Some of the more lengthy analysis reminded me of your other videos which was Pog
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As for your video, I discovered so many surprisingly good movies bc of it.
Google Doylian vs Watsonian criticism if this is interesting to you
But again, maybe that's just me.
Easy to put on, watch a few segments, I don’t see the big deal.
you are wildly more positive than I'd have been
nonsense complaint
It's not like you're Critical Drinker
Someone has to suffer! Either way was a fun watch, never realized just how much boring drivel Disney puts out.
On the other hand it's basically the length of 2 LOTR movies and I already sat through one 4-hour Jenny Nicholson video this year
i get that the 6 hour timestamp is kind of meme-worthy but it's just a fun video, and it's clear you're not out to clown on these movies.
anyway thank you for such a fun video! It's given me lots of smiles
yet another vapid reaction stream,
another Mr Beast clownshow,
another fifty heated gamers?
And your is presented with some of the standards that gets views on Youtube (long runtime, front face view of you) so it's easy to assume the worst.
So many people in one place, making things for others, just sharing passion and interest and helping to entertain or educate. It's beautiful to me tbh
Even the first one got a 7/10 - sure there was plenty of criticism for it as well, but it's a 7/10! That is not just clowning on it.
Not a great sell on how Joel is an adult giving kids' movies a chance, it looks miserable
Which you can do (it is a useful shortcut), but doing that and THEN complaining about someone not giving something else (Disney movies) a fair shot and instead tearing it down?
Kindda hypocritical imo.
You think that's better than even considering Joel should have put a less miserable spin on it if he wanted non-fans to watch?
Sure it is long, but it is 60 something movies. Clicking in to see what Joel has to say just about your fave is not a massive time commitment.
If your babygirl is going to get offended when people think his videos sound miserable based on the title and thumbnail, maybe don't market them that way
As the potential target audience would say, skill issue
I personally think its valuable to be able to unplug? Its prolly not good if all your entertainment is just talking about how fucked things are. kwim?
Still gonna watch, tho 💀
Also, I can't help but believe that you could make money more easily some other way if that was the primary goal.
Just seeing a thumbnail to a harmless video you don’t care about and salivating at the engagement potential
the vibes of a six hour video discussing Disney products are pretty rancid
no way am I watching that horrible shit
Bourgeoisie is the noun for the bourgeois class, e.g. "The bourgeoisie care little for 6 hour YouTube videos about DCOM."
That's just me though.
These are your people Big Joel, go to them
Genuinely, fuck cringe culture. Let people do things they enjoy! Let them make silly niche shit! You don't have to "get it" in order for it to be valid.
"LOOK AT HIM STOOPING TO SUCH LEVELS I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN HAVE A LITTLE FUN"
Makes me sick.
(fr though, your og video on Disney animated dtvs got me through some bad times doing bereavement manual labor.)
4/10.
Sounds like you're just saying "the motto"