3 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dyNp4ZOVrU

“Who says laziness is a bad thing? It keeps families together.”

If you follow my reviews as The Watcher, you may have figured out that I tend to cheer for the little guys. Case in point: the cartoon web series Moolt.

I really like this series. I think the writing, voice work and animation is really great - especially for what I assume is some guy working alone in his room. This episode has 25,000 views at the time of this writing; hardly a complete unknown. Space Hospital, on the other hand, still has most of its episodes under a thousand. But still, Moolt’s the underdog compared to Happy Tree Friends. Everyone talks about Happy Tree Friends, despite Moolt being, in my opinion, the much funnier, fresher show.

Well, except maybe this episode. There’s some funny bits in there, but the main joke is the wife cleans up things and the husband doesn’t know where they are, and blames her when his computer goes missing. Not exactly breaking new comedic ground. Their other episodes are much funnier, and much more original. At least, to me.

From YouTube Description:

My facebook
http://www.facebook.com/Haykmanukyan

An Armenian man named Harut, has lost his computer and is out to find it. His number one suspect? His wife Sophik.

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

More from the web series Moolt

Back to The Watch List’s Main Page

Moolt “Computer Love” | A Web Series on The Watch List

3 Swirlies

Take Me Back – Chapter 7 from Joe and Seth on Vimeo.

“Okay, but then who the fuck is that in the kitchen?”

This series started so strong, but I feel like it’s been running in place for the past three or four episodes.

I think the problem is that this show has an interesting plot, but not particularly interesting characters. For many screenwriters who have read Sid Field, (or even ones that haven’t, it has become something of a screenwriter clutch) the story is divided into 3 acts, which is really just a pretentious, ‘How To book’ selling way to say beginning, middle and end. The middle, the act 2 of movies, is the hard part because it is easy to fall into the trap of having your characters spin their wheels until enough has happened that they can head for the ending you have planned. And that’s kinda what’s happening here – the middle of the story isn’t the interesting part but the writers need certain things to happen in order to get to the ending… only those certain things aren’t particularly surprising or interesting.

In the case of this episode, we’ve kinda seen much of this happening already. In fact, we kinda could have skipped from episode… 4 maybe to this one without anyone feeling like they’ve missed much (with a little tweaking of the writing, perhaps.) I mean, I get it – plot wise you could argue that stuff has happened, we haven’t been staring at a blank screen, but has enough information been revealed, either of the plot or the characters, in the past three or so episodes?

Well, there’s only three episodes left, so I hope we’re headed into the Act Three, the end, and that some cool, surprising stuff will happen like it did in the first four or so episodes.

From Vimeo Description:

Allan tries to make amends with Emma, while Al waits patiently for the results of his last phone call.

This is the seventh of 10 chapters in the original web series, Take Me Back. New chapters air every Monday. Check the series out and leave your comments in its proper home at TMBtheseries.com

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

More from the web series Take Me Back

Back to The Watch List’s Main Page

Take Me Back Ep.7 | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

5 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfj1-dCHbVk

“He did it.”

I have not laughed that hard in a long time.

This is a silly series, almost sketch comedy, but I just think it is hilarious.

From YouTube Description:

My facebook

Check out what Harut’s new pet Parrot can do!

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

More from the web series Moolt

Back to The Watch List’s Main Page

Moolt “I Have Bird” | A Web Series on The Watch List

3 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikf4PBxuu4Y

Interesting.

It looks like the animation studio that does Happy Tree Friends is trying to branch out into something new. This 10 minute video features three shorter videos; “Weaponized Animal Regiment”, “Buddhist Monkey” and “Mole in the City.” They are all very different, but still have that blood and guts and violence Happy Tree Friends style of comedy. It feels more like a programming block than a series.

I wonder if they felt they were running out of ideas for Happy Tree Friends, and they wanted to move on to other concepts? This one’s called “Alpha” and the next one is called “Beta” which makes me wonder if these are only test episodes to see how the internet audience would react. Maybe the three different series will change based on feedback, or maybe “Beta” will feature different characters. We’ll have to watch the next one to find out.

I kinda feel the same way about these cartoons as I do about Happy Tree Friends, they’re really well done and super polished but the gags are all just blood and violence. I have nothing against blood and violence, but for me the jokes feel repetitive.

The first one, Weaponized Animal Regiment, reminded me most of Happy Tree Friends. I feel like they were trying to give it a formula, with Flippy ruining the mission and getting everyone killed and then his split personality taking over and giving everyone around him a beat down. I didn’t really understand Buddhist Monkey, and I’m not sure I was supposed to. It is essentially a parody of martial arts films. There’s a shadowy bad guy, and an assassin sent to kill Buddhist Monkey and they fight. All that I get. But then the Pig Assassin’s wicker bowl/hat turns into a crab monster? I’m confused. And finally, Mole in the City made me think of spy vs. spy, maybe just because the bad guy’s a rat. I felt like it was the least like Happy Tree Friends, in that there was less violence and more caper type fun.

All in all, I guess my sense of humour just isn’t the same as the guys behind Happy Tree Friends. I’m more of a Moolt guy, I suppose. But I am interested in this experiment in new shows, so we’ll check into Ka-Pow Beta when we get a chance here on The Watch List.

From YouTube Description:

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

More from the web series Happy Tree Friends

Back to The Watch List’s Main Page

Happy Tree Friends Ka-Pow! Ep.1 “Ka-Pow! Alpha”| A Web Series Review on the Watch List

2 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L712O4dIxA

“Piderman, it’s just a moving tree. Remember?”

I barely understand what’s going on in this series. On one level, it’s kind of exactly how a young child would tell a story. It’s almost pure play. On the other hand… what is up with those weird doppleganger basement dwellers? In the last episode they were presented as if they would have a big role in this episode, the second of the two parter, but their appearances were so short I don’t even know what they were doing. Cooking? Eating cereal? (I only got that from a comment on YouTube.)

It’s surreal, that’s for sure. And I admire it for that. I also admire it for using Batman and Spiderman and not being sued… yet. (So they’re a YouTube partner but using copywritten characters? The internet is a mass of contradiction.) I spend more time trying to figure out this show while watching than laughing. Maybe I’m just too literal a person to really get it.

With millions of views across the episodes, they certainly don’t need for me to get it.

But that thing with Tuba’s Dad wanting Baman to marry Tuba? Creeeepy.

From YouTube Description:

Can Baman & Piderman save Pumkin on Da Journey?

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

More from the web series Baman Piderman

Back to The Watch List’s Main Page

Baman Piderman Ep. 11 “Happy Winter Friends Part 2″ | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

Need some motivation? No worries Harut is here to improve your life with words of wisdom.

4 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvTTe4gIXMM

“Unless you crash, and then you die.”

Very short, funny animation about the saying “Get Back on the Horse.”

It can be hard to find the right length for your episode. It’s easy to stretch it out too long, and it’s easy to try to force brevity. This episode of weird animation web series Moolt is short, but just the right length.

Moolt “Why Get Back on The Horse?” | A Web Series on The Watch List

Destructo Box was created by Joey Reinisch and Phil McLaughlin.

2 Swirlies

“Be my two years in technical school. Yar.”

Man, I could do a blog just about Mondo Mini-shows. It’s like they have a new series every day now? Case in point – Destructo Box.

I saw it as I was trying to figure out which episode of Baman and Piderman I was on, so I thought I would check it out.

[Update: It seems this is the second Mondo Media released episode! I really don't like how Mondo organizes their channel.]

Let’s see… a show about roommates with jokes about pirates, robots, toys (in this case, lego) and – yes, here it is, anal rape. Yep, nothing exactly new here, humor wise. I kept wanting to yell at the show, “I get it, the internet likes pirates.” And at two minutes and sixteen seconds, it feels long.

What works about it is the timing of the performers. My favorite monument is Phil gleefully chanting along with the rampaging robot, “Rape and Pillage!” That’s funny stuff.

I always try to give a new show a chance. So check it out – you’ll probably get a laugh or two. And what more can you ask of a Tuesday?

Destructo Box Ep.2 “Robotbeard the Pirate” | A Web Series on The Watch List

3 Swirlies

Can’t see the video? Click here!

“Piderman, don’t you see? We can get a wish to save Pumkin!”

And with bit of logic, off our heroes go into… er… a scary pizza face mouth.

What I love about this show is its ability to capture the tone and logic of kids at play, recreating half understood entertainment tropes and cliches.

I gotta say, Mondo Video does not make it easy to follow their shows. More and more, I’m realizing the shortcomings of YouTube when it comes to web series. But I still fed pretty strongly that if you’re considering using a different player for your show, think long and hard about it. Do you know how many web series I don’t post because the player they went with just won’t play? Plenty.

Anyway, back to the show. For me, the funniest part is Piderman’s webs. Did you know he’s got web shooters in his feet? Hilarious. But a lot of the rest of the episode feels like setup for part 2. And quite a bit of what’s left just plain doesn’t make sense. Really? I have to watch from the start to make sense of what going on in Baman’s basement?

Baman Piderman Ep. 10 “Happy Winter Friends Part 1″ | Web Series on The Watch List

Dr. Tran DVDs, Toys & Blog
http://www.lonesausage.com/

2 Swirlies

Huh. I was sure we had posted this Dr. Tran episode before. But I don’t see it on the site. Weird.

Anyway, this is a pretty funny episode of “The Voice” torturing poor Dr. Tran. The poorly worded questions always make me laugh, and I like that they are finding new ways to embarrass Dr. Tran.

In this episode, Dr. Tran pops 3 boners. If that’s not enough to get you to watch, then I don’t know what in the name of Justin Beiber would.

Dr. Tran MAIL Ep.6 “Keith Cares”

Dick Figures TwitterBot9000
http://twitter.com/dick_figures

4 Swilies

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Make me a sandwich… out of babies!”

If you haven’t seen Inception, you probably won’t get a lot of the jokes in this episode. For those who think that Inception is the single smartest movie ever made, you’ll probably think this is hilarious.

I was surprised to find we hadn’t covered Dick Figures here before. Maybe this isn’t the best one to start discussing, because it is essentially a whole bunch of dream gags. Some of them are pretty funny, but if you’re looking for story or character, look elsewhere.

This is another Mondo Media released show. Man, they just about own animation on the YouTube.

Like I said, there’s a few good laughs in here, and the production is nicely done. Another thing I like that they go on to the next joke pretty rapidly, instead of playing the same joke long after we get it, like many YouTube series.

Dick Figures S01E06 “OMG”