The Critic #1
Gracie Films/ Sony Pictures
Creators: Al Jean, Mike Reiss
Length: 2 minutes
Watch The Cartoon

The cancelled ABC and Fox series has landed on the Internet, and its star, Jay Sherman continues to lash out against Hollywood. Will the Tinsel town ever make a good movie? In the first Webisode of the Internet series, Sherman tells us how he got out of Hollywood and how, thanks to Al Gore, he landed himself a new job. Well a new job is the least about which Sherman has to think. There's a sexy make up artist in the room.

The critic has lost any of its spicy humor. In fact the shorter format benefits the story. Instead of focusing on long storylines, the writers give us just jokes to pass some time. It would have been cool if the writers had referred a bit more to some continuity from the television series. One thing they do well is to show difference between broadcasts on television and the Internet.

The animation, of course is simplified compared with what went on the televised series. However, it's decent and the characters' design simple and clean. The cartoon relies a lot on talking heads and shoulder shots, which makes it monotonous sometimes. As ususal, the voice acting and the quality of the sound compression are top notch. A series that depends so much on dialogues needs this.
Hervé