i feel like with the amout of work put into this, it could have been way funnier.
but the animation was cheerio!
Reviews for "The Theodore Hour"
Whilst I rather enjoyed this animation, I felt that it wasn't half as good as it really could have been.
It seems as if the main joke that you're trying to get across here is the sudden drop of his accent to a more "lower class" accent after the hypnosis part. It's as if you made the animation expecting that sudden change in his voice to get some laughs, but really, it wasn't that funny. I certainly didn't laugh. Perhaps it was just poorly executed, but I get the impression that this sudden drop implies that Theodore is not who he seems. He seemed up until this point to be a bizzare, eccentric, and extremely creepy man with a dracula complex. Characters who are as extreme and wacky as this are often seen as being funny. However, the sudden drop of his accent to something else implies that it is all an act, which is no longer wacky and unworldly, because people do put on accents and answer phone calls in real life. Hell, you did it for the entire length of this video, so I think you'll agree that it plants the whole experience firmly in the "mundane" and stops it from having that whole "twilight zone" weirdness that you were doing such a good job of establishing in the earlier portions of the video.
The other joke that you try to get across is the whole hypnotism thing. To be honest, it felt to me as if you had simply run out of things to say by that point and were trying to insert some padding to your prank call. Did you never have a childhood? There are a thousand better ways to stretch out a prank call than going off on a bizzare monologue such as a hypnotism sequence, which only actually tells the person on the other end of the phone that you are trolling them. It's too obvious, and at that point it loses all humour because you KNOW that the person on the other side of the phone is no longer convinced. It's like any other practical joke of this type - when the 'victim' no longer believes the joke, it is no longer funny, and you might as well just stop. The 'hypnotism' portion of this just wasn't very funny and reeked of poor scripting.
However, the first few seconds of the animation are very good and your choice of music is a perfect fit. The "Yeeees, this is Theodore. Who rings?" line was just excellent and the delivery actually raised a smile on this end. The way how he calls it a "telephone system" instead of just a "phone" is the sort of creepy, slightly unusual character trait that you should have built on more heavily, instead of the Jeckyll and Cockney Joe voice change that you did at the end. His low, lazy, drawling voice is excellent and gives an impression of him being in control the whole time. However, as the animation goes on, it gets less funny with each passing moment, sadly. It appears to peak early.
However, it was still, overall, a good piece with something original to it that was well worth watching, and I wouldn't have written this lengthy review if I didn't think it was worth my time or yours.
TL:DR version - Music good. Character good. Voice good. Animation passable. Sudden accent change bad. Hypnotism bad. Brock bad.
GORGON-The-Mighty responds:
Just in case you didnt read the description or the end credits, i'll state here that I didnt record the audio. This is something I took from someones podcast and animated. As such, I didnt have any real control over what he said.
Secondly, this 'reverse prank' call was completely spontaneous. Mike David (the man doing the voice of Theodore) had no idea the woman was going to call. A fan of the show, without him knowing, put his details up on Craigslist giving away free items that he didnt actually own. He didn't know who she was, or what she was going to inquire about. He simply put on a voice he thought sounded like the name 'Theodore', and then through some very clever questioning, was able to come up with some material so he wasn't left to say nothing. You have to give the guy credit for being able to do that.
I can definitely see how some people wouldn't find this as funny as others. Especially if they're a stranger to the podcast. In context (like most things) it's much more humorous.
Cheers for spending a chunk of your time writing that essay, makes me feel important :D
boring.
nothing special
funney great animation but a bit short for my taste but i loved it and need more and also grundig
the song is from that creepy ass film candy man