I like the way Mush talks, it's like a grandpa telling an old story to you in a passionate way.

The way Mike reacts to Elmo in Grouchland is exactly how Goanimate users react to any preschool show that exists

Ok to be fair, Nintendo screwdrivers were less common, and the whole pen melting thing was widespread advice.

You  know it’s funny because Mike actually does sound exactly like the dvd menu gadget.

I’ll never forget 2014. My friends and I waited soooo long for the movie to come out, we had our tickets to the sold out show and they picked me up after work and we drove to the theater. Fresh out of highschool, bright and starry eyed, we walked into the theater excited as hell. When it was over, we all quietly walked out and got back in the car and collectively all gaslit ourselves into how much we loved it. 3 years later while hanging out, one brave friend turned to the group and said “You know what, imma say it. I hated the AVGN movie.”. His bravery opened the floodgates and we were all finally able to air our grievances with the movie lol good times

What makes the AVGN movie’s production funnier is that James Rolfe’s cameo in Channel Awesome’s ‘To Boldly Flee’ was literally filmed right after James was driving home back from California, when all of the AVGN movie footage was complete.

James Rolfe initially turned down the offer, considering the idea of filming even more footage was daunting after spending god-knows how long in a desert with film crew and fan-assembled background characters, but changed his mind after hearing it’d only be for two minutes max screen-time in a scene with just him and Doug Walker.

At this point I don’t even remember what inspector gadget was supposed to sound like I only hear brown bricks in minecrap

The California decision was just bonkers. New Jersey isn't glamorous, but movies have been shot there literally since the inception of American cinema. It also offers tax incentives to attract productions.
James wanted to be a filmmaker more than he wanted to make a film. And by filmmaker, I mean his romanticized idea of a Hollywood hotshot. In that respect, the Tommy Wiseau comparison is apt.

To me the AVGN movie was James’s canon event, it shaped him into the kind of person he is now

There's a portion in Rolfe's autobiography where he explains how the AVGN movie budget evaporated quickly. The manager they hired to get permits, rent props, and handle most of the business operations of the film was inept. Rolfe was too timid to fire him at first but eventually realized it needed to happen way too late. Rolfe himself confesses he had no idea how to handle a project of this size and it became a $400k learning experience.

…Okay, seeing the Linkara cameo makes me really want MagicMush to do a video on him, especially since there are so few videos on Channel Awesome creators not named Doug Walker.

Mike's performance in the Batman episode paved the way for Joker 2

Minecraft with Gadget is so dumb that it wraps around to being hilarious.

Mike Matei is definitely a controversial character...  but the "melt a pen and use it as a screwdriver" solution  is not bullshit. I actually used said technique once, to unscrew a GameCube and succeeded. I eventually got the proper tool,  though.

One reviewer on imdb said that this movie's problem was that it was much more interested in being a Cinemassacre movie rather than an AVGN movie, and I think that's spot-on.

With Mike releasing his video of the history of Minecraft with Gadget, this is like getting two gifts from two different people.

James deciding he had to film his movie in hollywood is insane. He would've been way better off filming it near home with people actually affiliated with cinemassacre.

Some of James's decisions with the film are just baffling. Why would you film your indie movie in LA? Even back then, multi-million film projects filmed in other cities to save money. Hell, he interviewed Joe Bob Briggs who told him to his face filmmakers shouldn't bother going to LA.

The movie itself, I will say, does look like a real movie and makes it very clear James has some skill/talent as a filmmaker. The biggest problem was the script just was not very good. He needed someone who could put him on track to making a decent story that doesn't get bloated.

It's a bit of a tragedy he didn't get a chance to make another movie. I remember immediately after the AVGN movie he made a parody trailer of an adaptation of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde NES game. That was solid and it was funny.

Citing IMDB as a source is peak commentary YouTube

it's funny because the Idea of a trusted collaborator tsking over the chsnnel while you're out making a big project so the channel doesnt drown in the algorithm is genuinely a really good one.