Introduction
Welcome back to Your Opinion Is NOT Law, where I respond to people who use factually wrong arguments to back their subjective opinion. Today, we'll be looking at a YouTuber known as Yoshi Player, an avid cartoon reviewer and animator who gained some millage with his video critiquing AniMat (aka ElectricDragon505). Full disclosure: 1. I'm not saying AniMat is immune to criticism, 2. AniMat is making improvements to his approach as we speak and 3. I know this is a little late, but this videos still has problems that need to be addressed. So without further ado, lets get started.
Assumptions =/= Demand
3:47 Bypassing the overview, Yoshi says AniMat constantly wants Sony Pictures Animation to shut down because they make bad movies. This point is not only false but also misleading as the reality is AniMat DOESN'T want Sony to shut down. To paraphrase in his May 2015 Update vlog, he doesn't hate Sony in general, but with each bad decision they make, he assumed that Smurfs: The Lost Village would be their last film. His prediction might have been wrong, but that doesn't mean he was wrong to assume Sony will be dead. He even says in that same vlog that he believes Sony is capable of making good films, yet time and time again they take 2 steps back. The video may be almost 3 years old, but AniMat's opinion hasn't changed. He still criticizes Sony's films, but he knows they're not going to shut down because of his opinion. Putting that zinger at the end of his review of The Emoji Movie aside, it's doubtful any of the Sony executives actually watched his video and took it at face value.
Let's Talk Business
4:27-5:07 He then explains that Sony shouldn't shut down despite poor business practices. True, but that doesn't excuse poor business practices from being poor business practices. The people who work at Sony might be able to put bread on the table, but they could be doing that at a job that has better working conditions. An it's not like their isn't a demand for animators in the industry. In addition to Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar and Warner Bros., animation studios like Paramount Animation, Industrial Light and Magic, and Reel FX are always looking for new animators. I'm not saying the people at Sony have to leave for a better opportunity, but the door is still open should they chose.
Why AniMat Makes Comparisons
6:45-7:58 Yoshi then says it's insulting of AniMat to compare Sony Animation to Donald Trump and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to Charles Manson. I'm not saying these aren't extreme examples, in fact I'm of the belief that comparative criticism should be used sparingly in a review. That said, the reason why he makes these comparisons is to A. Show how Sony makes little improvement and B. How disgraceful it was to show Cloudy with a Chance Meatballs in the animation montage at the Oscars. Again, that's not to say these examples aren't extreme, but they're more petty than insulting.
Out of Context Accusations
9:13-9:17 Yoshi accuses AniMat of insulting and blocking people for disagreeing with him on Twitter. At first I thought this was very unlike AniMat...that is before I did my research and found that these Tweets don't tell the whole story. I took the liberty of taking screen shots of some of some of the people AniMat rightfully blocked: https://screenshots.firefox.com/oNS5982ZgEe7bOxd/twitter.com, https://screenshots.firefox.com/9RebTIg8dnjT3hId/twitter.com, https://screenshots.firefox.com/sP9FgwwvrK6sZ85L/twitter.com. As evident by these screen shots, these were not respectful or fair criticisms as they tell AniMat to "grow up" for criticizing Sony Animation's films, they call him inappropriate names, and one of them was flat out glad to be blocked, implying that they knew they were pushing his buttons. Yoshi says that they were friends of his; well with friends like this, who need enemies.
What He Actually Said
10:00-10:30 Yoshi says that AniMat believes that anyone who thought that The Emoji Movie was going to be good was a moron. Here's what he actually said in regards to the first teaser of The Emoji Movie disabling comments and making it US exclusive only: "This is almost going into the territory of of Donald Trump in terms of not taking criticism. This pretty much confirms that the people at Sony Pictures, they know for a fact that people hate The Emoji Movie. They hate its existence. They hate the fact that it's being made. And every single information that we've gotten so far is pretty much stupid. There is no way that anybody would be dumb enough to actually look at that and think, "Oh, this might actually turn out pretty good. You know, I actually trust Sony Pictures Animation enough that they could actually good movies, so I'm gonna go and be hopeful about The Emoji Movie."" To translate, AniMat believes that because Sony couldn't take criticism with The Emoji Movie, they know that the movie isn't good and they know people are going to hate it. Yes it could've been worded better, but his argument still stands that Sony knew that this movie wouldn't be welcomed with open arms.
Conclusion
The rest of the video is summarizing how AniMat is not a good person for blocking people who disagree with him and concludes by telling his audience not to dox him. Overall, I found this video to be degrading despite Yoshi's good intentions of giving constructive criticism. My main problem with the video is that Yoshi's arguments against AniMat is backed up by evidence that's taken out of context..The people who criticize him on Twitter were not respectful, the statements he made against Sony, while extreme in some cases his reasonings weren't invalid, and despite assuming Sony will shut down with all the bad decisions they make, he's not actively campaigning the studio shut its doors and the people involve lose their jobs. Granted, his wording could've been better and he could've used a chill pill in his more critical reviews of Sony movies, but his opinions are still his opinions. To Yoshi, if you made it this far, I want to to make this clear: you were not wrong for criticizing AniMat. That said, your arguments could've been better and you could've done more research to back them up. As it stands, I feel as though you went out of your way to make AniMat the biggest bully this side of the animation community when that's far from the truth in reality. Like I always say: your opinion is NOT law -.-
