The Cartoon Hero

Eli Stone is a reviewer who is a member of Space Monkey Mafia Studios. Although he is one of many reviewers who follow the tradition set by Doug Walker, he notably also has shades of Atop the Fourth Wall and claims that one of his biggest inspirations is Chad "CR" Rocco of Familiar Faces. Eli is aware of the fact that he is not the first to do this, and lately references this wiki a lot. As his name suggests, his character is a bitter superhero with the power to command cartoon clichés--which sometimes feel more like tropes--who specializes in animation criticism.

If anything is notable about his series, it's that Eli constantly gets better as time passes. The storyline becomes deeper, the camera quality gets better, and (perhaps not coincidentally) he references TV Tropes more and more. Either way, you can find him here

This review series contains examples of:
"Nadeshiko: W-white...
 * Accentuate the Negative: Played straight in the first few episodes--Eli even regrets that he claimed Batfink was a bad show--but notably averted in the later ones. Even if the movies he reviews are bad by his admission, he always goes out of his way to highlight the best moment of said movie. He even said that he hated doing a negative review of Osmosis Jones because of how much potential it had.
 * And Show It to You:
 * Art Evolution: It seems like the Hero gets better at making reviews the more of them he makes. This might actually work in his favor, as it's fun to watch him grow as a reviewer.
 * Artifact of Doom: In Universe example:
 * As the Good Book Says: "And by whose authority do you stand against me?"
 * Author Appeal: Superheroes. Enough said.
 * Badass Cape: Your Mileage May Vary on how badass, though.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Ironically, The Hero has only done this once--in fellow reviewer The Hardcore Kid's review of Fritz the Cat. This also happened in his series,
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: He defies calling one out when reviewing The Magic Voyage, saying that it does not qualify due to the rest of the movie having no logic.
 * When calling "Pinkie Sense" the worst episode of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, he points out how Pinkie Pie's "Pinkie Sense" is never brought up again, thus becoming a Big Lipped Toothless Alligator Moment (in reference to Pinkie's pet alligator, Gummy).
 * Big No/ No Just No Reaction: Happened in the Cosprayers Episodes 5-8 review
 * The Cape: Arguably, the Hero is one of the few reviewers who seems genuinely heroic in personality, and according to Word of God, that's why he was created.
 * Caustic Critic: He may hold back against his opponents, but God help the movie that rubs him the wrong way...
 * Chivalrous Pervert: If this quote is any indication...

Hero: Ooh, my favorite--I mean, what the hell, Keita?"


 * Cluster F Bomb: The swearing has gotten less frequent in recent episodes, though.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience:
 * Comes Great Responsibility: Eli is a self-confessed Spider-Man fan, after all.
 * Crossover: Has appeared in several other reviewers' videos, mostly those who are also members of Reviewers Unknown.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Expy: The Hero's reviewing style feels like some bizarre combination of Atop the Fourth Wall, The Nostalgia Critic, and Familiar Faces. And his origin story has shades of Captain Atom and Batman.
 * Follow the Leader: As with most Internet reviewers, he was inspired by That Guy With the Glasses. However, he's said that his biggest inspirations were Linkara and Chad "CR" Rocco of Familiar Faces.
 * Ironically reversed in that he reviewed one of the animated Titanic movies and Quest for Camelot before Doug did.
 * Guilty Pleasures: Batfink and Girls Bravo, according to him.
 * Heroic BSOD: Has one in his Inukami review, set to "Everything You Know Is Wrong."
 * Knight of Cerebus: Two arguable examples:
 * When Diamanda Hagan made her first appearance, the Hero gained an archnemesis, and more of a backstory.
 * Also, The Cartoon Villain.
 * Mirror Universe:
 * New Powers As the Plot Demands: Played with in a few different ways. With the nature of the Hero's one ability--control of all cartoon clichés (his words, not ours)--new PARTS of it are revealed as the plot demands. To wit, he has his trusty TNT, can make it RAIN ANVILS, has a Falcon Punch, and in the origin comic, he has Super Speed, can throw an ACME bomb that's actually a smoke bomb, and can pull a giant mallet-style hammer out of nowhere. The fact that he can get new abilities this way is actually lampshaded in his review of said comic as Linkara.
 * He also got a completely new set of abilities courtesy of the Celestial Brush gods.
 * Power Creep Power Seep: The Hero  was able to kill
 * Precision F Strike: Happens a lot lately.
 * The Rival: Diamanda Hagan. According to Word of God, they first met when the TGWTG forum users collaborated on The Land Before Time sequels. Their reviews happened to be next to one another in the collab. The rest is history.
 * Self Deprecation: He calls the dialogue in The Last Airbender "more forced than most of my jokes".
 * Shout Out: Just to name a few...
 * Skyward Scream:
 * Something Completely Different: His "Elseworlds Month" specials. Justified in-universe as
 * Space Monkey Mafia Studios: Though as he is quick to point out, Eli was on a smaller site called Reviewers Unknown first, and he considers himself primarily one of them.
 * Spell My Name With a The: It's THE Cartoon Hero. Though he mostly goes by "Hero."
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Considering the nature of the Hero's abilities, this is inevitable. Notably, a stick of TNT is one of his preferred weapons.
 * Super Powered Evil Side:
 * Tempting Fate: For someone who's supposedly Genre Savvy, the Hero does this far too often for his own good.
 * Thou Shall Not Kill: The Hero is very clear that he will not kill, especially in his recent videos.
 * Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Shyamalanicon. It's VERY clear what it's supposed to be parodying.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Inukami reduced him to this. Supposedly.
 * Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Shyamalanicon. It's VERY clear what it's supposed to be parodying.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Inukami reduced him to this. Supposedly.