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dippydippycritiques · 2 months ago

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In Defense of The Film "Mama Mia!" Nostalgia Critic's Worst Review of All Time.

Remember when Doug reviewed Atlantis: The Lost Empire a while back and for his closing argument he said "Fuck you, I like it."

That statement applies to me when it comes to my feelings involving the 2008 film, Mama Mia! Not because the film is flawless, because it's not, but because Rob Walker on many occasions has said that Mama Mia is (and I believe still is) his second least favorite film of all time. That's..ridiculous and just plain absurd after all the films he and his brother reviewed in the past fifteen-ish years.

You're telling me that Mamma Mia is worse than many of the live action remakes? Worse than The Nutcracker that had offensive, WWII themes? Worse than Freddie Got Fingered? Worse than Bio-Dome? Worst than Battle Field Earth? WORSE THAN THE LAST AIR BENDER??? A LITERAL 1/10 FILM THAT GETS NOTHING RIGHT???

So yeah, out of all the films NC has ever reviewed, this film specifically triggers me the most because it is very clear to me that Doug and Rob did not grow up with the music. If they had, they would see the connection the songs have to the plot of the film along with the other many great things about it.

Ok, so here's my argument when it comes to Dougs criticisms of this film. I'll start with the connection of the songs and how they correspond to the films plot. I have been listening to ABBA for all my life (over twenty-ish years), so if there is an ABBA expert that can connect the dots, it's me.

"I Have A Dream" (The Opening song) - Sophie describes her dream to have her father at her wedding to feel like her life is complete. Hence the "I have a dream" song connecting with her desire to have the perfect family, even if she fails. "If you see the wonder, of a fairy tail," (Her wedding), "we can take the future, even if we fail," (the risk she's taking to find her father.)

2. "Honey Honey" (Track 2) - Has Sophie singing (and switching between) her desire to know who her father is and how Donna, Sophie's mother, felt about each of the men she dated at the time. The song "Honey Honey," as someone who has listened to all of ABBA's music is one of their most basic and, admittedly, most forgetful songs during the time the band was still active, but in this context of the film, it works. This song is written in a particular way to describe the persons desire and longing for excitement through someone important to them. This is one of the more controversial song choices in the film due to it's obscurity, but again, it still fits the the theme of the scene despite how unpopular the track is.

Ok, since I have made two, long analyzes of the opening two songs, I am going to start skipping around and talk about the tracks I feel Doug has the most shit towards when they did overall have meaning to the plot. I'm hoping that, after these first two entries, you'll just take my word for it because I can, in theory, write how every song fit the themes of the film, but I not's gonna do that cause, you know, I unfortunately can't be here all day.

3. "Mama Mia" - Donna sings about how she was cheated by the three men who showed up randomly one day and has not seen in years. The "Mama Mia, here I go again" line is suppose to represent Donna reliving her past and how it not only thrills her, but also makes her remember how sad she was when she "learned they were through," like the song suggests.

4. "Super Trooper" - A song that describes how "beams are going to find me, but I won't feel blue, like I always do, cause somewhere in the crowd there's you." Donna's song is suppose to represent the relationship she has with her daughter and how she will always be there for her and will be subconsciously looking for her daughter through the "beams" (Donna being on a stage singing also ties into this nicely.) even when she is not there anymore. If your a mother who had their daughter move out for the first time, but you feel like she is somehow still there, this can definitely be relatable to you.

5. "Does Your Mother Know" - Tanya has a conversation with this kid (an adult who is a kid to her) who might or might not have had a one night stand with Tanya the previous night. Tanya sings and asks if "his mother knows that she's out." Implying that his mother would be extremely upset by his endeavors to seduce a woman who is much older than him...Doug, this is basic shit man, come on.

Last one. Again, another easy one to decipher if you grew up with the songs.

6. "Take A Chance On Me" - Two writers, Rosie and Bill who are written to be lone wolves "take a chance" on each other and fall in love. Done, easy.

These are just six examples as to how all of the songs from ABBA fit into the film. Again, it is very clear to me that Doug does not understand the songs or what they mean in context. I don't remember if he ever said he listened to the band at all during his life...but to me it felt like he hadn't. If he did, I felt like he would have connected to the songs more. I say this because when my mom and I went to go see this film in theaters three times when it came out. The whole audience (for me anyway) was laughing their asses off because of the jokes that correlated with the songs. Dancing Queen is one such example.

Anyways, one of my biggest complaints about Dougs review of Mama Mia is that he never really complements anything that I felt is really good about the film. There are many actors and actresses in Mama Mia that can sing extremely well. Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranki, Julie Walters...and you know what, I'm just gonna say it. I think Meryl Streep can sing well too! The song "The Winner Takes It All" was the song Doug though Streep was really reaching to get right and did not work at all.

Something about that feels hypocritical to me, only because I have seen Doug sing and, well, let's just say it's one thing to critique someone for their singing when a reviewer has no experience or training and can only tell if a song is bad through reference (aka, listening to other songs though many forms of media), and yet. For Doug to suggest that Streep struggled during the song when, oh, I don't know, I felt that Doug's singing in the review of "The Wall" and "Les Miserables" were not even close to what Streep could pull off just makes him look bad to me. She probably trained with singing coaches despite her setbacks. Doug, more than likely, did not have that training or talent to perform in a movie/tv setting, let alone a review, and that's why this comes off as hypocritical to me. When Doug can perform the song "The Winner Takes It All" perfectly just like ABBA did, then we'll talk.

To make matters worse. One of the things I loved about this movie was the style and cinematography. It is, to me anyway, a very pretty movie to look at with really beautiful shots and scenery and Doug, as far as I could recall, rarely brought that up and was very much heavily focusing on how poorly the songs connected to the story when that very much was a none issue.

One of the other things I thought was really great about the film was the chemistry the characters had with each other. Especially the relationship between Sophie, Donna, and the three male leads (Sam, Bill and Harry.) When the jokes hit, they hit really well, and I know comedy is subjective. I totally get that, but because everyone on the set felt like they worked so well off of each other, it made the movie more entertaining overall, which I felt is important to this argument.

There are other things I could pick apart with Dougs review, but these are the main issues. The only things I do agree with during his critique on the film were the actors, mostly the male ones, who clearly couldn't sing well but were forced to in the end. Honestly, I just thought that made the movie funnier! I wondered for a time if Pierce Brosnan's bad singing was intentional along with Stellan Skarsgar. But honestly? I don't think Dominic Cooper and Colin Firth get enough credit for their singing capabilities. Even though their not trying to hold long notes and perform ballads like the females actresses are, I still felt like their songs were really well done.

And I will also agree with Doug that the cheap tricks (like the green screen) and the pacing, specifically with how quickly the film jumps from song to song can ruin the tone sometimes...and yeah. The ending is pretty bad too, that I can't deny either, though I thought the comedic timing was still spot on.

So yeah, that's my argument defending the film Mama Mia. I don't know if Rob's views on the film has changed eight years later...but if it hasn't I just...I don't know what to say. They reviewed hundreds of films and many musicals (Disney!) that are clearly worse than this one and it just...happens to be Rob's second least favorite film of all time? I just can't under any circumstances believe that when I know both Rob and Doug have seen worse.

Anyways that's it.

I will now add Dougs Mama Mia! review to his other list of film reviews I categorize under "Fuck you, I like it." This list includes Bridge To Terribithia, Halloweentown 1 and 2, Zatheria, Jumanji, and Disney's Secretariat. A film Doug has neglected to review for DisneyCember for many years and, during a live stream recently, said the movie was only "ok." Dude, did we even watch the same film? I don't even want Doug to review it now if he only "heard" it was ok when it is his job to review all of the Disney films, especially the ones that are live action originals which he did many years ago, and continues to forget about Secretariat.

However, I can't say anything good about Mama Mia Here We Go Again! That movie is complete dog shit and to this day, I can't understand why audiences and critics thought the second movie was better. Please enlighten me if you have thoughts...but it didn't need to exist. There was no reason for it too when the Broadway musical is still active. If Hairspray or Les Miserables got a sequel to their films. I guarantee you fans of these musicals would lose there shit, and not in a good way I think...

#nostalgia critic #nostalgia critic mama mia #mama mia #mama mia musical #abba #film review #musicals #movie review #movie critique #doug walker #rob walker #channel awesome #2008 mama mia

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