For my 4th critique, I have decided to focus on the group project “Interactive Cartoons” by the group of Elizabeth, JD and Jabril.

First, I would definitely say that the idea behind this project is excellent. Create a new type of interactive experience and content by utilizing and changing the meanings of existing public domain content. The bulk of this project is made up of the main video, which splices together different types of content to give it some new meaning. But of course, there is more going on here. If that is all this project was, it would basically be just like the Remix project (not that there would be anything wrong with that, but it wouldn’t necessarily have quite as much of an impact).

Instead, there is a larger idea at play here. With this project, the video branches off into multiple possibilities. Each one plays off the fact that this content has been remixed, so it can branch off into ideas like seeing the Three Stooges cartoon or seeing the original Popeye cartoon, or seeing the cat cartoon with its original music. I think this is actually an intriguing idea, as it fully acknowledges the source content but provides an interesting way for it to be experienced. It isn’t just saying “OK, here’s the stuff this came from”, but letting the viewer choose which content to turn to.

As noted by the group members, this project in its current form isn’t quite complete. I had been expecting to see the clips branch off from the main YouTube video, but the group acknowledged they were having trouble getting that to work. It seems like people who have tried this kind of “branching” interactive YouTube experience have taken two approaches. The first is to use YouTube’s “video response” system to post the branching options as “video responses”. This works, but is admittedly a bit inelegant. The more impressive system is to actually embed the choices in the video itself. I’d point to this Time Machine Interactive YouTube movie as a good example of what is possible, as I think this same technique would fit very well with what the group is trying to do and provide a more cohesive experience.

In terms of critiques of the content itself, I think I’d want to get a better idea of what the full plans are. The creators did come up with a “plan b”, providing links to what the different possible choices were so we can still see what would happen with each choice. I think though that I’d like to get more of an idea of what they had in mind. As it is right now, if I had a complaint/criticism, it would be that the choices don’t seem as interesting as the original remixed content. I.e. the “get revenge on the Stooges” choice currently just lets you watch the original Stooges cartoon. I think it would be more fun to see a new remixed movie in the same style as the initial movie with the cat actually being interspersed with the Three Stooges and “getting revenge”. Same as if you chose the “Popeye” option. And the first option, to hear the original audio, seems more like something that is like a “bonus feature” rather than a choice.

I think the concept of these branching paths is interesting, but I think it would help the project a lot if they used the same creativity in each branching choice as they did in the main one. By that, again, I mean that it would be great to see each of the choices have the same kind of clever remixing, rather than being just the original material.

But overall, it’s definitely an interesting idea, and given the complex nature of what’s involved here, I think they did a good job of getting the basic idea of the project going in spite of the technical limitations.