In the early 2000s, if you wanted to get your creations online, one of the best sites to do so was Newgrounds.
On the site, artists and animators alike uploaded their drawings and games. And in 2006, Alan Becker would upload his video Animator vs. Animation, which would quickly go viral and be reposted onto YouTube.
The premise was simple: It showed us the perspective of a man using his computer as he used everything on his desktop to fight against a sentient stick figure bent on defeating him—or, more accurately, his cursor.
That video eventually became a series, and that series spawned a variety of colorful and mute stick figure characters. We met the orange stick man, originally called “The Second Coming” by Alan. And then there was the friendly quartet, The Fighting Stick Figures, made up of “Red,” “Blue,” “Green” and “Yellow.”
Sure, Alan may have started his series by fighting his creations. But these days, a lot of his animations mainly feature those aforementioned five as they enjoy many adventures (such as discovering the desktop shortcut to Minecraft, which spawns a video series of its own). They’ll also fight plenty of villains—all from the comfort of Alan’s desktop.
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Were you to watch Alan’s whole Animator vs. Animation series, you’d be impressed by how far he’s come in his animating skill now. His most recent video, released 17 years after his first in the series, is far higher in animation quality—despite using the same general characters throughout as before. His skill may encourage viewers to stick with their own craft, showing that making progress takes time and often pays off.
And, speaking of that series, the storyline (though as of yet incomplete) includes a nice moral. His first couple of videos tell the tale of a cruel animator who likes to force his stick figures to fight to survive being deleted. Throughout the narrative, we see Alan come to befriend many of his creations. However, some of their actions end up causing more issues in future episodes, showing how bad choices, while forgiven, may still force us to deal with the consequences.
A trio of videos showcases the character Green as the videos he uploads onto YouTube bring him lots of fame and success. However, he becomes obsessed with social media followers and ends up hurting his friends. He eventually apologizes for neglecting them, and they forgive him. The short story may teach younger kids the value of not compromising for clicks or money.
A shorter series depicts Alan’s orange stick man discovering concepts in math, physics and geometry. The videos show the relationship between various mathematical ideas and, based on the response from a variety of mathematicians, they seem to be “mostly” accurate in their depictions of some very complex concepts.
And, to put a nice bow on things, these videos are quite entertaining to watch, too.
The animated stick figures inevitably get into many fights, some of which result in them “dying” (though dying often results in them spawning back into existence soon afterwards). Those violent moments don’t contain any blood or bruises, but characters do dissolve into their source code when stung by a virus, their red particles floating away on the virtual wind. A few virtual stick figures vanish from view via explosions. And action sequences typically include a lot of explosions and fistfights that send other stick figures slamming into the desktop walls.
Some character names reference religious ideas or figures: Alan names them things like “The Chosen One,” “The Dark Lord” and “The Second Coming.” When one stick figure defeats a powerful enemy, the other stick figures bow down to it. And in one video, Red gets possessed by the mythical Minecraft enemy Herobrine.
We don’t hear any language, since characters don’t speak. That said, we do see the word “crap” typed out as the name of a file in one video, and the acronyms “OMG” and “wtf” can be seen in a video, too. Additionally, we catch a glance at a fake Facebook status during one video, which reads “I give up on life. I’m not even gonna try any more.”
It’s no secret how Alan Becker boasts thirty million subscribers, since his animations are both charming and entertaining. Who would have thought that Becker could craft a complex storyline with a handful of colorful stick figures—and invite millions of viewers to be so emotionally invested in the outcome?
There’s a lot to like about this channel. And at the end of the day, the videos are just plain fun. That said, we would note that a few of these battles can get pretty intense. And the main series branches into one stick figure man’s backstory, which includes the sudden loss of his stick figure wife. And those moments, while still relatively tame even by animated standards, may be troubling for the youngest of viewers.
All things considered, however, Alan Becker offers quite the unique and relatively content-free experience for viewers.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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