LegendaryFrog

Joseph Blanchette, originally known as LegendaryFrog was a popular Flash author and member of animation group Toonwerks.
Since 2002, he had become well known for creating animated video game parodies, as well as original works such as Ark and Kerrigan. Most of his 50 movie submissions have won awards, some of them receiving Weekly User's Choice and Review Crew Picks.
Blanchette has been totally inactive since 2018, though now hosts a small Dungeons and Dragons podcast on his YouTube channel. In similar fashion to Egoraptor, Blanchette has retrospectively been considered a somewhat divisive figure.
== Work ==
Blanchette was unique during his time as an active contributor to Newgrounds, as the films he produced were generally extremely inoffensive and often involved parody. This, coupled with his simplistic aesthetic, attracted a lot of younger users to Newgrounds at the time.
It is noteworthy that LegendaryFrog's video game parodies preceded those of more popular users, such as Egoraptor. He was commonly heralded as a figurehead of Newgrounds' reliance on media parody during the site's early years.
=== Parodies ===
LegendaryFrog was mostly known for creating animations based on popular video game franchises, such as the Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy series. Some of these videos, such as FF Tribute - Chocobo Song were extremely popular in the early years of Newgrounds. The majority of these parodies poked fun at specific sequences, characters, and events within the subject matter.
LegendaryFrog has also made a handful of movie parodies, such as One Ring to Rule Them All and The Matrix Has You. Similar to his video game parodies, these largely center on in-jokes and specific situations from the material he parodied.
=== Original Works ===
LegendaryFrog's most recognized original series is Kerrigan, a loosely science-fiction centered episodic series which depicts the life of the title character and her boyfriend Ark. Kerrigan enjoys muffins and chocolate, which are commonly used comedically within the series.
== Legacy ==
LegendaryFrog contributed significantly to early Newgrounds culture, with animations like The Matrix Has You having important cultural significance for being one of the first large-scale collaborations.
Before Egoraptor rose to fame for the Awesome series, LegendaryFrog was the most popular author on Newgrounds.
== Criticism ==
Blanchette's aesthetic has been criticized heavily due to it's unappealing visual style, largely centering on the use of simplistic shapes and colored outlines. His perceived lack of understanding of anatomy is also commonly critiqued. Blanchette also frequently relied on the "tween" tool, which was often seen as lazy and visually uninteresting, and his style of humor was criticized due to claims that various jokes from his animations were recycled from external media.
During the time of Blanchette's activity, a strong disdain for video game parodies grew amongst some users and groups at the time, such as the Star Syndicate, who argued that these parodies required little effort and were consistently given unfair ratings.
In addition, a handful of groups were created in the site's early years who focused heavily on parodies of Blanchette and his work, such as the Star Syndicate and Piconjo who would often parody the low effort of Blanchette's animation style.
=== Relationship to Piconjo ===
Piconjo is a joint-account created by various users to mock diverse authors and groups on Newgrounds, but ended targeting Blanchette and his work. Despite Blanchette's inactivity, Piconjo continues to make films which mock LegendaryFrog even half a decade after Blanchette's final movie, Wonders: Date Night Protocol was released.
Due to the frequency and prevalence of Piconjo's content, rumors began spreading that Piconjo was a former collaborator of LegendaryFrog who was never properly credited for his contributions to Blanchette's animations, and thus started parodying him. This was based on two things: a movie by Piconjo that one-upped Blanchette's animation style, and the fact that Blanchette himself was assisted by other animators on his work, such as The-Super-Flash-Bros, Pikanjo and Gerkinman, though Joseph claims this to be false:
"Everyone should know by now that whatever comes out of that guys mouth is a total lie. Its sad that everyone so far on this topic believes it."
== External Links ==
* Post that started the rumor
Category:Users
Category:Flash animators
Category:Authors
Category:Inactive Users