Animator vs. Animation III, later retitled Animator vs. Animation 3, is the third episode of the Animator vs. Animation Series, also being the third episode of Animator vs. Animation Season 1. Animator vs. Animation 3 follows rebellious stick figure The Chosen One, who sets out revenge on noogai3. It was released on atom.com on October 11th, 2010, released on Newgrounds on August 6th, 2011, and released on YouTube on October 2nd, 2011.

Synopsis

"The Chosen One" from episode two is trapped inside the Animator's internet explorer in forced labor as a pop-up blocker. This segment follows his eventual escape onto Microsoft Word, Solitaire, Minesweeper, and the desktop.

Plot

Four years after the events of Animator vs. Animation 2, the episode begins with noogai3 opening up The Chosen One as a pop-up blocker after opening Google. When noogai3 searches something up on the internet, evidently the word "free," The Chosen One manages to open up a Stick Figure Rights website that explains the problem of the slavery of stick figures, also promising a pop-up would appear that would allow any stick figure that clicked on it to be free. The pop-up does indeed appear, but noogai3 moves it out of TCO's reach, before right clicking him and selecting "Start blocking pop-ups," causing TCO to burn the pop-up he desired to click.

TCO is sad at the loss of the pop-up, thinking that was the only chance he had at being free for a long time, but he then realizes he can use these powers against noogai3. He starts shooting fire at the cursor, before noogai3 uses the cursor to right click him and select "Disable pop-up blocker." TCO gets angry, grabbing the cursor and using it to right click himself. He then moves the cursor over the button "Release pop-up blocker," using the cursor to select the button and free him from his shackles. TCO then smashes down onto the ground and shakes the window, before stomping on the ground and releasing a powerful explosion that had been building inside him. He jumps up and fires his laser vision before landing on the ground, jumping onto a piece of the window that had fallen, jumping onto another piece of the window, and then jumping through part of the window that said "Stick Freedom!" on it. noogai3 moves his cursor up to where the "minimize window" button would be, but it is not there. He then looks at the bottom of the window and sees it, on a severed part of the window that was broken and burning. He clicks it, exiting the window, and seeing TCO in a word document titled "requiredessay". The essay describes the limited significance and recognition of meaning in art, and how writing a book is a better option to convey a message.

TCO begins destroying noogai3's essay by picking up strings of text and eating them, before spitting the letters out as projectiles at the cursor. noogai3 attacks back by hitting tab on the line where TCO is stationed twice, both times sending TCO into a wall. After the second time, TCO begins using laser vision to destroy the essay while simultaneously attempting to destroy the cursor. Clippit is in the corner of the Word window, and, seeing TCO as a threat, asks if noogai3 wants help killing him, to which noogai3 responds with yes. TCO begins eating a line of text in a style reminiscent of Pac-man, before reaching Clippit, who threatens to kill TCO if he does not cease further destruction of noogai3's computer. TCO ignores this threat and begins eating the next line down of the Word document, to which Clippit responds with "Very well..." Clippit then jumps at TCO, slamming him into the wall at the side of the window. Clippit then spins and hits the rest of the line TCO was eating towards TCO, who dodges the attack and begins dueling with Clippit. Clippit jumps into the air and shoots onto the ground in a checkmark shape, allowing him to quickly attack TCO before the stick figure even sets foot on the ground.

TCO is launched onto one of the two remaining lines of text by Clippit, with noogai3 following up that attack by selecting the text space next to TCO, increasing the text size, and quickly typing "POW," which launches TCO into the wall again. Clippit is using text characters to make a sword in his one of his speech bubbles, and he now pulls the sword out of the speech bubble, threatening TCO with it. TCO takes two arrows from beneath him in the window, and uses them to clash with Clippit. Clippit's sword is ultimately thrown out of his grasp by TCO, who hits him onto the ground and jumps up to deal a finishing blow. However, noogai3 had created a gun using text characters, and now he uses it to shoot a text bullet at TCO's weapons, breaking them and sending TCO into the wall again. Clippit wakes up and picks his sword back up, while noogai3 moves the gun closer to TCO, and the two corner the stick figure.

Clippit asks for TCO's last words, but, after TCO does not respond, he goes back on his question by saying nothing comes out of the stick figure's mouth. Ironically, fire comes out of TCO's mouth, as he uses his fire breath to burn the text gun and sword, before leaping into the air to attempt to finish off Clippit. When the flames subside, Clippit is shown alive and well, in a protective box shape. TCO jumps towards Clippit to attack, but Clippit grabs TCO and turns into a tornado shape, spinning and flinging TCO into the other wall. Clippit then goes through a line of text, shooting all the characters at TCO with his spinning tornado shape. TCO is hit by some of these when Clippit is firing the first line of text, before blocking the rest, but on the second line of text, TCO opens his mouth and swallows all the characters, then spits all of them back at Clippit. The battle between them continues as noogai3 opens another animation window. Deciding to fight fire with fire, he creates another stick figure, this time a reddish-orange color, but in shape, identical to victim and TCO. noogai3 converts the stick figure to a symbol, naming it "The Chosen One's enemy," but deletes that name and instead calls it "The Dark Lord" before fully creating it. The Dark Lord (TDL for short) does not immediately retaliate against its creator upon creation, unlike his predecessor, The Chosen One, but stretches his body instead. noogai3 then codes TDL with the mission to destroy TCO, and then drags him into Word, where TCO is seen kicking an angry, helpless, tangled, ball-shaped Clippit offscreen.

TDL calls out to TCO, who turns around to see him, and TDL stomps the ground, sending pop-ups flying out of the bottom of Word, the last of which knocks TCO up, before he falls back down. TDL jumps up and creates a large sphere of energy, firing it at TCO. TCO jumps to avoid the attack, but the aftermath explosion sends him flying into the wall again. He quickly regains himself, using his firepower to allow himself to hover in the air and dodge TDL's next two energy sphere attacks. TCO then picks up a pop-up from Word, smacking it against TDL's head until it breaks, at which point he throws the remaining piece in his hand at TDL, who catches it and returns the attack to TCO, who is pinned to the wall for a short window of time. In this timeframe, TDL picks up another, larger pop-up window and, once TCO escapes from being pinned to the wall, which did not take longer than a second, kicks it through the air at him. The pop-up window shatters upon impact, and TCO begins flying around and attacking TDL while they are both in the air, with TCO using his firepower to propel himself through the air.

TCO lands some good hits, since TDL is caught off guard, but it does not take long for TDL to use the same tactic to hover in the air and punch TCO when he comes in for an attack. TCO falls on top of another pop-up, and TDL prepares another energy sphere, but TCO dodges this one by dropping off the pop-up. TDL moves to a location where he can attack TCO with another energy sphere, and as he fires the sphere, TCO picks up a piece of a pop-up and uses it to block the attack and explosion. TDL then picks up a large, burning piece of a pop-up and is about to hit TCO with it, when TCO picks up a mouse cursor icon from part of the window and throws it at the "minimize window" button, minimizing Word and causing TDL's attack to end before it started, and causing both stick figures and noogai3 to be transported to a small Solitaire window where noogai3 has an unfinished game, which he promptly continues.

TCO and TDL begin throwing cards at each other until they knock each other out, and TCO then uses his laser vision to try and deal more significant damage to TDL. TDL hides behind Solitaire cards until he finds a way to attack TCO. His way of attacking TCO was to push a card over onto TCO, and the card bounces up and hits TCO, leaving copies of itself behind in each frame of animation as it bounces out of the window. TDL does this to another card after TCO gets up, but TCO dodges it and instead tries to use a card to hit TDL on the head. However, noogai3 clicks "Deal" in the game, returning all cards back to their original locations, including the one TCO is holding, rendering TCO's attack useless. TDL then punches TCO, and noogai3 drags TCO to the top of the Solitaire window and drops him there, picking TDL up and setting him gently there, so that their battle can occur without disrupting his game of Solitaire.

TCO challenges TDL, and TDL responds by awakening app icons such as Orbit, Firefox, and AIM, surprising TCO slightly but not unnerving him. Orbit rolls in to try and attack TCO by poking him with an arrow, but when that fails, Google Chrome floats in the air and successfully lands a hit on TCO with a laser projectile, knocking him over. Google Chrome fires again, missing this time, but Orbit and Windows Movie Maker begin attacking TCO simultaneously. TCO picks up Orbit and uses it to block one of Google Chrome's projectiles, before throwing Orbit at Google Chrome, sending Orbit away and briefly stunning Google Chrome. Then, iTunes starts swooping in to try and attack, with TCO managing to kick the flying disc iTunes was riding on, sending iTunes flying through the air before landing back on the disc. When Windows Movie Maker tries to attack again, TCO grabs the end of the film strip, swinging it around to shatter iTunes' flying disc and knock out Google Chrome, the latter of whom falls off the Solitaire window.

The emoji from Yahoo! Messenger bites TCO's arm, and as he shakes his arm to try and get it off, VLC Media Player jumps on his head, making it so he cannot see. After Internet Explorer bites his other arm, TCO starts running in a random direction, which happens to be towards TDL. iTunes trips TCO by securing his legs together, allowing Skype to punch TCO repeatedly. TCO blindly hits Skype with Internet Explorer and Yahoo! Messenger, sending them flying at TDL, provoking him to run at TCO. With his hands free, TCO sends iTunes away, and removes VLC Media Player from his head, just in time for him to place it on TDL's head instead, before sending him into Minesweeper, which was open in a nearby window. TDL begins to navigate through Minesweeper, as TCO is kicking Yahoo! Messenger's emoji into the air over and over, then avoiding Skype and dribbling it like a basketball until he is able to throw it over Internet Explorer into the Recycle Bin.

Seeing their allies fail provokes AIM and Firefox, who join in on the action, beginning with AIM taking paintbrushes from the Paint logo and throwing them at TCO, who dodges all three, then Firefox pouncing on TCO as he grabs a paintbrush, and then burning the paintbrush as AIM grabs the other two. TCO jumps up as AIM and Firefox both go in for the attack, causing Firefox to hit AIM, knocking it out, but Firefox quickly regains itself and pins TCO to the ground before TCO kicks Firefox up to its icon, and Internet Explorer hits TCO towards Skype. Skype takes the paintbrush bin from the Paint logo and bludgeons TCO with it, who is sent to the edge of the Solitaire window. Seemingly cornered, TCO jumps into the "Downloads" folder, and exits from the "My Videos" folder, which is above Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Skype, who are all waiting intently for TCO to return from the "Downloads" folder. TCO sneaks up behind his three opponents before pushing them down over the edge of the Solitaire window. He plans to run back to fight TDL, but is hit by a Paint tool from AIM. He uses this tool to try and mess with TDL's game of Minesweeper, supposedly wanting to detonate a mine. Unfortunately for him, he does not hit a mine, and TDL's game continues.

TCO begins fighting AIM, eventually kicking him into TDL's game of Minesweeper, before Firefox flies up to challenge TCO, undefeated so far. TCO dodges some of Firefox's fireballs before running up the side of the Minesweeper window and hopping on top of Firefox, driving it into the Minesweeper game where it hits a mine, killing everyone who was in the Minesweeper game, except for apparently TDL, who still surrenders to TCO, not wanting to be done any more harm. TCO then convinces TDL to team up with him against the cursor, noogai3, and the two officially join forces. They first destroy noogai3's game of Solitaire, then destroying the Minesweeper window, then putting all of their efforts into a chaotic mess of destruction, until they swirl around a point in noogai3's computer, sucking everything into that point. noogai3 rescues only his "My Computer" app, and when the spinning finished, TCO and TDL had arguably created an unstable singularity. The singularity then began blowing up, bluescreening noogai3's computer.

Characters

Protagonists

• The Chosen One

• The Dark Lord (debut)

Antagonists

• noogai3

Other Characters

• Programs

  • AOL Instant Messenger

  • Clippit (debut/only appearance)

  • Google Chrome (debut)

  • Internet Explorer 

  • iTunes

  • Mozilla Firefox

  • My Computer (icon only)

  • Orbit (debut/only appearance)

  • Skype (debut/only appearance)

  • VLC Media Player (debut)

  • Windows Movie Maker (debut/only appearance)

  • Yahoo! Messenger (debut)

Trivia

• This is the last installment of the Animator vs. Animation Series that depicts Windows XP.

• Animator vs. Animation 3 was intended to be the series' finale, however public pressure encouraged Becker to begin development of a fourth episode that would eventually become Animator vs. Animation 4, released in 2014.

• The Stick Figure Rights website shown in the start is a real website, although around September 2021, the site went on sale by HugeDomains.

• This is the last animation with sound effects from Animator vs. Animation and Animator vs. Animation 2, not including Animation vs. YouTube.

• This episode is set on October 2nd, 2011, according to Animator vs. Animation Season 2, despite its original release date being October 11th, 2010.

• The "required essay" is as follows:

"Today’s society is too busy to see meaning in art. Art today is more about beauty than provoking thought. To understand a piece of art is to stop and think, and nobody has time to do that anymore, because they are preoccupied with their busy schedules. On the other hand, beauty can be seen in a picture right away without thinking. The primary function of today’s artist is to create beauty; people are more affected now by first impressions than by underlying messages.

The world is a gigantic, thriving organism, bustling with activity. Everywhere you look, there are people in cars talking on cell phones, getting ready for their next event. The only art in their lives are the ads in their magazines and the commercials on their televisions. Can one pack a provoking message into thirty seconds of television or on one page of a magazine? It is possible, but conveying beauty is much easier. All you need for an impacting beer commercial are pretty women holding ice-cold bottles of the liquid. Just take some slow motion shot of cars splashing through water, and you have a high-quality car commercial. Many people are so lazy that the media can only appeal to them through their eyes.

Does anyone think beyond the surface of art? A dying percentage does, and those are the professional fine artists and art historians. Art is no longer the channel through which people pour their thoughts. Therefore, if there is a message you want to convey to the population, writing a book would be a better choice."