artistunknown's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pik Your Battles]

There really aren't enough Pikmin parodies on newgrounds. This right here, though, is an example of why there should be more.

The writing was alright. There were a lot of well-appreciated visual gags, but the actual jokes themselves weren't the best. It was funny, but some of the humor just felt all over the place. I did like the story overall though; it was well timed and kept me entertained.
Audio was pretty good. Music was fitting and the voice acting was very well done and quite enjoyable. I like the effect done to the pikmin voices, it's oddly fitting to them, though I think the normal pikmin should have higher pitched voices.
The animation was great, though the art was a bit lacking in certain areas. I really would have liked to see more frame by frame animation, but what you did have was really good; it just seemed like there should have been more of it. Character drawings and other art was good, but what was really lacking was the backgrounds. Don't get me wrong, some of the backgrounds were a bit more detailed than others and thankfully weren't just solid colors, but when I think of Pikmin, I think of orgasmic looking scenery, so really to do it justice the backgrounds need to be really good looking and detailed.
Overall, I enjoyed this. The humor was enjoyable, albeit scattered, and it was presented really well. A few minor tweaks in comedic timing and some better backgrounds would make this a lot better. I look forward to seeing more of your stuff!

[Hitman Joe In: Level 50]

Well now, I have been policing the portal for several days straight now, seeing nothing but garbage submissions, or good submissions that really aren't my cup of tea, but this, was truly something enjoyable. This had everything that makes a great cartoon, great animation, great timing, great writing- everything about this was perfect. I genuinely enjoyed this, so thank you for the 3 minutes of entertainment.
From the moment this started I knew it would be good; that opening shot itself was enough to have me hooked, and then it just kept getting better. The characters were enjoyable, the voices were enjoyable, the art and animation were enjoyable, everything was just perfect, up until the very end. If there was one thing that I would have to complain about is how did the Hitman survived from having his neck crushed like that? :p Yeah, it's a cartoon it doesn't have to makes perfect sense, it even added to the hilarity. I constantly had a smile on my face while watching this. This was definitely an instant favorite. Thank you for this animation, and I will be looking forward to your future submissions!

TimBentley responds:

I've been meaning to reply to this comment since I got it. You really made my day with this man, thanks, it means a lot.

[Adrellia Village #45: SE]

Finally getting around to reviewing this one. I'm not sure why I held it off for so long, but whatever. I will start off by saying that while this was a step backward from the last episode, it was still better than #43; only slightly though.

Now then, writing: there wasn't too much to complain about, though nothing extremely well done either. The script was okay. Not really much more to say about that.

The animation varied. While it's the same quality as AV43, there was a bit more motion of the characters, with the exception of the last scene which just seemed extremely lazy; the characters didn't even blink! The frame by frame on Philip was good though, however his tie blowing in the wind does get annoying, some nice variety of the direction it blows would have been nice to see. When Drake is walking out of the hotel, he just stops when it fades out. This is very awkward to look at; he should have either kept walking or it should have been a hard cut instead of a fade. Although you seem to be using better transitions, so that's good, though I'm not sure if there should have been a fade in the last scene, it didn't really seem fitting. When Drake is walking in the hall, the change in the color of the wall is very noticeable, that could have easily been fixed. The best parts of the animation were probably the scene with the wizards, and the transport-o-matic scene. The transport-o-matic scene was done very well, nice a psychedelic and Drake's falling and the machine exploding was hilarious. The wizard scene was also nice and suspenseful, and even though it was obviously tweeny, it still looked really well done. Overall, the animation wasn't the best but it still had its moments.

And finally voice acting. I liked the additional voices, they were really well done and hopefully the voice actors have more roles soon. The only negative thing I can think of (other than the obvious blandness of the majority, but again that's obvious, it's not getting fixed, so there's no need to go indepth ragemode about it) is how Philip's voice was different than last time. Same voice actor, obviously, but the accent he used was different than before. I liked the voice he had before, it was different :(. Overall, the new voices were good, the others are the same as before. Some improvement, but otherwise meh.

Overall, this episode was okay, certainly better than AV43, but not as good as it could have been. Some things are done good, but some also seem rushed or lazy. The subtle suspense with the wizards was nice and is leading to something big (as if I didn't know what, heh). So it is going somewhere. Really I should be rating this lower, but I rated the other ones a bit higher as well (mostly) so if I started on this one, that might not look good, plus I'd feel like a dick. Well, I hope this was helpful, and I'm looking forward to AV46. Good luck on your future projects!

MistyE responds:

thanks for the review
and i definitely agree about scene 3 being lazy, this was a bit rushed and i'll try to improve that in the next episode

[The Stick-up]

It's nice to see more stopmotions popping up on Newgrounds, and this one wasn't bad either.

This was pretty good, the movement was alright, and the image quality was okay. I also chuckled at the end. I sense a bit of inspiration from Keshen, are you a fan of his? The ending and the music reminds me of his style. It was used well though, so good job.

There are some ways you can improve though. Try taking more pictures, as the movement wasn't insanely smooth. The movement was alright, but it could be better. The jokes could also use some help. I did chuckle at the end, but the buildup was a bit stale and it felt like it dragged on.

Again, this was pretty good, not great. I see potential in you as a brick-filmer. Keep at it, and I'm sure you'll be as good as Keshen one day. Good luck on your future projects, and hopefully you'll upload more of your stopmotions to newgrounds. I'll be looking forward to it.

TheDemonRick responds:

thank you so much and yes i am a huge keshen fan but mostly forrestfire101. i got the ending music sound effect from a website and i watched some of keshens videos and yeah its the same music

[William, I'm Coming Home]

Simply put: this was beatutiful. I really enjoyed everything about this. The animation was great, the visuals were great, and the timing was great. I enjoyed the subtle little jokes, everyone who storyboarded did a great job, especially Exedor's storyboards, beautiful direction. I can see that later on the animation was getting better toward the end. I'm glad you decided to use more frame by frame than tweens, it really paid off, and it looks amazing. In fact, this was so amazing, I had to watch it twice. As I've said before, the direction in this was great. After King William loses his car, he tries several other ways to get home, like riding a horse, a ship, and even climbing up a mountain. I think the mountain climbing sequence was my favorite part of thee animation. It was handled very well. Also, best ending ever, was so not expecting that.
As amazing as it was though, it does have its share of cons. Sometimes, the visuals were inconsistent and looked a little messy. When King William is laying on a grassy mountain, and the horse is standing, the drawing of the horse looks a bit unappealing. It's also hard to tell exactly what they are on, which I'm guessing was a mountain, but because of the same shade of green being used, and no shading, it's really hard to tell. There was also one continuity error I noticed this time: When King William is climbing up the mountain, he doesn't have his crown on, when he's standing on the mountain, in a brief shot, he has it on, but then in the next shot, he doesn't have it again. This is only a minor thing since it is brief.
Overall, this was more amazing than I thought it would be. I enjoyed every bit of it. Everyone who contributed did a great job!

MistyE responds:

Thank you very much for the review! Yeah, I agree, the coloring on the grassy mountain could have been more varied. I'll probably end up changing it.

[Adrellia Village #43: SE]

Alright, I'm not sure how long this review is going to be, since I can't think of a lot to say about this one, I guess it's a shorter review for a shorter episode, heh. I enjoyed helping with this episode. I think my writing and voicing of two lines helped the episode a bit.

Now then, the writing. There was a nice mix between comedy and drama. The opening scene was pretty well written, and would have been great if the characters were actually yelling, but we've been through this: the voice actor isn't exactly young, so it's probably not best for him to strain his voice. The scene was still handled well though, it was pretty enjoyable and nicely paced. There was nice direction throughout the rest of the episode as well. Though the silent scene with King William was short, I think it was a nice highlight of the episode. The dialog in th episode was also enjoyable. I feel like an asshole for saying this, because I wrote it, but I think the writing in the last scene is the best. Drake has a little monolog, and the scene has a lot of emotion. The music also helps with this scene, and Drake's voice actor actually did a good job in this scene, and I think it really helped it. This episode is very short though, and unfortunately it suffered from everything that was cut. Overall, I did enjoy the writing in the episode, everything was well written, and there was a nice balance of comedy and drama.

Oh the animation, where to start... For the most part, the animation was pretty much the same as the last episode, which is a shame. It was a mixture of tweens and frame by frame, though a lot less frame by frame was used in this episode. Nice coloring though, very appealing to the eyes. One thing I think you need to work on is scene transitions. For the most part, they were okay, but the transition at the end of the first scene really bugged me. You used a fade after Angus said "My bacon". A fade doesn't really seem appropriate there, since the camera is just fixed on his face, and that line isn't really the best to end a scene on. A hard cut would have been better there, since with a fade, the camera is fixed on his motionless face longer and it just looks wrong. With a hard cut to the next scene (or a brief clip of black like I do) it doesn't linger and flows more nicely. I think fades should be left to more ominous or foreshadowing bits of dialog or imagery. Like at the end of the last scene, perfect use of a fade. The line "I hope King William and the others are okay" is a foreshadowing line, and the fade really helped that. Scene transitions do add to the tone of the scene. Aside from that, I did enjoy the direction of the episode for the most part, though some parts could have been handled better. There were too many moments of characters going to do something and cutting to them having done it. An example would be Rachel going to use the portal and then being in the world of destiny, but you didn't show her using the portal. While in some cases this could drag out a scene, it does help lessen confusion, and when the episode is as short as this, I think it would have helped.

The voice acting was about the same as before, except there's a few additional voices this time around. Gee, wonder who that was :3. The voice acting in the beginning was a bit unenthusiastic, but we've already discussed the yelling. After the part where they should have been yelling, it does get better. For the rest of the episode, the voice acting is about the same as usual. Drake's voice actor is improving and doing a fine job, he handled the hotel scene very well. Rachel's voice actress is a bit meh. Why is it that Drake's voice actor has improved, bur Rachel's hasn't? Maybe it's because you don't have her record lines as much? Either way, it still works, and she did try, so that's good. Some of the pronunciation was a bit awkward, but what are you gonna do? I can't really say anything about the voice of the bear or the reporter since I voiced them, but yeah. I'll just let other people talk about that, heh. That's really all I have to say about the voice acting.

Overall, I did enjoy this episode. I think it's either a step backward or a standstill in the quality of the animation. The writing was an improvement over the last episode, and the voice acting and music really added to the feel of everything. My major problem is how short this episode is. I really think it should have been longer, because this just feels like nothing happened, and just serves as filler. It was still a good episode though, just some things that need to be touched up on. I hope this was helpful, and good luck on future episodes.

MistyE responds:

Thank you very much for your helpful review! Yeah, I'd definitely have to agree that the writing in the last scene was the best, it was very heartfelt and well-written, and the background music definitely contributed to it too. I appreciate your comments on the direction, and I will try to improve the scene transitions in the future episodes. Thanks again!