artistunknown's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[AV: The Plague Saga pt 1]

Looking back, this is fun and doesn't seem to be as much of a rehash as I originally thought. I think it can easily fit with the previously-going story in AV and not feel like a rehash. When actually looking at this for critique, and not to watch, it does seem a bit short. Anyways, on to the actual review.

The writing was fun, there was a lot of nice jokes involving all of the characters. King William is still his old self, not really caring until it involves him. Your shot direction has definitely improved, especially with your transitions, like those establishing shots in the beginning. The pacing felt good overall, but while those little "retro" bits with them traveling across the screen and the text explaining what's about to happen seemed to detract from the overall pacing. Text disrupting the flow isn't needed since in the scenes that follow we could clearly tell what we were seeing. They were cute and charming little sequences, but from a direction standpoint they don't work. The intro however, worked well and did a great job of conveying the mood. The ending was also humorous, albeit a bit cliche but it does give some good foreshadowing to what's to come. The credits were also nice with the bonus images and the gags they contained. Overall nicely directed, but there's still room for improvement.

Art and animation were about the same as other episodes, but with slight improvement. There was a little bit more fbf on some characters like King William in the beginning, and there was even actual lipsync as opposed to mouth loops. You still relied heavily on symbol animation though and some art was more simplistic than others. Still though, that's the AV style so it probably wouldn't be good to drastically change it. One instance of jarring difference in art quality was in the intro where you have some nicely detailed images followed by some less detailed images and it was kind of distracting. I feel like a less simple font would have worked better for it as well. There was also a nice amount of visual gags, with pretty much everything Rory doing being hilarious. Overall, slight improvement in visuals, but what was there works.

The music fit well, though the overuse of 3rd party music is a bit of a shame. Still fitting though. The voice acting has improved for all characters, they spoke clearly and put emotion in it. At some points it seemed like there was some slight background nose for some lines or something went wrong with the recording because there was a lesser quality to them. Overall the music was fitting but I would use less 3rd party stuff. The voice actors did really good though so there really isn't a lot more improvement needed.

Overall, this was good. Not as good as some other AV episodes but definitely a good start to a Saga in the AV story that will hopefully be amazing. There was a lot of improvement, but I still felt some bits could have been done better. It was fun though, and I'm certainly looking forward to the next part.

[Review Request Club]

MistyE responds:

Thanks for the review. I did consider cutting out some of the transitional sequences, though I found that they didn't flow as smoothly as they did with them. I appreciate the in-depth critique.

[Retsupurae Animated]

Well, Retsupurae Animated on Newgrounds. Never thought I would see that. It's kinda funny because I have actually be working on a Retsupurae animation since some time in November and found out there were hardly any Retsupurae animations. Glad to see that more of these are being made. I actually saw this on youtube earlier but hey, found it in the portal, so time for a review!

I actually like the style of animation, it's not the most visually appealing, but it's still somewhat fun to look at. The animation is also pretty smooth as well, with a lot of character movement and facial expressions going on. I can tell some work went into this. The background art was also nicely done. This was very nice visually.

The timing of the animation to the audio seemed nice, it even let you slip in a few improvised bits like Slowbeef moving his hair and holding back the laugh. The shot progression also seemed to flow pretty well.

The one downside to this is the audio quality, though that might just be the source video. If it's not, then it's probably something that went wrong in the flash export. Go to your publish settings and change the bitrate and quality of your audio export and that should fix it if the problem is being caused by flash.

This was pretty nicely done and I enjoyed it, though who can't enjoy Retsupurae? ;3
You've definitely got some talent as an animator and I'd like to see more from you, be it more Retsupurae animations or an original short. I'm looking forward to it. Good luck on your future animations!

Mckodem responds:

Thank you very much for your review. The visual style was really just a pass mostly because I wanted to get a really good flow to the piece, so I didn't put more focus into the style.

One thing I love doing is just adding movement to an otherwise standard scene, like as you mention Slowbeef holding in a laugh, as well as Diabetes stretching his arms as Slowbeef sits down. Just to give it more life really.

In terms of the sound, I used : mp3 160 kbps, stereo if that is good but also the highest quality render I could get for the sound was 360p or so. So it suffers there I agree.

Once again thank you for the feeback.

[Adventure of a man - 2]

An improvement over the first one, and by itself, it has enough content to be a good standalone submission.

The animation was improved, there was a lot more movement, and although things seemed a bit slow, it was very fitting to the 8-bit style. Everything was fun to look at, there was great pacing, and the story seems to be unfolding, slowly. Music is fitting as well.

I think at this point these just need to be longer with more going on.

There is improvement and I hope more comes. Good luck with your future submissions.

[Review Request Club]

Pepeto responds:

Thanks for the review! :)

[Adventure of a man - 1]

This was interesting, not the best sprite animation I've seen, but it wasn't bad. And since you've used original sprites (or at least I'm assuming that), that's even better.

The animation in this was pretty decent, and I know how hard it is animating 8-bit things. There was some movement so it was pretty good for the visual limitations you had to work with. The colors were pleasant and the flow was okay, albeit some things were a bit hard to get on the first viewing.

A few things that I find bad about this are the flashing colors in the beginning and the end. I'm not epileptic or anything, but flashing colors are still sometimes irritating, and if someone epileptic did come along, it might trigger them. Though the bits with the flashing colors didn't last too long, but try making them shorter in the future, or find some less irritating thing to put in place. Speaking of short, that brings me to the next negative aspect of this, the length. It felt really short, with barely any time to have any sort of development. Make it longer with a more complex story and this can be a lot better.

This has potential to be something bigger. Good luck with your future submissions.

[Review Request Club]

Pepeto responds:

Hey and thanks for the review! I'll keep it in my mind on what you said about the flashing colors.

[Pikmin: After Olimar Dies]

It's great to see another Pikmin animation on newgrounds, there really needs to be more of them. While this wasn't the best representation of Pikmin, or the best animated thing, I did enjoy it.

The writing was interesting, clearly being a retelling of Olimar landing on the planet and then needing the Pikmin to aid him to get off, but this time he's unsuccessful, and there were some dark elements mixed in, like Olimar being a somewhat tyrannical asshole and the Pikmin not liking him. A decent adaptation of the "bad" outcome of PIkmin, you even put in the fireworks that happen when Olimar goes in the onion, heh. The actual writing was okay, it could have been a lot better, but for a more adult spin on Pikmin, it's pretty good. The humor felt a bit lacking though. Some moments were chuckle-worthy, but really there wasn't anything else beyond that. Also, I really felt like something more needed to be added to the end. It felt very abrupt just ending after the fireworks. Work on your comedic timing and pacing of action and you can get a lot better.

The art in this felt fitting, though something about it is a bit unappealing to me, probably the thick outlines. The backgrounds had some detail, and there was some nice use of color; it represented the Pikmin planet nicely. The animation was all over the place though. The very first bit of animation in this, with Olimar getting out of the ship, seemed really poorly done and made me think the rest of this was going to be just as bad, but to my surprise, the animation in the rest of it was a lot better, though not anything too spectacular. I felt it could have used more frame by frame animation, characters seemed a bit stiff at times, the lip-synch was pretty good at most points though.

The voice acting was pretty good. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the mic quality, and the voices were pretty well done and seemed fitting. Really not much to talk about here, though the voices could have used a bit more variety, they all sounded a bit similar.

Overall, this was a pretty good representation of Pikmin, and was a decent short that I did enjoy a bit. Comedic timing, animation, and voice variety could use some work, but this was pretty enjoyable and pretty decently done. With time, you'll get better. I look forward to your future submissions.

deku8989 responds:

Thanks man. If this was a youtube comment it probably would have been "gay!". I think I'm really liking the Newgrounds community. I also recorded the audio months ago and since then have gotten better with voices.

[MUSS Cause]

I wasn't entirely sure what I was watching in the beginning, and the description doesn't really help as it seems poorly translated, but I realized it was a trailer when the end came. It doesn't really stand as a good trailer though, cause I honestly couldn't tell what was going on in it, though I did get the gist of the story from what could be understood from the description.

It sounds like you have an interesting backstory here. It's a shame it didn't transfer to the actual video very well. Since there was barely any dialog and not much writing in the actual video (that I could see anyways) I can't really say much on the writing. The backstory is interesting though and I would watch the full movie when it's out.

The art and animation was all over the place. This is the first time I'm reviewing a 3D animation, so I'm not sure how good my critique will be. Overall it wasn't very fun to look at. The models were okay at best and a lot of the textures looked really poor. It also looked like the lighting should have been brighter, because sometimes I could barely make out what something was. Also the physics on the hair seemed really bad. I would try making the textures more high res if you're going for a realistic look, or do some cell shading on the models of you want it to look cartoony. Either of those two choices would make it look a lot better.

Finally, audio. The music didn't seem very fitting, in fact it didn't even sound that good. It just sounded like a clash of instruments that didn't produce a pleasing sound. I'm not really sure what kind of music would be more fitting, but I would recommend finding a composer here on newgrounds. There's lots of great musicians that would be willing to compose for you for free. The couple spoken lines that were present weren't handled very well. It didn't sound like the voice actors put a lot of emotion into the lines and the mic quality didn't really sound the best. I would recommend investing in a better mic; it really makes a difference. Though a better mic won't do much good if the voice actor doesn't put emotion into the line. There's plenty of voice acting tutorials out there if you're struggling with it. Or you could find voice actors here as well. Like musicians, there's lots of talented voice actors here that are willing to help.

Overall, this wasn't really anything I would consider re-watching. But it's just a trailer, it's not really supposed to be over-the-top amazing. Though it is supposed to catch the audience's attention, and it pretty much fails at that. The story does seem interesting though, so I will be coming back to see the full animation. There's a lot of room for improvement, and hopefully you take some of my advice into consideration. Good luck on your future projects.

[Review Request Club]

Ciullo-Corporation responds:

Thank you, but let me say this... this was the seventeen video we made with our original models, the fourth trailer of the movie (still without having set any background or full plot), the third video with complex animations, the first with second-gen models, no textures here, and hair simulating was at the first stage.

Weird, I though it was clear enought that this was a trailer... and for translation, I think I was clear saying "untranslated terms are for author choice". Anyway, I never see a trailer which say much about what's going on...

Lightings are as they was meant to be at the time... a underground maze on a dead planet usually doesn't look very bright, I suppose.
Audio was not actually made to be definitive, considering the entire movie will be around 1 or 2 hours long... music follow the scene succession and, although it's one of the first attempt to do a structured song, we feel it fit good enough... voice acting was made at-the-moment with a cheap plug-n-play mic (actually it is the maximum we can reach with our budget) or, as in the most following videos by us, with a synthetizer.

I won't deny we could use some help, as being self-taught in all fields of this work we need a bit more of practice, there's a lot of talented people here and I hope us to be considered part of them soon or late... but you'll understand that the amount of work that lies behind this project is far too much for a net based collaboration, expecially a free one.

I think the Launch Trailer (don't ask me when it will come out) will satisfy your advices :)

[Evil Avatars]

How the FUCK does this have such a low score? Either you've got someone seriously hating you, or the majority of voters are really that stupid.
The animation in this was really well done. There was lots of movement and it was really fun to watch. I would suggest using a thinner brush though because the thick outlines are a bit unappealing, but that shouldn't matter when the animation is this good.
The story was also pretty interesting, albeit a bit clche. Voice actors would have really helped this and I'm sure that's why people voted so low. There seems to be some sort of thought that not having voices makes an automatic 0... Also reading text is annoying, especially when there's a lot of action in it.
Another problem is the display. First, you got the letterboxing, which is totally unecessary, and then it doesn't even cover up the entire document, so you can see parts of the stage and the stuff that's on it. If you want it to be widescreen, then use some 16:9 stage size, the max 16:9 size of the Newgrounds player is 910 x512, so you can use that to not have to worry about anything getting messed up. If you want the letterboxing though, then make sure the black boxes actually fit the screen ;)
Seriously though, this was great and I don't understand why its score is so low. It totally deserves at least a 3.5. Good luck on your future animations. I hope to see more from you.

Ev1L0rd responds:

More of the story will be revealed in the next one, which you'll be happy to know, I've started searching for voice actors. If you know anyone that can speak english, do a range of voice types, and has their own recording equipment could you please ask them to message me here on Newgrounds. I'll keep you updated if you like, and if you yourself would like to help, please let me know by messaging me. I'll send you details from there

[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