Age/Gender: n/a, Male
Location: Toronto, ON
Job: Student
Feel free to PM me if you want to see the scores to any of my music.
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Flash Reviews: 354
Music Reviews: 76
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All Flash Reviews
354 Reviews | 84 w/ Responses
Well, maybe not by some definitions of anime, but this is definitely in the spirit of a lot of East-Asian animation. The "conversations" and the expressions of love at the end, in any case, are very typically East-Asian. I really found a lot of things to like in the art here, especially atmospheric details such as the lamplight on the ground, and the big creature watching them from behind the log. The animation of the characters was sometimes good, but other times messy, particularly when they were walking. The speech bubbles at some parts, particularly at the beginning, went by too quickly for me to figure out what was going on, although the story isn't particularly complex.
One question, though: how come this is 20mb? The art seems to be vector-based, so I don't see how this can take up so much space when far more complex vector-drawn films (such as Waterlollies) take up less.
Author's Response:
Well, I dont really understand either, why the filesize is so big, but maybe it is because of the Flash itself. Waterlollies was made using ToonBoom (a program that is way too complex for me at the moment). Seeing as how ToonBoom is most probably the cream of the crop among 2D animation tools (it is also used for commercial cartoon series), I figure it has better ways of handling the filesize too.
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It's not bad, it's just nothing at all special. The artwork was quite basic and the "plot" was very simple and predictable. The music was also of low quality.
On the bright side, it IS quite watchable; there are no seizure-inducing scenes or vulgarity. But it is boring.
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Quality work as always, but to be honest I thought it was a bit cheap how you just skipped past the most interesting part (not to mention "several weeks of intense campaigning"; I would've liked to have seen some of that). I was expecting something a little bit longer than usual, but this seemed like the shortest episode to date.
8/10 really, but 7/10 because it's quite short.
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It was not as funny as "pregnancy test" for me because that one seemed like it could've been based on a real situation and real people. This one is based on old-TV-show superhero stereotypes. Making fun of something that doesn't actually exist is a bit lame and not nearly as funny.
So my suggestion would be to pick something that more people can recognize from their daily lives next time. "Pregnancy test" was brilliant because it was just plausible, while being exaggerated enough to make me laugh.
The animation's really secondary here, but it seemed fine to me.
Author's Response:
Cool, thanks for the review, you have a nack for always making really good points and (thankfully) backing them up with good logic so we know what to work on in the future.
Because we have a number of different writers with different tastes we think it's important to switch things up from scene to scene, and as with most sketch comedy, I expected some of our work to be a bit hit and miss with different groups of people. Coming from a background in comics and illustration, i really responded to the idea of "two super heroes having a conversation about meeting women just as you might expect two people in an office to," when it was pitched, however I do recognize that this idea is a bit more risky since it appeals to a more niche audience than 'pregnancy test' did.
You will definitely see more things akin to "pregnancy test" in the future, but I think it's important to experiment and see what works, elsewise working on these projects would become old hat and feel 'hacky' real quick. It's also important to know what peope respond to and what they don't, so again, thank you for your reviews.
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I'm sorry to see that this great film slipped through the cracks. Although for some reason, it wouldn't start playing for me at first; I had to right-click and specifically press "Play" in the menu options. If others had the same problem, that may have something to do with the low score. (also, a suggestion: don't have the animation automatically repeat from the beginning again at the end)
In any case, the concept of a fight among gods was nothing new but the execution was spectacular. The art direction reminded me strongly of woodcuts from the 1920s/1930s, or of some Czech animation styles (i.e. the 1985 film "Krysar"). It was great. And the direction was good, as was the music.
Another suggestion here: listing MaestroRage's score under "additional music" makes no sense, because the link goes to Amazon and there's nothing there. Maybe you should list him as "co-author" instead (it is now possible to assign specific roles to co-authors such as "music", "coding", etc).
Author's Response:
Ahh, thanks for your kind remarks here, Esn!
Actually, I ask someone else to put a preloader on it (the previous submissions are criticized for the lack of it) and I only realize of the problem when I start playing it on Newgrounds. I'll see what I can do to fix this problem.
It's true the battle between the gods is not an innovative idea but it's a part of classic storytelling that has inspires all forms of medium (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Batman, Superman, you name it!) and that's why stuff like this never gets out of style and still remain a valuable element to tell a story to the audience. And also thanks for telling me the problem of not putting a link page to the composer's website: I've fixed the issue and now you can go straight to his portfolio website and explore his contributions to Newgrounds this far. Enjoy!
- Glen B.Wang
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I very much enjoyed the music, mood and inventive animation and art design of this piece. There was a really nice texture to it. However, I felt that the scene progressions weren't always the clearest, and I wasn't always sure quite what was happening. I understood bits and pieces here and there, but the overall story arc slipped by me on the first viewing.
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Definitely something that fans of Dilbert can enjoy. The script here was just fantastic. The animation was basic and nothing special, but it didn't really need to be. The poses that you drew were evocative enough. Great job!
Author's Response:
Thanks, we try to write comedy that everyone can appreciate, and we think the scripts are our strong suit. I am working on getting better at animation, but I'm glad it doesn't distract too much from the overall aesthetic of the short.
On another note, I read your post on the top montly videos and I'm honored to be included on your list. Thanks a lot for all the support.
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Definitely something that fans of Dilbert can enjoy. The script here was just fantastic. The animation was basic and nothing special, but it didn't really need to be. The poses that you drew were evocative enough. Great job!
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I love how imaginative this was, and I even didn't care so much about the unskilled artwork (the imaginativeness made up for it). But I confess to hoping that it wouldn't end quite so quickly. It was just getting really interesting when it suddenly ended in what felt like the middle of a scene.
I really hope to see a continuation of this...
(NOTE: I accidentally submitted this review om another flash submission's page at first. I wish there was a way to delete that review)
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I love how imaginative this was, and I even didn't care so much about the unskilled artwork (the imaginativeness made up for it). But I confess to hoping that it wouldn't end quite so quickly. It was just getting really interesting when it suddenly ended in what felt like the middle of a scene.
I really hope to see a continuation of this...
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