Score: 10

"Perfect satirical film"

submission: Parliament Deathmatch

date: June 29, 2009

Well, I'm Canadian not Australian, so I don't know all the nuances of Australian politics. Nevertheless, this was just perfectly made, and is one of your best films. Also one of the few things you've made (or is it the only one?) that's family-friendly. ;) I think you should consider doing more "family-friendly" things, as it obviously doesn't hinder you at all. The TV show would be crazy not to play this!

One of my favourite things about this is the music that plays during the transformations. That is absolutely wacked, and very appropriate! How did you make it?

You could've applied this to Canadian politics last year... with Dion as the hamster and Ignatieff as the snake. Unfortunately, at the end of last year our snake ate our hamster, so it's too late now.

Score: 8

"Great cinematography"

submission: The Ballad of CrippleKane

date: June 29, 2009

You've really nailed the style of cinematography and camera moves from those epic Western movies. Also, the art direction is generally fantastic. Simple shapes, suitable for animation, and yet the texture you added gives it a bit of complexity also. Great coloring, also. You also had convincing characterizations. The old man with the white moustache, and the intense stare, was particularly memorable. Oh, and the progression of action was good. It complemented the music nicely without being entirely dependent on it (example, the line "and that's a dead man" often coincided with someone being killed).

There was one basic thing that I'm not sure came out well, and that is the way that the whole ball gets rolling. Maybe I got this wrong, but to me it looked like the main character comes into a bar, sits down, and then for no reason pulls his gun on three people sitting nearby and kills them. Why should I be on his side, after that? A little later on, a scene shows all three on wanted posters, but then why does the sheriff and his men chase after him, if the men he killed were criminals in any case? So that was pretty confusing for me. If he killed them because he had some sort of specific grudge against them (was that it?), I think that should've been made clear in a scene before he came into the bar.

Score: 7

"Hey, pretty neat!"

submission: All Work 2008 & Before.

date: March 5, 2009

That was quite interesting to watch. I really liked how it was so unpredictable, so I could never tell when it was going to end or what was about to happen. A previous reviewer mentioned that this is like doing "a collab with yourself". That's it exactly.

My favourite parts were that multicoloured "on drugs" part near the beginning and the box dance near the end.

Score: 7

"Yeah, you pretty much nailed it. :)"

submission: Newgrounds in a Nutshell!

date: March 4, 2009

Excellent parody. I hate almost all of that stuff. Luckily, there are still some great, tasteful, artistic films that can be found, which are the main reason I still visit this site. Granted, most of them aren't as popular as the stuff you make fun of in the video (with a few exceptions, i.e. Brackenwood), but nothing's perfect, I guess.

Score: 7

"A review of the first version"

submission: Christmas Romance

date: December 29, 2008

Well, I reviewed the "new" version already, but I'll also review this older version. I think that some things here are more effective. In particular, the film starts at a more accessible and interesting place; I think that the added-on scenes at the beginning in the new version are unnecessary; they aren't as interesting and don't add anything that isn't revealed in this older edit of the film, plus they begin without any music. Also, I liked the snowflakes in this film a lot more, as they look more interesting and it is clear that they are snowflakes. I wasn't sure what those white circles were in the new version; I thought they might've been specks of dust or something. The film doesn't have the nice animated backgrounds and some other things that the new version does, but on the whole, I think that some of the fundamental elements are stronger, and maybe this is why its rating is currently a little higher.

Also, I find it hard to believe that those extra scenes and animated backgrounds added 15mb to the file size! I have a suspicion that the new file size could've been reduced by a lot without making the film look any worse. Maybe not, but it just seems inefficient. Are all of the animated backgrounds in the newer film just vector images on another layer, or something else?

Score: 7

"A nice anime-style film"

submission: Christmas Romance +

date: December 29, 2008

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.

Score: 6

"Missed the mark"

submission: Sketched - Super Bored

date: November 21, 2008

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.

Score: 9

"Fantastic"

submission: Sealed History (Part 1A)

date: November 9, 2008

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).

Score: 8

"Hilarious"

submission: Sketched - Pregnancy Test

date: November 5, 2008

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!

Score: 8

"Loved it!"

submission: Custodial Catastrophe

date: October 27, 2008

The animation was great, as was the voice acting. The artwork was good. I especially liked the concept and the execution, though; it was very funny, and I loved how the gags just kept building. "Oh, that was my bad" was an awesome line.

It felt like the film could have continued, though. Any chance of continuing this guy's adventures? :)