Esn's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[-Created-]

Why do I love this?

It's hard to put a finger on it... on the surface this seems to be one of the most serious Zekey flashes, but behind the soundtrack of Mozart's Requiem (I still think that should've been mentioned - it may have been the "Lacrimosa", but that's just one part of the Requiem) there's a lot of joy, humour and a love of drawing that comes forth. I love the Zekey style, and my only trepidation about viewing your films is that they can often be rushed. Thankfully that's not the case here - when you put your mind to it you can create something really wonderfull.

There's not really any plot to speak of, nor does there need to be. It works quite well without one (perhaps the music holds it together). Definitely deserving of a daily first.

ZekeySpaceyLizard responds:

^_^

[3-2-1 Relaunch!]

heehee...

"I'm a professional! You should flock to the things I create!"

This was quite funny overall... though I didn't watch the first two parts (I tried to watch the 1st, but it just wasn't very interesting).

Sure, it's in essence just an add for a site relaunch... but it's a well-made one, and it has drawings that have improved a lot sinced you started out and now look pretty nice.

[The Spider and the Fly]

Better than a first glance would suggest.

Sure... the story seems familiar at first. But stick with it and you'll discover a really good animation that's rather funny too (in a kind of sick way).

It's refreshing to see that you didn't fall into the trap of taking yourself too seriously - the humour at the end was just what was needed to make it stand out. It is unfortunate that in real life everything after that "transformation scene" only happens in your head, though (yeah... don't mess with me guys because I'll get really angry and get you back... somehow... in my imagination). :|

[Snakes on a Plane-TRAILER]

Great!

This is one of the better SoaP parodies that I've seen, and it made me laugh my ass off. The animation could've been better, but it did its job admirably. The most important thing was that the voices and the "script" were bang-on target. Excellent trailer! I really enjoyed this one.

[Upstairs]

Nice!

This was very well done. Excellent graphics!

The only thing is, I wish that we were given more time to look at the coloured landscapes. There's no time to really look at them, because as soon as you finish colouring one you immeditely move on to another.

[Pissed Off and Armed]

Wow!

I just LOVE the lack of a central character! This is the only "stick/figure fight" flash I've ever seen that doesn't focus on one guy. Just about everyone's doing something, and you never know where to look, or who's going to win - it overwhelms the viewer. But in a GOOD way.

You definitely deserve the second place. :)

Tome89 responds:

Thanks, Esn!

[God's Message]

Heh, I liked this better than the scientists one

Good graphics, good voices (the voice for God was better than in the other one), and good music.

I like this one better because this one is just a funny joke, not a joke with an agenda to discredit a group of people as the scientists flash was. This one's funny whatever religion or philosophy you happen to belong to - all it requires is an understanding of the English language.

I don't think that the scriptures at the beginning really added anything to the film - I realize that being religious you felt you had to put them in to "spread the word", but objectively speaking their content didn't have a lot to do with the film itself (Christ is never mentioned in the actual film, only God).

Pretty good, overall.

This next section is just for the author, the actual review is now finished.

--------------------------------
Your response to my previous review to "God & the Scientists" didn't make any sense to me - could you please explain what you wanted to say?

"Define what is funny and why we laugh?"
Why should I? What does that have to do with anything? And why ask me questions that are so vague that they don't have an answer? Do you want to know the chemical processes behind laughter, the evolutionary reasons, or what?

"Why is it a joke to humble Scientists like the way I portrayed it? Ultimately it's not."
Now you seem to be contradicting yourself; "God & the Scientists" was clearly meant to be funny by you.

"Even in a Christian perspective, this is a very serious case where, not just scientists, but a lot of people in general just don't humble themselves enough to accept particular defeats in their lives."
I really don't understand what you were trying to say here - could you please explain? Were you trying to say that it is your opinion that in refusing to follow Christianity I am refusing to accept that I SHOULD follow it (as if I secretly actually believe that it is correct)? If that's what it is, that seems rather smugly disrespectfull on your part. If that's NOT what you meant, you must still admit that it is often a very good thing that people DON'T just "accept particular defeats in their lives", and fight for what they believe is right. Slavery would still be around today if everybody just accepted the defeats in their lives. In fact, this whole "just accept that life sucks" business is how kings and clergy in Europe kept the population under control, poor, and uneducated in the Middle Ages. We can all agree that the European Middle Ages is by and large not a period of history that we should be proud of, can't we?

Finally, just another thing I noticed from some of your comments - you often give "love" as proof that evolution is false, defining it as some magic undefinable thing. But you should know that love has been analyzed and the causes (chemicals, as always) have been found. The February 2006 National Geographic issue has a very nice article on the chemistry behind love. The interactions between the chemicals in your body are incredibly complicated, but complicated things do not have to be explained by supernaturalism, and should not be listed as PROOF of supernaturalism either. But anyway, I'll stop now, because to be honest I don't understand what "supernaturalism" actually means. From what I can see, saying that something was caused by supernatural causes is just a different way of saying "we don't know what caused it".

Godlimations responds:

thanks for the review, I am very happy you graded my animation as well as reply to my previous comment, I will clear it up, and you're right when the scriptures at the start don't add anything to the film, simply because it's my first ever Theological animation that I didn't plan on turning into a series. But cool, glad you liked this one better overall :)

"I think that whether you find this funny or not depends almost wholly on whether or not you believe in the Jewish/Christian/Islamic God (however you define "God"...)."

This is a reply to your statement which was the first question I asked: "define what is funny, and why we laugh" Its not supposed to have an answer, It's a statement to claim that you can laugh about anything in life whoever you are because we have our own free thoughts on laughter, who cares why, no one... It doesn't exclude your comment, as I agree with you. Yeah I know... Nextime I'll just say "I agree" SHUTUP lol!!!:P

I do not thoroughly say things through my own opinions, unless I'm asked to, and never have I been asked :)

ok the next one, "even in a christian perspective, people don't humble themselves"....

My comment, means that in "general" as in everyone don't humble themselves, even people who claim to be Christians don't do it...
I don't even do it sometimes. I'm not perfect, neither is the rest of this world! Being humble doesn't make you Christian, however, you are practicing Christianity in doing so :) In refusing to follow Christianity is your own choice, since when do I have the right to say what you SHOULD do... its your heart attitude I'm more interested in, if you refuse because you don't believe in it or of the such... congrats, I'm very happy for you, :) I agree with you in all of your statements, the only issue here is miscommunication.

You have taken me out of context, Slavery would be around today yes that is a possibility, I mentioned "particular" defeats, not all. When you are defeated already, people don't accept it. ie; a soccer match, you lose... but you don't accept it, you wanna bash the opposition up because theres a pride in you saying you cannot accept defeat... and in the scientists case, they got pwned, wait I meant humbled :D

errr wrong, I don't give "love" as proof that evolution is false, for proof itself doesn't exist. Love is not a magical undefinable thing, whatya think I'm stoopid? I wouldn't actually mind hearing about what science has to say about Love, it will give me a good insight. :P Here's a link to help you, its sorta on the same pattern length to our conversation:
http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5237

Supernaturalism... it means a lot of things.. ultimately... I don't know either :D

It could be true what you say in the last sentence... you're probably right... It doesn't have anything to do with me really, but that's cool, it makes up for the "why be funny" situation lol :)

thanks, I admit you got me hard in this review, harder than others mostly, but overall your quite right... I just don't see why you would ask such questions. Are you trying to find a fault in me? Because I do have faults, no big revelation there. As I said before, I'm interested in your heart attitude.

[God & The Scientists]

Not bad, but short. Best viewed by theists.

Well, this is a really short flash & depends almost entirely on the punchline. Graphics & voices are pretty good but not great (graphics are a little messy, & the voice for God didn't really fit somehow).

I think that whether you find this funny or not depends almost wholly on whether or not you believe in the Jewish/Christian/Islamic God (however you define "God"...). If you do, you'll see this as a true and funny argument against people like me (symbolized by the scientists in the flash).

If you do not (or, like me, find that the question makes no sense - search "ignosticism" on wikipedia), you'll get the joke but won't find it funny - you'll think that it rather misses the point of why you think the way you do, and insults you in the process (the scientists are quite clearly shown to be the "enemy" in the flash - the shots where they snicker at God were a particularly insidious attempt to instill in the viewer's mind who the "bad guys" are).

Godlimations responds:

God sounds however he wants... :)

Define what is funny and why we laugh? Why is it a joke to humble Scientists like the way I portrayed it? Ultimately it's not. Even in a Christian perspective, this is a very serious case where, not just scientists, but a lot of people in general just don't humble themselves enough to accept particular defeats in their lives.