Esn's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Neighboring Nations]

Holy crap...

That guy's post before mine (blurrymadness) was scary. He wants to "cleanse" people? *shudder* But on risk of Godwinning this review, I'll move on.

This movie was really great - I loved the premise behind it, the understated humour and the excellent acting. The animation is, in a way, quite simplistic because it seems to be based around realism and clean lines, but it works very well. That you made the song yourself is also quite impressive.

One possible problem is that the voices all sound somewhat similar (you did do all of them, so I guess this was predictable). You might want to try varying your voice more than you've done so far for future episodes.

Overall, I'd have to say that your animations remind me the most of SamT's, which can be found on NG ("George Bush Show") or on Ebolaworld dot com. You both seem to have a healthy disregard for religious fundamentalism, use sarcasm to make your points, and do your own art and voices (and you do your own music as well). Maybe you guys should team up sometime. ;)

Anyway, this is definitely one of the funnier series on Newgrounds today. I'm eagerly looking forward to the third one.

[Primal War 04]

Room for improvement

The #1 biggest problem here is the balance of music and sound. Your sound effects are much better than in episode #3, and in certain moments the music sounds nice. HOWEVER, it really sounds like you just copied & pasted various unrelated bits of music together and it simply doesn't sound like they belong in this order. There is no musical climax and fall - there's just complete chaos as far as the music is concerned. High points & low points all over the place, with no lead-up or suspense. The fact that the sound effects often drown the music out doesn't help.

I'd suggest one of two things - either have music custom-made for your animation (there may be someone who's willing), OR choose a complete piece of music beforehand and fit your animation around it. Sure you can cut the music short in places and edit it a bit, but in this flash you really overdid it and it turned into a mess.

On the other hand, the graphics and action scenes were very well-done. I really like the style that you use, although some effects could've been a little more polished. The character graphics are great, though.

Overall, a good flash that had a significant handicap added on to it because the music was edited so clumsily. I would've given this a 9 otherwise.

[King Dragonfly ~v1]

Hypnotic

There's a certain rhythm to this animation that's very mesmerizing. Excellent style and editing! I'm still wondering how you made it look like you did.

Some of the animation needs to be done a little better, though. In particular, when the caterpillar is crawling it looks nothing like what it should. I'd recommend that you watch a video of a real caterpillar crawling and redo that part. Also, some of the elements made in flash don't really mesh with the hand-drawn (?) pictures. Those black wavy arms, for example, seem to be unattached to the caterpillar body in certain frames.

Finally, it is a bit unclear just from watching the flash what point it is trying to make. The first few times the caterpillar comes out, nothing really changes - it is only towards the very end that the world gets smaller because it flies off. Maybe you could show how the newly-grown body parts of the caterpillar help it do usefull things in the outside world - as it is, it just goes out and back in without really interacting with it.

This animation certainly won't be liked by everyone as it's rather artsy, but I sure liked it. It's amazing what people's minds can come up with...

iisotripyy responds:

I really appreciate this detailed review - thanks. You make some good suggestions, I have actually been working a bit on them in a new version.
Thanks again :)

[Treason]

Nice.

Good on you for keeping the same style throughout - I really couldn't tell that there was any kind of stylistic break anywhere. The animation was fairly good (except when he was running in the beginning; he wasn't actually leaving the ground) as was the fight scene.

As for the story... well, let's just say that it won't win any awards for best moral. ;-)

What was nice, though, was that there was practically no "dead space" that made me want to stop watching - the editing was quite well done in that regard. Good job! :)

Josemaria responds:

yeah.. the running was the first EVER thing that I did for that movie.. so it's the most ancient bit.. :P ... The idea wasn't exactly the quality of the story but to fit a story perfectly in the music. Thanks for the review. :)

[Experiment_04]

Bizarre

This is really quite good. I was quite confused throughout most of it, but hey - look at the pretty pictures!...

Excellent style, graphics were a little rushed in places although still very colourfull and original. The music was fitting, although it seemed like at the very beginning about half a second was skipped. Good job overall - this isn't one for the favorites, but it was a very fun little detour.

If I may ask a question, are you entirely sure yourself what the meaning of that was?

ZekeySpaceyLizard responds:

The meaning was HUUUURRRRFFLORFNJKhBJKAM<SAKSHoperuwklehr347209374902b asdlkhlkhwqkelhrw;erl;er
eweriu09853490530534ll;gkjdfkl;gjdlfjgdklfjg=-==-0-=0:"L":?>?>>?er8907405789234jkhk
fsjkhwioheriowerfhwiehrjoweopoasdasdaswourp3io45345
234298340lskdfhhdfbwwaaaaaa

wsdfrwklehrlwkherklwher45r34535353

[desiderata]

I like this one!

A rather simple story, but excellent music and wonderfull style/animation. I'll have to check out your other works now.

One thing, though - consider adding in a "start" button next time.

[The History of Animation]

Incorrect information = average score.

Technically: acceptable graphics, fairly good (though not always clear) voices and good music. Some good humour too.

However, it is very misinformed and because of this I cannot give it any higher than a 6. Let us review what it got wrong.

1) The first feature-length animated film was NOT Disney's Snow White, it was "El Apóstol" (1917) by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. All known copies of the film are thought to be lost. He also made another one in 1918 called "Sin dejar rastros" which was also lost. The first SURVIVING feature-length animated film was Lotte Reiniger's "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (1926) from Germany. It is currently available on an excellent DVD from Image Entertainment - I own it and it's a very good movie which I can recommend buying. Another feature length animated film was made in 1931 by Ladislas Starewicz in France. This one was made with animated puppets (stop-motion) and is called "The Tale of the Fox" ("Le Roman de Renard") - if you search Google you might find some video clips from it. So, no less than FOUR feature-length animated films were made before Snow White. That's pretty inaccurate.

2) The image which was shown when you said "Italy" was actually from Yuri Norstein's "Tale of Tales", which was made in the USSR in 1979 and was twice voted by a panel of international critics to be the best animated film ever made.

3) You say that the longest-running animated series is The Simpsons. This really depends on what is defined as a "series", but "Sandmännchen", for example, has been running since 1959 in Germany.

4) The first color animated film was, as far as I recall, Disney's 1932 "Flowers and Trees" (which also won an academy award).

That's what I could catch - there might be more errors. It is very obvious that this version of history pretty much ignores anything outside of America, including any animation techniques pioneered in other countries, and while you do manage to turn it into a joke it still makes for some rather glaring omissions.

So, good format, but please be more carefull in doing your research next time.

cyberen responds:

your essay skills would make Tiger_Chick jealous.

Thanks for the info, if you want to decompile my flash, edit it so the correct information is shown, and send it to my e-mail, I'll put it up here. Thanks!

[Goblin's Day Out]

Cool

Pretty funny flash - I liked the style that it was done in, you should make continue making things in this style!

I have a mixed opinion on the sound issue. All the sounds and music very well done (especially the dragon laugh at the end) except for one thing - the laugh of the goblin. It was incredibly grating and annoying, and it made my headphones do a screech whenever it came on. So... consider toning that down a little.

Also, excellent animation on the dragon.

Nothing too fancy, but it's done well and it's entertaining. Continue improving, I look forward to whatever you make next.

[Bankomat]

An awesome animation, and yet...

I really think that there was a way to make your point clearer than it was. The first time I watched this, I didn't notice the symbols changing because they were in light grey and not emphasized, and I might never have noticed them if I hadn't read some of the previous reviews and found one that pointed this out. After that it became quite clear. I think that you should have emphasized the symbols a little more, maybe with a little red glow or something. I really do like all of your animations, but I find that you don't seem to have any sympathy at all for a viewer who misses a small but crucial detail in one of your animations. This seems unfair to me, but in the end it only serves to alienate people who would be your fans otherwise. I will admit though that the point behind this animation was a lot clearer than in your previous ones (especially "Objectionable Apparatus").

For anyone watching this, the key to understanding this flash is by watching how images on their eyepieces change.

Now for the other parts of this review - as usual, excellent graphics, music, and editing. You're one of the very best artists on Newgrounds. For anyone who liked this, I also reccommend "PUSTOTA" and "Objectionable Apparatus".