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).
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!
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!
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.
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? :)
I thought about continuing it myself. That would have been real cool and interesting, y'know, the Military could roll up, drive him away. I'd get to do some fun character designs on the Military guys and their vehicles. More fun voice effects. Then he could go to a hospital and they could fix him up but also charge him for the destruction of the factory....
I always set my sites so low when I start animating that I never really take things as far as they could go or explore my own ideas deeply enough. The dirty little secret is that the only reason I even started making this was because I was reading about the Tsar Bomba detonated in Novaya Zemlya and wanted to animate a nuclear explosion!
I think continued adventures could be fun. I've yet to go the series route and I love to start fresh on each short because I get to be more creative and bring new ideas to the table. But, there does seem to be some demand. I need to think about moving in that direction.
Well, it was a bit better than I expected. Although most of the jokes didn't really make me laugh (the bouncer's reaction to being called a "jerk" being the exception), watching this film wasn't a bad way to pass the time. I like how you resisted the temptation to make the boss a flat evil villain and gave him some likable human traits instead. The voice-acting was pretty good, especially for the waitress. The animation and art wasn't spectacular, but it was pleasant enough and did the job.
Overall, good work. I like it better than some of the stuff on the Top50...
Thanks. I'm not out to do anything monumental, I just like making quick little flash movies that I could watch during my break, ya know? Easy to make, quick to load and pleasant enough to get some chuckles.
Waitress voice props go to Rina Chan and her pro skills and superior mic. Thanks for watching.
Sorry for the somewhat low score, Nathan, but I just plain didn't get this one. Or rather, I got the basic gist of the story (since it was explained in the "evil villain speech" near the end of the film), but I didn't get the internal logic of the film. There were many characters and situations in there that simply felt tacked on and served no purpose that I could see except to make the film last longer (they weren't developed and seemed to serve no purpose for the main story). Most of the characters didn't get a proper introduction, also... maybe this was done in the previous films in the series (this is the first one of yours that I've watched), but a short introduction of the main characters would've been nice to avoid confusing new viewers.
Overall, that's my main problem with the film; it's too meandering and seems to be full of inside jokes/situations that nobody else would understand.
The actual art and animation of the film was fine; nothing spectacular, but I could tell that you spent some effort on it because it was consistent and watchable throughout. The lip-synching seemed nice. The songs were hit-and-miss... the one at the very end was good, but I didn't particularly like the musical number (then again, I generally don't like those in Family Guy either).
The humour didn't really work for me, maybe because I didn't understand what was going on most of the time. Although I did like some of the quick, random jokes that you had there; my favourite was the teddy bear suddenly coming to life and telling the dog that he couldn't sing.
thanks esn, its difficult to respond because your comment was hard to understand..
haha kidding :D
i know what you're saying, some bits were dragged out where in the same place could have been meaningful things for character development.
Thats probably down to my bad writing. But also that the deadline was zooming forward and i was getting rather worried about that as well. (forcollege)
Next time i do a big project like this i want to maybe get someone to look into the script and pick out and add bits that are required.
you're right, i really need to stop with the inside jokes haha
thanks esn :)
First off, I found it really difficult to get past the constant camera-shaking synchronized with the music. I still finished watching the movie, but it was an ordeal. Felt like MTV on steroids.
Secondly, about the "purpose" thing... seems to me that you are belittling educational animation when your own film is exactly that.
Thirdly... hmm. Well, this could've been ok. The concept was fine, I just didn't like the execution too much. You did have some good direction in there, but it was hard to see it through all of the "camera beat syncing". How about doing this in a different way next time, like with colour?
Watching this was a truly nice experience. Thanks!
I loved the choice of music, and the constant action combined with the very predictable pace. I think that this is the secret of a lot of successful movies, actually; "have interesting stuff happening, but keep it comfortable and familiar". I particularly liked the constant motion of the waves.
The character animation was a bit rough in places. The whole film wasn't very complex and could certainly have been a little more polished. But I think that the direction is the most important thing, and I can't find any faults with that.
Overall, the mood here reminded me of another great animated film that I saw recently called "The Lodgers of an Old House"... check it out on Youtube, you might like it.
Before I go, one last question: how did you create that wonderful texture on the colour surfaces?... thanks in advance!
I scanned a load of different types of paper and cardboard and then adjusted the colour, brightness and contrast with Photoshop. I then imported them into flash and used a mask to get the shape right.
For a slightly more polished version yu should check it out on youtube. The link is in the author's comments.
I could say a LOT about this film, but I don't have much time. What follows is a short summary of the basics (please feel free to send a PM if you wish me to expand upon a point).
This must've taken you ages to do; it's a very concentrated piece of work.
I must say that it is simply beautiful for most of its duration. And that cat was incredible; you really made me fall in love with it.
The editing was wonderful as well. The "evil" symbolism was well done.
Some of the people "partying" and having fun at the end looked too marionette-like and cheesy. That ruined the flow a little for me. Less images of people partying and more of them being genuinely content and happy would've been the ticket for this viewer.
You are absolutely correct about the ending. I took an easy way out and you called me on it. If I make the long version of this some day, I'll have to remedy that.
Hey there. I liked your editing, and I also liked the goofy 1920s-era-like drawings. The choice of music was good as well. I actually liked the black and white cartoons with intertitles better than the colour one, just stylistically. The animation was simple, but it worked well.
Why's there so much violence, though? It wasn't funny or anything, it was just... violent.
Although amusingly goofy in sections, none of them actually came very close to making sense or telling a story (the closest one was the one with the rich/poor guys).
It was a spoof on what people thought was violent of the old 1920's/30's toons... Just wanted to make a funny spoof on the ideals of 20's and 30's view on violence...
On the positive side, you had some good editing of the action sequence in there. You actually tried to tell a story, which is definitely a bonus, and you did manage to tell it. Some of the drawings and animation were ok.
On the whole, though, several things in this were annoying for me personally. First of all, that music (I don't even know its name...) is so incredibly overused in so many films that it was hard to take this things seriously right off the bat. Why not use some free audio from the Newgrounds Audio Portal instead? There's some great stuff in there. For instance, I can see "The Toy Shop" by Simon-F really working for this submission, or maybe "Don't Tell Me Again" by MaestroMoodSwings.
The second thing was that most of the drawings and animation were simply not good. I don't even mean "not good" in the sense of bad anatomy or whatever. Even "bad drawings" can be beautiful in their own way. I just didn't detect a whole lot of artistic sensibility or consistency in there. Most of the time, it felt like you just drew your characters without thinking about it. Some of the drawings, like the one where the wolf is very angry, looked downright silly.
Finally, the story itself wasn't always told in the best way. The wolf somehow getting up onto the tree branch was unrealistic. If you wanted to create the feeling that the squirrel had nowhere to run to, why not solve that problem by having the wolf chase it into an open field or rocky hill where there are no trees for it to climb, for example?
Also, that dialogue at the end between the squirrel and its friend went on for just a tad too long, and overly slowed down the pace.
Ha, nice way of opening the review by complimenting what you liked about the movie. The song is from a movie, and the song was recently used in a commercial, those are the only places I think it has been used. its a relatively common style of music especially for cartoons, but whatever, that doesn't bother me so much. I took a listen to the audio portal stuff you suggested, they were alright, but I didn't feel they matched this movie at all.
Animation not good? Alright, you caught me, red handed. But you throw me off with the ' not good in bad anatomy or whatever, you just dont see artistic sensibility'. I understand that my character design changed from when I started the animation, to when I finished(hey, it happens, and it is clearly visible when I did the older stuff compared to the later stuff cause I gave the wolf proper anatomy, and gave the squirrel more character). You think I just drew each frame without putting my heart into all of them? I dunno man, tough statement to make. This cartoon falls into a style I am making my own cartoons in that you just dont seem to dig.
I think I know what specific wolf stuff makes you mad, and the only drawing I didnt redo would be the wolf hitting the nut away, which I'll admit, is bad, and shoulda redone, but I didnt have time and no longer felt the need for that.
My favorite drawing of the whole animation is when the squirrel is on the wolf's nose. I kept some sketchiness in that frame. I think you might be referring to the shot where the wolf is about to eat the squirrel(near the end), I'll admit, that is a bad drawing, but I found it funny, and decided to keep it. Not a good fit for you I guess, oh well, can't please everybody.
The story isn't in the best way? Its a cartoon! Magic man! The wolf got up the tree somehow, you dont see how, and it doesn't make sense, but it still happened! What any animation, and they pull stuff like that all the time. It seems more like this isnt your style of a cartoon considering where you suggest it should go. And if you follow the event of that scene, the squirrel ran up that tree, so if a wolf did that in the same amount of time, but a little faster, it could too climb a tree in that time. So it makes sense.
The dialog was four lines. Too long? If i made it any shorter the story/humor of that sequence might have been lost. It was supposed to be a change of pace. Oh well.
You still gave it a 5/10. Wait, thats a 50%, Fail! This cartoon didn't pass your test. So you gave 5 points for good editing, very few good drawings and ok animation. I'll take it, better than nothing.
Sealed History (Part 1A) 
Sketched - Pregnancy Test 
Custodial Catastrophe 
Star Work Episode 7 
Cant Handle the Knowledge 
Session 
Flim 
A Beautiful Life 
Sean Sullivan's "One Day" 
Nuts! 