Esn's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[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!

[Fitch and Jove 4]

Hilarious!

But it needs better graphics and animation - that's the only thing holding me back from giving it a higher score. That, and you stealing the "Seinfeld" bloop-thing after you made a joke - it would've been far better if you'd found something else, because it sticks out like a sore thumb for being unoriginal. I loved this part, though:
"Yeah, I did wonder what all this mess was."
"And now you know."
"...yes, I do."

The humour reminds me of Sheriff Benson #3 - I'm basically going through the December 2005 entries to decide what to vote for (I'm part of the NG Jury this month - woohoo!) so I saw them pretty much right after one another. Anyway, this does look like something I might vote for (though not at the top of the list) - I really do like the humour. Then again, I've got still something like a hundred left to watch. :P

margarine responds:

That whole bloop thing was supposed to be a nod to Seinfeld...I have a friend who plays bass and he did the cool slap bit. I just forgot to credit him, I guess that's why you thought I'd stolen it.
Glad you liked it all the same. And if you vote for me, I'll write you into my will ;)

[-Motion-]

Keep churning these out, they're great!

An excellent bit of random claymation. I could watch this again and again.

Now for a few specific comments:

- before the slug went into the water, I think it should have jumped a little bit - that particular bit of movement didn't look quite right
- excellent water effect
- I like what you did with the white face. First there was a black hole on top that looked like a smiling mouth (made me laugh) and then it turns out that it was actually the eye, and the mouth appears on the bottom later. Whether or not that was intended, it's a pretty cool effect.
- when those white "slugs" were going in and out of the white landscape, it also looked a little flat - it didn't look like they were really jumping out, it looked too even (although it was a cool idea)

Aside from those few criticisms that I just mentioned, though, what I like best in your work is how everything seems ALIVE! It doesn't look like it was animated - all of the creatures/things have a certain bounce in their movements that's really lifelike. I'm looking forward to other movies from you. :)

P.S. I'm extremely surprised that you managed to get something done with Windows Movie Maker - the last time I tried to make an animation in that program, it refused to compile it and took 5 minutes to do every single operation. Piece of ^%*@&$ shit! I looked it up and apparently a lot of people had the same problem and there was no solution. Made me seriously consider getting a Mac. But anyway, I'm glad to know that it works for you. :p

MackProductions responds:

thank you VERY much

[Winter Attack: Trailer]

Wonderfull!

What I liked the most was the flow that it had to it! Not just the smoothness of the animation, but the smoothness of the scene transitions and the flow of the movie as a whole. Excellent music selection as well!

I think that when you finish your film you should consider submitting it to the short film contest over at StopMoShorts dot com - I'm sure that they'll love a new member over there, and they have a DVD set as a prize this time around. Be sure to check out their links section as well and visit some of those websites - there's a large stop motion community out there who I think will react very well to your works. :)

Perhaps you're a member at the forum there already, I don't know, but in case you're not - you should really consider it, it's a very fun place to hang around. ;)

MackProductions responds:

thank you very much, yes i will look into your suggestion, see you on the forums

[-MASS-]

Good

An excellent flash - my eye was drawn to all of the wonderfull different graphical styles that you used. The pacing also fit in perfectly with the music.

A few questions I'd like to ask, though: I know from reading the other reviewers who in particular it was directed at, but who's the "flower" guy? Was there a particular instance that you were referring to, or a particular episode of that series?

In truth, I'm a bit conflicted about the message in this one because I'd say that I agree with the reviewer below me who said "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". You said "open your third eye" in response to him, which isn't really a response - you're assuming that everyone's "third eye" sees the same thing as yours. Perhaps what you were trying to say is that people should watch more obscure artists so that they can tell the difference between something that took a lot of work and crap. Well, the NG voting system IS geared toward solving that problem - the system is designed so that people who watch more movies have their vote count more, on the theory that as they watch more films they'll be able to better tell what's good and what's crap. It may not be perfect, but I think it's pretty good.

Also, most users on this site are voting for how much they enjoyed something, not on how hard it was to make. Although there's definitely a correlation between those two factors (especially as the user gets more experienced and "grows up" out of liking the stuff that he now realizes takes almost no effort to make), it's not a perfect one. A bad artist can work two months on something and it can still suck because of bad artistic decisions, while a more talented artist can make something rather simple in a shorter amount of time and have it be really fun to watch (most of weebl's flashes are like this). I don't see anything wrong with that. Picasso was an extraordinarily fast painter later in his career - something that he'd worked on for an hour would be worth far more than something I'd worked on for 2 months.

I also see nothing wrong with parody - a lot of parodies require a lot of work as well, and are original in their own right.

Still, your flash HAS made me want to watch more "obscure" flashes in the portal, which I think was your main objective. So good work! :)

ZekeySpaceyLizard responds:

Good sir. Scour the portal of newgrounds.
See some of the amazing cartoons that are there. Many of which are not famous. Are not popular. And are far prettier, funnier, better and more deserving of love than the majority of things that are in the top 50.
True, the Newgrounds vote system seems to work. But it is abused constantly. People vote low on other's work simply because they dont like the person and vice-versa.
The system is flawed. Thats why the same people manage to win Turd of the Week and Underdog every week for months.

[Clock Classics 2]

I liked the idea.

But it has a major, major flaw - it's a silent movie, and you don't give the viewer enough time to read the text. That's about the worst mistake that you can make when making a film like this.

Since I wasn't able to finish reading about 1/3 of the text messages (the longer ones, and towards the end especially), I can't give you a high score because I didn't really understand what happened. And it really should be YOUR job to make the viewer understand.

So that's it. If that problem were fixed, I might've given you an 7 or an 8, but I can't give you any higher than a 6 now.

CorpseGrinderClock responds:

I sacrificed that to have the events hit on certain notes in the music, give me some credit sheesh

[Evolution of the Unicorn]

You inspire me!

So you did all of this with photoshop? That's absolutely amazing! The only film like this one that I have seen was the 20-minute "The Old Man and the Sea" by Alexander Petrov (who paints with oils on glass using his fingers). Are you a fan of his work, by any chance?

I was wondering about the plausibility of creating a film in which every frame was made in photoshop to simulate the "painted" look, but it seems like it's possible after all. This flash inspired me to try it some day.

So could you please answer, what program did you use to put together all of the individual frames into a movie? Can this be done in flash (I've never used flash so I don't know, but most of what I've seen so far has been done in vectors or was just a live-action movie, not frame-by-frame stuff)?

Thank you for your time!

TypeQueen responds:

Hey, thanks for the review.

I love The Old Man and the Sea, it was definitely an inspiration for the stylization of my movie.

The way I accomplished this, was to first model very basic landscapes and the unicorn in 3d, and animate the film in 3d to act as a "guide." I then imported the frames one by one into Photoshop and re-drew them using custom brushes to create the "painted" effect.

You could easily animate it in 2d first and use that as a guide, but I'm faster at 3d animation than 2d.

I saved the painted frames from Photoshop one by one (naming them unicorn0001.jpg, unicorn 0002.jpg), then imported them with QuickTime Pro. QuickTime Pro allows you to import an "image sequence", and then I exported the sequence as a movie, and imported that movie into Flash MX.