Esn's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Only Superhuman]

Have you heard of Bruno Bozzetto?

This reminds me of some of his flashes, particularly "(((((( LIFE ))))))".
Anyway, this is what "LIFE" should've been but wasn't, I think.

Sure the Brackenwood cartoons have better animation, but this has a MUCH more sophisticated sense of humour (Prowlies relies purely on toilet humour, again and again. It's true.)

Anyway, I loved both of them, and I'd never vote a lower rating on a movie just so that another movie that I like better can rise ahead of it. PEOPLE, THIS WHOLE SYSTEM DEPENDS ON YOU GIVING A MOVIE THE VOTE YOU THINK IT ACTUALLY DESERVES!

This is a great flash, and I notice that you have so many other submissions! It would be nice if Newgrounds had a way of ranking an author's submissions based on rating when you click on "view this author's other submissions", because as it is I don't know which one of them I should watch (they can't ALL be good!) and so I end up not watching any of them.

The only reason I gave you a 9 and not a 10 is because of the less-than-perfect animation, which couldn't be helped. i REALLY like you sense of humour! :D

TmsT responds:

Cheers. As a matter of fact, Bozzetto's movie "(((LIFE)))" was a major inspiration for this. I love that style of movie - quirky cartoon characters and a lush musical backdrop.

[Storybook 1: Synj]

Do you know...

...emotioneric? This reminded me a LOT of the "adventure" section! Some parts of this were a bit funny when seeing them the first time (the "bed"), but it doesn't really last... personally, I didn't think gel's face was posted on the girl's body well enough to make it funny; it LOOKED too obviously like it was cut & pasted there, so it wasn't funny for me... the narrating was nice though.

P.S. It's true; you have a beautiful wife. If she's as beautiful inside as she is outside, then you're one lucky man. ;D

Dustball responds:

Actually the bad cut & paste job on gel was intentional, and why it was supposed to be funny. If it was looked real, it wouldn't be funny at all. There are many other subtle Photoshop enhancements in other pictures, and if you don't notice I did them, then I guess I did my job well!

[Nightmare Room]

I didn't like the "teeth chattering" sound...

...it's really too cliche. But otherwise it was great!

Snakejohnson responds:

I agree with you 100%. That sound makes me think of Scooby Doo when I hear it. If I could have found something better on time I would have changed it. I'll be on the lookout for a better sound to stick in that spot.

[NI`N JA]

The Titanic song was out of place...

and also, you really need to work more on your style. The animation was impressive, but the way the characters were drawn was not.

And the voices were pretty bad, esp. near the end when one of them was REALLY loud.

I'm still giving you an 8 though, because that must have taken a lot of work...

ZyneXx responds:

Ok thanx

[Alive]

Yes, it's good...

I gave you an 8 mainly because I know how hard it must have been to put everything together to the music so coherently. Animation gets a 7 and style gets an 8, because I think that you have a good sense of style but that your drawing skills aren't always up to it (of, course they're still much better than most of the stuff on newgrounds, and I absolutely LOVED the opening image). I'm sure that if you practice you'll get better, so keep at it!

Another thing; the line of darkness was fine when moving accross the Earth in space, but on the ground, it moved FAR too slowly to convey any sense of realism, and you forget that the atmosphere would distort it, so it's not at all a straight line like it usually was; it would have been better if you'd just made the images FADE into darkness, like they would have in real life.

I think that I understood what you where trying to say (I was unsure for awhile, but I finally realized what it was when the planet became completely dark). It's a good concept, though I think that you could have told it a bit more cohesively. But anyway, it was very good!

P.S. One question... did you draw your drawings on paper 1st, and if so, how did you transfer them to flash? Please answer if you can; I'm hoping to make something in flash myself, but I can only draw well if I have a pencil... thanks.

AloneInTheDark responds:

Well, actually my usual style of drawing is more detailed as the style i used for this flash. Only the more detailed u draw in flash, the harder it becomes to animate.
Im aware that the eclipse isnt 100% natural. It goes slow because i tried to show it in slowmotion, but when it covers the landscapes then the higher areas should have remained longer in light than the lower ones (example: the skyscrapers in the city), if u understand what i mean. Doing this is beyond my animation skills though.
Finally, no, i didnt drew the drawings on paper first. I drew the animation in flash and the backgrounds in photoshop. I did it using a graphic tablet (www.wacom.com) which made it seem like it is handdrawn.

[Syenika - Prologue]

That was very well done

Nice style, and good pacing!

Only thing is, that gremlin looked a bit disproportional (head very big compared to body) which actually made him look more comical than menacing.

Other than that this is REALLY good! Make more. :)

ShadowInsignia responds:

Yeah that was done on purpose, he was supposed to have a few lines that would actually show his humor-factor in the movie but i cut it out. How could you not laugh at that ugly SOB? hes not suppsoed to be intimidating.