Vert's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mr Coo #4]

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... well, keeping up with the other Mr Coo cartoons, that was simply excelent! Very imaginitive (although in manner that, well, was slightly similar to the past two cartoons), brilhantly drawn and animated (in which you are, no doubt, among the best on the whole internet) with great music and very good use of sound effects. It also lasted just the right amount of time and was punctuated by some very clever and funny scenes.

All in all, I really can't say how one could improve this, except by being even more zany and weird! Top notch work, so big kudos and cheers!

[Portal of the Damned]

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... you've got a real knack for drawing Pico, as can be seen all the way back on the TimeTrial series finale. You, above anyone else, have captured the spirit of Pico and has taken up his legacy (until Tom finally decides on making Pico II). This time, the movie was as good as always, the only thing lacking was the traditional violence associated with Pico, which was very tame this time around.

Still, great FPF animation, excellent drawings, a good pace throughout the movie, interesting cameos, good choice of music... What else could a person want for a movie? Cheers for a very good movie!

[Insurance Storm Rising]

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... good flash, (possibly) horrible message. What do I mean by that? Well, let's start with the "good flash" part first. The technical aspects of this flash were pretty good, it had nice animation and was pretty well drawn, the overall use of sound and music was great (nice choice of retro-cartoon-music-of-doom, by the way), with the voice acting being particulary good. It was the right length too, neither too short that it dosen't get out is message, nor too long that it becomes boring. All in all, it managed to acomplish it's purpose really well!

But, and here comes the down part, not all is roses with this flash. Now, I don't want to get in a debate here, since the space available is small and I can't reply to you anyway and, most importantly, I'll openly admit that my knowlegde on the subject is pretty small (basicly an article in the Economist).

Nether-the-less, if I understood the message presented here (and I may have got it wrong, in which case I apolagise profusly for all this), this candidate belives that insurance companies are increasing premiuns and discounts in the Florida area and that state legislation should intervene to help them out.

If (and only if) that's what he belives, then, quite frankly, he's wrong. For years now, resident's in Florida have been subsidied by the rest of the USA by paying less on their insurance than they should, because they live in a catastrophe area and state legislation regulates the amount they pay on their insurance. This has encouraged overbuilding and overpopulation in the region, far more than should have happend, meaning that in the case of a disaster, not only are more people affected, but also the insurance companies have less cash to hand out to pay their costumers. That means someone has to pay the bill afterwards, usually the federal goverment (so that the rest of the US picks up the bill).

So, if insurance companies are finally increasing (one way or another) the amount of money people have to pay for their insurance in the region, that's actually a good thing, as it will help correct the current situation by making it more expensive. Now, of course, this raises costs to those already living in Florida considerably and it's more that reasonable that people feel it's an injustice unto them that this is hapenning and feel the need for goverment intervention.

But any goverment intervention should not maintain the problems of incentives that currently exist (as the candidate seems to be proposing), else when the next big hurricane strikes, almost every one (including the rest of the US) will be worse off, except the lucky people in Florida that aren't (deeply) affected by the hurricane.

<whew>

As I said, I'm making quite a lot of assumptions here, so if they are wrong, please feel free to correct me (and, in such case, I once again apoligize). And I probably wrote more than I should in any case (after all, I don't even live in the US!) and I'm acutally favourable of more independent candidates running in the US anyway. So cheers for a well made and pretty good (except-for-the-message part) movie!

BadMonkeyStudios responds:

Gotta take this one on. First of all there isn't a state in the union that isn't underthreat of total disaster. Hurricanes hit from Texas to Florida and then up through New York. "overpopulated" California is hit by earthquakes without warning. The entire midwest is constantly being destroyed by flood anf tornado. There's no place more subsidized than anywhere else.

Plus, Linn intends on stopping those with houses worth over $1 million from getting government insurance especially if they build on dangerous waterfront areas. Message solid.

[Xombie: Chapter 8]

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... well, the normal rating system here at Newgrounds simply fails when your movies come out, because anything less than an 10 would constitute a gross error. Only Adam Phillips can manage something similar.

And technically, the movie is as good as always, with superb animation and drawings, excellent voice acting, good rhythm and pacing... all in all, top notch work! It's no wonder every one of your movies enters the top 50 when they arrive and stays there (well, for a good time, at least). My only complaint is one you'll probably share with me, that is the small length of the movie, but sadly, unless you succeed in raising sufficient money (and sincerely hope you do) that is the fate the Xombie series will always suffer.

But having read your "donation" page, I'm baffled as to why studios don't want to take a chance with your great series. "Animation is for kids?" "Zombies aren't good guys?". Honestly, I don't know which cliché is worst... It&#8217;s as if adult swim didn&#8217;t exist!

Best of luck with your great series, I'm really hoping you succeed!

[The Hernando Show]

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... what can I say, except that you've fast become one of my favorite flash artists here on Newgrounds! So much, that I&#8217;ve added you to my favorite authors list!

&#8230;

Well, after saying that you're probably going to look up my profile and see that although that last statement was true, there are quite a few authors (well, 34 to be precise) before you come up. So, to respond to the inevitable why:
with great power comes great responsibility; because absolute power corrupts absolutely; and knowledge = power = energy = mass = particle = wave (via the wave-particle duality) = hand movement = secret handshakes = Masonic power = John Howard = Howard the Duck = George Lucas = Yoda = knowledge <whew>;
You can logically conclude that if I put you before other authors, which would cause a nucler explosion (similar to a nuclear one, but without some many &#8220;a&#8221;&#8217;s) that would destroy Perth, Canberra and Hobart. Since I imagine you're a big fan of all these cities, I could only put you in 34.

On a more serious note, top notch work as always (i.e. Sweet Nectar and Angry Dog). The movie was very well animated and drawn with good lip synching, the humor was good (but no so spontaneous as in other movies), the voice acting was really good (indeed, the voices lend much of you brand of humor) and the style of the movie was, err, stylish? I kind of ran out of positive adjectives&#8230;

Well, in any case, kudos and congrats on a excellent series.

[My Velouria]

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... good flash, but, unfortunately, you picked the worst day possible to submit it! Today is Pico day, which means everyone's attention is him and all the flashes created in his honor, which means a nifty movie like this one, which normally could be among the top 5 submissions, is reduced to the tiny score it now has... shame really. In technical terms, it was very well animated and had a really interesting drawing style; in fact, the overall style was really different and, well, stylish. The music rocks (my favorite Pixies music by far) and the on-screen timing (between the music and the animation) was flawless. All in all, the right movie, at the right place, in the wrong time...

[Freerun: Go-Man, Scene 1]

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... Your general animation style is very unnerving, you mix extremely high quality animation and drawings with significantly lower stuff, as well as mixing completely different styles of drawings (there was some hand drawn stuff there that looked very strange) and it's specially weird to see 3D buildings mixed in with 2D animation in the manner that's done in this cartoon (reminds me a lot of the 90's Spiderman cartoon). It's not necessarily a bad thing, but, as I said before, it's unnerving.
The animation "frame rate" also seems to change during the clip, sometimes "100% smooth", other times "Speed Racer smooth", which also leads to a very different style than average. But, truth be told, all-in-all that was very, very good, rivaling with some of the best flash animation out there.
For the rest, the general sound quality was high (good voice acting + music, though some effects would have been nice, albeit unnecessary in a introduction), the flow was also good, but the premise and story seemed a bit, well, clich... On second thoughts, I can't really judge the story and premise since this is a small clip and it just wouldn't be fair. =]
So, in conclusion, nicely done, that very good stuff, even though I did find it somewhat unnerving.

[Shoo Fly]

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... They say it never rains, but pours. They are probably right too, because soon after the release of the amazing "Sonic X CC Trailer", you come along and give us this little masterpiece. But, whilst "Sonic X CC Trailer" can be compared to a big, juicy, rare steak, this movie is more like a fine wine, matured and elegant wine, even if it's in a small dose. In a more technical evaluation, the animation was flawless, as was the art style, the music was superb, the camera work was great and, the most important aspect of all, the on-screen action and music were timed to perfection. All in all, despite its small size, it was a wonderful animation, something of a small classic, and deserves high accolades!

[Sonic X CC Trailer]

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... the level of the animation in this movie is breathtaking, simply amazing beyond belief! I mean, this rivals (and quite possibly surpasses) the already extraordinary and beautiful quality of the Prowlies series by Adam Phillips, which is probably one of the greatest compliment one can make of a flash movie, since he is a pro. Apart from the animation, the quality of the drawings was also very high (which only makes the animation even MORE impressive) and there was a good flow in the trailer, with a good music and on-screen interaction (albeit, the music was a weak point, but only in comparison).
And I'll say it again, one last time, that was breathtaking!

[Strawberry Gets a TV]

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... I've always been a fan of Turdclock's Strawberry movies (well, at least the first ones that were more humorous and less gross) and this captures the spirit of those movies very well and, most importantly, it's quite funny! The whole king / clocks interaction never gets old in this movie and the humor has good timing (which is very important for most humor). The animation and drawings were pretty simplistic as always and the "voice acting" was, well, cpu generated, but on the other hand the choice of music was pretty good. The main thing in a movie like this, though, is the humor: get that right and even the most poorly animated mov... well, not THE most poorly animated movie, but A poorly animated movie can stand out! Not that this movie was poorly animated.