For quite some time now, I've been extremely curious to the answer to a simple question: what flash movies do the top artists of Newgrounds consider to the best of the site? Anyone can have some idea of what the users think, thanks to the portal ratings (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/) and the most 'favorited', watched and best reviewed movies (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/stat s), but what the artists themselves think has always been a secret.

To try to answer this question, I've organized a poll, where I asked the top 50 rated artists on Newgrounds to answer two simple questions: which 3 movies do they believe are the best movies currently on Newgrounds? And which 3 movies, if any, currently on Newgrounds most influenced them as an artist? I also asked that if, they wished, they might comment on why they choose the movie.

I sent out a PM to each of the 50 artists, in the hope that at least 20 of them would answer these questions and, as luck would have it, 20 of them did, although sadly the majority of them only answered the first question. Because of this, I did not have enough responses for the second question and I can't present meaningful results.

I've compiled the answers and I can now present to Newgrounds the results of the poll. First, a list of the best movies in order of votes, each movie followed by some of the comments the voting artists made regarding that movie. I've also compiled a list of the authors with the biggest number of votes, as an alternative criterion for the best.

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Best Movies
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1st place (5 votes)
The Yuyu
'The YuYu is the slickest animation I've ever seen in a flash movie. The chase scene is simply incredible, and the animation of the YuYu "cloud", especially when it gets defeated is an awesome spectacle to behold.'

'I specifically like the YuYu because first, Adam Phillips is arguably the best animator on this site. But that specific one had a lot of high-speed movement and was very well in sync with the music. I personally enjoy matching the visual actions to music and I would look to that movie for a reference when I am trying to animate fast moving objects or backgrounds. Because it was done in flash, that meant I had all the tools I needed to mimic the effect.'

'Incredible special effects'

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2nd place (4 votes)
Tarboy
'While this is literally a brand new animation, I saw his previous animation "Roller Coaster Junkie" and thoroughly enjoyed that. What he made was an excellent short story that encompassed all kinds of styles: action packed robot fighting, comedy, folklore-styled stories....It was a fantastically made animation that could appeal to all audiences, which is a crucial skill on Newgrounds.'

'absolutely flawless'

'It's a great example of a perfect meld of score and animation. It's a fun little tale executed with precision.'

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3rd place (3 votes)
Chuck's New Tux
'absolutely flawless'

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4th place (2 votes)
how it will end.
'Because of its use of styles and humor'

Half Beard
'Because I love the siblings series and this was one of the funniest and well directed episodes of his'

'... the writing. Rob can make a toon from anything! It has its flaws but it's still one of my all-time favorites.'

There she is!! Final step
'The animation is simplistic yet well made. The conclusion of the story is just perfect the way it is'

TankMen 2
'Tankmen II really brought it all together I feel. It took everything good about the original, and upped the scale to match its potential. Taking the Newgrounds icon and making it into a series that good is one of the best things that's happened to the website.'

'because it's a combination of good writing, voice acting and artistic style'

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5th place (1 vote)
Mario v.s Sonic (VGDC) - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
28041
'This to me was the father of all sprite movies. The fight wasn't particularly advanced by today's standards and the humor wasn't the highest brow, but I remember seeing this and thinking "wow! He took the images from the game and made do what he wanted to do". That was just simply amazing to me. Sure you could draw the characters, but that's still imitating the game, or giving it your own spin (...) People bitch about VG parodies all the time, but sprite movies introduced people to flash who were too intimidated by the drawings demands of animation or just sucked at drawing.'

Waterlollies - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
408967
'Mainly because I think Adam Philips is a brilliant animator, the artwork is beautiful and the characters and environments are so realized. It's like it really exists and we're just visiting. It's the perfect little fantasy world.'

Mastermind - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
408342
'I just think the character is really great, the animation is perfect and the voice acting is top notch.'

arfenhouse teh movie too - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
110131
'Because of it's humour, characters and such'

Street Fighter Collab - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
495979
'The quality, the detail, the overall humor (despite the over the top grossness in some scenes) was amazingly put together by most of the best flash authors on the site'

The Real Legend 3 - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
480676
'The animation quality and artwork, as well as the humor, is superb and really sticks to the original source material.'

1 - The Story of Khale - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
371968
'The first epsiode of Story of Khale could be looked at as one of the best flash games that you can't play. It's almost completely side-scrolling, with a few run loops, some jumping, etc. However, it's all executed really well, and gives you a great insight to the world Leafworthy has created. The lush backgrounds and interesting vistas are really imaginative and the music that goes with it fits wonderfully.'

Metal Gear Awesome 2 - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
426712
'cos of its fast, snappy pace with hilarious drawings and exaggerated animation'

Egocaptured - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
426476
'cos I laugh my arse off at the voice acting and impressions every time, especially Bill Cosby at the end.. oh man'

Bitey of Brackenwood - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
158417
'magic, makes you spellbound'

Fallen Angel: Teaser - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
192340
'Very well produced cinematic work with tension'

Prowlies at the river - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
189081
'It's his fault I ended up getting a tablet in the first place'

Burnt Face man 7 - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
350567
'I didn't start watching that until about a year ago due to my dislike of David Firth's main series "Salad Fingers". Burnt Face man, however, is actually incredibly funny and well done.'

Cat Syrup - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
347174
'It basically introduced me to glitchy animations on here and how interesting it can be to try to replicate glitches like that'

Till death do us part - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
95559

Freak: Prelude (ep 1) - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
119403

William the Demon Killer - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
127291

Walk-Smash-Walk - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
193426

Dad's Home - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
195918

Tail Chasers - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
225381

The Ultimate Showdown - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
285267

silver vs blaze 1 - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
510033

maze game 2 (unfinished) ** - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
510034

the gathering storm - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
12450

A Norse in the 9th Ward - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
499766

These Pancakes Are Tiny - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
471998

Cuboy Ep.3 - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
505526

Bunnykill 4 - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
502766

Walk in the Woods - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
431937

Drag Bike Manager 2** - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
510035

Pico's School - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
310349

Pico's Unloaded - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
191815

Voice Chat Adventures - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
207517

Kong - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
32316

Sloth Tv 2 - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
6632

Hyakugojyuuichi - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
18702

Reading Rainbow 1 - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
4

LA-ATHF Review - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
498016

-Conflict- - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
176946

Cuntilda Ep. 1 - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
452228

** Technically, these aren't movies but games, but I decided to count these votes anyway.

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Best Authors
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Votes Author
8 http://chluaid.newgrounds.com/

4 http://jameslee03.newgrounds.com/

3 http://happyharry.newgrounds.com/

2 http://sakupen.newgrounds.com/
2 http://the-swain.newgrounds.com/
2 http://alanthebox.newgrounds.com/
2 http://bobert-rob.newgrounds.com/
2 http://sambakza.newgrounds.com/
2 http://johnnyutah.newgrounds.com/
2 http://egoraptor.newgrounds.com/

1 http://granfaloon.newgrounds.com/
1 http://toma.newgrounds.com/
1 http://romeojr.newgrounds.com/
1 http://sexysexybicycle.newgrounds.com
1 http://ediblecastle.newgrounds.com/
1 http://mottis.newgrounds.com/
1 http://theweebl.newgrounds.com/
1 http://stamper.newgrounds.com/
1 http://leafworthy.newgrounds.com/
1 http://impendingriot.newgrounds.com/
1 http://luis.newgrounds.com/
1 http://evil-dog.newgrounds.com/
1 http://bleeg.newgrounds.com/
1 http://randy-solem.newgrounds.com/
1 http://misteroo.newgrounds.com/
1 http://andrewwilliamdickman.newgrounds .com/
1 http://robsh66.newgrounds.com/
1 http://kloyst.newgrounds.com/
1 http://frumpy.newgrounds.com/
1 http://bikegamer.newgrounds.com/
1 http://doki.newgrounds.com/
1 http://somebody.newgrounds.com/
1 http://altffour.newgrounds.com/
1 http://tomfulp.newgrounds.com/
1 http://mindchamber.newgrounds.com/
1 http://tttttttttttttttttteh.newgrounds .com/
1 http://raz.newgrounds.com/
1 http://jeremylokken.newgrounds.com/
1 http://trapezoid.newgrounds.com/
1 http://jeremylokken.newgrounds.com/
1 http://apex-dvd-video.newgrounds.com/
1 http://indre.newgrounds.com/
1 http://unauthoredhoax.newgrounds.com/
1 http://dl-neutrino.newgrounds.com/
1 http://chakra-x.newgrounds.com/
1 http://el-cid.newgrounds.com/
1 http://keirupted.newgrounds.com/
1 http://valerofond.newgrounds.com/
1 http://zombie-pimp.newgrounds.com/
1 http://insert-name-here.newgrounds.com /

Annex: technical discussion.
First off, how do I select the top artists on Newgrounds? Using my own personal preference was obviously not a good choice, so I pretty much had only two options: using the artists with best ratings (http://www.newgrounds.com/rankings/ar tists) or the artists with the most bookmarks (http://www.newgrounds.com/rankings/bo okmarks).

In the former, as every vote can end up making a difference, there are small changes on those included on the list almost daily; the latter is much more stable, but tends to favor older authors, who aren't necessarily on Newgrounds any more. Both criterions have their advantages and disadvantages and would probably have been acceptable, so I arbitrarily choose to go with the ratings criteria, on the hope that it would lead to more votes.

Second, how many movies should I ask the artists to vote on? 1, 3, 5, 10? Ideally, more is better, but if I requested too many movies for them to vote for, that would almost certainly have discouraged some authors, especially those who wished to comment their choices, so in the end I decided just for 3. I also made any commentary optional, for the same reason.

How many responses would make for a meaningful result? A simple rule of thumb would have probably said at least 30, but I knew this wasn't realistic, as I had previously tried to conduct this poll in the past, with a measly 10 responses, so I decided that 20+ answers would have to be enough. Finally, how would I compile the votes? As I didn't request for an ordered vote (which would have been a bit too complex), this was simple to do: I just summed up the votes for each movie.

Concerning the artists' votes, I decided to exclude any musician and voice actor from the votes and only consider main artists. One movie, Street Fighter Collab has many, many authors and I was tempted to only use Stamper, the organizer, but in the end I decided on simply counting all of them, even if this did inflate the votes of some artists.

Finally, let me end by saying a big thank you to all the participating artists and to Tom for divulging these results. And a thank you to the all the great authors that put their flashes here on Newgrounds; they are what makes NG a really great site.

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