Vert's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[LUCKY DAY FOREVER]

... utterly exceptional. Brilliant. About as subtle as a sledgehammer, but that's the point, it's a brutal social commentary on modern society and it's a sight to see. It's one of those rare pieces of art (and I don't use the term lightly) where I can provide no meaningful criticisms, which is a shame, since mindless praise is, well, mindless and doesn't help an artist to grow; the problem is, virtually every single aspect is individually excellent and the combination of the whole is even better. So let me discuss each individual aspect:

- Animation was of very, very, very quality. As in 'cinema movie quality', so I can't really add anything to that. The overall look and design style you use was great, I loved the faded, muted colours outside the 'elite city' and stark contrast it provided with the glowing, white 'elite city' itself. The character design was also spot-on, you follow through with overall thematic here and it works really well.

Also, backgrounds were exceptionally detailed, more so, I think, than some professional movies. So, simply put, the overall art and animation was that of something you'd see on the big screen (and if I'm saying this over and over it's because that is such a remarkable accomplishment in in itself) and if this is your calling card to the industry, then it could not be better made and it's a showcase for the talent of you and all the artists involved in creating it.

- Music was really good and used well. Again, the contrasting themes between 'elites' and 'proles' is heavily reinforced by the choice of songs and it works; same goes for the TV music. Really, really good stuff. Sound effects are somewhat sparse, but well used and punctuated things (i.e., not using it at some points are a very logical choice). Top notch again.

- Voice acting. Wow. Just wow. Sardonic Samurai has done some of his best work, his narration as Mr TV is exceptional, a stand-out among so many exceptional things, and the choice of English as 'elite' with Polish for 'proles', once again, is heavy-handed and absolutely spot-on. Can't comment too much on the Polish voice actors, but to me, they sounded just right too.

- Story is very, very good. This is a logical extension / revisit of the themes you've explored in the past and although it's a simple story, it's very well told. The flow and pacing of the movie is excellent, you interlace moments of lull in the more action sequences and you do that, at the risk of sounding repetitive, very well.

I also love the way you create a hint of different path for the story at different moments, by playing with our expectations (and by some clever use of tropes) and making it seem that things could just about to go another way; that's a sign of some very good storytelling.

The story itself is, of course, massively heavy handed (as I've mentioned before), but I wouldn't have it any other way. As in the past, you know how to cross the limits in effective way to transmit a message that I largely, but not quite completely, agree with, but which should be said anyway. It reminds me of a recent work called Black Mirror, by Charlie Brooker, which you might want to take a look.

So, what else is left to say after all that? I really can't think of much else. Let me put it like this: I've rarely been happier of having seen an animator evolve before, as I was here on Newgrounds when Smile and Polsupah first came out and even then I was hoping of great things from you. You've surpassed such expectations I had, by a so very, very much.

My heartfelt thanks to you and EVERYONE involved in this project, it's a astonishing and so polished and I can only hope the brilliance of it can shine and it gets the kudos and recognition it richly deserves.

I salute you for it.

[Operation: Graveyard]

... this reminds me a lot of Vinnie Veritas' movies, in a good way, it posses the same strengths and weaknesses that he does. This is going to be uncharacteristically short, but I figure this movie deserves something, so bear with me as I detail my review:

- Animation and drawings are top notch. You do quite a bit of FPF animation that looks positively gorgeous and I absolutely love the character designs you've created. The drawings are detailed, the colours look great and I like the camera angles you use, even though quite orthodox, and your overall style of drawing, which I've always enjoyed a lot. Ah, also, your facial expressions are a joy to watch, they convey an awful lot with very little, ^_^.

But, much like Vinnie, you tend to use a lot of shortcuts in your animation, to create the illusion of movement when there is none, and cut asides. You both use them expertly, so that unless you're actively looking for them you won't notice it, but it does make the movie a little bit weaker than otherwise, since in repeated viewings this becomes evident.

Still, please don't think this is a big criticism; your animation and drawing skills are excellent and make you among the very, very best animators out there (and the evolution of your skills from Bliss to this and finally Get With the Times is notable for the high levels you began with!) and I should emphasize that the shortcuts really aren't evident in a first view.

- The music is both well chosen and very good. It fits the tone of the movie well and there's a good deal of coordination between them, so no complaints there, so to speak.

- I really like the story of this movie, it's very simple, but executed extremely well, being tight, concise and with just the right length. I like the pacing too, the break just before the climax that doesn't skimp and the flow of the movie just works, with increasingly growing threats that make sense. It's not very original, but you use your tropes well.

So, overall, this is tremendous movie, fun, really well made, that's very polished and a joy to watch that, barring a few nearly 'invisible' shortcuts, is absolutely fantastic. Cheers and kudos and I honestly look forward to seeing what you'll come up with next!

[Infiltrator v1.0]

...

... this is going to sound harsh, so please bear with me, but this is almost a very good movie, but only almost. It has a great deal creativity and originality and good overall flow and timing, but it's basically let down because you overuse some animation short-cuts and/or animation style that simply wasn't as good as everything else. Allow me to explain:

- The drawing quality is pretty good and I do like the overall style you use, especially for the characters. It's quite original and everything has enough detail so as to stand-out nicely, although because you only use very muted colours throughout, you might have taken advantage of that to be able to highlight anything of interest by giving them bold colours, although that's only a suggestion.

The problem here is the animation itself. Firstly, there are several noticeable off-model drawings of yours characters that are very jarring, especially given the overall serious tone that you went for, as they sometimes suddenly look fat or very distorted. But not only that, you overuse several animation short-cuts, such as having a semi-static scene, that requires very little actual animation, last for too long and then have scenes that have real action in them, last way too short.

A perfect example of the latter is the corridor shooting sequence; you focus far too long on the defenders shooting whilst standing still and the initial reaction of the attacker, but when the attacker finally does get to cover, the sequence is so short that we barely understand how he moves.

I know that this is also down to a conscientious style choice that you went with, that does give a certain punch to the more 'animated' sequences, but it's not one that I like, so unfortunately, I felt a little let down by the movie in this aspect. But, to make it 100% clear, doesn't mean it was bad, far from it, it's just that compared to the quality that's visible in everything else, the only 'ok' animation stands out as the worst aspect of the movie.

- The music was pretty good and it fits the movie's tone well, it has some nice 'crescendo' parts and is just fun to listen too. Overall coordination between the on-screen action and the song was pretty good too, you made good use of the song.

- The story isn't really anything special, but that's besides the point; this is an action movie where what matters are the set-pieces. And the set-pieces, although a somewhat cliche, do have plenty unique twists to make them genuinely interesting (such as the faces, the way 'rage' is created, the interface instructions, and so forth).

So, overall, this is a good, but only good movie. It has a lot of things going for it, such as very creative twists, interesting character and overall design, really good soundtrack and good flow, but it's let down by some unpolished animation and the by the use of too many animation short-cuts.

But, to end in a positive note, this animation does show a great deal of potential and I can honestly say that I am looking forward to seeing what you'll come up with in the future!

^_^

tap5y responds:

Thanks very much for the detailed review!

[Ça Ça Mirlaquerr]

...

... I hate leaving short reviews, I really do. A good review should have so many things, including suggestions on how to improve in the future... and yet. If I don't leave a review now, I'll probably neglect to do so in the future, so here's the lamentably short version:

THAT

WAS

UTTERLY

FANTASTIC

Seriously. Even better than the previous Mr Coo's, the animation was so silky smooth, just so amazingly smooth... that it's almost painful to watch. The drawing quality was great throughout, only in a few places it could have been a touch better such as in a few backgrounds (but it's tiny complaint).

Loved the music, hit the tone just right, so it fit with the on-screen action really well and and the coordination between the story and song was really high throughout.

The originality, creativity and vision that the movie has is quite simply amongst the best I've seen, likely in any medium. And even though it's very different from the tone of previous Mr Coo movies, he still worked well as the main character!

And so on and on. Honestly, there's so little I can criticize, that I won't, even if I should (mainly because it'd take too much time and effort to articulate it). You have my wholehearted admiration, this is massive accomplishment and you deserve major kudos and recognition for it; a serious contender for movie of the year.

Felicitaciones. Usted simplemente está entre los mejores de los mejores, sin exageracion. Espero que el éxito está siempre con usted y no puedo esperar a ver lo que vas a llegar a la próxima!

[Nap]

...

... I like this, I like this a lot. It's a bit rough around the edges and uses a few too many shortcuts here and there, but it's wildly imaginative and interesting, with a good soundtrack to boot. Allow me to detail my analysis:

- Graphically that was, on average, very good. I like the pseudo-rotoscoping style that pervades the whole animation, not to mention the actual rotocosping in the beginning, and the animation is refreshingly fluid for the most part. I mean, when you're focusing on the main character(s), their movement is very smooth and looks great.

However, not all is perfect, as it's quite evident that it wasn't as fun to animate the sheep themselves, some of the background movement that they have clearly lack the attention to detail and polish that you dedicated to everything else and you a couple of animation shortcuts to produce the illusion of movement where there is none.

It's only so evident because of the contrast with the on-screen action and maybe that was the intent (dreams are <weird> sometimes), so this may be unfair criticism and, in any case, the pros far outway the positives. I specially liked the creativity in the scenes being shown, you can translate your imagination well.

- Soundwise, really good stuff here. No sound effects, but none were needed, as the music not only fit the overall movie well, but also punctuated the scenes perfectly as the coordination between the on-screen action and soundtrack was spot-on. Quite possibly the strongest aspect of the movie itself, so kudos for it!

- Storywise, nothing too new or clever, but I like the flow of it and I thought that the overall length was also well picked, it's just long enough to tell a quick story without becoming tiresome. Let me put it like this: you wanted to tell the story of a short nap and it's dream within and, from that perspective, the story accomplishes this in a interesting way. It's a simple objective, but you hit it with stride.

So, overall, despite a few flaws, this is a interesting and well made movie that's very inventive visually and has a great soundtrack and (some) excellent animation; with a few less shortcuts and a bit more polish, it could have been exceptional itstead of just very good.

Cheers!

Spillkaidah responds:

As i've said in a few other responses here, i acknowledge the shortcuts completely and i agree it's not where it could be. I need some more experience with deadlines and time allocation. Also, none of it was rotoscoped, but i appreciate your faith!

Thanks for the extensive review.

[Repercussions of Evil]

...

... pretty good stuff here, specially the quality of the drawings, although I'd question some of the decisions you made for this movie, which I'll elaborate below:

- The drawing quality and animation level is pretty high throughout, especially for the characters themselves. The backgrounds could have used a little more work sometimes, but the biggest issue on this aspect (in my opinion) is actually due to the inconsistent drawing style; you mix some highly atmospheric and stylized drawings (with shadows, mono-colours and whatnot) that are mostly static, with some more 'standard' stuff for the animated parts.

Now, that's not too much of a bad thing, but it is jarring to see the different styles mixing like that, it makes us unsure on how we should look at the movie (but more on that later). Still, as I mentioned before, the animation/drawing quality is pretty high and is pretty polished (even the tweens you use) making this aspect the best of the movie. Special kudos for the 'father animation', that was particularly good.

- The audio is a bit of a mixed bag, the music is well selected and fits well (i.e., good choice of remixes), as our the sparse but well used sound effects, but the voice overs... well, it's complicated. The voices are well recorded and sounds appropriate with a good-to-decent delivery, but we what was the tone you were going for? Was the narration meant to be over-the-top or were you playing it straight? Both?

- In fact, let me address this question now: was the movie meant to be funny by playing the Chimera's story straight, by being over-the-top or by inserting original humour? I mean, the ending scene and 'atmospheric' scenes are clearly reaching for the first (and play things almost too straight, it's particularly jarring), the 'father/son' scene achieves the 2nd really well and the 'colonel warning' and 'plasma cracker' scenes go for the 3rd.

It seems almost like you couldn't quite decide what to do with the material and this inconsistency weakens the overall movie, despite the fact that each individual segment is pretty well made. Heck, even the character design seems to reflect this (compare the Cyberdemon with everyone else, for example). Something akin to the sum being greater the whole, unfortunately. Next time I'd recommend that you go for one, maybe two different things and try to stick with it.

So, overall, this is a pretty good movie that has polish and is pretty good in each separate aspect, but is inconsistent in what style and what it seems to be trying to achieve, which let's it down a bit. Still, it's another step up and showcases your talents pretty well, so kudos!

Galneda responds:

Thanks for the awesome review!

The tone really was all over the place, but I had the idea in my head that by playing the absurd story straight would have subtle humor in it's own. That anyone who would take Chimaera's story seriously was just preposterous. It also served as practice for me to try out a dramatic voice (an earlier attempt would be the Dickneck Trailer, by means of comparison.)

This was a project for "Advanced 2D Flash Animation" and the only thing advanced about it was our professor demonstrating uses of the bone tool. I didn't learn anything new except how to make a replay button thanks to a friend sitting next to me. Because of this, I also used this flash as a platform to expirement with different styles...suffice to say, I guess that's why I didn't really focus on an overall tone, but I absolutely agree with you that the clashing styles can be a little jarring.

Having said that, I'm grateful that neither of the styles outright sucked, in your opinion! lol

I aim to outdo myself with each flash, so I hope you like whatever comes out next! Thanks again for taking the time to view and review.

[Green riding hood]

...

... not perfect, but with a lot of heart and passion, this is a pretty good movie. It does use one too many animation shortcuts, but that's more than compensated by how interesting and fun it is! Anyway, allow me to detail my review:

- Graphics, well, a bit of mixed bag here. I like your drawing style, it's pretty clean and somewhat minimalistic, but it's nice to look at and just works with some nice details here and there. Backgrounds were a bit sparse and you did re-use them, but it's a lot better than, say, just a white background. Your characters look great too, it's very easy to see the Wolf as a 'sexy predator' and Green as something of an average Joe, and their facial expressions are very clear and well done.

The animation itself varied greatly in quality. The frame-by-frame stuff you did, such as the Wolf's movement and Green Hood's fall in the 'two path forest' part is excellent, being fluid and detailed, so kudos there! Even the tweens you use are, for the most part, well done and fit the overall movie well.

However, the chase sequences are a little bit off, particularly when we see through Green Hood's eyes as he looks backs and you use a static piece of background that's slowly pulling back and shaking to convey a sense of movement; it's a simple technique that's easy to do, but doesn't look very good, specially since you're pulling back so slowly, but when we see Green Hood running, the background is flying past him. Also, as you mentioned, the last two scenes or so are off lesser quality when compared to everything else.

Nevertheless, if I criticize this point so heavily, it's only because your fbf stuff is so good that I feel that, had the whole movie been done as such, this would have been an exceptional animation. And it still is much better than average!

- Your choice of soundtrack is perfect, it's a great Franz Ferdinand song that fits the tone of the movie well. I like how you coordinate the on-screen action with the song as, for the most part, it works really well (such as the intro!).

However, in one or two parts, you stretch a single piece of action, such as Green Hood running from the Wolf and then into the branch or he untying the ropes, a bit too much; you probably should have tried to change our perspective of the action from some other angle or simply shown something else. Again, if I'm critical, it's because when you got it right, it looks great!

- The story is an interesting and fun twist on the familiar fairytale. I like how the characters interact and the story plays out, it gives a few clever twists that keeps things interesting and you manage to convey a lot without using any sort of dialogue. It also flows, for the most part, well and because the song isn't too long, it's also short and to the point.

So, overall, this is a pretty good movie that has some excellent parts and some, well, slightly lazy parts, but nevertheless is interesting, fun and well made enough that it should be deservedly on the front page, so cheers and kudos! I can't wait to see what new movies and/or animations you'll bring us in the future.

^_^

gusana responds:

Thank you!!! I loved your critique, this is what i'm talking about n_n Yeah some parts were made quickly because the lack of time.

[Fisthead vs. Pinata]

...

.... quality stuff here, although a bit rough around the edges, and fun. I was smiling throughout, but then, near the end, I simply could hold back and I started laughing out loud, so you've got the humour down pat. Anyway, let me detail my analyses:

- The animation was, overall, quite good, although it's pretty obvious that you cut corners in some places (such as the girl's movement), but not where it really counts, so it's not a big deal, it's smooth as it needs for the action and gore scenes and the lip synching is pretty well done, both of which are where it really matters anyway in this movie.

The drawing quality is good, but again, could have been a bit better. Maybe it's the kind of style that you use, but it looks a bit rough in some places, almost like a sketch but not quite. I don't exactly how to explain it, it's as if it was a first draft, needing a bit of cleaning up. In any case, I shouldn't complain too hard, as it's pretty detailed (including the backgrounds, which is nice) and there's little off-model, so it's pretty consistent and accurate.

Overall, these two aspects are both your strongest and weakest points, the animation and drawing quality are significantly above average but, at the same time, they seem to be below of what you seem capable of. I know this isn't very clear criticism, but I just don't know exactly how to explain it...

- Voice acting was pretty good, appropriately over the top and well recorded, except the women voices (try contacting the Voice Actors Club next time, so that you can get a female voice actress). The sound effects are spot-on and well used, and I really liked the way you used the (great) music, to punctuate the scenes, instead of simply being there.

- The story is pretty shallow, but that's not the point, what really matters here is the humour, which is great, as it's so over the top that it works really well, specially since there's a nice crescendo in the action, becoming progressively more and more crazy (although the climax could have been even more violently insane). This is why this movie works, because of the vapid-but-fun humour.

So, overall, this is a funny movie that could use a little more work in some parts, but still is enjoyable to watch, and probably accomplishes what you wanted to achieve with it. It also deserves more attention than what it has right now...

[The Krypt]

...

... stunning, as usual, absolutely stunning! Kol, you're an fantastic artist, you have an uncanny talent for producing works rich with metaphors, allusions and extremely surreal imagery, combined to produce stunning results. I might not always agree with the 'moral of the story' that you're trying to pass, but it's an immense pleasure to watch your movies nevertheless. Allow me to detail my review:

- Graphically, this movie really is spectacular. You have a gift for creating images and scenes that are extremely surreal and have a lasting impact, while at the same time inevitably alluding to something from the real world. The end result is captivating.

And in this particular case, you've clearly improved your skills significantly, as the animation is now 'smoother' than ever, with transitions, always a strong point, now happening in one smooth movement. Your skills as an animator and your visual imagination are among the best I know off.

- Soundwise, as per norm, a really good and interesting soundtrack. It fits with the overall theme of the movie well and it keeps your 'blood pumping' throughout. You also manage to make the on-screen action and the soundtrack integrate well.

And so, to keep this review short, I'll end things here. But let me emphasize again: you are a really talented artist and this movie is a among the best you've ever done!

(In Russian):
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