Vert's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Captain Planet Rampage]

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... Chris, I've told you this so many times that I've literally lost count on how many times I've said it, but it's worthwhile repeating once more: you are one hugely talented artist, seemingly capable of producing animations with such a high level of quality effortlessly in a way that <shames> your pears. No really. The quality of this animation, in all aspects is just superb (and what I present now has been said before, but you deserve to hear it again!):

- The animation is fantastic. You are one of the few artists who can really draw and animate people speaking in a realistic manner, since we actually see the whole facial expression moving when people speak (as opposed to just their mouths). And characters' emotions are wonderfully clear, as their faces present details upon details (btw, have you ever seen Great Teacher Onizuka? There's something reminiscent of that anime in your style). The faces Cpt Planet has in this animation are amongst your finest ever, ranging from the hauntingly agonizing to the sinisterly terrifying.

But not only that, character movements are smooth too, your coloring / lighting is great and gives us all sorts of nice shades, your backgrounds are pretty well done (all more so since you actually create them), your drawings are impressively 3 dimensional and there are all sorts of great details all round.

I've never used this term before, nor am I qualified to give it out, but I'd deem you a <master> animator, as it shows, time and time again.

- Your character design, as always, is original and interesting, with a great deal of diversity, even minor characters are more than just stick figures and seem to have a significant deal of depth into them.

- The voice work is superb, as always. Your stable of voice actors, including yourself, are constantly producing good and diverse voices. You use sparse, but excellently well placed sounds effects that really spice up your work. And the Greasy Moose band is always making either spot-on songs that fit the scene really well, or songs that are so completely in opposition to what we're seeing on screen that it comes from the other way and somehow works even better.

- And, of course, the meat of the meal here are the stories. You have a great imagination, capable of producing Crazy Awesome moments all-the-freaking-time, on par with stuff like Axe Cop or Dr McNinja, but with a more mature approach and a sometimes biting satirical edge. It's tightly scripted, it shocks us with the unexpected twists, it has some excellently crafted dialogue and it's genuinely amongst the funniest things I know off.

And that's what makes your movies so special. Because, you see, you not only have the talents of a fantastic animator, but you have really, really funny and interesting stories to tell, a combination that's pretty much unrivaled.

So, in short: I was laughing and/or grinning virtually non-stop throughout this movie and it gave me massive amounts of glee and pleasure to watch it; I wholeheartedly enjoyed it for all it's aspects and it just shows the brilliance that you are.

I've completely lost my perspective on your movies, Chris, as I can no longer offer any sort of constructive criticism (which is bad, since any good review should offer some, so as to 'further the art'); I simply enjoy your stuff so much that I must be completely glossing over any and all problems they might have. I'm not even sure if I should keep reviewing them, as I'm not sure I can offer new and / or original comments.

And, on a final note, if you're ever looking for a voice actor (in particular, if you need someone who can do accents), drop me a line; it'd be a personal honour to work with you.

Sexual-Lobster responds:

i've read some GTO, and yeh the expressions the artist used were one of the things i liked about it.

thanks vert, for taking the time to write your review, and i'm really pleased you liked it! i was really unsure if this one was going to hold up as it was quite different in story style to my usual fare, so its nice to know.

[Titanomachina]

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... such artistic vision, and the patience, will and talent to execute them is astonishing. Sakupen, you are among the greatest flash artists I know of and with an such a range of different movies and themes... I really am utterly amazed at every new creation you bring life.

I can honestly say that I hope that some animation studio may, if this would be a destiny that you aspire to, find your work and vision and decide to give you a chance with a whole team behind you; I can only dream of the amazing things you may conjure.

But this is a review, not a statement of praise; I'll focus now on actually giving you feedback on the movie itself:

To begin, I get the feeling you were inspired, directly or indirectly by Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, right? It shows very clearly in the themes, in the backstory and and setting. But no matter what the influence, you've made it your own, which is more than commendable, since it's such a difficult task to accomplish.

And what you do in this setting is incredible too. Ultima Speranza looks almost sad and contemplative, but not quite, something of a thinker and philosopher of a titan, if such a thing can exist. Whereas Nohta-Mutuay is very much the wild beast, with a hint of his true origins, that he is. To achieve such depth of character, by their actions and looks, is hard, very hard.

And the visuals in general are utterly, utterly brilliant. Sure, you over utilize the setting sun to draw things in black (which is easier to animate), but whereas most animators, when they do this, it's painful clear their intentions and it detracts towards the movie, in your movie it has the opposite effect: it contributes tremendously towards the atmosphere.

And sure, you utilize tweens that are somewhat obvious a few times; so what? Everything, and I mean everything (backgrounds, foregrounds, characters, the sun, the sky!), is so well drawn, detailed and vivid, in a pale, used way, that any flaws I find are mere dustspecks, trifles that should not and must not be taken into consideration.

I mean, let me just focus on a single aspect of the visuals: the camera angles. You constantly change them, choosing excellent angles through which we can see the events take place <and> you use dynamic camera angles. Both things are really, REALLY hard to do in a animation, the first because it increases the effort necessary by a huge amount; the second because you really, really, really need to get it right (and it's really, really, really hard to do so!), because otherwise it can ruin the whole movie.

As for the music; the music. Words fail me. No really, words fail me. The movie itself would not be the same without this extraordinary song you've composed for it; it makes it whole, it creates the atmosphere, it tells a story, it does so much, and yet is so simple. It may be the greatest single accomplishment of the whole movie.

Now, I've offered very little criticism so far, and you must forgive me for being unable to do so. I really wish I could tell you where you could improve, but honestly, there isn't anything I can say, I think. Any criticism would sound so much like mere quibbles, that I'm discouraged to offer any. Sorry.

So, to sum things up, this is an extraordinary movie, that demonstrates that your talent, patience, will and vision are among the highest I know of in this medium. I can only end by saying one thing: thank you, for this, past and, should you choose to do so, future movies.

[WGJ4K: Mario Vs Sonic]

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... listen, I like your work, I really do. The Jerry series is very, very good, and even before that Adam Android, The Maxwell Edison Story and Joan and Mark are all movies I greatly admire. This series, however, isn't. It's Brawl Funnies all over again, an attempt at satire which, sadly, isn't funny, clever or incisive.

Satire, good satire at least, can have all those things combined. Ever read Gulliver's Travels? Not the bowdlerized kiddies version, the original one? It's one of the funniest books ever written and it completely skewers mankind in so many different ways. I mean it too, there's very little about humanity that isn't completely demolished.

And not just that, take The Colbert Report, The Discworld series, Have I Got News For You and, on NG, Parliament Deathmatch (to a small degree), Serial Environmentalist, Splash Attack and the Burnt Face Man series (again, to a certain extent). All examples of satire done right, by not letting their message detract from their humour.

You might try to reason, well, my targets try to be funny, but don't, so me not being funny is the whole point of the satire. That's ridiculous and a poor excuse for poor writing and I might accept it from other authors who have no such talent, but I can't take it from an author who <can> write well and has demonstrated as such is past movies, and who clearly dedicates a considerable amount of time on this movie.

Good satire <is> hard to do and, many times, it's completely unappreciated, but it never should have to sacrifice it's humour and quality to try to get a message across, <unless> it's done in a particularly clever or, perhaps, in a brutal, sledgehammer-to-the-face kind of way.

As it stands, the Mickey series falls short. It doesn't present anything new to an already bashed genre (and this is important, since it new criticisms would help this significantly) and it doesn't do so in a way I would classify as satirical, so, it just seems kind of pointless.

The beginning of the movie does seem that it might actually breakthrough and become satirical, but then quickly degenerates into pointlessness.

If I'm being so harsh, it's only because I can hope you can do so much better. I honestly believe you have some talent when it comes to writing, as the Jerry series eloquently and succinctly demonstrates, and I would hope that you might be able to rise above past movies and present, finally, some good satire on this much criticized genre. It would be something of a shining beacon in the mud.

Anyway, now that's done with, let me briefly talk about the technical details:

- Overall graphics and animation was good. I like some of the camera angles, specially in the end, and I particularly like the character design, not only because I like your overall style, but because it actually fits with the series subject really well. Mickey looks like a angry, anti-social low life even before he does anything, but not to the point of exaggeration or stereotyping.

Overall, this is probably the movie's greatest strength, as it showcases your considerable talents as an animator (and presenting diverse environments helps that a lot).

- Sound and music was, again, good. The voice acting was fine, Mickey (once again) being the stand out, and everything is cleanly recorded too. The music is nicely used to punctuate things and when called for and the intro, by Hania, deserves the biggest praise! So, again, overall good.

- The set pieces and overall flow of the story is actually fine (even if the actual content is not), although the movie is slightly longer than I would recommend it being. I know that dragging out a scene for sufficient amount of time goes from being funny, to not, to being funny again, but it doesn't quite work here.

So, story/satire aside, this is a quality movie, that doesn't skimp out although it's exactly outstanding. On these technical details alone, this movie <would> deserve it's current score, but for the want of a story, it does not.

I doubt this will do anything to change the future of the series, but I can always hope...

[Date for One]

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... Wonchop, you really have come a long way since your early animations and this is a testament on how your skills have grown considerably. It's cute, funny and well made, even touching. Allow me to detail my review:

- Graphics were pretty good. Everything was well drawn and reasonably detailed (loved the mecha carrot and Jeff Goldblum), the backgrounds were decent (well drawn, but lacking details) and the animation, although quite sparse, was very well made, being fluid and convincing (with the singular exception of the walking animation at the end).

The framing / camera angles of the scenes were also pretty interesting, when we see the main character from the front handing in the flower. Character design was quite original and looked good too.

- Sound-wise, the music was very well picked and fitted perfectly with the movie, the sound effects were spot-on and the (brief) voice acting was pretty good.

- Story-wise, that was quite clever and touching. I loved the fact you use no dialogue, it makes the identification with the characters much stronger and improves the movie!

The comedic and overall timing of the movie was fantastic, making it quite funny and heartwarming. I loved the flow of the movie too, I think you nailed it down perfectly. The movie was also exactly the right length, telling us the story without stretching it or the humour.

So, overall, a solid movie. You've taken a simple, but clever idea and executed it in a very good way, resulting in a really nice movie. Cheers and kudos for that!

[The Love I'm Searching 4]

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... a step up for you, Skaijo, and a great flash movie! You've matured and improved your animation significantly from your previous animations and if you keep this up, who knows, you might soon be rivaling Adam Phillips. ^_^ . Allow me to detail my review:

- Graphics really were that good. You may recall how I once commented (well, more like created a thesis!) on how you would eventually need to adopt a more 'FPF' styled animation to go further. Well, in this movie you've taken a massive stop in that direction by increasing the number of 'intermediary' poses when you use tweens (the final dance comes to mind, for example), which means that this is by far, your smoothest movie ever! It looks really, really nice. Kudos for that!

And, of course, apart from that, your drawings are also quite rich, specially the backgrounds which are always highly detailed, even if you did use a lot of photos this time (thankfully, they fit with the overall style really well). Also, loved the use of black and white scenes! They really added a nice touch to the movie and created a nice contrast.

- Musically, well, honestly I wasn't a big fan. Not bad, by any measure, but definitely not my cup of tea either and the main reason why I didn't give you a straight ten (which is kind of mean, on my part). And did you use a few, sparse sound effects (such as a girl exclaiming), or were they a part of the movie? Also, I must say that, unlike previous movies, there didn't seem to be there enough coordination with the on-screen action and the song itself...

- Character design, as always, was pretty good, with a lot of diversity in all characteristics and a coherent design. Pretty good, in other words! Actually scratch that, your character design really shines here, sometimes I think you rival with Vinnie (from the CCC series) in this aspect!

Storywise, not the most original of stories, BUT, with your creativity shined through, as usual, with some very interesting scenes and set pieces, making things fell very fresh and interesting. I think it helped that no camera angle for a single scene lasts too long, which is a tough thing to do, requiring lots of extra work, but which payed off well. Also, the length of the movie was pretty much spot on.

So, overall, a great step up for you, with greatly improved animation (and I must give emphasis to how important and great that is!), showcasing your creativity and talent very well. My only real criticisms lie with the choice of music (a purely subjective thing) and perhaps a better use of it. I.e., great movie!

Cheer and kudos! Can't wait to see what you'll come up with next. ;]

Skaijo responds:

You didn't like the song? :/ Shame. :3 It's a goody. Your taste in music may have also increased the sense of disconnect between the tune and the on-screen action. How's that for a thesis, my friend?

>:3

I appreciate the review, I'll be working on distinguished characters. Vinnie was one of my NG Generation 1 fav authors that inspired me to start animating in the first place. Any day I can be compared with him is a good one. If you're considering this a step up from the Layton animations, you make me laugh.

Thanks for the indepth reviews on no matter what I submit, Vert. :3 I look forward to them the most.

[Professor Layton pt. 5]

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... a definitive improvement over the previous one. This whole series is extremely twisted and dark, making it hard to get the humour right sometimes, but this time around I greatly enjoyed it. Let me detail my (quick) review:

- Graphics, well, there's some definitive improvements this time around, especially the backgrounds (which are a great step up from last time) and the different art style you use in the middle. I am slightly disappointed that your animation technique isn't that good (I think you've done better), but it's competent enough.

- Sound-wise, the voice acting was great, as usual, as was the music and the special effects. Not much to comment here, really, except that the dialogue was slightly more fluid and clear this time around, from having less two-people-speaking-at-the-same-time.

- Humour was the biggest improvement from the last movie. It's difficult to say what's changed, why it's much more funny, but it just is. This series is always skirting around the edges of dark humour, sometimes crossing the line (not necessarily in a good way), but this time around it worked well.

In part, I think, because you managed to compliment the character's insane dialogue and actions with the puzzle/videogame aspects of the game really well, kudos for that. It may not be laugh out loud funny, but it's funny and humorous nevertheless.

The length and flow was also pretty good, as was the contribution towards the overall storyline. I'm beginning to become quite curious as to how this is all going to end, despite my strong suspicion that things aren't going to end well for anyone.

So, overall, a solid and funny entry for the Layton series, highly enjoyable. Cheers and kudos!

[Maybe It's a Virus]

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... against my usual style, here's a relatively quick review for this cheery and fun movie. But I will go into detail:

- Graphics are pretty good. You favored style over polish and details, which isn't necessarily bad, but neither good. I mean, Most of the images you create are quite simple to make (a couple of circles and a ellipse can go a long way!), but they look good, for the most part. I also love the use of colours in this movie, the purple hues with black and white fits really well.

However, as I said before, a little more detail, a little more polish (the mushrooms, for example, look slightly poor) and more complex animations (aka, something more than simple motion tweens), would have improved this aspect significantly. Oh, and the choice of font was somewhat a let down, didn't really fit in.

- Music was top notch, really good stuff. Your friend Julia has a great singing voice with a nice delivery and the song lyrics, although cliche, still sound fun and are enjoyable. The rest of the band accompanies well too. The song's structure, although very simple, still makes for a good song. Overall, although this isn't the most creative thing out there, still sounds fresh and fun, quite likely due to the delivery.

- The overall music / animation coordination was a mixed bag. The intro, with the eyes, is perfect for example, as are the windmills and the rockets launching. But the Zelda stuff looked completely out of place with the song and some of the random transitions, with the balloons for example, although following the rhythm, felt a little too random. This could have used more creativity, I reckon.

So, overall, a fun, pretty good movie for a very good song, that could have used a little more work, both in the ideas and the execution, but that despite this, has enough charm and style to become better-than-just-good.

Cheers and kudos! Hope to see more movies from you and more songs from Julia's band too!

[Parliament Deathmatch]

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... I don't know how you do it, I really don't know Chris. But EVERY SINGLE MOVIE you've been giving us the past year has been crazy awesome, clever and funny on a whole new level. This movie is no exception. I wish I could somehow take your skills and talent, bottle it up and sell it; I'd make a fortune! But allow me detail my review:

- Graphics are great, as usual. Great, detailed facial expressions WITH perfect lip syncing (which even has chin movement, which is pretty hard!) is a trademark of your animations and, again, this movie is no exception. Sparse but precise and well done animation and nice character design (they really look like politicians) round up the positive aspects of this movie.

The only aspects of the graphics of this animation that I felt could have been slightly better would have been a more diverse range of camera angles and better 3-D animation in the beginning , though the movie doesn't suffer from either.

- Sound-wise, well, silly as hell, but in a good way. The music was utterly simple and silly, like in a old B movie (I mean, c'mon, Organs?!) but worked, somehow, beautifully, and the sound effects were even more silly (someone saying what sounded like 'Woosh!', for heavens sake!), but again, it's sufficiently campy that it's funny.

Voice acting was, as usual, spot-on. I mean, both you and Liam have very distinctive voices, so I recognize them from previous cartoons, but your both quite talented as voice actors, so that's not a big issue.

- Story-wise, well, crazy awesome as usual. But slightly too short and coming off too much like a one joke gag, without an steady increase of crazy moments which is norm in your work, such as in Don't Worry, Son, or more development of a story and/or jokes. So it's not really your best movie in this department, sadly...

... BUT, it's still very funny and 'epic funny' too, which is why even in this, one of your weaker movies, I still have huge, mad grin and clinch my fists with joy when I see the great payoff! You always seem to come up with some genuinely creative, original and funny way to turn the mundane into the awesome.

So overall, a very good movie, with all the polish you usually apply in the graphics and sound departments (which means that these are great aspects of your movie!), but slightly lacking in the story / joke department, but only slightly.

Cheers and kudos!

Sexual-Lobster responds:

thanks vert for the really detailed review!

when you wrote this i hadn't posted an explanation in the description section, but in a nutshell its an attempt to get on to a tv show here in australia that asks for 1 minute satirical videos, so this is in fact TOO long by 15 seconds, i'm hoping they'll still play it.

the comment is about leadership speculation and stuff, the snake woman deputy is considered a better politician than the leader (who was more of an experiment (in australia we have a saying where if you become someone's experiment you become their guinea pig)).

[Shards and Splinters]

...

... not your best work, HeRetiK, but interesting nevertheless. If I'm not mistaken, you attempted to make something akin to the 'Around the World' clip from Daft Punk, by associating certain images with certain sounds, right? If so, it's an interesting concept to work with, but I have misgivings with the music chosen... anyway, allow me to detail my review:

- Graphics were, well, interesting. I see clearly that you've taken some suggestive, but normal images such as masks, knives and lips, and applied generous amounts of layers and effects to produce something quite bizarre, even if we can still identify these objects.

I'm guessing you're somehow attempting to 'symbolize' the sounds via the objects you chose and I think I might have identified one or two connections (such as the knife sound being a somewhat 'cutting' sound, for the lack of better word). Even if you're not, you still managed to create some very interesting imagery and I like the way you use special effects to achieve this; it's provocative.

However, despite the illusion of movement, as you re-used your imagery constantly, it came out looking a bit lazy. And I know this might be very well against the spirit of your project, but it might have been more interesting if you attempted different effects for the images in different scenes or somehow provided us with something more unique, as the repetition comes out too strongly.

- Musically, well, I'm pretty confident that you choose this song for some reason, although I can't guess why, so this next criticism might come out completely flat, as the reason, whatever it might have been, is probably a good one.

My personal qualms with this song is that it is a very difficult song to hear/listen to/'digest', it's something so radically different that very rarely I've heard something like this before. I'm not saying it's a bad song, but its so strange and extreme that I'm not even sure how to classify it! As such, you have to a high tolerance towards 'extreme songs' (at the lack of a better word) to appreciate this project more.

For example, personally, I think I have a quite high tolerance towards non-mainstream songs (I listen to Shellac!) and I found it incredibly tough to go through the song the first time. Heck, my ears are still ringing/deaf a bit as I write this review!

So, maybe the choice of something easier on the ears, as long as it fits what ever idea made you choose this song, might have made things more accessible, which I feel would be a virtue in this case.

The coordination between the images and the song, on the plus side, was spot-on, a must in this sort of flash.

All in all, this is an interesting flash that comes out as more of an art project than anything else. It's provocative in a way, defiantly so because of it's song, but maybe too difficult for a normal person to be able to stand through. Still, major props for the guts on making something like this and kudos for your creativity and I'll look forward to seeing what you can up next. Cheers!

HeRetiK responds:

alright, first of all, thanks for this detailed review.

- yes i tried to at least partially associate certain images with certain sounds. it's just about finding the right imaginery to the right sounds.

- the reptitiveness unfortunately lies in the nature of this kinds of clips. it's more like the visuals for a show than an actual movie.

- the music - lol yeah. don't ask me why, but somehow i just love noisy, experimental, erratic electronic music. at least sometimes, that is.

as in most of my works i chose the music first and then made the according video, not the other way round. in this case i deliberately went for something extreme.