Neophyte-Ronin's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ouija!!!]

Sound if Not Brilliant Effort with Few Flaws...!

The visual efforts are particularly complex, with multiple background shots and a brilliant opening background of an orderly suburb at night. Atmospheric effects are okay, although the rain looks a bit fat. The cat's meow sounded off but the lightning and thunder captured the essence of the season.

Sounds are a bit low in volume. That ought to be readily noticeable.

Given that there's but a single voice-over thespian performing all four parts, one would imagine that things would get outright poor. They do not. Actually, it isn't just well-voiced, but well-acted too. We get a grasp for each of the trick-or-treaters, including the ill-fated cynic in the imp costume. Though their tone of voice and inflections are diverse, it is obvious that it is the same voice-over thespian, since there isn't a good application of multiple accents. Still, they all sound like typical pre-teen offenders, and the writing is convincing. Lip synchronizing isn't too bad, either.

The plot is actually weak however, perhaps because the deadline was closing in and they figured someone had to die. The old parlor game of Ouija has so many possibilities to tap into--a means of contacting a fickle, possibly volatile spirit world!--that having someone die just from something in the toilet... well, it seems rather lame. The actual death scene isn't nearly as polished as the rest of the story, including the pissing sequence (which was simple as shitting to implement). Thus, we can still tell that this is a rushed effort.

But who really cares if it's a late entry? Halloween in October sucks. I envision remaking the whole Hallow's Eve as a whole "All Hallow's Season" from October 13th to December 23rd. The 31st would be our heavy date, and the only reason Thanksgiving is celebrated is because we get to butcher a turkey. That's got to be good for something. In any case, this is great as a debut effort for Gaia and AndroidEnt is a respectable talent. Hopefully the next project won't be as ambitious than it is well-made, and Newgrounds audiences will certainly look out for these artisans in the future.

[Bee & Dino]

Admirable First Effort; A Bit Loud, Though

The application of movieclips, mild humor, and colorful, lively imagery, are well-defined in this project.

This Flash contains an overpowering, annoying song, which is probably rendered at its full bitrate. It gets abruptly cut off once the movie is over the the "Replay" Button appears, so it wasn't even used to its full potential. I would recommend changing the song; peruse the Audio Portal to find an acoustic guitar piece that still fits the sentiment of your piece.

In addition to being loud (Flash does allow volume programming), the song was set at a full bit rate, meaning massive memory use. As it is written in Newgrounds' FAQ regarding submissions and said etiquette, this is considered wasteful. The site once enforced a 5 MB file size cap; you'd have to send the piece to an admin's e-mail for an appeal and hope your Flash was good enough for its size. If you care to broadcast your ideas online, remember that Flash is popular because it is versatile and uses small file sizes. Consider "Optimizing" vector drawings and use sound file editing programs like Audacity in conjunction with traditional Flash techniques to keep a submission low in size.

The Flash is short, sweet, and reflects fairly upon its author. Keep these suggestions in mind and don't stop pushing technical boundaries. It's also nice to see that this flash is in decent taste as well, unlike most authors whose debuts consist of debauched stick brawls. Let's just say your head is above water and you're paddling reasonably well.

[School Project]

First Efforts are Always Roughshod

Your first shot into Flash is objectively good--the typical first try--and by that, I mean this thing looks crude and roughshod compared to everything else! Unlike most "first Flash" attempts, however, there is a structure and a level of quality above and beyond the typical dabbler; obviously, your entry into the foray is serious and with some prior discipline, thanks to your art classes.

As for the Flash itself, it is supposed to be a promotional piece for an animation/design studio. Typically, these should snappier in terms of speed, or cut down. When Greasy Moose made "Captain Planet Goes to Copenhagen" (Captain Planet Strip Club, as Newgrounds knows it), they got an Australian television program to air it. To do so, however, they were asked to slice off twenty seconds from its running time.

Don't feel awful about slicing out bits and pieces, because even Chris Voigt has to do it on occasion. Some things in your Flash could be cut out completely--the red & yellow balls, for instance, didn't come out so well--while others could be elaborated upon, like the mouse animation. Another animation caught the corner of my eye, but it was so brief that I couldn't really gauge its quality. Still, I wouldn't bother replaying the movie just to see that one flash of animation, because from my guess, it looked too crude to bother with. The attempt had detracted from the overall vision. Despite this, presenting the "Animation" and "Graphic Design" terms in scrapyard junk was a nice touch.

The overall theme for this Flash, therefore, appears terribly gritty and uses many dark colors, which plays against an advertisement designed to extol any product/service's better virtue. In other words, even though it is called "Scrapyard Animation" (a moniker that would work for you, incidentally), there should be brighter colors to counteract the dark and depressing overtones of the piece. In advertising, white flashes are often used because the color suggests tranquility, able to settle the audience like warm milk to an upset stomach.

While it isn't anything exemplary, this Flash reflects well on your present skill... which transcends anybody else who has yet to craft a Flash! Thus, you are in decent standing, believe it or not. Push hard to polish those stones and soon your scrapyard will become a respectable recycling agency. One can only hope.

foolishcharacter responds:

wowwe, what an encouraging and intricate reasponse! I'll make sure to consider these points later on, as I continue working on more personal projects in the future.

[PencilTest Animation Reel]

Good to See Improvement

It's probably still past your grasp, but I bet you could incorporate more frame-by-frame styling in actual Flashes, based on this entry.

It's a very swift piece. It's a decent demo, but you can do better. Trust me.

[Stick Dance 3: M.Jackson]

For Once, No Bashing of a Celebrity at Newgrounds!

Although animating the stick figure MJ had a lukewarm result, the diffculty of pulling that off correctly sort of compensated. It's hard to perfectly animate a stick figure--or any figure, for that matter--to the style of Michael Jackson.

It is, however, heartwarming to know that someone around Newgrounds won't utterly trash a celebrity, as is the typical response to just about any celebrity. Few can understand the sort of pressures of the performer's life, or the personality type required to handle said pressure. What I would give if there was ever a functional purpose behind complete isolation from the outside world!

In all, the core element could have been better, but as a tribute to the man and legend, nobody could get anymore positive. Good job.

[cupcake?]

Psych-a-delic

This is reminiscent of the old Atari 2600 games that would start messing with the color hex-codes throughout the whole color scheme. By that, I mean when you weren't playing a round in the game, the game would start changing the colors on the television strictly to prevent wear and tear on the screen. Pair that with electronic scrambling of a criminal's face on the show Cops (or the fade-out effects from the Super Nintendo) and you have a cartoon that would only entertain someone who smoked Silverleaf and Stranglekelp over a bonfire.

Didn't the green creature remind you a little bit of E.T. for a moment? E.T. was the worst damn game on the Atari 2600, incidentally.

Despite all this, this was a pleasant diversion for some ungodly reason. Good luck with the contest!

TheBoogley responds:

You are a knowledgeable fellow, and it has been a pleasure to read your review.
We must do this again some time.

[bluh bluh bluh.]

Cute and Crazy but Short

It's a step above Knox, the clay fanatic. Even so, it's a bit quick. It's understandable. It's irrepressibly cute as a trade-off.

[Asaroki 02- Encouter]

Far From Perfect

Since I didn't mention much about the initial episode's introduction to the game, I realized that it was inconceivably crucial... far more crucial than this section.

The thing I hated the most is that I missed the misspell of "Encounter". It's not as lackluster an art style that you might think, as it is colorful and classic Anime... very distracting for the eye. Proportions are still an issue, but put it aside--this took a year to finish, top to bottom, and episodes are being released now. The crude tweening and ill proportions are the only things marring up the art direction.

Another thing that got me is both lengthy news report, a "Lecture" that conveys information to an audience in a very dry fashion. In writers' workshops, they use that term because it distracts you from the action. It's also inconceivable that a series of isolated murders, connected or not, could cause a massive panic. It wouldn't be branded an act of terrorism either. It has to be a large series of murders before people start to worry, and despite the work put into the television sequence, it didn't fully explain the severity of the conflict. Thus, it failed in two ways: it spat out facts, and those facts weren't even the correct ones to get Raine out of her comfort zone.

In that sense, Rose better not be a throwaway character. She appears to be the antithesis to Raine in temperament and occupation. This could explain their friendship, but their differing approaches to problems might cause things to go sour, even shatter the friendship. Authors cannot, under any circumstances, leave alone any situation that could be exploited into generating a plot-advancing conflict.

Dialog is generally strained, either overacted or off the mark completely, possibly both. Phone calls are horrendous. If you ever played the U.S. port of Grandia (PlayStation), you'll know that the US localization was critically acclaimed--par excellance, actually--especially the in-game text. However, their voice-over performers utterly destroyed their lines... the vocal clips, of all things! You can't even call it talking, let alone acting! Granted, Grandia is a top-notch role-play adventure, worth its price in blood diamonds (if that's what it takes to secure a copy), but plenty of fans and magazines gave the game flak over that issue.

Asaroki's voice-over work immediately reminded me of Grandia's Curse. Now, should Laura continue to animate and perform voice-overs, then a few suggestions include writing a script through a series of prompts that suggest what conversations do and where they go... then hit record with Audacity in full swing to see where thespians take them. Or, simplify the process and write them only after talking to oneself while Audacity is recording.

Actually, talking to yourself is one of the most indispensable tools of any writer or thespian. Related tricks inlcude regularly performing stereotypical impersonations of stock character voices, testing your range, reading everything aloud (not just quotes) and, if you're totally stuck, seeking advice or networking with Rina-Chan (aka Kira Buckland), EgoRaptor, and Tomamoto, to name a few. Last I heard--don't quote me on it, it's been awhile--Rina-Chan operates a Voice Acting Club.

Last but not least, learn to listen! Listening to dialog, colloquialisms between people, dialects, and altering one's own voice, are all powerful tools to clear up any amateurish voice-over production.

The second episode of Asaroki doesn't generate nearly as much tension as the prior episode, but it is still eerie, and maybe a little girlie. I recommend they make a series entry for this one, and also recommend it to the Serious and Anime Collections... even if it is far from perfect.