MRat's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Slick Nick - Private Dick]

I think my sides split.

Ok, I'll say the negative first. It was very, very sloppy and the sound editing, quality, and mixing was subpar.

Still the script, the fact that the animation was simply fantastic (very weighted and loads of frame-by-frame goodness), and the overall premise made this endlessly enjoyable. All the voice acting was perfect, despite the recording quality being fairly shit. Those backgrounds were something else. Childish and unclean though they may be, the contrast between them and the cast made the characters stand out and the focus never left them.

This is probably one of the most enjoyable things I've seen here in a long time.

cpaaron responds:

Thanks for the honest feedback! I think the audio issues are mostly just in this Newgrounds version. The .avi video versions on Youtube and Dailymotion are really a lot better to watch. The lowered audio quality was the only way I could make the video fit under 10mb.

[Fate and a Full Moon]

Well I love Porcupine Tree.

I'm glad I found another fan. The song really suited this piece, and Lazarus has always ranked amongst some of the most beautiful music I've heard.

I really appreciated the unique and somber approach here. It was a very well directed short, for the most part, and a lot of the design concepts appealed to me.

Still, there were some major flaws that really stood out and detracted from me being totally immersed. For one, some of that animation was very obviously rotoscoped, and it was extremely wobbly and thus conflicted a great deal with the very solid weighty backgrounds. Another thing was the meeting of the two at the train station. While I loved the concept of the effects, the whole scene fell very flat. The music began to swell and nearly cried out of action and movement, but all that happened was a very static hug. I would have loved to see something more there, because I just didn't get that emotional resonance I felt you were going for. Finally, those human drawings all seemed to really push for realism. The proportions were wide set and rounded, without a huge stylistic influence in the anatomy, but the faces were exceedingly bland, which was another factor I found highly distracting.

Those flaws still though simply couldn't outweigh how well paced this was. I think above all else, minus the aforementioned hug scene, this movie moved with a near perfect rhythm. Also some of those shots, particularly the bird's eye of the train moving across the country-side, were breathtaking.

I would very easily recommend this to anyone looking for something more than a cheap thrill and instant gratification.

Jimp responds:

Yeah they are an amazing band, this song is especially beautiful :)

I definitely agree with you about the rotoscoping. The only rotoscoped bit was the "yawn" part, which i did about august last year. I would have liked to have smoothed it up before finishing it but I didnt have time.

I also get what you said about the characters. This realistic style is kinda new to me, im used to drawing things more cartoony, but this piece definately made me focus on anatomy and realism.

Cheers for the awesome review man!

[Welcome To Jokergrounds]

The voices.

Those voices were spot on. I loved them. Sadly they were the only thing I liked.

The lipsync didn't match the dialogue at all, the drawings were really strangely formed and very stiff, the animation was a sequences of tweens mving the characters in ways that hardly had no context.

Here are some exercises to improve that sort of animation blunder. Have someone tape you having a conversation, then study your body language. Your movements should emphasize the things you say. You characters im this just looked like they were moving for the sake of moving, which is an annoyance to watch.

The entire script didn't interest me either. I'm one of the biggest Batman fans you're going to find, and I especially love Harley and the Joker, but their presence is no excuse for poor writing. While I found the dialogue itself authentic to the characters and comics, as more the animated show from the 90s, it did nothing to help the story in a unique way. It felt very pedestrian.

All in all, I ended up pretty bored. If I was judging this based solely on how you presented the Joker you'd have a 15 out of 10, but as an entire cartoon, it was sorely lacking.

Dekathos responds:

Ok. One thing you should know about me is I'm really very negative. So please don't take anything I say personally or make it bum you out as well.

I am aware of a lot of what you said already. As I said I'm negative. I know about the animation problems. I mentioned that several times but I wanted to get this out cause it was old and the concept is old and no way do I even care to mention Newgrounds in a flash again, even.

Finishing it was difficult. I sorta had to keep doing things a certain way I used to that I know don't work anymore to fill in the gaps of what was already there.

If I scrapped the whole thing and started over I would of never of finished it or even gave it a second glance.

I don't know if I'll ever submit anything that shows off more animation then story in the future I find that can be boring and even a little pretentious at times as an artist will sometimes sacrifice story for animation, or they show they are incapable of plot at all. I don't eve know why I'm saying this as I can't even imagine working on something like that for a while, but yes I'll try.

I'm a bit burnt out now. See if more people on Newgrounds thought like you'd probably be more inclined to take making flash more seriously. As it is, what I ultimately would like to make flash of, would be too daunting a task if I was more serious or professional or whatever.

I'm sorry you didn't like the story. I'm a little confused that you like the way the Joker was portrayed but not the plot since he was part of it but that's ok although a little disconcerting. I sorta think that it wouldn't make a difference with better animation if the plot isn't liked.

This kind of thing with tremendous amount of dialog is a huge pain to put together and I gather at times even more difficult for the viewer to swallow as it's not done that often on Newgrounds.

But in short, in the future I'll work on my animation. I don't expect much will come from it though when I'm messing around for fun and my confidence level is not always very hot, either. I doubt anything else I animate will come out like this. I don't tend to do things the same way twice anymore and I know the way I constructed this was poorly thought out.

Also if you ever look at the front page, you ever wonder, why the fuck even bother? I do. It's an awful wrong way to look at it, I know. Which is why I need a break.

[Mona]

Nothing short of spectacular.

This short speaks volumes about the appeal of simple elegance. With a a runtime seemingly short of a minute, we are given such gracious insight into the mind of an artist forced to face a strong moral dilemma head on. The metaphor is thin, and we peer through the veil to realize that Ansel and Nickolson have presented to future of an internet artist to us. After all, there are demons within all our creations and they will certain manifest to us as we battle to come to grips with out actions.

I also THOUGHT THE DICK WAS PRETTY FUCKING FUNNY!

Ansel responds:

the dick is the important part

[Blockhead: Quick Shot 2]

This is the sad truth of an animator's life.

I'm not joking here. This accurately captures everything that happens when you try to stray, even momentarily, from those big projects. THEY TALK TO YOU!

Some of the lipsync didn't quite match, and some of the movements felt unnecessary, like the characters were just shifting around for the sake of it, instead of to have some sort of emphasis.

Still you have an uncanny ability to make the most absurd dialogue seems absolutely commonplace, so for that I commend you greatly.

[Ashborne - Change]

It's very nice.

As you know, I'm one of your fans, and this was a very interesting and pleasing piece of work.

I found the pacing and timing to be very much at odds with the music though. I found myself wondering why the music went one direction, yet the animation went another. The movements were also not nearly as smooth as I would have hoped.

Still it was an enjoyable watch, and it's nice to see some people do things other than the norm.

[art in the playground]

This really turned out great.

As you know, I was pretty excited about this, but I had no idea you were going to package all those bits together like this. It was very nice.

Really nice reflection of human nuances and mannerisms, and it turned out very funny. This is such a human body of work.

My favourite comment was the Gameboy Kid injecting that it was a drawing of time.

[Whats That Sound?]

10 10 10

Spike nipple.

Gerkinman responds:

Nipple Spike

[Apples.]

That was lovely.

To start, I'll spout off the two things that stood out as needing improvement. Some of your line work could have done to be a little cleaner, and also Bah-Head's goggles disappear when he hits the ground from his dive.

With that out of the way, I simply must compliment you on the music. The music especially is what makes this so special. While the art, style, direction, and animation were all eye-pleasing and very well wrought and even iconic, I feel the soundtrack is what really carried this from a simple cute but forgettable cartoon to something in a whole class of it's own.

Boy this was a breath of fresh air.

A well deserved pat on the back to you, sir.

SWiTCH responds:

I like to think the wind blew them off, or they got caught in an apple... bush... or something.

Thanks for the pat!

[ShatteredHeaven Prologue]

It wasn't terrible.

Things to work on would be to clean up your line work. It's messy and distracting. Also the sound was poorly edited in and mixed. Animation was pretty stiff.

Good points, the voice acting was great, and at least the anime styling wasn't super generic.

AdamTilford responds:

Yeah I mentioned half of that in the commentary. This was when I first started, I chose not to redo it, otherwise I'd have never moved on.

I already got the clean down for the next one, didn't want to change up the style too abruptly in the middle of one episode. The 2nd one is much much cleaner, and the audio I have some friends helping me with it when I level it out. At the time that this was I was new to this and just experimented. So for a first one I'm pretty content with how it came out.