MRat's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Shamoozal: GFGames #4]

So many people missed the point.

So many! Which makes this even better, I think.

Anyway, I laughed, I cried, I pooped my pants. I didn't think the message was subtle, but it went WAY over so many heads, so I guess it was.

I don't really like these GF games things; I prefer the old Shamoozal that were, well, mostly not about games and had lots more animation. Still, a solid effort.

Shamoozal responds:

Interesting to see you enjoyed the old stuff! Who knows, maybe in time we'll revisit some of the original ideas.

[MADNESS: the root of it]

A masterwork of the mildly f.

It is withing f, and as a root of f, that we find what, precisely, contributes to the being of f, and it is there that f stands at it's most f possible.

ZekeySpaceyLizard responds:

He's MRAT
MRAAAT
he's been in movies and goes to a cool school
ba da dum
boom

[PSP Squirrels]

Probably the best.

That is to say, of all the "Awesome" things recently coming our way from you, this was probably the best one.

I didn't laugh, but I did smirk, and it was smooth and expressive, though it still looked pretty lazy.

Anyway you're improving and that's great, so keep at it.

[Math Debate]

Magnificent!

Absolutely lovely.

Very amusing designs, and the colours were something quite special. I love the way you animate people laughing. It's the most disturbing thing.

Blordow responds:

I appreciate your words, Mrat! thanks!

[Tales of the Oak Sage ep1]

A very solid beginning.

I'll admit it right now, I'm being more generous than I normally would with the stars considering the mediocre production values because frankly, I see a hell of a lot of dedication and heart in this. I'm excited to see where you will take this.

Many people will bring up The Story of Khale and Brackenwood. Sure these are woodland fantasy tales, but honestly ignore these people drawing comparisons. They're idiots. This is clearly your own entirely unique universe with it's own mythos and such.

So now on to the technical critique; things I'd love to see you work on for the second installment.
First off, those backgrounds. It's nice to see them fully rendered as they are. Lots of detail, lighting and so forth. The problem is, they're overshadowing the characters. Never let the outlines in your background be thicker than the outlines of your characters. Rule number one right there. Also, if your outlines are going to be coloured make the contrast more subtle in the background and more apparent on the character. It will help the focus pop more and keep the viewers attention.
Second, the character animation itself. It was very static. The walking sage firstly didn't match, perspective wise, the way he crossed the environment. Try to make sure a profile view has a profile walk. Right now he was 3/4 walking completely sideways. Very odd. Secondly, try to get some more dynamic and exaggerated poses in that walk. It's nice to see those frame-by-frame legs, but why not step it up? Really get the whole body turning and moving, bouncing up and down a little even. It will add a whole new dimension of activity.
Finally, clean up that linework. The outlines on the backgrounds and that airship felt quite hasty and scribbled. Try and take the time to really sit down and clean that stuff up. A big example is the highlights on the trees. Try to make those really curve to fit the form of the tree. Right now they seem almost tacked on, and sort of distract the eye. Just make sure things don't look like they were coloured with crayon on paper I guess. You have the chance to easily clean up your work and have these professional backgrounds with software like Flash. Take advantage of that.

All in all though, a stupendous effort. I've very impressed with this and the imagery really does provoke a certain interest and investment in the future of the plot. Not alot happened, but what did really hooked me. I see alot of untapped storytelling potential waiting to erupt out of you man. I eagerly await episode 2.

oaksage responds:

you hit it on the head man... its a real pain this flash cartooning and im not the best at it.. its my first real attempt at making a full on cartoon.. at first i went into it with the attitude of... i want to make a unforgottenrealms look but with a nicer art style...so i could pump out content faster... but then i thought hey i want at least a little bit of animation..so i ended up doing a few things clean and a few things crappy and well.. thanks for taking the time to give an indepth review ill take your advice to heart

[Awesome Racer]

Hmm.

Well first off it looked 100 times better than the Egoraptor toons. The lipsync was quite nice, especially on Spridel. Also it was much funnier than anything Egoraptor made, even just on the surface level.

Then there's the bits here and there where I could clearly see you were mocking the entire "Awesome" approach. Faux-fast obnoxious yelling. Even more obvious observations. I could feel a certain level of satire here that I'm certain many people have missed.

For this I commend you, as you have created the first ever "good" Awesome cartoon while also effectively mocking everything Awesome stands about.

[Dining with the Devil]

Pretty nice.

I don't get who this guy is going to propose to this chick and not know she's a cop. It's easier to hide that you're an assassin, I would think.

This was very nice too look at, though I would have preferred the linework to be much cleaner. The movements were great though. Very subtle and nice timings. I love how there was no dialogue as well.

[Dirty Joe]

la ma aa ow

This was probably the funniest thing I've seen in many, many months.