Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sweet Mother of Vartan]

Awesome animation.

The animation and timing in this piece were pretty excellent and I was specially impressed by some of the head-turns. I find those nearly impossible to do and you do it so smoothly. (The whole flick is very nice and smooth indeed btw.)

The stylised audience maybe wasn't entirely to my taste, specially when a few of them are shown as people, but that's my sole complaint art-wise. That maybe the still silhuoettes could have resembled human shapes a bit more.

I wasn't enamoured by the story - it seemed too predictable and derivative to me. Sorry, but that really detracted from the enjoyment for me.

Also, I felt the announcer's spiel went on far too long, specially considering I couldn't make out most of their words.

But the animation really is awesome and I look forward to seeing your next submission.

[The New Years Party]

For a 'novelty flash', this is pretty good.

Some of the speech was a bit hard to understand, but the basic gist of it got me laughing.

It's really a 'novelty' flash, in that it only got me to laugh on first viewing and there's not much reason to watch it again. But still, It does what it does well.

And whilst I could bitch about the slightly poor speech recording or rather limited animation and unexceptional drawings, there's no point in you spending the time to make those things shine in a flash like this.

Besides, I liked some of the details, like the hair flicking over.

The only real complaint I might make is that it ended a bit too suddenly. You can make stuff fade out in flash, you know...

dookiemoole responds:

ha ha really didn't put work into this at all, it was just based on the crazy idea

[-Let it B-]

Brilliant collab.

The thing that impresses me most is the organisation shown in having so many animators contribute to this awesome piece and all melding well together.

I must admit - I was a little disappointed about the ending being cut. However, what was there was excellent, maybe with the exception of the party scene, which felt a bit incongruous.

There were a lot of great ideas in here, thanks to the number of contributors and the range of graphical styles is another bonus.

Whilst I didn't enjoye it as much as some music videos with a running story (Down with Love, Murray the Monkey), it scores highly within its category.

[Moose Jam #5]

A thumb up.

From start to finish:

play button annoying, with little gaps. Properly define the hit target as a rectangle.

Explosion into colour a nice idea, though there wasn't as much colour immediately afterwards as may have really made the idea pull through.

some of the lines a bit too random and uninteresting. But I suppose the song doesn't really have any lyrics you can work with.

snake thing - nice.

Robots and stuff - some nice stuff.

exploding man - amusing.

pako's bit - very nice on its own, but it perhaps doesn't really 'feel' like an ending.

Overall, it's great work. There's some stuff here I really like and my 2 complaints are the fbf lines (nice occasionally, but they're still used slightly too much here for my liking) and the fact that it doesn't feel as cohesive as it could.

Still, it's definitely come a long way and I'm excited to see where the concept will take you.

[Moose Jam : Series 1]

Nice collection of nice stuff.

#1 was nifty in a sorta animutation sorta way... a fair bit going on. It was a decent watch.

The stairway to heaven was excellent. I specially loved the flying scene (although I'd suggest making the flapping to the beat) and there was a fair bit going on throughout.

Not all the hyperactive bits really work imo though.

#4 I just reviewed a minute ago so won't bother repeating my thoughts here.

[Moose Jam #4 - Zebra]

Great idea, but a bit tiring at times.

I really want to like this... it's a great concept and so much more a colleboration than your normal ones, where there's little reason for the animations to all be submitted together.

I loved Scribbler's opening - eyecatching and a bit original. However, it seemed to go on slightly too long, me bored of that single idea by the time the next part came around.

The trend continues. There's a lot of quality stuff, a lot of varied styles, some nice visuals.

But too often a single concept is taken and stretched far too thinly, when it would have been maybe better to cut it earlier or have it interspersed a bit more.

It is an enjoyable watch, but having a faster pace and making it more 'packed' would have been a definite improvement imo.

[A Skate Movie: Part Three]

Nice, but too far zoomed out and limbs flailing.

The movie itself offered little new other than the rather stylised manner in which the stick figure was animated.

Being overly jumpy, too small to properly see his limbs and flailing so fast we couldn't see what he was doing properly, I wasn't that fond of it.

fbf always takes a bit of effort, font used was nice though I didn't like the movement at the start and the music was a good choice.

I note that the final movie still hasn't appeared... :/

Overall, good effort but the style of animation seemed too rough for a movie revolving around the movements of the skater and it really was too small.

Also, some alternate camera angles or a couple of spot effects may have been nice.

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On a totally seperate note, it pisses me off when folk say something along the lines of 'don't criticize if you have never made a movie'. I mean, though they may not have made a movie, they are still able to comment on what they liked and disliked about the animation. Are your thoughts on a PS2 game any less valid just because you've never made a PS2 game? It seems to me that how much you've experienced of that form is far more important...

Scribbler responds:

I couldn't agree more with you! You gave a decent score and I appreciate that. It's true that multiple individuals have commented on the "unique" style of animation I used on the stick figure. This was my third animation ever, mind you.

The fact that it was zoomed out was purely because it was a whole lot easier to animate a small stick figure rather than a large one. At the time, I was using the Macromedia Flash MX trial and I was in a hurry to submit movies.

The name involving "PREVIEW" in it isn't really the whole truth. I mean, when I first started, I was really ambitious for this movie but then, as things started progressing, I decided to give up on the full length MOVIE. I have been thinking about redoing these, along with changing the title. The aniamtion would be smoother nad the story would be a little better. I am still pondering on whether I should or not. Different camera angles is a good choice.

Your last comment is very well put and true. I understand why certain people get mad but it shouldn't be directed toward all reviewers who never made a movie.

Thank you so much for your review. I hope that my response is as great as your review was.

[Chaps 1 - Hello]

Chap, chap, old chap!

Yeah, it was jeuvenile and everything, and graphics were almost as basic as possible, but the point was the joke.

And it made me smile.

I didn't like the way we had to click a tiny little button in the corner to start it though - the play button should be OBVIOUS!

[Chundo]

Nice, jazzy, piece.

Again, beatiful marriage of sound and visuals.

I wasn't too keen on the chicken walking - it's feet seemed to be 'gliding' somewhat. Also, I didn't much care for the way in which the chicken inexplicably managed to raise its height whilst wearing those clothes.

I'd have found it funnier if the clothes were trailing behind it, or if it was in a hat or something.

The calamities were amusing and got a few chuckles out of me.

I do really, really like the style of both music and animation here although the walk irked me as I mentioned.

Stay funky,
Bez

[De Gli Antoni part 1]

Nice style

I really liked the old-timey style of the work here. Kinda reminded me of Belleville Rendezvous for some reason.

The music did fit really, really well, although I'd have personally preferred that screeching to end rather than carrying on.

The plot did seem a bit thin and unresolved, but then that's what part 2 is for, I suppose...

It would have been nice to have some payoff for the jokes in this one though, maybe some more visual gags than just the expressions.

The style and synchronisation pulled it through for me though.