Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Scene Of The Crime]

Bloody well done

It's a great wee bit of 'atmosphere' the only problem being that it doesn't have any story to back it up.

There are many great things about this piece - the way the ghostly figures enter the flat, the texture on the wall, the blood itself...

The only real criticism I have is its lack of substance. If the animation had been some sort of short story, then I would have undoubtedly given you a higher mark.

There's nothing wrong with playing about with effects and styles, and what you've made is good to watch. I just wish you'd gone all the way and expanded it into a story.

[Bad Scene: Mario]

I think I saw this the other week.

It's nice to see that after having your movie blammed, you worked to improve it. :)

I like the addition of the music, but if you could have gotten some sound effects for Bowser eating Mario, him getting bigger, and the missile and punch hitting, it would have been even better.

You could get some sound effects from the 'net or maybe even on your PC (look in the common libraries bit in Flash and also in the windows sounds).

The only other thing I could suggest is that you get a better story, but I have trouble coming up with them myself so can't really criticise... :)

That's the main reason I scored it lowly - the story (and also the unoriginality).

Overall, it's not a terrible little animation and I hope you keep at it. You know what they say... practise makes perfect. :)

krazy-kenny responds:

You probably did see this the other week, because this was submitted another time as well. I thought I'd add the music and see how I'd do, because I know that there are some people who automatically blam stuff under 100kb. Anyway, thanks for the review.

[Quickie#1]

I laughed at the crash

As a previous review said, the short pauses between the speech and the action are a bit annoying.

The movie is generally a bit slow-moving but it was funny in parts and obviously took a lot of effort.

Sorry, but as I have learned to my dismay, putting in more effort doesn't make it a decent animation. Ultimately, it needs to be funny and/or entertaining and so the most important thing is the storyline.

Keep up the good work and I hope to see more stuff from you in future.

Stay fizzy,
Bez

guXit responds:

Thanks!! U're really nice =)!

[Detective Frofrog]

Hey, remember me! Hehehe

I've got a really fast connection of my own and as Newgrounds is running a bit faster these days, I'm unsure of what exactly the pre-loader is... :(

I really liked the jazzy blues music - it's an excellent composition well performed. :) I also liked the black and white style (although I think it would have gotten boring had you kept it throughout the cartoon - I'm glad you didn't).

The animation in general was fantastic! Y-town already had top-notch animation, but this just takes your work to the level of top-level professional stuff. The scanned backgrounds and animated characters works really well and makes it look further like an old-style disney cartoon. Well, it's maybe not 'quite' as luscious but it's definitely up to that standard. And considering that you're doing this as one man on a single PC rather than hundreds of folk using the latest technology to be nearly up there but not quite is as good as you can expect I think.

I didn't like the idea of finding the eggs at first. I thought it may detract from the cartoon and be a cheap way of getting us to watch it multiple times, but I suppose I can't complain as it's just an option. I got 8 eggs but cheated and had a look at the secret ending anyway.

Quite funny - a shame for it to be hidden away like that. Did you do that music yourself as well? It's really excellent! What did you use?

I really liked the encyclopedia and thanks for telling us a wee bit about how you did the characters! I think I'll try my hand at the same technique, although it probably won't be a patch on your stuff. :) At least not for a while... ;)

Now the plot/humour - the part I thought maybe let the cartoon down slightly. (but only because everything else was so good)

As you may remember, I don't normally laugh that much (although I have been in an extremely giggly mood the past few months...) Still, I spotted far less jokes-per-minute than in either YTown Public 6 or the Rock Opera. Really, the humour isn't a patch on the Rock Opera (I just watched that again just before writing the review) which I think is the funniest thing of yours out of what I've seen.

I suppose though that this maybe isn't meant to be such a silly comedy, and on the level of building the basis for a story, it (just about) works. I am interested to know who the robots are and what they want to do with the girl and what their evil plans are... but I suppose I'll need to wait and see how interesting the rest of the story is.

Knowing you, I'm sure you'll be able to work some wacky storyline.

There's another niggle in the movie - I think that after clicking on the alarm clock you should be able to go back to the main menu. I wanted to look at what extras there were before starting the movie, but there was nothing to tell me that clicking on the alarm clock would force me to watch the movie first.

(side note - in the Rock Opera, if you click to watch the movie before it's loaded, so the loading message comes up then after the movie's loaded you need to right-click and press play yourself. I don't mean to sound condescending but if you wan't, I'll gladly fix it for you. You can just get some movie clip on screen and tell it to make the main timeline play when all the bytes are loaded.)

Overall, whilst the music is truly excellent and the graphics are by far the best I've seen from you, the story isn't. However, it's still an excellent piece overall and is a solid foundation on which you can build what I hope will become another truly great series.

(I also gave you extra credit when deciding the overall score for the encyclopedia and [to a slightly lesser extent] the easter eggs.)

McRhyme responds:

Hi Bezman, of course I remember you! And I want you to know that I really listen and care about your thoughts.

So I will try to reply as well as I possibly can.

The preloader is made for people with slow connections (such as myself). I will get a broadband in some weeks though and will celebrate the occation by releasing the TV version of 'Black Hole - Grog', the second episode 'Chief Leaf and the Chick' and my very own site!

Not bad, huh?

The music, animation and backgrounds in this episode are at a very high level. I'm not joking when I say it takes me 6 months to make an episode. Writing songs, making up characters and planning the plot.

'Detective Frofrog' wasn't meant to be a wacky crazy cartoon like 'Ytown Public'. I wanted the humour to lie in the dialoge. I have now extended that idea and decided to add more crazy cartoon-like stuff to the story. You will see much more things falling and breaking in the new version of this epidode and the next. I hope no one gets mad. I will keep the cool jazzy feel though! Don't you worry.

Yes, the eggs are a cheap way of making people watch it several times. But the most important aspect of the eggs is that they keep the viewers attention to a maximum. If you miss one line in this episode, you will not be able to understand the following jokes.

You compare this episode to the 2 final episodes I made of 'Ytown Public'. That isn't quite fair. You should compare it to 'Ytown Public Original', the first ever YP episode. I am confident that 'Detective Frofrog' #6 will be lightyears cooler that YP#6!

Oh well, I'm off to do some more finishing touches on DF#2!

Email me with the script for loading a movie and making a loading LINE, please. And you pop up in the credits!

Take care!

[Mean Reviews]

Pretty much what you'd expect.

The speed at which the reviews change is really well timed for me. The review themselves, whilst they seem reasonably well picked aren't anything too out of the ordinary.

Nicely done, if nothing paricularly great.

To be honest, it ended up being a little less funny than I was hoping for.

[goldilocks]

I actually found it boring.

I feel bad saying this, but whilst the pictures are nicely drawn, while the deep bass works well, I simply found the movie a bit too slow and - eventually - boring.

The long pauses, the lack of any explanation of motives...

the movie simply failed to keep me interested.

Sorry.

[Newgrounds Experience]

Wow... the best advert I've ever seen.

I was really impressed with the stick-man that gets cut in half vertically, and the whole 'plot' was well devised.

Nice and to the point. It even made me giggle at one point!

[Space Invaders]

Pretty nicely done, but a bit slow.

I loved your animation and style, but really feel that the movie was a little bit slow.

If the whole thing was just speeded up a bit or something (even if you just increase the framerate) I truly feel it would be better.

Also, the lack of a play button after the movie had loaded really annoyed me.

Having said that, your animation rocked. The faded phtos of your dad... the text, the white outlines of objects... it really complemented your movie well.

You seem to be able to apply yourself to various themes and styles equally well, unlike some folk who can only ever animate one way.

Great stuff!

The main reason why I'm not marking this higher is simply because it's a bit slow.

[Ytown Public 6]

O'm finally reviewing it.

Whilst this didn't really make me laugh that much watching it today, it was probably the 4th time or something I'd seen it. And, despite that, I still smiled, which - as you say - is also a good feeling.

Let's get my 1 negative comment out of the way. The voices quite often don't match up at all to the lips. Apart from that, it's all great.

On the subject of voices, I've got to commend everyone involved. Fourchinnigan is specially great and everyone else bar the green elephant deserves a pat on the back.

The whole thing reeks of quality (as you cheekily point out) - not just the animation itself, but the quiz and comic really add to the overall package.

(By the way, I honestly thought that the way the comic was done was really inspired and slick. I specially liked the panel which shook around.)

I've taken care not to reveal anything to people reading this review who haven't already seen the Flash, but if I was allowed, there would be so many little things I'd point out, make an example of and say "Yes, this is good, this is fun, this made me laugh."

Which brings us to another point. For something which is 8 minutes lsong, this possibly has more laughs-per-minute than any film or sit-com I've ever seen. Obviously, humour is a totally subjective thing, but the fact that this possibly surpasses proffessional works is incredible.

The plot is rather... mad.

You throw in lots of pointless extras which only serve to amuse and ultimately, that's what this is all about. You don't try to deviate from thise core purpose. You don't try to throw in an epic plot or anything else that would ultimately ruin the work rather than add to it.

Truly, this is a rollercoaster of a ride, and I'd reccommend it to everyone.

McRhyme responds:

I had not forgotten about you saying that you should review this movie. I'm very pleased to see that you gave it a 10! I'd really like to hear what "jokes" you managed to find funny this time. I know that you understood that the viking and Barabara were in the 7:th heaven in episode 5. That was clever.

Wooohooo!!! Surpassing professional work with more jokes per minute - That's a really nice comment! I try to thow in as much funny stuff that I ever can come up with. The opening scene (with Fred falling to the ground and talking to the goat) was the last scene I made. I didn't even think of it before the rest was done and I thought the beginning was to bad. You know, the opening scene doesn't really add anything to the story - Part from bringing all the characters in Heaven together. Things like the flies being smacked on Newton's nose is also a very late add. You know after working on the movie for so long you feel that every second has to be funny. No transport times, just action to joke to action!

I deleted the whole first Bear Vs Newton Scene and remade it. I cut of one minute. It was too slow.

Now that all six episodes are done I (and you) can look back on the series and see how "mad" the entire story turned out to be.

By the way BEZ, I'm wokring on a storyboard for a new series called "YTOoN SPaCE". But it's gonna be a year aleast before anything is done. And when it is, then I'm probaly going to try and sell it.

BUY A TSHIRT FOR MY STORE!!! NEW DESIGNS UP!