Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Fresh Life of Mr.Piff]

Some rough graphics, but kept me entertained gener

I liked some of the drawings of the eccentric-looking characters. Specially the orange-haired dude.

The lines were kinda rough, as was the animation. Nor a major issue though.

The voices were great, specially the posh dudes. The blonde guy was a bit hard to make out at times, though I just about managed.

The whole plot had a sorta 'Young Ones' feel - making nonsense out of what seems initially like a fairly sane plot.

I laughed at the elf guy and the mouse made me smile.

The ending was kinda lame though, with the terrible-quality music and pointless fake credits.

==
Some rough graphics, but kept me entertained generally.

[Tetris Unleashed 2]

lack of respect but some silliness

Why start off with music in the menu? Maybe I'm in the minority, but I personally like to be able to load something and have it sit quietly waiting for me until I'm ready to view it.

Anyway, I'm gonna guess that you're not a major Tetris fan, judging by how you play fairly loose with the rules of the game. Even at the start, the lines getting eliminated really make no sense. This irritated me.

However, the fast animation was fun to watch and the whole silly plot seemed just like an excuse for some action that made me giggle.

As I saw the start of round 2, I realised I had to disregard the 'Tetris' theme and just enjoy the pretty colours and general silliness.

The yellow glow on Jim and the filter for the final screen looked great.

The lines made me smile, thanks to their cheesiness.

==
A lack of respect for the rules of Tetris, but some silliness that made me smile.

Jimtopia responds:

Well, I didn't know you could "respect" the rules of a classic arcade game, but you make a valid point. So here's my point: You can't, I repeat, CANNOT make two people fighting a tetris based battle interesting unless you "spice it up" a lot. Believe me, I've tried other battle forms. At one point I made them just playing Tetris, but, it turned out... you guessed it, really boring. So, yeah, I did have to bend/break the rules of Tetris to make this interesting, but I am glad you liked the other aspects of it. All in all, if you would like to see "respect for the rules" of classic arcade games, I wouldn't recommend watching Tetris Unleashed 3 when it comes out, unless you can be prepared ahead of time to know that those rules are not closely followed.

-Jimtopia

P.S. Sorry if this reply came off sounding "jerky." I didn't mean too sound like a jerk, lol.

[Tetris Unleashed]

I felt the story wasn't particularly well told

I kinda like the way you used gradients fading out the white, to help make it all 'dreamlike'.

The plot was really odd. Kinda funny.

I liked the flashing colours when the blocks disappeared.

I don't like the way you draw your characters. Not just because of the lack of detail and the shapes of the legs, which I find aesthetically unappealling, but also because at times I felt the 'acting' wasn't great and I wasn't sure what was going through the character's head.

Like, after he shields his eyes from the light, is he surprised? In awe? Maybe stretch his eyes a bit!

The whole notion of this guy 'winning' at tetris in 1-player mode, kinda annoyed me, as did the way his move in the arcade didn't clear any lines.

Also, why have an auto-start? As far as I'm concerned, auto-starts are just an unnecessary inconvenience.

Maybe if you'd added stuff like having loads of folk around the world queueing up to play him, maybe he goes on TV or something, maybe loads of folk stare in awe... there's a lot more you could do if you incorporated reaction shots.

==
Interesting story, nice use of white, but I felt the story wasn't particularly well told.

Jimtopia responds:

Well this being one of my earliest cartoons, I see the same problems that you do now that I watch it again. Thanks for reviewing.

[Tetris Unleashed 3 Prvw.]

above-par teaser, but I hate teasers

I liked the Lunar Lander abilities.

While you were showing the characters, it all flashed by too quickly to read, then the ending seemed relatively slow (specially the masking on the 'tetris unleashed').

Pacman has a little white line. No biggie - just mentioning.

It could've been cooler if the text of the enemies kinda scrolled in or something...

I found it cool how the rotating enemies looked rather good, despite only having 4 frames.

The coloured character seemed like he could use a tad more work. Consider shading and maybe make the lines on the scarf a shading job, rather than using those bold lines for them.

Numeral '3' seemed a bit crappily drawn. If it's part of a fontface, you should maybe have tried drawing a better '3' yourself.

After watching it, I did go back and read the text, aided by the flash menu. It seemed like you had a cool idea, with the different games fighting each other. Not sure if I like all the weapons you added though.

==
Some good graphics, but in my opinion there's not really enough here to enjoy. No truly spectacular graphics for a graphics showcase (though the green rotating figures were really well drawn) and not really enough glimpses of the plot or action for me to enjoy that aspect.

It's an above-par teaser, but I hate teasers, as that's all they do - tease. They don't really let me go all the way to satisfaction, yaknow?

Jimtopia responds:

A very fair review, thanks for taking the time to write it. glad you think the characters were well drawn. I couldn't get rid of that white line on Pac-Man BTW, it just WOULDN'T go away! Urrgh! I got very frustrated by that line. Anyway, thanks for your review.

[John Leslie]

share a bit of the laughter

I've never witnessed this thread, but I enjoyed the whole thing.

John's face for the punching and all the pics were hilarious.

The IM messages were great and the assassin-type mod was brilliant.

What's going on with the black and white sludge stuff though? Is that some sort of metaphor, saying the thread brough colour into the world?

Graphics and animation were really basic with a lack of style but I liked the way you used screenshots in there and the graphics were good enough to tell the story.

==
A great tribute and explanation to something I never saw first-hand. But now I can share a bit of the laughter. Thanks.

El-Sammo responds:

Cheers mon,
You are the only person so far to actually realise my... metaphor thingy.
It was Maus, that crafty lass... how dare she take it away... but if you look at her profile closley u will see this is one of her favourite movies... how evil.

Peace out

[James Blond 006.9]

smiled generally and chuckled a couple

I liked the silly walking in the intro.

Graphics are rather basic and rough.

I really liked the 'oi's.

Also, the end music was amusing to listen to. Also, 563? Hehe.

A lot of the jokes are a bit obvious and peurile, but I liked how it didn't take itself too seriously and kept up the pace.

==
Kept me entertained. I smiled generally and chuckled a couple of times.

[Toonimated Shorts]

Made me smile

'Butterflies are for pussies' seemed a bit bland. I liked the survival. Music was cool, but seemed kinda at odds with the subject matter...

The monster was a bit bizarre. All through that short, I was just thinking, 'why's he sticking his hand there? Was a valuable dropped?'

The design of the flies made me smile, as did seeing that strutting.

Animations were smooth and slick throughout.

The ending of the flyshort kinda rubbed me the wrong way - the length of time you had that iPod swinging for seemed unnecessarily whorish.

==
Made me smile

[Akira the Don - Hypocrite]

Animation of the month imo.

This is incredible!

So far-paced, with a fast paced style that sometimes throws stuff at us so fast, we NEED to watch a couple of times to take it all in... Some great jokes, like the lemmings explosion and some great transitions like the dad eating him...

I really admire the way you sorta choose so intelligently what to animate fbf, what to tween and what to have just slide on/off the screen as a still. It's probably got a few rough edges if I look really closely - it doesn't match Luis or Adam Phillip's animations for sheer smoothness and quality of animation. But it's got a fast pace and style that is all yours.

You're unafraid to mix it up and that's so awesome! I enjoyed the deviations in style, but overall, you've certainly got your own way of building characters that's all 'you'.

I couldn't quite pick up all the lyrics the first time around, and watching it with subtitles a 2nd time definitely helped me enjoy it more on subsequent viewings.

==
Awesomeness. Fast-paced, some cool jokes, joyful, cheeky pictures and animation...

Animation of the month imo.

Wonchop responds:

Heh thanks. I hope it does well in this month's votings.

[Cuboy Ep.1]

Bizarre, funny story. Unique style

I love the little characters at the start - specially the sumo wrestler type!

I imagine the animation must have been made a lot easier, thanks to your style, but there's an awful lot of clean, sharp detail in there, with the books, buttons, knobs and whatnot.

I really want to know though - how did you do the rotation for the chequered cube and cuboy himself? It just looks so impossibly exact!

The 'pixelised' visualisation of the narration was cool too.

The speech patterns of cuboy alone made me smile.

I loved the silly words and mouth shapes. Also, the boss-fellow's passionate gratitude after cuboy's first 'task'. Both chucklesome.

Great voices and music too.

==
A bizarre, funny adventure, with a unique and flawlessly realised style.

EdibleCastle responds:

haha glad u liked it so much Bezman. the rotation of the cube and cuboy is all done frame by frame.

[Unforgettable]

I didn't feel anything...

I liked the mixture of styles. Even though it was all drawn, the mix of drawing style, the faces and the sharp transitions gave it a bit of a collage 'vibe'.

Liked the fast pace, with the transitions well timed.

I did find, however, that whilst I'll probably retain some memory of this cartoon, I didn't 'feel' anything whilst or after watching it. I didn't empathise with the characters, laugh at the idiocy, reel in horror, nor feel any other particular emotion.

==
Great style. A story told in a way as to quickly lodge in my brain. But I didn't feel anything...