Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Phoenix Wrong: BIG SHIT]

somehow make me

++ Pleasant song.

+++ Amusing ending.

++ Good choice of character for the narration.

--- Why're the other folk in the courtroom moving lips when not saying anything?

???--- Cutting the gifs in photoshop would have given better graphics.

-- Edges of characters badly aligned.

!!!!-- no play/replay buttons. Starts automatically.

==
Not great at all, but it did somehow make me smile. Sometimes, that's all that matters.

MrBigStick responds:

because the fatso with the topknot was still talking, they were just agreeing with him on the fact that the woman he met at the park was beautiful.

i don't have photoshop anymore, thought i didn't need it when macromedia and adobe did the fusion dance for flash 8.

no play or replay buttons because this was made for a collab and was just gonna be plopped into a scene after a preloader with a button to go to that scene with the words MRBISTICK-syphilis.swf like it's a legal file or something. but that didn't turn out so i just submitted it to NG as is.

[The Black Bird 1]

beginning for

+++ Lovely art style. I thought much of the scenery truly looked like it'd been drawn with brush, ink and water. Specially the first horizon with the boy and the final scene, viewed from above.

++++ Beautiful music.

- when you fade in/out the characters, the outlines of all shapes we see look slightly cheap.

++++ Intriguing story.

- I'd have maybe liked to know a bit more about this character and his aims.

==
A great beginning for the series. We meet the hero/'sidekick', learn of his skill and calm disposition... the puppet-maker is an interesting idea...

I'm not yet spell-bound, but am already starting to care about this.

[ying]

the beauty present

++++ Beautiful 'models' for old man and woman. I've long wanted to see someone use tweening to create 'real' cut-out animation. Glad to see it done.

++++ Beautiful colours throughout.

++++ Beautiful style. The way you render foliage, the clouds, the strokes of the mountains, the expanses of white... it's so refreshing to see a new continent's take on these things, brought into an animated cartoon.

-- The houses looked a tad incongruous, with their hard lines and black outlines.

- I often longed to see some close-up detail shots, whether at the man sipping his cup or maybe show the water in some detail, with waves...

I suppose though that showing the panoramas and the expanse of life all around was your aim.

==
From the start, the animation enchanted me with its style. It truly shows the beauty present all around as the old man took his walk to the village. Such a sweet ending too, and seeing the man perform with the puppets that inspired his own animation is a lovely way to tie it together.

Bravo.

[Shark Meat]

of it was

+++ Self-rationilisation for embellishing story amused.

----- The punchline... that the other dude presumably knows a girl named Sarah, who stole his car two weeks ago.... it's hard to swallow.
He could at least have been getting angrier or showing some emotion when dude 1 said '2 weeks ago'.

-- rough graphics/lines.

==
Most of it was fairly intriguing, and I was interested by this guy's tale of shark meat.

End was a disappointment though.

[Blossoming Love]

expecting that ending

Wow! You've advanced so much since Kupaman!

+++ Clean, polished gfx.

- though they could have more character...

+++ U-turn took me by surprise.

--- Can't hear all voices properly. (Couldn't make out '29 day...' on first viewing and can't make out 2nd line of extra-bit even after 2nd)

??? optional subtitles?

==
I really wasn't expecting that ending. When the 2nd zap came, it all got too much and I burst out laughing.

Extra ending was a surprise too and a nice touch.

[Magic Crack Rocks]

somewhat unsatisfying

--- text in pre-loader is hard to read against whiter parts of gradients.

++ Some sumptuous script fonts.

--- Jazz is battling against Kia/Dante, contrary to what the bios suggested.

++ Pumping machinery is a great spot effect.

+++ Lovely lighting on characters.

++ Great, clean, fairly stylish, vectors for characters.

----- Only one mouth shape for characters. They look like muppets!

--- Some elements look slightly disjointed, like the bubble that emerge or the characters' movement. (The latter mostly looks OK, apart from in a couple of scenes.)

==
Overall, I found the movie somewhat unsatisfying in its plot.

The art was generally sweet on the eye though.

JazLyte responds:

Jazz isn't battling against Kia and Dante, he's fighting Kain, man. Pay attention

[Bunbun Kids Camp]

funny, but visually

Took me 2 watches to realise that they were decrying each others' beliefs in their 2nd speech scene.

++++ Intriguing metaphor.

++++ Apt that neither was right.

++++ Sumptuous graphics. Clean, flawless lines. Nice use of exclusive black for foreground. Great backgrounds colours to contrast and co-exist.

--- The script font is awfully jagged. It looks like you took a bitmap font and traced it, but didn't bother cleaning. Very rough-looking.

-- music loop got a tad annoying.

??? Maybe you could have made the 2 rabbit gangs different colours, to help us remember which is which on first viewing.

==
Great movie. Not funny, but visually sumptuous and also thought-provoking.

Illumatie responds:

Thanx for the feedback (and sorry for the late response).

The font used in the animation was supposed to be like that, and personally I liked it, but using a good font that fits the style I thing is always a dificult task.

I'll keep the different collored rabbits in mind. thanx for the tip.

[Sleepless Nights]

recreating realism

+++ 'anxious' looking play button.

+++ Lovely macabre font for 'sleepless nights' before intro, 'dont sleep' in middle and also after ending.

---- Figure drawn in 'intro' looked rather unrealistic and rough

++ Crumpled paper provides interesting texture.

+++ Some lovely simple vector shapes. Specially the cartoon figures in segment 1, but also tentacles and 'blood' from dummy in segment 2.

--- Mouth and licking tongue also rough-looking

+++ effective use of masks.

++++ Great matching of visuals to music mood and tempo

--- No replay button.

??? Maybe in the end screen, have the eyeballs just visible, having rolled up to the top. So it's more obvious she's dead and you haven't just forgotten to draw the pupils and irises.

??? Maybe for intro/ending, a no-outline style could have worked better.

==
After a shaky intro, I really enjoyed the movie.

In the middle, I thought it was gonna end, but woah!

Your work seems best when you're not worried about recreating realism. Some movements, vectors, effects and textures are visually arresting and some sections seem flawlessly executed.

Shame that the start/end contains the worst graphics.

notorious responds:

Thanks for the good review. I'll be sure to improve on a lot of the bad stuff you said in my future animations!

[Christ and AntiChrist 1]

just wasn't

++++ Enjoyed the split-screen used at the beginning.

+ 'Bastard' - made me smile.

--- Ending just seemed silly and not very funny.

-- Your depiction of Christ is very annoying.

==
Liked the theme, but the toon just wasn't funny for me overall.