Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fresh Aqua]

A tale of yearning for something better.

Fresh Aqua? I still don't understand the title... at first I thought it was gonna be a spoof advert or something... :-/

What it is, instead, is a real change of pace. Almost melancholy at times, with the themes of wasted youth, wanting to just get out and not knowing what to do with your life. Things familiar to most of us, but represented in a charming way.

Some of the colonel's mumbles are unintellibable, but I suppose it's not too important. Still, some clearer voices would have been nice.

The voices are well suited to the characters and the shift to colour at the end is wonderfully employed. The ending is bittersweet - amusing thanks to the madness, but sad thanks to the continued waste of his life.

When uploading things onto NG, or onto the internet in general, you should make a pre-loader with play/replay buttons, I feel.

Apart from that it was great. I loved the anthropomorphic world and the whole tale.

A strong contendor for one of my votes.

[Flair 5]

Really sophisticated for a stick movie.

The rain looked awesome, with splashes everywhere (although it was kind of shit how it stopped suddenly, then started again). The plot, though simplistic, was far more involved than I was expecting.

The dialogue was nice and in a way the lack of spoken English gave it a nice tone.

But why sticks? The girl had a proper human head with hair and everything, and it looked almost macabre, that head on a stick body. I couldn't help but think how much more awesome it would have been had you taken the plunge and gone over the sticks with fully fledged characters. Not /that/ much more work, but an awful lot more pleasing to the eye.

Still it was great.

Some slightly predictable/cheesy bits like the whole way the fight overturned, but I liked the unexpected loss. It seemed slightly more mature than a typical low-budget action flick.

If you want help with proof-reading, e-mail me.

Best of luck with your next project. I hope you take the plunge and go for real characters!

[FF: Mixed in Balamb2(2/3)]

Rather funny. Best yet!

The riddle went on a bit too long and seemed a shite riddle anyway. Dark doesn't end life and laughter...

Also, I didn't mention it in my last review, but the hit-boxes for both this and the previous installment were a bit crap for the main buttons on the play screen.

The hit boxes should at least cover the original position of the button!

Apart from those 2 points, it was all pretty good. Each party had their own collection of fast-jokes, with the only slow-down at the end and also in Alucards' introduction.

I really liked the Cyclops - you managed to turn the fight into a real comedy spectacle.

Graphics are the best I've seen from you.

Voices are tops.

Looking forward to the next one.

Even though I'm not a big FF fan, these are really accessible and enjoyable for even me.

[FF: Mixed in Balamb2(1/3)]

Could be funnier yet.

Yeah, of course there could be more jokes yet thrown in.

The constant references do provide interest if not necessarily always humour as well.

There are a good few jokes and I liked K. Didn't see that coming.

Once the story was established, you had a chance to play around a bit and hopefully this will be a taste of things to come.

Your graphics seem to improve over the course of the animation, perhaps an indication of your fast learning. I was torn between 6 and 7.

Off to watch part 2.

[FF: Mixed in Balamb]

Nice setup

I'm far from the biggest FF fan, but this was fun to watch for the most part.

I thought the start was the best part with a few quick-fire personality-based jokes.

The DBZ reference was fair enough the first time, but it got a bit much the 2nd and 3rd I think.

The ending attempt at some excitement seemed a bit misplaced in such a madcap comedy.

The graphics weren't brilliant, with some ugly tweening, but it was generally clear who was who so I suppose it was good enough. Besides, you don't need great graphics for a comedy.

I hope to see the next installment have more of the earlier style of material.

[Faust - Episode 2]

Great. But could be better yet...

Brilliant.

The story was obviously going to be great.

But the artwork does well to bring the story to life as does the music you've chosen.

From the start:

Again, I suggest you change the 'play' button to something a bit more in keeping with the rest of the typographical style seen.

Maybe a gothic 'PLAY' with an ornate design behind, then duplicated for a shadow effect.

The font you've chosen seems better than before but the italics seem more Italian than German.

I found it nice the way you started with the same scene and the artwork is excellent and stylish. Almost like a moody version of John Allison's work if you know him. (Creator of the comic 'Scary go Round'.)

Voices are excellent. Really great with nice accents suited to the characters and decent acting.

The teeth of the dog come at an excellent angle.

The animation isn't perfect, but none really grates.

The mouths are the one part I'd say you should maybe work on.

I really don't like the art of the dog-beast, with the gradients making the 'joins' of the arms too obvious. Also, when it sidappears, it's too obvious how you've skewed it.

Overall, it's looking like a great series.

Maybe it could still be refined further and I hope you continue to do so.

However, even at its current standard it's a great watch and I look forward to seeing the rest of the story pan out.

[Faust - Episode 1]

A great introduction.

So an adaptation of the story, then?

It took me a while to realise what was going on, and that the gothic dude was the devil.

However, after seeing it, I'm anxious to watch #2. This isn't a great movie in its own right - more of a prologue, a teaser for things to come.

From the start:

Nice fonts used, although the 'F' is quite a step away from the 'normal' gothic 'F' drawn by calligraphers. Also, the circle forming the lower horizontal line would never really be drawn with a calligraphy pen.

Just an observation.

I don't think the italic script works that well tbh, and the 'play' button should perhaps have been changed.

Ah, I spend too much time on the details... but someone's gotta tell you these things...

I like the lack of outlines on your graphics (or, with the characters, coloured outlines) as they distance your work and make it look far more 'grown up' than it otherwise would have. The sight of the boots running away from the camera doesn't look great. But that's one of the hardest things to do, so I'll forgive you. ;-)

In the side-one view of the devil grinning, he's leaning too far back.

But these are small criticism in what looks to be an excellent adaptation of the classic story. I must confess I haven't read it yet, but I heard of it and meant to...

Well, hopefully you'll do Goethe justice.

Off to watch #2! Yay!

Is the spoken German part of the original music, or is it excrepts from the original text?

[Evil Josh & Billy: Ep. 02]

Fairly fast-paced humour

First of all, I think you need to put in play/replay buttons. Essential to all movies!

This episode seemed more amusing to me. The graphics were rather nice, with nice line variation and nice expressions and lip synching.

Also, I rather liked the way you had different coloured outlines for some objects, slightly misplaced.

JC as a character provided lots of humour potential and you used a good portion of it, if not all.

Also, there were a good few other jokes, most of which seemed fairly original and fast-paced.

Suggestions? Well, put in play/replay buttons for starters.

Great work overall.