Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fiasco]

Rather cool

I love the bold shapes and colours you've got here and your illustration style really comes through in some of the held faces.

I think the running cat looks a bit cheap though, with the sorta slightly awkward ellipses for legs.

A fun watch and I look forward to seeing more animation from you!

nonstopive responds:

Thanks! I agree with the cat and would definitely fix it up if I were to use it again.

[Chuck Breaks Pico-Day]

Fun tempo and funny end.

The graphics were terrible - in the side-on view specially with the proportions that were neither stylish nor realistic. Also, the voice recordings had a fair bit of noise in the mic.

Having said that, I actually kinda enjoyed this. It had a fun tempo and the ending made me chuckle. The '!' bonus was cool too.

Work on your drawings, but keep making movies. :-)

TheBrothersFreep responds:

Thanks a lot. Like I said I was in a bit of a rush, but I'll be sure to take my time and make some neater drawings next time.

Also I don't have a very good recording device, but I'll try to get a better one.

[Pico Gets In Shape]

Entertaining.

Rather awesome.

I'm guessing the style was inspired by the Pico 2 Gameplay demo?

It didn't make me laugh, but it was engrossing and seemed to sum up NG nicely.

Anyways, did you make the tunes at the start/end? They're totally kick-arse - specially the opening! Are you gonna upload them?

AlmightyHans responds:

actually i just tried making a shape toon out of pico. and no i dindt make that music i just distorted the original song.

[Cows Pooping]

Made me chuckle first time.

Given the fairly long 'intro' with a static screen and music before the cow appears, I was expecting something a bit longer.

This then falls into the category of 'made me chuckle because the shortness was a surprise'.

The sound efect was disgustingly suitable and I like the way you animate the poop as a constant flood - it looks like vomit or diorrhea!

The walk cycle could have been a lot better. Even if you couldn't be bothered to do a realistic one, having the legs move a bit more in a silly rubber-hose-type way would have maybe been visually interesting. Just now they look kinda stilted if you know what I mean.

Imacow responds:

Yeah, I added the static screen to increase the length a little and to make the music sync with the music a little better.

Thanks :D

Yeah, I didn't like the walking cycle to much either, I kinda regret not fixing that up a little.

[Ghouls]

Kinda fun while it lasted.

I generally liked the style - the simple shapes and fbf.

I'd suggest you think a bit about the line width - it's usually the same width throughout, but is smaller in the scenes in which you use tweening (like Pac-man before he sees the pill or the ghoul before he grabs the kid in the ghost costume). Maybe think about this - maybe use thinner lines for the bg?

Sometimes, your lines got a little sloppy. Don't be afraid to undo and redraw a line until it looks smooth.

The plot itself was kinda unsettling, with the vicious ghoul - quite a contrast to the cute graphics!

The end with Pac-man was amusing, but a bit of a non-sequitor considering that the rest of it had been set in the 'human' world.

It remained entertaining, regardless of flaws. Mainly thanks to the fast-paced action, I guess.

Voodoo responds:

People always say my lines aren't sexy, I think it's because of my shitty 30$ tablet.

[One Big Morphing Orgasm]

Morphgasmic.

Great work, everyone!

Some of those morphs were spellbinding and it was great being able to watch them all loop over and over.

Some of my faves:
the skull becoming the lad
dinosaur becoming the surfing tiger
Darkshadow's stuff - astounding
Mogly's
Vincoid's rose becoming the angel was beautiful
The brain-man becoming the foetus
The heart becoming the eye

I loved how with the beer, the fluid splashed out, then splashed back in as it morphed into something else.

Loads of other that were quality, too though. I noticed that the weaker ones seemed to arise when there was a lot of fiddly detail to deal with or when the lines went a tad too wibbly or there was a massive change in line thickness.. Most of us aren't good enough to have flashy stuff like a wave pouring over and so I guess I was lucky to not be pushed beyond my breaking point. (My dinosaur>hat seemed hard for a while, but I worked it out and having seen some of the other challenged folk faced, I realise how simple mine actually was!)

It's amazing how the music seems to match the rhythm of the morphing! I wonder how you did that! ;-p

If you do another (and I think you should), I'd suggest some sort of guidelines on line thickness and drawing complexity. That might help make it ore manageable for everyone?

Also, for co-author spots, maybe take a leaf out of Jmtb02's book and reward 'best morph', as well as 'most morphs'. I guess this way was simpler for you though.

Anyways, awesome idea. It was fun to do and I've been watching this for ages.

Maybe we'll see a bunch of solo variants now folk have gotten a tste for this.

TheBoogley responds:

You know, I'm still not sure how the music got synced so well... :3

[Father & Son In: Trip]

Some elements made me smile.

I actually really liked your graphics - with the simple shapes of the car etc.

The sign for 'camp boring' really didn't fit though - neither the thin lines, nor the style of shape. Elsewhere, you have these sorta flat abstract shapes that look like a cheap cartoon from the 60s and so the 'proper' 3D shape looks kinda odd.

I think you need to work on keeping a consistent line width, maybe embrace the abstract shapes you've made and work on refining your style.

And don't use square-edged letters - the sans-serif rounded fonts you use work way better.

The story itself made me smile. Specially the son's sarcastic voice.

The whole thing could have been better presented though. The way the presence of the rafting, archery and bonfire lighting were introduced was a bit odd - up until then, it was as if they were all alone.

Also, in the end, with a comment like that, I feel that such a horrible dad would probably slap the son, or at least grumble 'shut up'.

Maybe focus more on realising the characters rather than making funny jokes at the expense of continuity?

I look forward to your future stuff.

CSanimations responds:

Yeah, I should of planned it better. Thanks.

[Sentry- 1]

Work on the animation and add some originality.

It's a typical, generic story. You haven't really shown us anything new - next time, maybe think of a twist or something that will take this a step up.

The scene with the eye turning green is classic horror film. Nice.

I think that the scene with the alien bursting out didn't quite have enough impact - maybe a bit more acting in the voice (if he's so scared, shouldn't he be shouting or showing emotion?) or maybe have the music kick in a few seconds earlier than it did.

The sudden stop of the music was slightly jarring though.

You do need to work on your drawings - the human proportions are constantly changing, with massive legs, messed up limbs or torsos...

I did like some of your colours though.

-Review Request Club-

SCUD14 responds:

Thanks again, i'll try and come up with a twist or two next time around.

[In my mind]

Fun

Why does the pre-loader take so long to fade away? And the menu take so long to appear?

I'd suggest making NO transition last more than a second (normally 0.5s is enough for a simple fade) and having the menu one happen automatically rather than waiting for us to mouse-over.

The starting frame wasn't too good - kinda 'scrappily' drawn and not really stylish.

The subsequent scene with the objects in front of a star was probably my favourite part of the movie - changing one element whilst keepingt he rest the same makes for a cool style.

I also loved the way the cloud/sun scene 'popped in' and the last scene - with the dots in the background and the squares in the foreground was cool.

I think you have a good sense of colour but some of your lines seem a tad too sketchy.

The timing is wonderful.

Fun watch, though the slow transitions at the start left a bad taste in my mouth.

-Review Request Club-

Lochie responds:

It takes a while because I was trying to set the scene, a nice and slow but spooky scene, I guess it didnt work for you.
Sorry aout the menu.

I am glad you liked the star and changing objects part.

I was trying to cross between stylish and non-stylish drawings, and switch animation styles to show what I can do, thats why some were sketchy and some were not.

Sorry about the transitions.

[Where ISN'T my mind?]

Cool idea, but not visually entrancing.

It's kinda like 'Play' and 'Flathead Symphony', but using totally abstract things.

Although it's a cool idea, I felt your squares and the fbf ball just weren't as visually interesting as the characters in Dustball's pieces. Even if you want to abstract it, maybe have different things for different pitches and have stuff change a bit more rather than just fading in/out - maybe enlargements...

Also, I was really disappointed with the curtailed ending - when I was just getting into the music.

And why no replay button?

I like the experiment, the bg and the 'clean' style of the black and white with grey. Maybe ditch the fbf and embrace the geometric 'cleanness'?

- Review Request Club -

Lochie responds:

I thought I already responded to this. :P

Okay, well I wasn't trying to compare myself to dustball or dan paladin when animating this. :P

I agree that I should've had more variety in this, it would have made it better.

I didn't think of a replay button, sorry about that. ):

I couldn't think of any other way to make the ball look like it would swing unless it was fbf. :P

Thanks for the review.