Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Adolf Hitler:CAI493+D 104]

do more

Just as Desert Bus would quickly get tiresome, so does this series, I feel. Maybe an unfair comparison - this has a lot more variation, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

I think you should maybe look into upping Hitler's contrast for future episodes - edit the curves so the shadows/highlights are more visible through what I presume are layers set to 'colour'.

You seem to have a knack for selecting lovely backgrounds - this one being particularly cool - and getting music with some thematic match.

Even in the limited format you've chosen though, I think you could do more with your picures.

AfroUnderscoreStud responds:

I'd like to for some of these, but unfortunately I barely have enough time in the day to make them as they already are.

[Adolf Hitler:CAI493+D 103]

astonished

I checked in just to see if the series had changed at all, expecting none. Chuckled only at the sight of the 'evolution'.

Frankly, with these episodes the variations are never really enough to elevate it to humour. Seeing hitler mutated as he was here could have actually been an awesome sight had the colour layer and lack of self-shadowing not delayed the realisation of what was going on. Having said that, the leaves were fairly well cropped out and I liked the desaturated background to help distinguish the bg/foreground.

The Japanese music was fun - I liked the suitability of the tropical theme and it made me smile.

However, the humour - for me - is simply in the fact that such a thing is actually being created. Like Desert Bus, which I wouldn't enjoy the act of playing, it beggars disbelief that such a thing should be created. I'm astonished that this series continues, essentially unchanged.

It's that fact alone that made me chortle.

You've elevated yourself to a legend in this corner of the web.

And so coming to rate it, do I rate it on the strength of the episode or on the strength of the series as a whole? When it comes down to it, I must rate not only the concept but the execution too and so whilst I'd happily rate the concept 10/10 simply as appreciation for its existence, to do so would suggest that the execution is immaterial. Ultimately, I'll give the episode what I feel it deserves standing alone and realise the truth in all those protestations of 'it's the words that matter - not the score'.

AfroUnderscoreStud responds:

I'd give these a 0 myself. ;)

[ITLA Pirate Day Collab]

Fun watch

Cool watch! I liked the variety of styles in here and everything raised a smile.

Though I enjoyed Souled's jokes, I felt the length of it slightly ruined the tempo - 3 quick sections and 1 long bit just seems wrong to me and lacking in balance.

Anyway, it was fun to watch with decent presentation.

How come EvilToast wasn't co-authored?

FlukeDude responds:

EvilCactus actually, and he didn't want to be co-authored.

[Streamline - FBF]

Surrealism in its classical sense

In a way these animations hark back to the surrealist movement.

It seems to have become a rite of passage for Flash artists - fbf animation of miscellaneous objects morphing from one scene to the next, spending

I liked how the smiley face spitting out the blue/pink looked a bit like pacman, linking us to the previous scene.

The morph into the flag was specially nicely done. A couple - turning into the snowman or the bow/arrow or basketball seemed far less smooth.

Cool stuff in any case. An above-average example of a genre that I like anyway.

Stay funky!

Graeme responds:

the shakiness was on purpose. i feel it added a little substance, and fit the mood a little better.

i agree that some transitions weren't as good as other. and i never really thought about how the smiley guy looked like the pacman. but i can see how that could create a sense of familiarty (word check)

thanks again for a detailed review.

funky and fresh ;)

[Bounce - FBF]

Really no tweens?

Brilliant song choice for this kind of flash.

I thought the line that was 'walking' about 5s in was a bit too jerky and there was slightly too much of the standard 'dot flashing around the screen' at the start - a bit of a bad impression.

I read the previous review I agree that certain parts look tweened (or at the least would have been identical tweened. Examples include the bendy walking stick (I'd have animated the walk then tweened the motion) the bullet shooting past smiley#1, the big face spinning then rolling away and the arm/gun spinning into the screen and cocking the bullet.

Actually, I'd have sworn some of those were tweens (or was it a case of you making manual tweens - i.e. moving the mc a bit each frame? If so, don't bother giving yourself more work when a tween would have the exact same effect.

There were some parts I really liked though. I liked the patterns the explosions made, the pattern of the way the later black circle disintegrated and the joke at the end.

Fun watch.

Graeme responds:

i appreciate your reviews. you always make them so detailed :D

i can see why some might think things were tweened. nut the title was "Bounce - FBF". so i felt like it i had tweened stuff, i would be cheating.

i liked the idea of my bendy walking stick thing, it just came out looking so shitty though. haha.
again, thanks for the "tween" examples, i can see why people might think it was.

[Mortal Kombat: Day Off]

Kinda amusing.

I felt the thick lines of the bg didn't go so well with the thin lines of the characters.

Also, the tweened running is terrible. It's generally hard to get motion to look totally natural with tweens, but a tip - watch folk running and see how far they raise their legs in front/behind.

I kinda liked the joke though and good usage of the sample.

Graeme responds:

thanks man. that was my first real full-body attempt. and i know the running looked like shit.

one problem though, is that i used to tweens. i hate using tweens. thats just how shitty the running loop is. it made it look like a tween. if you want you can decompile the movie and see for yourself. i know, pretty sad. haha

[Chalk Doodles]

Not enough real animation!

The little men waving then jumping at the start were great! Lovely to watch. Surprisingly smooth animation, considering you wouldn't have been able to see the previous pic.

After that, it went downhill - no real animation (apart from the breaking stick, which was good but not as smooth as the starting bits) - just shots of a pic being drawn or erased. Really that sort of 'animation' is fair enough to use in small sections, but after the incredible beginning, I was disappointed.

Good stuff nevertheless. Soothing tune.

Graeme responds:

i never thought of it like that. i see your point though. maybe if i make another chalk movie, i'll keep that in mind.

also, my trick for knowing what the last frame was, was that i just kinda dabbed at it with the eraser. then it would be so faded, that i could make it out, but the camera was too weak to notice anything. so then i'd just draw my next frame around that.

tricky, no?

[A Dragon's Revenge]

A definite improvement.

If I were giving aspects ratings, it'd go:
drawings: 6/10
animation: 4/10
music: 8/10
sfx: 8/10
narration: 8/10
premise: 8/10
the way the story pans out: 6/10

This isn't meant to discourage you - just express my opinion. For the record, I'm not saying the average quality of animation is better - quite the opposite in fact!

The drawings are good with some great elements, but I think you need to maybe get away from all that pseudo-realistic jointed tweened animation. I've not seen your other stuff, but maybe do a quick project entirely with fbf - maybe just a stick-man or whatever. But working fbf may really help teach you stuff. At the moment... your guys just seem slightly lacking in energy if you know what I mean.

I was thoroughly impressed with the splicing of the music and whatnot - really gave it a theatrical quality.

Story is great as always and yes - it is a definite improvement.

Now speed onto your next project!

OxSox responds:

I couldn't agree with you more that I need to fbf much, much more. I think that you've hit on THE thing I have to do take my animation to the next (front page,daily award) level. I think I'll probably do another larger project next, but I definitely feel that fbf will be a key part of the next project. Before I started re-doing Dragon's Revenge, I knew I had to improve but I didn't know how, if Ice or redoing the movie has taught me anything, it's how to take my animation to the next level. Now I have to make that into a reality, oh thanks for the review, by the way, and I hope I can impress you more next time!

[Break The Walls Down!]

Some great moments.

1 - What happened to the little guy?
2 - predictable
4 - I like the end
6 - This one's brilliant!
7 - very predictable.
8 - I thought it'd fall on them. Kinda glad it didn't.

I like the fact that your characters have a geometric style to differentiate them.

I liked all the bgm and sfx, but got annoyed when I first went to replay - you should ALWAYS have a 'stopAllSound()' command on the play button or first frame to avoid the end-music looping over the movie.

Though you showed some emotion, the characters could have been more expressive using body language.

It's not the most original concept and not all the sections were great.

However, thanks to the quick-fire format, they don't necessarily all NEED to be..

Superawesomeness responds:

In #1 Blue bounced too high and into space.
In #8 I decided not to make it fall on them, they need a sequel.
Sorry about the music thing, I'll remember to have a stopAllSound() action next time.
Glad you liked the movie!

[2girls1stephen]

Hmm

I liked the end frame - never heard the software-generated voices layered onto each other like that. Sounded quite cool. Absurdity kinda amusing (liked 'giggle giggle') and the washed out and outlined photos were lovely.

Pretty shallow though and the joke was a bit flimsy - no hearty laughs. Just almost-chuckles.

Heil responds:

okay, well the original is better