Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Become Anniversary Collab]

context and the various

++++ I love how everyone brought their own style to a consistent theme: just as it should be but all too often isn't.

+++ Start's graininess gave it a 'happened a long time ago feel'.

+++ Puts it all in context.

+++ Clay controlled by the wizard had some funky movement. Specially loved the blue bits splurting up.

- Face was a bit rough there.

++ The creation of a female counterpart was mildly amusing.

- Though her body shape was really odd. It came from the 'stickman with circles' school of thought.

++ Introducing hands was an interesting idea.

+++ Loved the charming text. Specially 'O'.

+++ Nice expression as he 'awoke'.

++ Fbf animation made for an interesting change.

==
A far better tribute than your solo endeavour, I felt. Your own film works better in this context and the various styles and ideas thrown into the mix add so much.

MackProductions responds:

Thank you very much! I respect your reviews a great deal, and love that you reviewed each of my Become films.
Yes this was planned to be the main piece of tribute for the anniversary, and Become 2 is more of an extended version of one of my pieces for it.

All of us in the collab thank you

[Become 2: The Anniversary]

compared

+++ Great special fx (the red things).

++++ I do REALLY like the little curvy things on the chair.

++ Some varied expressions.

-- I think you could have gone further with them. Exaggerate his fear and other facial shapes. Maybe try to reflect his attitude with his stance.

+++ The song is definitely growing on me. It's Magic!

-- I don't like the way that we're not sure of his situation in the world. #1 was pretty clear - the wire was gaining sentience and 'becoming' a model. In this, we're never sure what his control over the environment amounts to. Neither in a crazy bizarre world like Mr Coo, nor strutting around shooting out flowers, I feel that the stage feels like it's never really established.

++ Charming ending.

==
Cool movie. I enjoyed it. Though it seems slightly lacking compared to #1, it's a fairly worthy successor.

MackProductions responds:

Thanks, I love that you look deeper than "did i enjoy it?" Although I don't mind those types of reviews too much, you give a true review, and I respect that.

The special effects pieces were just me editing each frame with photoshop, and I'm happy you feel it worked well.

The curvy things on the chair are meant to just be cool to look at at first, then they Become the reason of color change for the table. Thanks!

Yes the expressions only went so far. In fact I feel all his movements only went so far, and this is because I did a poor job building him. The armature was with too stiff wire, so that every movement I did, the wire would break out of the clay and I would have to re-shape it.

Ah yes, I still love that song after hearing it a couple hundred times. I'm happy it's growing on you, some people are getting a little sick of it. As you saw in Become: Festival Edition, it was a test to try a different song, and I think it worked alright, but wasn't a success. Magic is the song for Become and that shouldn't change a whole lot.

Yes his situation in his world is unclear. I just felt that he lived on the table basically, and that was all there was too it, but I should have worked on that aspect more.

Thanks!

[Mentanks]

the material and your own

++ Liked the idea.

-- Though I was hoping that the role reversal would be explored a bit more.

I actually thought it'd be about tanks controlling the men's heads or something. Something zany and surreal like that. I just felt that simply anthropomorphising the tanks was a bit 'easy' and slightly predictable.

+++ The speedy part had me chuckling slightly.

++ The ending is all you.

==
Manages to be faithful both to the material and your own style.

Wonchop responds:

They're just tanks. It's like asking a horse to fix an iPod.

[Caveman Bowling]

by the prehistoric starring character

------- Horrible hit frames for buttons. I'll assume you now understand the effect of frame 4 ('hit')? I think it should always be a filled shape that is at least slightly larger than the visible graphics. For normal buttons, a rectangle works fairly well.

+++ Fuzziness. Nice effect.

? Is it a low alpha mc of a few frames of noise, produced in Photoshop?

+ I generally like the font you use at the pre-loader.

- Though not the 't'. It looks a bit too straight for that font family. Also, I'm not keen on the 'n'. If you can be bothered, maybe edit it?

++ 1st gag (shape it was) made me smile.

- last gag (end) came as a disappointment. I was actually really rooting for the little caveman and interested in seeing what would happen next.

+++ I do love the title's font.

+++ Great music. Sets the mood perfectly and whilst it's repetitive (kinda suiting the theme well), it doesn't get too dull.

-- I think the ending 'dun' should be maybe replaced with an sfx. I think that'd up the comedy value and might have made me actually enjoy the ending.

-- The bowling arm tween is so obviously lazy. When movement looks more like a typical flash tween than what it represents, I think there's a problem.

- Feet are slightly odd-looking.

+ I do like the face.

-- I don't like the trees in the bg much. Maybe a lusher, slightly darker but more saturated green? Or maybe some texture, maybe shadows/some leaf detail?

+ Cool dino at start.

==

Enjoyed it. Short and sweet.

Made me smile and I was charmed by the prehistoric starring character.

Bad-Atom responds:

Re: buttons - I've already been lambasted about the buttons before, I've learned my lesson now. :)

Re: fuzziness - you're right.

Re: ending - I just like dark endings, that's all. I'm a sadist at heart. >:-)

Re: sfx - I wanted to keep it sound-free and let the music carry the story along by itself.

[Michael's Stand-Up]

you haven't done

Watched it. Smiled at various points. Chuckled very slightly.

Then skimmed through the reviews. Listened to it once without watching. Found it to be exactly as funny as before. Then watched it a 2nd time.

It seemed similar in style to Seinfeld (which I watched the first 4 episodes of and wasn't amazingly impressed with).

-- A lot of it is predictable stuff (though the end took me slightly by surprise).

++ The delivery is good though.

I think the pauses and the drama you inject into the mundane was the only real humour for me.

++++ I'd call the audio mixing an awesome achievement. Really clean, and the way you mixed in the laughter and kept filesize fairly small is awesome. Technically, it seems pretty much perfect.

--------- Music or sounds before we click play? Don't do it. Stuff takes time to load. Folk sometimes load stuff whilst listening to other things. Really, it's something that I hate about so many flashes.

++ I really like the bg - the wall texture in particular.

- It would have been a nice touch if you'd made yourself brighter when within the spotlight.

++ I like the title and 'comedy club' fonts.

- The other, not so much.

--- During the line about standing on a box and the 3 foot dude, you rotate yourself horribly from one angle to the next. It looks unnatural and it doesn't really fit in with your semi-naturalistic mood.

-- The lip synching is a bit wonky. Your mouth shapes are off I think.

- I agree with Skaijo - drawing frames between the various arm positions would be good.

+ I liked the attention to the eyes.

+ Also the fact that he was a lot more active than he could've been, moving around and unexpectedly moving forwards near the end.

+ Clean lines in gfx

- Shading would be nice.

==
It's a cool movie. A little slow, but brings a bit of diversity to NG and I enjoying it overall.

I hope to see a similar Flash of your best material. A little disappointed that you haven't done that yet.

Bad-Atom responds:

Yeah, there's a lot of room for improvement, huh? :)

The next one will be 24 fps, which will smooth the movements and make more room for more accurate lip-sync. I barely knew how to tween when I did this, so the movements will be SOOOOO much better. And the lighting will be interactive too.

This is why I waited to use my funniest material - I didn't want to blow it with lousy animation. :)

Glad you liked the audio. On the next one, I'll be adding the option to mute the loading theme. I just can't get rid of it completely - I like the theme and the file size is next to nothing.

P.S. I hate Seinfeld. That is all. :)

[Mummy]

shorter and sweeter

----- Starts automatically. You should always at least have a play button at the start. It can be a minor inconvenience and there's no reason for it.

++ Kinda amusing

--- A lot of it seems to drag. We know where the plot's going, we know what's gonna happen... you just drag it out by repeating what's already happened or having them repeat lines.

+++ I do really love the animation of him pointing, then having his arms twist round.

++ Decent voices.

==
It was fairly interesting, with an amusing concept, but the script and movie could've been cut for a shorter and sweeter animation.

Coaly responds:

I actually did cut some. Your comments are noted, thanks for the detailed review.

[Cigaro]

going on

Saw this on your list. Heard the song a few times roughly when it came out (was linked to on a website I frequent) and I do find it kinda funny and ridiculous.

+++ All the lyrics. When they're as strained as this, some may have real trouble understanding them, so it's good you included them.

--- I kinda felt it was a bit visually repetitive.
You had the same close-up of the characters on each line. Sure, you did have a bg change along the way, but it just felt like you could've done a lot more there.

-/2 The lips, whilst they move (usually) when they should, the mouth shapes don't match at all.

++ The ascii art was kinda cool.

+++ I like the song.

==
Though I liked the song and enjoyed hearing it again, I just felt you could've had more stuff going on in the actual animation.

Murray responds:

All the way back in May 2006 when I first heard this song and got fucking addicted to this song. I liked the song so much I decided to have a go at flash using this song. :)

Children, that is the beginning of my Flash adventures.

[Spike's Confession]

watch!

++++ Makes me chuckle.

-- I really think you should have subtitles (optional). I watched it 4 times at least and still can't make out all the words to the song.

++++ Appropriate hip thrusting.

+++ Nice extras.

-- You could have cleaner gfx.

-- Shading would be nice.

- Not too keen on the joke at the end.

++++ All the music is so DAMN GROOVY!

==
A great wee piece.

Makes me laugh. I'm definitely more eager to watch the anime now (even if I know the ending - DAMN YOU!).

The graphics, though full of character, aren't as impressive as I had hoped after reading the comments.

Short and not as graphically sweet as it could be, but it was certainly an enjoyable watch!

_______________
On an unrelated subject - I forgot to mention in my previous review another criticism of Roadkill and Juliet - the links didn't work, which was really aggravating.

Skaijo responds:

My review of "watch!"
______________________________


For an animation that was roughly a minute long, you certainly expressed an abundance of thoughts. Both your encouraging comments and criticism were valid--however, it would have been nice if you also mentioned the lip synching, which was virtually nonexistent by the second half of the movie.

I have to plug that the Groovy music is all thanks to the Seatbelts, Kanno, and the equally groovy Linus Mines.


____________
On an unrelated subject--I'd love to get a review from you on Don't Trip.

[Roadkill and Juliet]

of course

I kinda think you were taking a lot of shortcuts here, just to get it done faster.

Thing is, the humour and mood come across regardless. They are somewhat tainted but not enough to spoil the movie.

--- Various tweens forming only an approximation of the movement. The walking of the emo-king near the start looks particularly bad, maybe because it's such a major aspect.

When anything turns, it makes it look like a paper cut-out.

++++ The sight of the Emo dude scrabbling away at the air whilst under the parking meter made me grin then chuckle.

As did her getting upset whilst the bird flew away and the chaos scene, with the slashing and the chemical fire.

++++ Memorable story, thanks to the bizarre relationship and the way you juxtapose that ridiculous aspect with some semi-serious treatment.

++++ Emo King has crazy-memorable attire.

-- I'm actually not too keen on the colour 'dream' sequences. Maybe because I don't like the colours you pick all that much. I think it might be because the colours are all full saturation and high brightness in the first couple of scenes, making it a bit too much for the eye maybe. Some variation in those things is nice...

+++ I really like the way you've mixed together the 2 songs. What made you decide to put on part of that other song at the start?

==
I did enjoy it, of course. A few giggles and a smile throughout.
____________________
____________________
Question - I assume all the foreign characters in your animations are Korean. Is it a phoenetic script? I ask because it seems that 2 of them mean girl and bird. Are those 1-letter words or were they meaning-based characters, like kanji?

Skaijo responds:

My review of "of course"
___________________________________

:I kinda think you were taking a lot of shortcuts here, just to get it done faster.

--- Various tweens forming only an approximation of the movement.

You'll soon realize that with each project I endeavor, I discover a new flash animating technique which I soon rape to death. During GvE, it was fbf animation loops, during Don't Trip, it was animated symbols, and for Roadkill and Juliet, it was full-model-tweening. Not that it's much of an excuse, I still learned a great deal, at least technically, from this animation. I finally had an efficient camera and smooth movement from my characters. However, I may have animated myself into a corner, resorting to tween walking loops rather than go out of my comfort zone to fbf animate them.

The fact that Hangeul for "girl" has a vowel in it that (barely) looks like a person is merely coincidental. Like English, Hangeul solely has phonetic values.

Emotional Content: 9.5/10

You really made it clear what you liked and what turned you off. Your choice of tense was neither lost in praise nor filled with angst, but rather objective, and helpful to all of your points.

Grammar/Clarity: 8.5/10

While I did easily understood everything you wrote, I believe closer attention to punctuation could have added a higher quality to this review.

For example,

:As did her getting upset whilst the bird flew away and the chaos scene, with the slashing and the chemical fire.

Although I understood the underlying meaning of those words, an appreciative effort is lost trying to interpret what you wrote the closest and most logical thought that you were attempting to convey.


Constructive Criticism: Overuse of tweening, Color Scenes, Bad links in the menu.

The criticisms that you pointed out are valid and original. I especially appreciated the fact that you pointed out the scenes that you felt were too saturated with color--which may have contrasted too much for the casual viewer. I hadn't considered that, and bringing that to my attention will certainly change the way how I animate from now on.

===============================

This is a wonderful review. The only thing that I can think of is that I would have liked more of your thoughts on the plotline: Was there an underlying theme? Was it simply a nonsensical animation for silliness' sakes? Were the characters personified well? Comments on the pace of the movie would have also been appreciated also: Did the pace of the movie stay consistent? Where certain parts too quick to follow--if so, was it appropriate to the situation/scene?

9.5/10

[Gordon vs. Evil]

we can't help

I know your skills are much improved, so I'm not gonna bother dissing the slight problems with the tweened animation (most of which are at the start and to do with stuff moving wrongly in relation to other parts of the scenery.

The movie starts with everything moving so damn well to the beat. The action carries on perfectly paced to the music (a trait all of your movies seem to possess).

I really like all the fbf animation, from the letters changing form at the start to the running off at the end.

Your running animations really are amazing, specially as it's straight at/away from the 'camera'. Had you done some other form of animation before this? It's just so damn impressive, that running.

I think Jenny Gordon is pretty evil herself, considering she's kicking the little fellow at the start and whatnot.

Her tying him up is probably my favourite section.

Whilst I felt slightly cheated at the ending before the race ended, it's probably the best place you could have stopped it. I mean, seeing her lose then get upset wouldn't be much fun.

==
An awesome movie that makes me grin for parts of it and keeps me entertained throughout.

Also, the premise kinda captures the imagination, maybe BECAUSE it's just there, without any explanation. But you give these people such character in their movement that we can't help but wonder about their past etc.

Skaijo responds:

Hey! Reviews from Bezzy. Nice way to brighten my day. Thanks for all your thoughts:

My review of "we can't help"
_____________________

:I know your skills are much improved, so I'm not gonna bother dissing the slight problems with the tweened animation.

You must be referring to the dodgy "camera work" for which I agree with you that it is off. That's what I get for literally tweening all of my objects on the stage, instead of creating symbols.

:I think Jenny Gordon is pretty evil herself, considering she's kicking the little fellow at the start and whatnot.

That was actually the central idea of the animation. It's a satirical parody of good and evil, where good is replaced by a person, who, like all people, are a little evil themselves. I'll admit, compared with the final look of the project, that underlying theme may have been a bit too prestigious. But that was what I was going for.

=====================

Emotional Content: 9/10

Your review has a very uplifting and encouraging tense. I'm glad to know that you were entertained, and you expressed your impressions after seeing my movie in a very touching tone.

Grammar/Clarity: 8.5/10

I'm assuming you're... English?

Either you're using slang, or your spelling of certain words (such as "favourite" and "specially") is simply a result of adapting to a different version of English based on your region.

Your running animations really are amazing, specially as it's straight at/away from the 'camera'.

I'm not absolutely sure as to what you meant here. Are you trying to say that the running animations were drawn directly, live, in front of the camera--or that the angle at which I drew the animations would have been particularly challenging?

You're choice of diction certainly shows thought. Even despite a few awkward moments, I'm still able to comprehend a majority of the review.


Constructive Criticism: Tweening problems.

Although you already stated that you wouldn't go into much depth concerning the tweening problems. It would have been nice if you spent a brief moment discussing other problems concerning the flash animation. For example, the Preloader bar does not operate, and there were many line disagrements in the animation. Also, the use of shape tweening, motion tweening, and fbf animation could have been used a bit more harmoniously.

It's my opinion that more time spent of constructive criticism could have made this reivew more worthwhile.

That withstanding, you explicitly stated what you liked about the animation to a moving degree. Although I appreciate the kind and precise words, more attention should have been placed on how I can improve this project as well as future projects; or, since you are aware of my later works, what things I'm failing to improve on since my first project.

8.5/10