Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Banana Prank Call]

A bit twisted...

I just didn't find it funny.

Also, I'm really not sure if I agree with the way you're poking fun at Banana.

Lastly, why have a full song at the end? Surely a waste of filesize?

You did work the Arnie clips in well though.

Rho-VIII responds:

Any tips on how to make it 'funny' for you? Don't bother sticking up for Banana, everyone knows he's an asshole. BUT A 4, come on!

[barnaby's tales]

Great style! But maybe lose the gradients?

The format you've scanned in does look pleasing to the eye and rather unique. However, the gradients seem to ruin your style a bit, so I suggest you make your only additions the outlines, flies and blocks of solid colour. And the text of course.

The way the plot is delivered, the voice and graphical style all help to make this an obvious pastiche of childrens cartoons.

However, it just isn't as funny as the premise promises. I don't know why exactly... humour is always a hard thing to get right or constructively criticise.

At leat the unique style makes this worth watching.

Good work,
Bez

mr-wheatley responds:

yep.true. the gradients didn't work as well as i'd hoped. they are out in the next episode. I was looking for the depressing style of british childrens animation of the 70's. It's more wistfull than ha ha funny.

[The Fat Ninja of Love]

Aww... I love you too, fat ninja of love. :)

I really like this animation.

The pretence at a sombre tone soon gives way to the hyper kawai remainder.

The high pitched voices, crazy action, speedlines and ludicrous subject matter bring to mind a stereotypical Japanese animation, whilst the drawing and design of the ogre thing (as well as the stuff inside) looks more western.

You are obviously an extremely skilled artist and animator and it shows!

The end has made me laugh so many times in the past few minutes... nearly every time I've seen it I haven't been able to stop myself from letting a few chuckles escape my lips.

The only problem I have is that in the first font you use, the 'y' looks rather like an 'n' and the lower-case 's' looks rather like an 'f'.

Apart from that, it's an impeccable piece of entertainment.

bovine responds:

Cheers, I don't like the font at the beginning either...but I won't be using it again.
Thanks for your kind words.

[2 dudes part 2]

Made me chuckle.

The graphics could have been better. (I found the sort of pixellated lines really annoying.)

There wasn't a play button at the start - something which there really should be at the start of any animation.

The joke was pretty dumb.

However, it was amusing enough to make me chuckle and for that I thank you.

I liked the voices too. :)

mr-wheatley responds:

ahh no play button.. hadn't really thought about that.. yes bit of an oversight.

[Bendee 4 (2003)]

Not as good as #3.

it just didn't have any real humour present and didn't make me smile the way the other 2 I watched did.

I suggest in future you keep the light-hearted humour, even if it nestles alongside the violence.

By the way, this is a series - it just isn't a serial.

eddsworld responds:

I know what you mean, and i didnt fins this one as funny as others either

[Cleaver Country IV]

Voices were a bit hard to understand.

I had to watch it twice to understand what they were saying and then realised that it was a mildly amusing joke, that may have made me chuckle had I been able to understand them the first time around.

Maybe you could have an option to have subtitles?

Also, it was a bit hard the first time around to make out who was saying what on the phone. Maybe if you had some text appearing with their name as they first appear it'd aid people in understanding it faster and thus laughing at the joke?

Lastly, I didn't like the fact that the end screen seemed to be a button that didn't do anything. (I had to right-click rewind to replay.)

I really like your graphical style though. It looks to me like you've used Photoshop and Flash in conjunction, and to nice effect.

I liked the edited photo at the end and also the text.

In short, I liked the graphics.

But some optional subtitles would really help this, I feel.

OakieMeadows responds:

Hey, Now that's what I call a review.
Thanks for taking the time, and I appreciate the contructive critism, really. The voices on the phone were suppose to sound like they were coming from the reciever, thus making the scene the listener, saving me from having to do mouth syncing. I guess I should have filtered it more.
Yup that's photoshop ... you probally recognized the charcoal filter ...
A simple process really. two frames of background and a cutout with the almighty "PEN" tool for the charectors.
Thanks
Oakie Meadows

[MDM - Tenchi]

Good, but could be better.

As well as peach being in view for the whole of the ending (part of her sprite being left on-screen), which has already been mentioned, there's a couple of other things I'd complain about.

The ending song, whilst excellent, makes the filesize far too big due to the fact that it continue for its whole length after the movie finishes. If you had a loop for the ending, it would be a bit better.

If you restart the movie, the ending music still plays, fucking it up a bit. Sort this out by having a stopAllSounds(); command on the first frame of the movie, before the music starts.

At some points, Mario seemed to stay still for a bit longer than he maybe should have to make it interesting. Same goes for Sonic - would have been better if he had been dancing faster without pausing every so often.

Lastly, the whole joke that lies in the centre just isn't that great. Peach rejects a gift and Mario kicks her? Not the best joke.

However, I did really like the ending joke and you have manipulated the sprites rather well.

Also, I liked the fact that you made some effort to synch motions and text to the music.

I suggest you keep at it, as you obviously have some potential in you.

Stay fizzy,
Bez

tenchi5000 responds:

Thanks for the comments. Finnaly someone with Constructive comments. The fags were really startin to piss me off with the flaming

[Stunner List]

Interesting concept...

Well, you've picked the victims well (I look forward to the full working list!) and the animation's good enough to make this mildly entertaining.

One problem is that with Bush, it asks you if you want to do it or not. If you select no, it says 'WHAT?' and then just goes to the same bit as if you'd said yes. It might have been better if it'd at least made some sort of sense. Like if he asked you again, or maybe said 'to hell with you! I'm doing it anyway!'.

Anyway, it's a decent thing. Not the best, and it could well get a bit boring I suppose (maybe try to think of some additional jokes or something for the remaining folk?) but it's well presented.

As the previous guy said, some voices could make this awesome. I could see myself cracking up if you had some actual voices for all the victims, with them screaming or whatever as they suffer at the hands of Stone 'Gold'.

Good luck finishing it. :)

DrPlaid responds:

Thanks for that fantastic review. You all are right. (Except for the guy that said Stone Cold sucks. Since Im so busy I never have time to dedicate to my love of animation. I can get much better and reviews like these will help me in that goal. NewGrounds is the shit!!

[The Ten Commandments]

Seems good, but needs subtitles.

I think I understand the message you're trying to get across and I smiled at some of the stuff said.

However, I didn't make out what was said at the start of the movie, don't understand what the setting is (I'm not American, so don't hear all your news) and that detracted severely from my enjoyment of the movie.

If you redid this with subtitles and also had a paused screen at the start explaining the background (or maybe an option to either just watch the movie or go to such a screen), then I'd probably enjoy it far more.

Do you think you'll ever make such a thing? I mean you re-did the Bush Bash thing with clocks...

TheOtherTruth responds:

Thank you for your review.

Scotland, eh? First of all, we need some quality Scottish Ale to discuss this over!!

First of all, this nutty supreme court justice in Alabama believes that the ten commandments are the basis for our legal system. More importantly, he believes that everybody else should agree with this premise.

Because he felt this way, he sneaked a 4000 pound (1800 kilo?) monument into the courthouse and planted it in a very conspicuous place.

NOW, I am happy that this man is good with his religion, and that he is a God fearing man.

My problem with this is several fold.

First he believes that the only way to be moral is to believe in the ten commandments. I would wager that there are many moral people who believe in other religions, or even atheists, who are moral and don't adhere to the judge's beliefs.

Second. In the United States we are supposed to have a separation of church and state. By putting his personal beliefs in the lobby of the courthouse he violates this basic concept in our law, and also suggests a complete bias against those who do not follow his beliefs.

Third, I believe that even having a monument like this, and then fighting vigorously to keep it in place is actually idol worship. This is against the 2nd commandment!

and finally....

HE HAD TO SNEAK IT IN THE COURTHOUSE AT NIGHT!!!!!

Now, I don't know where you come from but if you have to "SNEAK" to do something....ITS PROBABLY WRONG!!!

So, this is basically the gist of the movie. This guy overstepped his bounds, the religious right flocked to him like insects to an insect zapper to protect a stone (of all things), and anybody who disagreed was a heathen!

I hope that helps some.

OH YEAH, the clock thing was just an experiment.

I wanted to see if you submitted 2 things (basically the same) one with clocks and one without, would people rate the movie differently.

The results: It got exactly the same rating! So, I am not convinced that just putting a clock in a movie changes the world!

[Death-Duel No.2]

I liked the whirlwind thing...

The problem with swords fighting each other is that it's hard to follow when/if damage is being dealt. The normal swords hit the hilts a few times - the most obvious vulnerable point surely - and nothing happened.

I suppose it'd be more interesting with characters but to be honest, I suggest you try something completely different, as I have a feeling that having characters fight, Soul Calibur style, would be too hard for you to pull off.

I mean your art here is pretty decent, but I think the animation may be a bit too tricky for you and if it's just a pure fight scene, then you'll have to make the graphics and choreography damn good for it to be entertaining.

Maybe you could make it a sort of adventure series about a boy who learns to manipulate light objects through telekinesis and then goes off, wielding this sword using only his mind and trying to defeat... the evil ruler of the kingdom?

Then he could meet other folk who manipulate different swords.

Oh, and it should be part of the plot that maybe to move things they first need to undergo a ritual to become mentally connected? That could sort out plot problems of why they don't just manipulate the other person's sword.

I think that could be a funky storyline. If you think it has potential, then make it, as I'd rather like to see that...

Cypher responds:

It's a cool idea. It might take a while to make. I might revise that idea. Or get more animation skills before I even attempt it.

Thanks for the review..I'm basically still learning the next step of Flash..character animation.

Thanks. :D