ThaScientist's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[GT - Soldier]

I'm pretty tired of stick battles

There is little technically wrong with the movie, and this may be a semi-useless review, but I just think that stick fights are tiresome as a subject and fall into a bunch of fight scene cliches. Also, the lack of anything besides line are just looks lazy. Your animation is fine, I admit that stick animation does let people focus on having good motion and timing. It's just that the art is lacking and you should probably learn to produce backgrounds and characters in an art program and make them look nice.

I will probably sound a bit abusive here, but:

Why do people LIKE music that's just noise? I LIKE loud rock music, I'm open to rap, even death metal if it's like Firelake and a bit melodic, but I really hate so-called singing that's just screaming into my headphones and wish you would find some nice movie soundtrack or cool rock music in which the drummer isn't just banging a soulless, loud no-rhythm beat, and the singer isn't just yelling really loud into his microphone.

There, I've said it, and I will accept the consequences.

GoldenTot responds:

I don't really listen to it all that much, it just made for a decent battle tune. I know I'm not much for seeing so many fights either, but this was a little "test". Stick fights seem to be a great way to test one's animation potential, as well as see how they've improved. I usually do comedies, as you can see on my other animations, this was a little bit of an exception. :)

[BOOM BOTS]

Please read, animator's perspective

It kinda breaks my hear now when I have to review CG pieces objectively, because ever since I started my animation studies in the fall I have learned how intensely hard it is to model, animate, texture, and light a computer animation. I have also become convinced that technical skill in animating is probably more important in CG than in flash. Well, I'll start with the basics.

The characters are well designed and rigged to move, and we definitely get a sense of weight here. The camera animation is pretty good, but it feels like we don't get a totally neat pullout at the end, at which point the composition of the face-off is critical.

I do commend the painstakingly made set pieces, only wishing that they were more interestingly textured and lit. I do not think that the stylized "Tankmen" look of abandoned buildings was translated flatteringly into CG.

The trouble with CG is that for the same amount of work as in flash you get a shorter film, so to create a "teaser" you need to generate a lot of interest with an extremely truncated piece--at least compared to what NewGrounds users are used to. With regards to character animation, this is also clearly not what to an animator of thelonelyduck's advancement would be a polished work. Altogether, it would take even more excruciating work to prepare CG for newgrounds big-time.

[Crotchless Chaps]

Great, just a few ideas.

I think that webchameleon is being completely unfair, because this is a great flash. I understand that those tired of reading useless and slavish praise [yes, all of you who write 10 reviews and only write something like "liked the dick joke!"] might try to compensate by being abusive, but it's better to be constructive. Since most of the praise doesn't need to be said, I will here focus disproportionately on my criticism. No misconceptions--is a hilarious movie!

Before I start, with some of the things I'll say, you may think I'm some rabid feminist or simply too politically correct. That's not the case. I'm a guy who does enjoy a good, immature laugh pretty often. The only reason I'll make these complaints is that I think certain attitudes in movies like these make things uninteresting and demeaning to certain groups of people when they should try to make fun of everyone equally.

The animation looks great, and while it's not movement intensive I'd say BiffTheTimid is one of the better artists visually. I would say that main characters could use more individualistic features rather than embodying the same image of college-age, masculine physical perfection. I for one don't know any guys (or girls) that good-looking, and it would help people's self-image if there was more realism in art. However, other characters like Lady Gaga's mother and the random scotsman showed promise as more naturalistic. Oh, and get some voice actors. I do hope that the author has not alienated female friends

The fart joke that starts things off is right on, maybe just because I have been in that situation many times. The titular "crotchless chaps" joke is funny too, and I don't know if that would actually even the laying field in terms of "showing the goods", but hypothetically it is an interesting idea to go clubbing with.

I'm not sure I approve of how this treats the female characters, and the animation takes a sort of masculine bravado outlook that is rather immature in objectifying women and being generally braindead and uninteresting from an intelectual point of view. In particular, I didn't see the need to bring Lady Gaga or Queen Latifa into it since it was just a bit more spirited. It's not that making fun of them is wrong, its just that female characters seem to That "I'd poker HER face" quip just hints a bit at a double standard of sexual promiscuity. I just felt like putting that out there.

As for the three main characters, although I'm sure the author means to gently mock the kind of frat boys they are portraying, too little of the laughs seem to be with them rather than at them. I'd give Dim, Dan, and Tom of "The Decline of Videogaming" as what I find more rounded and sympathetic examples of young male protagonists in flash spoofs.

Since these are just a small part of my personal opinions, and don't reflect my admiration for the technical skill and great humor, I will give this a score that is not lame, abusive, or needlessly generous either. But I suggest on the technical side to get a friend or colleague to do the girl voices, or better yet to get different actors for a couple of different characters. It helps the humor when voices are convincing and viewers aren't paying attention to technical details.

[Bunnykill 4]

much to appreciate, more to be desired.

It's better animated than the Madness series in many ways, but unlike Krinkels work it lacks alternate camera angles and so the awe wears off. It does become boring after a while. The female character seems a tad token and stereotypical, but the again all the characters are archetypes. Altogether it makes few camera movments, is predictable, and drags on, this is very finely done otherwise. Also, kudos to spazzyg64 for excellent command of the latin tounge in her abusive review.

[The Transformer]

very nice.

I loved the animation, especially the fish-eye effect, which for me was pretty visually impressive. The unfolding part was extremely well executed. It's a nice, gentle parody of early silent film, a little "what if?" Title cards were nicely done, music was highly atmospheric, and this one was certainly not as "talky" as Facebook Twitter. Johnny has some great animation skill, and since this is a silent feature it has kind of forced him to put it to full use. Funny and fantastically animated.

[homemade Mountain Dew ad]

Mister Clinton, this must stop.

This is called a flash portal for a reason. Your little ad is cute and all, if very short, but it simply wasn't very captivating. The most important thing is that you must do is learn to use flash vector and stop submitting these videos that you simply convert to flash format. It seems to work for most other people. I am sure there are many other sites designed specifically for homemade video, but we currently have no such portal. I really don't approve of your strategy and suggest you change it. Maybe anything goes here, but I will have my say.

[Ultra Sheriff - Nemesis]

Outstanding technique, but fight is too one-sided

The animation and the audeo (both FX and music) was outstanding. The problem I had was that the outcome of the battle didn't seem in question. A fight is only exciting if victory for the good guy doesn't seem inevitable. What it lacked was a moment of peril in which the red pilot would have been incinerated or otherwise killed had he failed to deliver that final blow. The green villain comes across as impotent and outclassed rather than a worthy oponent. It is only because your technique with sound effects and animation were so ridiculously good that I'm giving you a high rating; if it weren't this well animated, I'd have to seriously dock points for lack of plot and suspense.

[Exodus Tyson Punched Out]

Congradulations on another travesty for Newgrounds

This is evil and wrong, but I suppose that's what Newgrounds is; a place where respect for the dead is not cause for censorship. I am ethically against the creation of flash like this, being that the real-life victim is a four-year-old child, but based on precedent this is not the most disrespectful thing I have ever seen.

It really isn't that bad, but it didn't make me laugh. I can see how someone could find it mildly amusing. As a piece of neqgrounds kitch, it may stand the test of time. I don'nt think that brilliant technical skill went into this, but I guess it would lose its power if it were some work of art. It is short, shoddy, and to the point. I hate the conceit that an artist can find no better inspiration for satire and must make a gap-toothed, immature guffaw at someone's personal tragedy, but for those who appreciate the ethos of this, kudos.

[Third Reich Hair Salon]

Needs Work, gets boring.

Your costume and acting are pretty good, but it falls apart when you use pictures to illustrate the point. It pauses for too long on the pictures, and it breaks continuity when the ambient noise suddenly goes silent. A live action film is harder to stage , and you need more people's talents to make it work. It would also help if you had a better setting than a barrren field for your hair salon. ALtogether, not very well staged and gets long enough to become boring.

Overlord-Pictures responds:

As I said, this is an older film, we've improved much since then. We shot this in 20 min. due to time constraints. This is also an old cut (the newer one wouldn't convert, but I'm trying) with longer pauses and shoddy editing.

[TB anime practice]

What was that?

I'm guessing that part at the end was your animation. It's nice, but I'm not sure what you're "testing". Until it's ready, there's no reason to share it with us.

kfkok responds:

I did the entire clip, not the end only, However the drawings idea and animation is based on the anime. And i just remade it in flash