Coop's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Adrellia Village #5]

"Can you hear that nasty sound?" Why yes I can - it's the poor quality voice acting. Not necessarily the voice quality was poor (it was, but only due to the single accent that all of the characters seem to have), but the mic caused annoying levels of static. Try turning down the sensitivity a little and maybe even having your voice actor standing a little further from the mic, just to reduce the overall sound picked up, so you don't overload your hardware.

The uniforms being entirely hand drawn need to be tidied up, just so we see them properly - the shield on Drake's uniform looks different to Rory's. Get that more "uniform" and it will look a lot better.

More occurrences of using photo stock for backgrounds and too little plot in your pieces, invalidating the "previously" part of each episode, but I guess that these had been made for a while, so additional work on them can't be expected just yet.

[Review Request Club]

MistyE responds:

It's not my recording, it's Flash. You won't see too many more photo stock in the next episodes, though.

[Strawberry's Break #1]

There's a good reason for me reading the credits - you were playing Tom Sawyer, by Rush. Now that I've fulfilled my urge for it, I've gone and had another look at the piece and must say the following:

Get subtitles - I need to see what's being said by whom, since the voices were unusually quiet, during some of the dialogue. The plot had reasonable progress and I liked the message, as those cookie cutter games deserve to be removed from the system in my opinion as well. But that's beside the point, because I'm commenting on the piece itself, not the message, per se.

I'm not a fan of you using stock images within your pieces - it really drags the quality down. I know that it's a clock crew piece, but you don't have to sacrifice quality to make the flash quickly. Some of my favourites are Clock Crew, so check them out and see what you think. They didn't cut corners... well, not all of the time.

[Review Request Club]

MistyE responds:

Thank you for your review!

[[SOUP] Ninja vs. Ninja]

Well, it was decently animated, with the exception of the fingers typing for the egg. I feel that you have diverted us from the main part of the piece with that, though.

The two characters appear to end up at a warehouse of sorts, where a sword is drawn and a stock sound is played over the top, combined with bad editing for "I'll be there for you", by the Rembrandts. I'm not entirely sure that it was an appropriate track for that use, but who am I to say, in the circumstances?

The piece overall was too short and the joke of the egg being eaten by his killer was a little savage, but other than that, nothing else really springs out - dialogue would have been useful here, as would a host of additional animation, even though it was just dragging out the inevitable.

[Review Request Club]

[Adrellia Village #4]

Pedestrian

Well, it's more of the same, with the slow introductions to all of the cast, with Sir Eatsalot, Snoozie and the others, though Drake now has something to do. You need to work on putting more of the plot into each episode, just to stop the audience getting bored to death with the lack of plot in each snippet (I can't even bring myself to call these episodes any more, which is sad in itself.)

The voice acting for Rory was awful - yes, there is an accent, which is a massive step, with a Norse twang to his voice, but the quality was poor, with the editing. If you need to re-record the whole line, do it like that. Persevere, don't settle for a half-arsed mess, when you're capable of a lot better. Short of employing someone to do a better job, you need to buck the ideas up yourself, to make it work.

Subtitles would be useful, as background noise made me watch it three times to understand what Rory was saying, though that's easy to work with. Some of the text based jokes like Sir Eatsalot scoffing his plate of food could be done with a sound of someone eating, instead of *eats*being written in big text. You're not a comic book, so stop acting like one.

There is potential here, so keep it going and show us that you're better than this!

[Review Request Club]

[Adrellia Village #2]

Too short

We're starting to get into the series, but progress is painfully slow, with some of the jokes viewed as unnecessary and just filler material. You would be better advised to put in bits and pieces from other episodes, condensing it to maybe a 2-3 minute piece that makes people want to see the next episode, rather than the current theory of "If I drip feed it enough, I can pull the series out to 100+ episodes without giving too much of the plot away." That's not to say that this is what you are doing, but your file size limit is enough to get three or four times as much plot in there as you currently have.

The voice acting sounds good in terms of quality, though most of your voices are the same voice, with either a higher or lower tone. None of them has a different accent and having everyone sound the same is a little poor. There are plenty of willing voice actors around the parish, if you try looking. The BBS has a thread dedicated to aspiring talent and you are able to cherry pick from there.

The drawing needs a little tidying up as well - bits and pieces like drawing a shield, for example. I would have made the points of the shield less so, perhaps even considering a flat top to the kite shield, for ease of drawing. Getting a tablet would be a good way to go forward, so stick one on your Xmas or birthday gift list, so someone can treat you. Some issues with the actual animation could be tidied up, like walk sequences and an improved sense of lip-sync, so you don't have to fall back on the slapstick jokes, which don't look so good when they are poorly animated. I'll bet that you've improved since this was submitted, though.

[Review Request Club]

[Adrellia Village #1]

So it begins

A little short, but nevertheless, an introduction to the Adrellia Village saga. Where did you come up with that name from?

So, we've been introduced a little to Drake and his own personality, though the other jokes in the piece do take away from that part of the plot a little too much, considering the amount of material that you have here. I'd have made it go a little further fir the first episode, reaching perhaps the castle, before calling it a day in this world.

Some of the jokes seem a little lazy, though quite funny. Jokes such as "and they fought, killing two hours of Drake's time" it was funny, but could have used some sort of battle music in the background and perhaps the sound of dogs fighting, perhaps with the occasional sound of swords clashing, for example.

It does show how far you've come in a relatively short space of time, with these episodes and the quality, compared between then and now. It shows a good learning curve and that you're willing to experiment, to learn new techniques.

Best of luck with that, now on to Episode 2!

[Review Request Club]

MistyE responds:

Adrellia Village came from an old story I wrote long ago about warriors and demons in medieval times. The name of the town, "Adrellia" isn't based on anything specific and "Adrellia Village" sounded like an appropriate title.

Interesting point. Episode 2 sees him in the castle. Thank you for your review!

[contrast: a love story]

Incredibly deep and moving

Such a simple concept, one with black and white holding a symbolic torch of segregation. East and West, never the twain shall meet and so the issue is met head on (literally) by the female white dragon. Only in the flames of passion can such a barrier be transcended. This passion is shortlived and once gone, all is at an end...

I loved the use of colours with the subtle blue for the tear and the blazing red for the flames. It would have been very easy to overdo the piece with the colour pallette and destroy the fragile balance that the limited colours represent.

The sound is good and what a powerful piece of music that you chose to represent this from start to finish, again, encapsulating the mood in the piece to a tee. Did you pick the music with an idea of the concept, or did you hear the tune and just come up with a plot around that and then animate it?

Great stuff, keep them coming - you probably deserved a higher rank on the daily scores and perhaps Review Crew Pick as well, but what do I know?

[Review Request Club]

Horsenwelles responds:

when you wrote your review, this flash wasn't eligable for RRC! lol

thank you so much though, and no. i animated this and found the music later. the music didn't even quite fit until i edited down the original track, and then moved a few frames around. the rest seemed to fall into place.

[.Bank Robbery]

Needs work - a lot of work

Right, this piece has very obvious flaws, which some of the reviewers below have probably dwelled upon, which I have little interest in rehashing.

To improve, start with the audio - play it slightly quieter and get the mood set, with perhaps a few sounds of the city outside, as the camera pans past the front of the bank. Then you come into the bank and see the robber draw his gun, before pointing it at the cashier.

From there, the audio plays out and things happen. Be ambitious and show the bullet actually being fired and penetrating the skull of the cashier himself. There is a good scope for improvement in this piece, from using a smaller tool in the drawing phase and onwards from that use colour, rather than a black and white "schoolboy" approach to it all. If you make a few tweaks here and there, you'll get a much better looking presentation.

The filesize is small, so you can get a lot more out of it, for not all that much additional effort. Best of luck.

[Review Request Club]

[Adrellia Village #18]

Some improvement

But in other case, it feels like you've gotten a little worse. I like the way that this piece is getting together, but the way that you've done it, the pieces have taken a long time (and we're talking DragonBall fight time here) to come together. Shorter episodes may have seemed like the way to go, but making them longer, more detailed affairs may well bode better for the long run.

I'm not sure if you move the moustache of the wizard enough to communicate with him. Someone's mouth does not move less, because of a hairy upper lip - this is something from personal experience! Perhaps a hint of lower lip below the moustache would combat that?

With the girl's thoughts about her trainer, did we need all of that? Not really, as we could have worked out the trainer part and as for the voices there, if you wanted to convey that it was thought, perhaps put a little echo on it, so it sounds as if it comes from the inside of the head of the thinker, as opposed to having to do lip-sync, for example.

I feel that you're getting there, but little tweaks would help her and there. Oh and if you're going to make an outtakes reel, make one flash and put them all together, as throwing them int he middle of the piece may be funny, but it does derail the lot somewhat.

[Review Request Club]

MistyE responds:

Thank you for your review!

[Adrellia Village #14]

Still lacking

Well, it's a little more plot exposition, but for me, this piece was quite flat. A distinct lack of voice acting is highlighted by subtitles and thought bubbles. This particular thing does nothing for me, so combat it by adding voice actors. Yes, this means more work for the animation, with lip-sync and so forth, but I feel it needs to be done. If subtitles must be added, try putting a black strip across the bottom of the frame and typing them there.

The Dragonforce part at teh start, when you strobed a few other scenes across the main piece was weak - it took away from the main animation, without adding any more to it. If you must add something, make it bring something else to the table, don't use it as a way of trying to keep track of the ridiculously fast beat of Dragonforce.

Dream sequences are a good way to develop the plot, though I'm not sure what relevance they have to the plot here. Hopefully, all will be explained in later episodes, so I'll refrain from bashing there.

It's a little short again, but at least there wasn't a long-winded recap of the plot to this point. The way that went on, you may end up with a whole episode dedicated to plot summary.

I'm looking forward to more from this series and how it works out.

[Review Request Club]

MistyE responds:

Thank you. I'll request everything in order next time and I appreciate your input.