Coop's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[clock day extravagornza]

Cutting Expose on Clock Day

Breaking news - someone got the joke and told everyone about it. The way that this animation is better than about 90% of the pieces that pass on any given Clock Day just sums it up really. I love the way that you've got a decent take on an "OMG, I forgot my Clock Day Piece" theme, as you get asked if you know that it's Clock Day.

With the way that things panned out here, we're looking at seeing some great works coming from you, as it shows better quality animation techniques, with the rocket launcher, so I'm highly encouraged by this. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing you win some awards for your flash in the future*.

*I knew you did win some, but there will be pieces that you're still to make that also win awards here, I'm sure :D

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

Well, about half of this was my buddy Rik, who doesn't really go here anymore. It's all beautiful garbage though. This cartoon was my first Clock Day, so Rik and I just whipped something up over the course of an hour or whatever.

[The Uncompleted]

Everyone has their "slush pile"

Your first Clock Day submission, unless I'm mistaken. I like the fact that you've gone to the trouble of getting 5 or 6 pieces of unfinished work and stitched them together. It really does show people that you've been working, but procrastination for one reason or another has set in, causing issues of one type or another.

This piece does have some good bits, though the ending did leave a lot to be desired, with the white screen of doom, with that piece of music from Pulp Fiction over the top. An audio credit here would have been really nice, as it's a great piece of music.

With the guitar, get SRM's hand moving up and down the neck, so he can play some notes - little things make all the difference. You could quite easily have expanded upon this piece to make the Kitty Shooting piece your Clock Day entry, by having them die in funny ways for a loop of extreme violence, as SRM takes on the KK and wins, by the looks of it.

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

This was just a bunch of unfinished cartoons I'd been working on, and really the reasons I gave up on them were because they just weren't that good mostly. The SRM dystopian future one was going to have some sort of ninja SRM come in, but I scrapped it since I don't like pointless violence Flashes that much.

A few parts of this were actually made for it just because it wouldn't take long, like the Jebediahs on paper part. The only reason I released this at all was because I found that nothing gets blammed on Clock Day, so I figured why the hell not.

You get to see SRM play a guitar quite a few more times in cartoons as time goes on, sometimes better than others. This was just my first (admittedly iffy) experiment with it.

[NOTLS: Redux]

Slightly better than the first

I can see where the differences between the first attempt and the redux are, with some of the lines altered, a little tidying up of the animation in places (might just be me, but credit if it's due) and a major overhaul of the sound. You've done your fans a major favour here, setting the scene for a sequel or two, which I know are now available.

What I'd suggest is perhaps writing a few more deviations to the script in there, so that you could really tell it was a redux, as opposed to something that might be classed as a "touch up", in spite of the new audio.

Adding subtitles was a great touch and it looks set to progress with the series.

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

Glad you took my advice and watched this version too.

If I were to do a true redux of this (I pretty much just used the word to make it catchy) I'd rewrite it from scratch. A lot of the dialogue is kinda stilted to me, and the timing isn't so hot. This was one of my favorite toons when I made it so it was cool to get it back out there at a higher standard. I figured it was better to release it separately as a redux than just go in and edit the original movie's Flash file here on Newgrounds - that way more people would see the better version.

The major refinements I made with this were pretty much audio and the background art, with a little animation tweaking here and there, I think.

[Night of the Living Spud]

Funny, but sound was screwed

Didn't you warn me that this was the worst piece that you had for sounds? I can see why if that was the case.

The animation was decent and the standard was still improving with time. I think that while the sound may have let it down, it's still quite funny. I'm guessing that you get this issue sorted, as with another 50 odd animations to your name, we're looking at too much to sustain with such a critical issue. There is a great few jokes from Castro's grandfather / uncle that would have been made better by subtitles, as I couldn't understand him on the second or third tries, which was a shame.

The fact that you've made it a cliffhanger as well might indicate the possibility of a sequel, so give that a shot, why don't you?

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

I ended up redoing this cartoon with some refined animation and better sound like a year later, under the name "NOTLS: Redux" - I would recommend watching that even though it's not in the order you're following for my cartoons, since the writing and animation aren't changed much.

I did say that this was my worst for sound, and I think it's somewhere between this and "The Real World!" for my worst sound issues. This is a better cartoon than that one though.

I ended up making a trilogy out of Night of the Living Spud, with the other two being NOTLS 2: Spud Terror, and NOTLS 3: The Evil Jeb. Hope you like those two more than this one!

[Death of Mini Rasputin]

Very good stuff

I love how the work of a silent movie can be recreated here, the way that things come together and give a well rounded presentation of the death of diminutive dictators. I'd have suggested a little more work on the random additions to the film, to make it look aged and slightly damaged, though the reel coming apart for the "scene missing" part was a nice bit of observation.

With the sickle in the back, the Uzi (?) and SRM putting the boot in, I can certainly see that the years of oppression have taken their tolls on the downtroden masses, who get a well deserved chance at revenge. Perhaps they would like to see something a little more, as the figure slipping below the waves is a relatively peaceful death, in spite of the beating, the stabbing and the shooting that happened before.

Who next on your list? Mini Kim Jong-Il? Mini Napoleon?

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

My favorite bit is that the waves were going super duper fast even though he was falling in slow motion.

I did another Mini Rasputin cartoon for my Surrealism class; you'll see that when you get to my 2009 cartoons. I never really went far with other dictators - I have Mini Castro and Mini Rasputin, and I used Mini Rommel in my comics a bit. They're all really just Jebediah wearing different hats though.

[Warhammer: SRM 40,000]

Good, I expect more from this universe

Yes, I've been there and done that. I have paid money into the corporate whore, that is Games Workshop and yet, I still go back for more. I think I'm over my addiction for now, but we'll have to see.

As for this, I'd be very interested to see what you'd make of the various other races in this universe. Any of the Xenos races would be hilarious to see SRM take on, with Orks, Eldar, Necrons and Tau all available for lampooning. Imperial Guardsmen would be easy to take the piss out of, so that one's up to you.

I liked the fact that the chainswords actually moved, though I always preferred marines to be armed with power weapons, as while cleaving through armour is quite funny and destructive with the chainsword, it's much easier with the power sword.

Still, that's just a matter of personal preference. With the way that you've progressed with this piece, I think that it's showing that your animation is much improved after a period of less than six months, so we're looking at better productions coming out in the future from you :D

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

Had no idea you were a Warham!

40k is one of my favorite settings, and I love it at the heights of its silliness and awesomeness. I did write up a sequel to this cartoon, and I actually went so far as to record the dialogue and start animating it. For one reason or another I never moved on with it though, so it's just sitting 10% completed somewhere on my hard drive. I don't think I'll ever finish it, since going back to three year old work methods doesn't sit right with me. That cartoon would have had Tyranids and the Inquisition in it, along with Space Marines.

I did make more 40k cartoons with the Dawn of Awesome series. They're intentionally terrible, but have done pretty well here on Newgrounds. Go figure.

[Explosion Force 5]

What a great trailer

Brilliant writing, some excellent jokes and the way that this is portrayed really works. I love the fact that you've gone a little Michael Bay with the explosions, as that's what blockbuster movies are made from, in his eyes.

WHat you will find that you need to do is get the mic working, as it's off the mark, with the volume - the voices are too quiet and the explosions are too loud, so you find yourself turning up the volume for the vocals and then down again for the booms.

The descriptions that you give the characters is great and though SRM and Cousin Mel don't really seem to be on the same page with their attitudes to one another, they are going to have to work together to make this plot go just right. Kind of like Tango and Cash, in one respect.

I'd love to see this as a movie, as opposed to just the trailer. I'll have to go back through your repertoire, in case you did.

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

Honestly, I love Michael Bay. His movies are stupid explosion fests, but they don't aspire to anything more so why would I complain? I figured this cartoon was a decent send-up.

I hate the sound issues in this toon - it's like when I watch some shows online, I'll have to turn my volume way up only for the commercials to come booming out of my speakers. It's kind of a pain. I've since gotten a pretty good setup to keep it from happening though.

SRM and Mel aren't quite on the same page, since it's supposed to be the brains and brawn combo that a lot of buddy cop movies have. I never made an actual "Explosion Force 5" since I'm not sure how well it would work as an actual cartoon. I did make a trailer for it's sequel, Explode Harder though!

[Dawn of the Jeb]

Interesting stuff

Again, some brilliant humour from SRM who takes things a little too literally at times "Get down here", as he jumps from the first floor of the mall, for example. The setup was great, as was the joke about the living Amish, though you could have had them saying things that sounded particularly quaint and olde-worldy, since that's obviously how they still talk :P

With the way that SRM bounces off concrete floors and punches through the mall ceiling, he must be pretty indestructible, so having Wuggeh save him almost seems redundant, since he'd probably be made more intelligent by a zombie infecting him. I think that there is a great scope for a sequel here, as the Jebs try to escape from the mall and overrun SRM's home town.

I loved the acting of the "lower bufdget" variety, when Cousin Mel says "I'm not dead", followed by "You so is". Monty Python inspired at all?

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

The part where he jumps down the stairs was more out of laziness than anything else - it was quicker and kind of funnier to have him just fly down the stairs headfirst. I agree on the suggestion to have the Amish say olde worldy things instead of just zombie groans though!

I never really figured out what SRM is made of. In some of my more recent cartoons he looks like a big Chiclet. Sometimes I think he's rubber, I dunno. I like indestructible cartoon characters. I never made a "true" sequel, but I called back to this a few times with Mel as a living Amish.

That "You so is" joke was more because SRM just doesn't like Mel all that much, and is pretty convinced in his own mind of one thing or another. I love Monty Python, but that had nothing to do with it!

[SRM does Gears of War]

Well received and funny

Wow, that's pretty cutting edge, when it comes to humour incumbent in a game that's not all that old. You've given it your own brand and in a tough market, with the Queers of War piece made by the NG Staff, you've done yourself proud.

I think that there was a great deviation from the whole plethora of things that those guys came up with and the fact that SRM couldn't understand what pressing the X key meant, though he could do most other things involved in the game. Perhaps this was some sort of fourth wall block that he couldn't cross, but his cousin could.

Good to see Wuggeh in this piece as well, since this seems to be the second time I've seen him do anything, which is nice, as it adds some variation, as does "Expendable Guy", who might just have to turn up in future episodes, to give you more call back gags :P

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

Glad you liked this one - there weren't many Gears toons on Newgrounds when I made this, a dozen at most. Queers of War and Johnny Utah's Gears cartoons are better, but I like the niche I carved out with this one.

The fourth wall is worth breaking, and I like some of my jokes here. The timing could be better, but eh, it's learning.

I loved using Wuggeh in cartoons, but it's kind of weird for me now since the real life Wuggie died this year. Who knows what I'll do with him in the future. Expendable Guy is pretty much in the same boat as the pizza guy from the SRM and Da Cousins cartoon.