Coop's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Copcicles]

Entertaining trailer

Well, as trailers go, this has a lot of stuff, though it would probably be better in cutting it down a little more for time, giving you a chance to introduce actors names and so forth. Make it like a proper movie trailer, so to speak.

You've got some good action shots there and the way that the characters only have one leg is really well thought through. I personally can't wait to see the full production - multiple episodes are a must, in my opinion.

The animation may not be the best that anyone has ever seen, though it does come up with a very good portrayal of what you're trying to get across. Perhaps the idea of one of them sweating would be a nice touch, or getting out of bed (the freezer) in the morning. I also noticed the melting effect, where the one of the popsicles lying on the floor melted. With that, it's a little too CGI - try making something more animated that that and using advanced tweens to make it more smooth on the animation front. After all, as it's becoming a liquid, it needs to flow.

[Review Request Club]

[SRM Holiday Extravagornza]

Merry Quanzamas

Ah, the joy of seeing the more functional animation, the completely dysfunctional plot and SRM doing his thing in his own style is brilliant. I think that there is a great thing said for your writing by the way that you remember things that happened earlier in the series and threw in things like the cousins now being dead in the closet. Perhaps you can bring them back as part of a Halowe'en special?

The idea of getting into a knife fight with Santa is funny, but the way that it means that no-one in the house will get any presents any more gets past the fact that Santa wouldn't bring presents anyway (sorry kids) and gives us an excuse for more off the wall madness.

At this point, the sound quality is starting to let the side down, but I'm confident that you can surpass this with future flash, getting used to the equaliser and sorting those issues out before publishing. It's nice to see that things are starting to get themselves into nicely coherent works.

I almost suggested going back and redoing old episodes, but we never saw that with The Simpsons or Family Guy, because they sucked at the start, compared to the new animation techniques and the way that the voices have developed. Don't do that, as that I feel would be a step backwards for you - get your new material out there, as that's the main way to get new fans.

I've not noticed that much difference with your voices, but that might be down to the relative age. Perhaps with time, a small, but discernible difference will creep into the voices, who knows?

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

I don't think I ever called back to the dead cousins Ted and Fred, but versions of them were used in a tribute/parody to SRM a fan of mine made called SSM. They're pretty obscure but hey, I like callbacks a lot as you can see!

The sound quality in this is better than in my earlier toons, and it stays at this level of quality until the end of 2007. Night of the Living Spud has the worst sound I think, but it's sequel: NOTLS2: Spud Terror is when I started getting serious about having good sound and figured out the appropriate publish settings to make my cartoons sound good.

I've thought of redoing cartoons every so often - I wanted to remake Jeb City at one point, and I thought earlier about remaking the first Jebediah cartoon where they're on paper. I decided it's better to move forward though.

My voice doesn't change too much, it's a little deeper in my later cartoons because I grew up a bit, but I always had a pretty deep voice. Anyway, thanks for watching and reviewing!

[SRM and the Janitors]

Much improved!

Well, this was easily the biggest step in your young animating career, by the way that things progressed - the sound was better the animation had come along so much and yet I still felt like we lost something from Socially Retarded Man along the way. Perhaps he gained intelligence and it made him kind of scary. I like the idea with the marshmallows and so forth, but when he stopped things and made it like a public service announcement, it seemed slightly wrong.

Awesome work on the drawing front, as everything is so smooth now and even the janitor looked well drawn, despite the fact that you made him as scruffy as you dare. I think that this certainly meant that you were going to create better looking flash in the future.

Oh well, on to 2007 and I'll see for sure that you've fulfilled on this potential that you've shown.

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

It's kinda funny to think that this came out the same month as SRM and Da Cousins - the jump between visual and sound quality is incredible. This cartoon still has iffy sound and the visuals are nowhere near up to snuff for me now, but it looked great at the time.

I'm glad you enjoyed this cartoon and are noticing a progression. Although SRM is giving a bit of a PSA near the end of this, he's still off mark - I wouldn't by any stretch of the imagination call janitors the darlings of our country. I like to think that it's a natural progression from being completely crazy and stupid to just being off target in most of his assumptions.

Thanks for watching!

[SRM and da cousins]

So that's where the fishball went...

Nice to see that your call-back gags are spanning multiple episodes now :)

I like the idea that not only is Socially Retarded Man retarded, but all of his family seem to be as well. The cousin that lives in the closet, the mother that eats the VCR and the other cousin that eats carpet, but doesn't say much.

I think that I would have had the pizza guy post the pizza slice by slice through the letter box at the front of the house, then fold up the box and do the same, but that would cost you the hilarious scene with the "mailman". Of course, he could burst out of the door at that point and go to that sketch, but when the pizza boy says he's just a pizza boy, SRM could say "where's your pizza then?" It's how I've pictured him - completely mental, but with occasional flashes of really dumb logic.

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

Mental with moments of logic is pretty indicative of SRM, especially back when he was an honest to god moron.

If you look at the characters now, Mel (the purple one) is more or less the point of logic in the series, SRM is his counterpoint, and the two headed cousins are dead. This cartoon (and lots of my older cartoons) got some great references in this parody a fan did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkkymF b9ttg

[The Jebs meet their uncle]

Good use of "curmudgeonly"

Another instalment of the successful Jebediah series, where I see the beginning of Socially Retarded Man's relationship with his friend, "Freduardo". A nice touch to have him running around with a little colour on, as he's clearly a separate entity from this universe, where the Jebs live.

Uncle Jethro was quite a handful, showing off his exaggerated memories of what things were like back in the day. Communists being as they were and of course Adolf Hitler running around, unchecked.

Back in the home would have been a nice thing to see, as old people noises are simple to do and could have filled up a few seconds, as one snoozes in his mushed up meal-pulp and some guy pinches a nurse's arse, because he's lonely. A little more detail in the backgrounds would have been nice, but with the way that it's set up, I'm not trying to expect too much from this sort of piece.

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

"Meal-pulp" is my new word of the day.

I'm pretty sure this is the cartoon of mine with the most lukewarm reaction. Not many people saw it back in the day, and those that did didn't review it too highly. Glad you found some enjoyment from it though.

[SRM Babysits]

GOOOOAL!

Well, there were a few small issues with the sound that can be taken care of by putting a little distance between yourself and the mic, possibly even using a pop-guard, if you're going "super pro" with it all.

I think that the animation is still coming on, though the shapes are a little basic there and I'm convinced that you can improve them with relatively little effort. Have you got a tablet now, did you have one back then? That could radically change the animation style and the overall presentation. With the way that it looks, I can see SRM coming forward over the next few years of animations.

[Review Request Club]

Battosai810 responds:

I got a tablet about a year ago, and while I'm making fewer animations, they're of much higher quality. There's an SRM cartoon I'm working on now that I think will be my best yet. I didn't have one back when I made my old cartoons, and things were either mouse-drawn with the brush, or I drew lines and bent them how I wanted them. The sound in this cartoon is still using that shitty battery operated Radioshack microphone, that was later peed on by my cat.

[Madness Inflammation]

Not bad, but a few isues:

Overall, for the effort, I'm going to give it a seven, as there are some parts of the piece that dragged the piece down, which was a shame. Some of the art work is excellent and probably only second to Krinkels, when it comes to Madness. Some issues with shaking of the characters and poor quality of the figures that were animated were only minor issues though.

If you've put this much effort into getting all of your pieces ready, I'd say that it is pretty much down to the organiser to make sure that all of the entries actually have sound. You don't come along and have two or three pieces that are mute, save for the backing music - throwing up the word "headshot" does not compensate, nor would it be particularly Madness - Hank's kills were across the rest of the body as well, which took away something from the spirit of the piece.

It was a shame not to see as much of Jesus as in other Madness pieces, as he is as integral a part as the Clown or even Hank. The two new guys from Combat 5.5 and 6.5 were nice additions, as they have clearly made their mark upon this series so far.

With the name graphics for people, please note that the names should be secondary, rather than a massive icon that takes up a third of the screen - we want to see the action, not your tag, so make it less eye-catching (greyscale, see through?) and make it slightly smaller, so that people focus on what is going on, as I'm a purist here and want to see what people can produce in flash, not in the Art Portal.

Happy Madness Day!

[Review Request Club]

vogxhamraks responds:

haha Ty for the 7 anyways i hope u enjoyed it

[Astronave]

Nice and witty

This kind of reminds me of Red Dwarf, but with a few other bits and pieces thrown in, such as Farscape, Star Trek and maybe even a little Watchmen as well. I think that might have been the music, when Dr. Manhattan was building his glass complex on Mars. That whole piece of music sounded like the one you used here.

A little more work is required on the presentation as a whole - some of the musical cues are quite loud and I find myself messing with the overall volume through the piece, which distracts me from the plot. It takes a long time to set up and when we get there, the actual material that had been painstakingly set up seems gone in a flash.

With John's face, there seems to be an issue with two lines on his face, which I don't understand why they are there - perhaps removing them would make his features slightly better to look at? Also, consider using shading to round out the features, as parts of his face do look quite angular, which is great in the case of a dull, featureless ship interior, as the architect / designer doesn't need to appease human tastes with it, as only John will see it.

Subtitles would be a nice addition, as sometimes I had difficulty understanding what the computer said. More practice with the voice acting could be useful as well, but that will come with time. The Audio Forum on Newgrounds should help you to find a better voice actor if you need one for your next piece.

Good luck, I look forward to your next creation.

[Review Request Club]

Stampini responds:

Hi, thanks for taking the time to put together this detailed review. Some very valuable information for me there. Add "2001 a Space Odyssey" and"Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy" to the "similar to" list.

Much appreciated.