Coop's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Iteration]

Rather misses the point of NATA - Newgrounds Annual Tournament of Animation, when you don't so much animate, as move things around within the scene. The story is told in the most boring voice possible and the subtitles fell so far out of sync with the spoken word, I had trouble deciphering the plot.

Seriously, this is something to drop the animation on and write the script for - let the writers of this community have a look, before de-constructing it a little, assisting you with plot exposition and then you come back and have another crack at the animation side of things.

When it comes to the actual animation, throw in more movement and increase the drama - the narrator should be secondary and these additional scenes could be fleshed out a bit, to include a harder hitting piece of cinematography.

It's a start, but it needs a lot of work to make it past the open round.

[Review Request Club]

DimanaTech responds:

I would have to agree with you. Animation is not a strong point using the technique I used for this particular project with the time frame I was set to.

I will also definitely conduct more collaboration with the community on future projects. I was not able to contact some of the people I had planned with time to work before the deadline. That included sounds such as voice actors, and other important bits which I had to pull off last minute.

While it is not perfect, it definitely has helped me experiment and try new techniques that will help me in future projects. I'm glad people got to see it.
Thank you for your time and helpful review.

[Bounty + Hunter]

Newgrounds has evolved before my very eyes. This is the single most impressive animation that I've ever seen on this site in 8 years of service / enjoyment.

The quality of the video is first rate, as is the animation style, with incredible design, plus the statement at the start made me reflect upon the fact that everything moves independently, unlike the bulk of the animations that we usually see here. Lavish attention to detail, plus the fact that it's rendered in 3D (or 2D+, compared to things like Avatar), means that this is really at the cutting edge of the industry and that you've raised the bar dramatically.

The two characters were fantastic, with very little said (the occasional grunt or gasp was all we heard from them, but that's perhaps something set up for next time, when the bounty hunter teams up with Lenz and goes rogue. I love the plot and the fact that the combat has such detail, which doesn't expose so much of it, culminating in the pair teaming up, with Lenz saving the bounty hunter's life.

The use of paper, pinned to the walls for bounty notices - something that's unheard of, even in cities these days, but it worked so well in the way that Lenz ripped the wanted poster from the wall and tried in vain to disappear from her view. Clever, but not quite clever enough.

I would love to see you make more of this. I'd love to get to know the characters and find out just how Lenz became wanted and what the authorities do about the rogue agent, as she now seems to be.

[Review Request Club]

[A Goomba's Life Ep 5 (S2)]

It seems like there are improvements here from what I recall fo the last few episodes that I've watched, which is a great thing.

What needs work is the volume levels for your various voices, as some of them are drowned out by others and with musical cues in there of differing levels, I keep having to adjust the volume of my computer, to cope with this, which does distract.

Subtitles could be better utilised, to combat the quieter voices, but when the Goomba is talking and in the background, Yoshi messing with the computer is drowning out the forward dialogue, this does negatively impact the piece.

Using at least two references from mainstream cartoons is risky, particularly with the cut to Adam West from Family Guy, laughing, but also Malfunctioning Eddie from Futurama shouting "WHAT?!", can be a little too far. Perhaps sticking to the sound alone, as opposed to the animation will benefit the whole production more.

The fourth wall break didn't seem too bad and I still managed to keep up with the plot of this one, so it's a step or two in the right direction.

[Review Request Club]

DemonicDragon93 responds:

Hey Coop Nice to see you reviewing again. With the Volume Control. The Biggest problem i have there. Is i live in Military barracks and I can't really speak up as loud as i want but i'll take the chance from now on. When it comes to the Mainstream cartoons. I don't like to Abuse References from Mainstream cartoons but i feel i can get some slapsticks from it randomly.

When it comes to the Subtitles I was trying a Different Mechanic. The Previous Episodes was forced. I got these subtitles Optional. I got to keep control of the volumes with sfxs. But as always your reviews are professional and Very helpful. I appreciate all the reviews you've done for so far.

[Mario Battle Bros. ep 6.1]

You know, referring to a piece of your own making as "whity" (I suppose you meant witty) does sound a little arrogant. I'd suggest that you don't do that in future, particularly as I didn't find it all that witty.

Now, the piece seems to be descending into a massive Nintendo / Sega fight, which is strange, given the two companies' relationships with one another these days. Mind you, the world loves a cliche and you've certainly given them that.

The combat was louder than ever and that caused a few issues, with the volume "topping out" on my speakers and half of my time was spent reaching for the volume controls, as opposed to paying attention.

I wasn't the world's most massive fan of the speech bubbles sliding in from the top of the screen - I'd have preferred a simple black bar at the base of the screen, which all characters can talk on and thus saving a little on the actual animation - give them all the same font, changing the colours for each character, as and when required.

I think that it's getting better, but I'll have to see a few more episodes, to be totally sure.

[Review Request Club]

SuperMarioFan9000 responds:

Wow thanks man
I am adding Voice-actors for them talking there.
Again, thanks for reviewing! :3
(lol short response)

[Mario Battle Bros. ep 5.2]

A little short this time... Perhaps next time that you split an epsode into two pieces, you will try to get them both about the same length? 5.1 was huge and this one seemed a lot shorter, by comparison.

Right, some of the same issues cropped up again, with some of the animations sequences seeming a little jerky and slightly out of sync with the sounds. Some of the sounds were too loud and they even seemed to have static from "topping out" my speakers here - that's an indication that things needed to be turned down slightly, to give a better impression.

Less text to read in this one meant that the flow was better, but that I suspect was more by luck than judgement. The blend of some voices and other text with the voice omitted just doesn't work for me - there are good voice actors out there, that would be able to supply you with Mario and Luigi impersonations, with varying degrees of success. See what you can find and run with it, trust me.

I'll still give it a shot and say that by and large, this is good. Converting some of the latent potential to actual plus points is where you need to focus your efforts for episode 6.

[Review Request Club]

SuperMarioFan9000 responds:

Cool, thanks! :D

[Mario Battle Bros ep.5.1]

It's good, but there are one or two issues that need ironing out.

I think that the plot is nicely detailed, though having some areas where there are vocal lines and others which are the text box did interrupt the flow for me. One or the other, but not both should be the rule of thumb. Since you used te sound effects quite well, I'd suggest progressing to full vocal.

Staying with sound, some of the effects are a little quiet, while others are rather loud - I would suggest that you work a little more on making them balanced and allowing your viewers to concentrate on the plot, as opposed to having to adjust their volume all of the time.

Some of the text boxes seemed over full with words - a smaller font would not have hurt, neither would a black strip at the bottom of the frame, to take the subtitles. Some of the animation was a little out of time and untidy, which was a shame. Given that there is so much plot in one of these episodes, the final edit is the key here, getting everything just right, so that it's as impressive as possible.

[Review Request Club]

SuperMarioFan9000 responds:

Final touch and editing. Will do. Thanks!

[Demo Reel 2012]

Nice work.

Some of the pieces look better than others, but the slow running sketch looked weird - the additional parts to the legs may have looked better, had you sped the animation up a little, so that the "blur" was more pronounced.

The few animations that you did on the traditional stop motion with paper were fantastic. I love the look of the Pink Panther, but sometimes you drew the detail of his underbelly patch, while others it was missing, so that hurt the presentation.

A good choice of music to accompany the piece, followed up with some great pieces of animation - I'd love to see you put some more effort in and develop one or two of these pieces, to see how far they can be taken. The surrealist stick figure vs the scenery thing was one that I took some interest in, for example. How far could that one go?

[Review Request Club]

DillonBrannick responds:

"Nice Work" I'm happy. Thanks for the review. Whatch for detail more closely, don't get lazy, put more effort in. Yeah I was planning to make sequel to that stickfigure one, but sadly lost inspiration and thought I should better spend my time by getting better at full body animations instead.

[Adrellia Village #15]

I just get the feeling that you're going backwards here. I don't mean to offend, but the voice acting is getting worse and throwing the words at the screen in a poor version of "Dot Dot Dot..." doesn't work for this piece. Not unless you can make the animation of these words and letters a lot more all singing and dancing.

It's filler material that distracts us from the main plot and the whole impression is like a game that I play, when the person running it keep on derailing to head off on some surreal ramble, with no consequence. Editing is usually a brutal process, but you need to become more acquainted with it, when the writing has been finished. That's where you've been let down. Stop mentioning the place names so much and head for something that flows better. The narrator seems to struggle reading this, which is the first indicator that there's an issue, so look at a rewrite there. I've never heard of a cellar being anywhere but underground, so that's something that you're trying to drag out, as it seems from here.

Yes, the idea that Brutus has unleashed some sort of Pandora's Box upon Medralia is plausible, but did we really need to waste an episode on the back story? I don't think so, as it doesn't seem related to the story at all. With better writing later on in the series, perhaps you will actually make it relevant?

[Review Request Club]

MistyE responds:

Thank you for your in-depth review! Scenes like these won't drag on too long and will be portrayed in a much better fashion later, so it gets better!