Coop's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mario vs. Santa]

A few sound issues

It's not a bad start to your flash animating career, but over the course of this piece we see that you have a largely unrefined drawing style - zooming into the image and using a smaller drawing tool can certainly help here, as when you zoom out, the image will look more crisp and well finished, without so many blemishes that look like you've gone over the lines in a colouring book.

I can certainly see that you've thought about this as the plot is pretty decent - I'm still slightly unsure as to the motives behind Santa going nuts over Mario being the children's Xmas choice, as without him, there will always be some toy, game or gift that kids want by the thousand and they're largely less rewarding and more annoying than Nintendo and their games.

I think that there was just a little too much static on the sound sample that you used, which was a shame, as it was a nice piece to use for it, though I've never really been a fan of the type of music employed here.

With effort, you can make more rewarding flash and looking at some of the other submissions that you've submitted, you've certainly learned from these early experiences.

[Review Request Club]

Gustavos responds:

Why yes I have learned from my mistakes. :)

Meh, just don't feel like making an equally long response. You know?

[Nintendo Story ep 4]

A series worth watching...

Looks like I might have to go back and watch the previous episodes of this piece, in order to get a grasp of what's going on.

Still, this is a nicely laid out piece, where the drawing of the characters is good, as you've taken sprites and made them into drawings of your own that you can animate properly.

I think that the plot does seem a little ambiguous in places, but I think that most people with common sense can work out that Link seems to be one of the people required to make up the six with Kirby, so it is panning out in the right direction.

A good looking series, I look forward to seeing more from you :)

[Review Request Club]

Gustavos responds:

Whoa, a guy from the Review Request Club reviewing a movie that wasn't requested in the thread??? Stop the presses!

Nah nah, I kid. You guys are cool. I remember you guys gave Episode 3 some feedback around 9 months ago. Thank you.

Yes, Link is, in fact, one of those six. The six guys who need to team up are the characters who all got sucked back into their worlds from the real world. The six guys shown last episode who suddenly dissapear.

I'll be sure to make this series something worth thinking twice about, you just watch!

[aowsum]

You're right

Yeah, I'd go so far to say that it's pretty decent. I think that you've earned yourself a few fans from what I've read of the reviews so far. I like the selection of music and the way you've animated it to reflect the beat and even the melody of the piece. Perhaps you could take on a piece of music that was a little longer next time, as this is just a little on the short side for my liking.

I love how you've played with the backgrounds, taking things like the coloured things on black, then taking the hollow pieces and effectively using them as cut outs on the background, because it's such a simple thing, but it works so well.

There's plenty of inspiration in you for other pieces like this, which would lead to a brilliant series of projects. Why not give it a god?

[Review Request Club]

holyforks responds:

The review request club?! omg! ....dunno who that is but still thanks

I doubt there will be any other animations like that even if I liked making it.
Actually it was gonna be longer but the only other possible cut was 1 min later and
I ran out of practice tests.

[Enter Blank]

Needs a lot of work...

I'm so glad that your drawing ability has improved over the years since you made this piece (I hope). The car does certainly need more of a make over, to actually make it look anything like a box on wheels. Perhaps the sound effects could be spliced over the top of one another - tyres screech, with the hit in the middle.

There is a modicum of a plot line there and I would suggest that you take it further, so that we're not left with a cliff hanger. There's plenty of file space here, so play with it and give us a juicy plot. What's it going to be, a Frankenstein style thriller?

I'd have had the dollar bill or coin fall out of the guy's pocket as well, rather than just appearing on the floor - it makes things look so much better to have a beginning and an end ;)

[Review Request Club]

Frenzy responds:

Okay. Thanks for the good review as always.

~ Z

[Enter The X]

Karmic retribution

It's not a bad little script, but it could use some work on the animation side of things. Perhaps paying more attention to the smashing glass noise would mean that it's cut to the right time scale for what you were after - yours was about 3 times too long, I'm afraid.

With the animation, perhaps you could have done a little more with the background, something like putting a sky in there and making it look like the camera is closer to level with them, maybe keeping the angle slightly above the horizontal, so you don't go completely the other way for the blue / wood background. Where do you go that the sand is that colour? I might fancy a holiday out that way...

The plot could have used more exposition - have the guys crash on the island in a charter flight, for example, so they are castaways. Then show us what was happening to the one crushed under women - perhaps screaming women would throw themselves at him and even if you make them look like blow up dolls, you've got a decent joke. Something similar with the money, but this one seems more difficult, so good luck.

Finally, when X is shot, don't take part of the scenery with you - it doesn't work ;)

[Review Request Club]

Frenzy responds:

The scenery was acciden... I mean, it was artistic.

~ Z

[TBA- Time Trial #2]

A pretty good effort

Wow, you certainly showed those pesky North Koreans who is the boss around here, didn't you :P

It's not a bad piece, complete with some pretty cutting edge jokes about the North Koreans although with the state of affairs with world politics at the moment and any arms proliferation, perhaps the next one can be focussed on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranians, with their great ideas about Nuclear power, as opposed to Solar power, since they obviously don't get enough sun in that part of the world.

Well drawn pieces of animation, though the person that drew the Hitler invading Russia piece did get the swastika the wrong colour - it should have been Black. Yes, I'm sure that Hitler would have been a Rammstein fan as well, had he lived long enough to see them :P

I'm not sure I got some of the more obscure Russian references - who was the guy farting into the mic for Stalin? The only person I could think of that looked like him was Lenin, who would fit the bill, having been bitter political rivals before Lenin's death. If so, a great reference.

Not bad with the drawing styles, but some of them could lean away from the more obvious tracings, which would certainly help to keep a good handle on the final presentation.

[Review Request Club]

[The Breakfast]

Needs work on the Ukulele

Well, you get a lot of marks for the surrealism of your piece - I had little, if any idea what was actually going on there, to be honest.

Your own drawing style isn't that bad, so I'd suggest that you draw your own dolphin, just to keep it all under the same 'style umbrella'. If you can't draw dolphins, try tracing one, as it would look better than having a poorly cropped piece moving about on screen like you did.

Perhaps it could have used more on the vocal aspect of it, as that would certainly help to convey a plot for the piece overall - given a few more tweaks, you'll get there. Perhaps also you could practice your playing of the ukulele as well, so that it sounds more professional?

[Review Request Club]

[Paid In Full]

It's a work in progress...

Okay, I can see some progress here - you've moved on to proper animation techniques, as opposed to your more traditional work, such as the soundboard. I think that the drawing technique needs to come on a little - try getting yourself a tablet, for example, as a little drawing by hand never hurt anyone. You've just used line creating tools and circles, which isn't really the way forward, unless your name is LegendaryFrog :P

Working with the addition of things like faces on your circles, you might have a better chance of conveying a mood in the piece - writing "nightclub" at the top of a white screen is a serious cop-out, so come up with another scene showing him entering and the scene is set, ready for you to carry on with the piece.

All things considered, the file size was a little large - choose some audio with smaller file sizes, or find a free compressor online, that can do the job for you. Painting better backgrounds and improving your drawing techniques will see you coming on in leaps and bounds. Of course, a voice wouldn't hurt either, but perhaps that would be walking before you could run...

[Review Request Club]

Frenzy responds:

Thanks for the review, I know this isn't very good- but hey, I'm trying!

~ Z