Coop's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Last Hour: Chapter 2]

Slight improvement

We're getting towards the point of these flash, which is great, but i would point out one or two things about the grammar that you are using. Firstly, as in my review for part 1, you need to say 'A Jaiba Productions Production' or 'A Jaiba Production'

When you come to the text about previous parts, it should read 'Previously in The Last Hour' as you're wandering the words around without getting to the point.

With your animation, take more time to draw stuff better - zoom in and get yourself a graphics tablet to improve your control of the drawing tools - using a mouse can be made to look good, but it takes a hell of a lot more work.

The plot is still far too short for this - you could have fit this, the plot for Episode 1 and probably the plot for Episode 3 into one submission. This would have given you a lot more quality of the flash, as you don't have to mess around with the intermissions between episodes so much.

It's not like you're pushed for file space, reading in at 700kB - the music is great, but I would keep that particular piece for the start and the written introduction / narrated piece. When we cut to the movie itself, cut the music, as we're not in Star Wars with the London Symphony Orchestra and a massive budget for John Williams.

It was nice when you doctored your voice to sound deep when you were doing the narration - try to bear in mind that if you're going to do that, you need to speak slightly faster, as when you slow your voice down, the note lowers and the pace does too.

[Review Request Club]

Jaiba responds:

sorry you have to forgive my grammar. i am but an irish immigrant, and i can't afford a tablet unlike my idol adam phillips who is rich from making stuff for disney. i have only got a cheap mouse on a slow computer. jaiba productions isn't that rich, but we do what we can. the reason why i make the flash short, is because of courtesy for all the 56kers out there. i know what's it's like to have to wait for a big file to load, and it sucks. i've been in their shoes. with a smaller size movie i can reach out to more fans and get more people to enjoy the movie, without having to suffer just because they can't afford internet. those people on netzero can't download as fast as rich people with their dsl. but once jaiba productions get famous we will get better equipment including dsl. wow dsl! that would be great. thanks for reviewing. check out my other movies, they get better and better!!

[Beneath the Sheets]

This should be on YouTube... LOL

Not a bad little offering here - much better than your Hay Wars submission, as the video quality has improved a lot - moving the camera around less has helped this a lot.

I like the way that you added the extra footage of the ghost moving around after the first few pieces of footage. What I would have done is a quick trace and put a barely noticeable image over the top of the video, so the really eagle eyed viewers could see that you were actually putting a ghost in there. What you need is to make it almost imperceptible, just like they do in things like 'Most Haunted' or any of those other fake ghost shows.

Punchline was nice as well - will we see a sequel to this at all? Dammit, someone's drunk all of my beer again! or something along those lines...

[Review Request Club]

Fro responds:

Believe it or not the video quality was worse, but we got rid of that by making it darker in the house and not having too much light around. It was so dark that you couldn't tell that it was bad quality. A sequel? Not anytime soon with us going to different colleges in about a week. I was thinking about how to make a sequel just in case though and I think it would turn out good. It won't be for awhile though. Anything coming from me in the near future will actually be flash. Thanks for the review.

[When I'm Running]

Nice work

I think that this piece definately needs a voice actor to make it better.

The animation is good, but it will improve with practice, as the movement of the running man looed a little odd. Watching people running will certainly help - concentrate on the broadcasting of the olympics, as the long distance runners can really help you there.

I wouldn't mind seeing other scenarios that you've come up with, as it provides something else to let us look at in a sort of mini-series for your jogger.

[Review Request Club]

OxSox responds:

For the first time in three years I regret not having regular access to a TV. As you can tell I'm a runner (or was before I met Mr. Achilles a few weeks ago) so I'd love to watch the long distance runners just on principal. But the olympics rock and I can't watch them... very sad.

Anyways I can't really see myself making this into a series I mean the whole surprise and humor of the movie would be nullified by repeating the joke in other circumstances. I mean, I suppose if I came up with really clever variants it'd be good, but it's much easier to just make new things ya' know? Thanks for the review though.

[Newgrounds: A History]

Not bad...

It's an informative little flash, but it does have a few issues that you could attend to to make it a much better flash. First of all, I'd break down the narrative that you've given, as it's just far too monotone and boring. You sound like a professor, already resigned to the fact that the students are falling asleep in his lectures.

Given that there are good natural breaks for the progress of Newgrounds, you could break it up and put a scene selection in for ease of use.

I'd also be careful of how much you zoom in with the screen shots of the site - it can compromise the quality of the images.

[Review Request Club]

Insanimation responds:

K, thanks for the review!

I was thinking of doing a scene selection, but I decided against it because...well..I guess I couldn't be bothered....

[The Last Hour: Chapter 1]

Short Chapter

I'd have preferred 'preview' or 'teaser' as the title of the flash, but if that's the way that you want to play it, fine.

I'd suggest that you get yourself a ghost writer, or at least a friend who can look over your writings for gramatical errors, just picking up on how much you wander about with the details on your introduction text. It should read at the front 'A Jaiba Production' or 'A Jaiba Productions Flash' for example.

As for the drawing, try zooming in a little and giving us better detail to the drawing of your spaceship - smaller tools and bigger zoom make the detail pick out a lot better and the result is much more professional and pleasing on the eye.

I'd also give the viewer an excuse to come back and watch the next part - show us things like what these mysterious Jaiba are. Show us some of the plot, without giving too much away and then you'll get people coming back to look at and hopefully be impressed with your work.

[Review Request Club]

Jaiba responds:

thanks but you should watch and review chapter 2 and 3 those get longer and better.

[Crane Game]

I love those games

Especially when certain rubes don't win on them - you know that they're rigged ;)

Still, kudos to Jim for trying his damndest to get what is rightfully his back. I'd have thought that this joke would prove too much for certain animators, but with your style, it really works nicely.

I think you could do with making an anthology of your older flashes, remastered for the curent state of your animating skills - particularly including voices for them, as it would bring it all into line ;)

[Review Request Club]

Jimtopia responds:

I've thought about remaking some of my older flashes, and, if I ever made a DVD of them, I probably would.

[Stuck in the Desert]

How far you've come

At least the humour started off as you meant to go on and proved that anything is possible with determination and plenty of time. I'm glad to see that the original imagery of Jim hasn't changed a great deal in the two and a half years that we've known him.

Stick to it, you're obviously onto a winner :) I've very glad to see that youv'e come on with the addition of extra characters and of course some more developed plotlines and other characters.

[Review Request Club]

Jimtopia responds:

I've been trying to make Jim a winner for 3 years and I think I'm finally on the right track.

[SSBB: Pit's Wii Remote]

Short and amusing

Nice graphics - you really should come up with longer flash, as this one was really nicely drawn and animated.

I think it would have worked better if Mario had caught the Wii Remote and got Kirby to do all sorts of wierd stuff, before kicking his little pink arse all over the ring.

Still, that's just my sense of humour, which differes from this Monty Python style piece.

[Review Request Club]

MCYoshi responds:

Yeah kept this one short, so I could get it done in a reasonable amount of time. Also just trying to see if anyway would be interested in my work before making a big project since this was my first submission. Glad you enjoyed, and thanks for the review

[Hay Wars]

Well...

A couple of parts that you got from watching Naked Gun and of course the Star Wars parodies that have been used here. I think that it's a little too short, has no plot and few laughs, to be honest.

The graphics for the shooting were nice, as were the sound effects. I think that you really need something better for the video software, as without it, it does look nasty.

Still, for your first attempt with video, you've done well, so keep trying.

[Review Request Club]

Fro responds:

Yeah, I got these ideas from something, but I don't exactly know what. Ever since I started making films I always used cuts like that back and forth. I know it's short and it has no plot, but actually we just made a movie last night and it was like 15 minutes, which made it over 100 MB. We have to compress it so yes it looks bad, but it fits. Thanks for the review.