Comick's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ducky and Plunger]

Good job!

Okay, I admit that sometimes a flash comes along that does things I don't like and yet I can't help but find some humble approval of it in the end. This has to be one of those cartoons. On one hand, I have a high standard on how good the quality of the drawings and animation are in a piece, and I don't like when things are overused like matrix music for action scenes and text words instead of voices. And this is normally reflected in the score. But on the other hand this cartoon was so non-sequitur it wouldn't have mattered much if the drawings had been better. I found something completely innocent in your story that doesn't seem to want to please anyone, just make something funny that you wanted to tell and it doesn't matter if it makes no sense. The whole concept of a plunger as a character is one example. Haha, he eats popcorn and sandwiches, he sits on the toilet (even though he's a tool that would normally be in the toilet) and he rides a wagon that propels on some invisible force. The duck has no feet and slides around, and has an obsession with toasters, and lives with a plunger in a house. It's true, some people will come in watching this and say "hey that can't happen!" or "wtf, this has no real plot" but to me, you set the standard of what I'm supposed to expect in the beginning with that bizarre TV show that starts it all. At that point I said, "I need to disband my logic and watch this cartoon open-minded". And I honestly liked this cartoon and laughed at the things they did and said. There were some lazy parts in the drawings and too much tweens, but there was also some real effort put into your cartoon's construction. You used close-up shots, and pan arounds, we get an x-ray view in the toaster, the shopping scene used good light effects and fade aways to show a passage of time in the toaster store. You made some okay backgrounds and even got a little creative by making a "Y-box" and putting little details like the personalized license plates haha those were great. I think you made a cartoon that only looks bad on the surface but actually is very good overall on the inside. Keep animating! You have the potential to get much better. Dedicate a little more effort to the art and the movement, but keep going. I would normally vote this as a 5, but I'll give you a 7 to be nice ;)

duckson responds:

Thanks! I can see you really took the effort to write a full review and I really appreciate it. I know the animation needs to be improved, im trying to figure out better ways to do things but I guess Im still learning. One of the major problems is that this cartoon was built from 2 different cartoons and made over the span of a year and a half, so many things were lost and forgotten along the way. One half of the cartoon I didnt even have the original FLA file for any more and I had to decompile the swf form of it and smooth out the bugs. All in all though Im glad I took the time to finally finish this and its reviews like yours that really stick in my mind and keep me going. Thanks :)

[Rocket Crotch]

Very Nice!

Original and funny to the core! I really liked this! And it's going in my favs, but what's a critique without some real critique, huh? So here I go......

The animation is very stiff and over-tweened. It's most obvious when you imported a lot of drawings and then pan them around too much. But then you even make a note of that flaw in the robot scene, so I'm curious if you are making fun of the way your cartoon was handled or merely using that observation as an excuse to get away with the bad animation. It's strange because the drawings are so sloppy and loose it's like you drew everything only once and didn't bother to fix or re-draw it, but on the other hand, the whole cartoon looks that way...so it does seem consistent as a whole. I want to say it's like a cartoon come to life from a sketch book. And that's NOT a bad thing. It was a nice quality in some cartoons, like "What Ever Happened to Robot Jones?", so this cartoon may be read the same way.
Seeing as how the main focus was humor, I think it's a successful cartoon in that aspect. I admit I laughed really hard on some scenes because it was so "serious" in its silliness. For example, Dr. Mocha getting so insulted over his piercings or when Jezza seems to be experiencing a real state of inner mediation only to find its occupied by a gay record singer (whose face I might add was hilarious). If I could recommend some improvements, it would be these things:

1. Audio: The voices are great, but the quality sucked. One minute they are so low on the speakers they sound like whispers, and then the next scene they are blaring out their lines. It was such an obstacle, that it made watching your cartoon a hassle, as I needed to keep my hand on my volume knob as I watched it. If it hadn't been for the originality and story in the cartoon, I probably would have given up on watching the whole thing.

2. Animation: Just a little extra effort in this, can make all the difference. For example, when the shark went to eat the bait. You could have at least animated him biting the hook instead of sliding him behind it and moving his mouth to chews that don't affect the line at all. That just looks lazy. And more angles would have been nice. You throw a few in there, like the pan between villains and hero, but then when the fights really happen they are flat and one-dimensional. Think like how in a comic book we get a whole lot of angles of something coming at us or around the character. We see them from the back, top and sides.

3. Character: (not sure if this one can be changed much, since you probably already have their designs the way you like them but)....Jezza and Dr. Mocha and Kaz all look too similar in face. They dress differently enough to distinguish them, but they all have the same head and face. If you could draw them a little more different I think it would help keep them apart. Scrumptious Jack was perfect though! Hahaha!

Okay, so I think I've talked too much now, and I apologize for the long review, but I liked this cartoon a lot and where it could go in the future, so I hope this review is seen as being a little helpful and not bashing. Honestly, I can't wait for the next one! So I hope my critique is taken with a few grains of salt.

lenkalamari responds:

Thanks alot man, constructive criticism is always welcome.

I went for the 'sketchy' style because I was sick seeing all these pristine, clean looking flashes with these really false-looking characters. I would have put more frame by frame in if I had the time ;)

As for sound, it was beyond my control for the most part, as my laptop speakers are really tinny, and my speakers back home (I'm at college you see) are very heavy on the bass. That, and the lines were recorded in different locations spread over 3 months, so that's DEFINITELY going to be gotten rid of for the sequel.

As for everything else - I've been drawing these characters for a good few months now. The symbols for Jez, Mocha and Kaz were all drawn back in the summer, and now they have much more unique designs.

And I'm SO glad you picked upon the angles - that was my main gripe with this movie. The newest ep is all storyboarded and will contain practically no recycled material save an establishing shot here and there.

So yeah, as a beginner I guess the only way is up. You can expect good things I hope ;-)

[Jinas 1: A New Friend]

Wonderful!

This looks like a real labor of love! The innocence and pace of this cartoon was a breath of fresh air for me. And I admit I really liked this, even though they hardly started the journey. The only bits I wish you had elaborated more were the eel scene (the sense of danger was short lived) and the farmer scene (no reaction to such a strange sight?). And we are shown no reason why they would really leave such a peaceful (almost paradise) place, except for the word of one cocky crow and they said: "they have nothing better to do"? But in the end, I let these bothers slide, because I sense maybe this is all a set-up for tragedy later. It all seemed too good to be true. ^_^ Great work!

AloneInTheDark responds:

Thank you. Actually, one of the points you mentioned was really intended by myself. The place Jack lived is peaceful and quiet, it's pretty ok to live there. That is also why the entire decision to leave is very hard for Jack. Will it be worth it and how much is he prepared to give up for it? That will be the main question of this series. There is no real good and bad in this series, i try to avoid that

[TftTC#4- Heroes]

Very Funny!! :D

I think my favorite was the batman scene and his walkcycle. And technically I like the focus and blur effects the most. There was a little shot with your hand in it...opps. But thats just nit-picking the details. The shots had a nice crisp resolution and the audio was perfect, I could hear everything clearly. Great job! I loved it :)

DrMackFoxx responds:

Glad you loved the movie! Yeah, we did the best we could to ensure the shots came out crisp and clear. The blurr and focusing were all done one shot at a time. Not to mention using decent bitrates to preserve the video and audio quality. Thank you very much for the review!

[The Console Matrix]

That was really good :)

I honestly thought this was going to be bad, but in the end I liked it! I also liked how you made the XBOX360 Elite (the black version) as the one smith who took over a person= an Xbox taking over a Playstation2. However, if you were to follow the movie throughout then that means the Playstation3 dies=Neo dies. But then there is peace between the consoles=peace between human and machine. Right? Ha! I think I've thought too far into this..... XD

(What would the oracle be?")

Killit666 responds:

Once the ps3 dies, there will be peace between the human and machine world just like the movie. XD

I guess the oracle is pretty much the atari, but we don't see her in the trailer anyway.

[F.U.: AutoBlowBile]

You are a fav!

I love how these characters can be so entertaining! They take the simplest ideas to the extreme! (especially D). I mean, you made me really laugh, even when all they do is hang out in a coffee shop and siphon a rundown car. But it wasn’t only the writing that made this good. There were some very funny parts in the animation that I loved as well, the wide spacing of Mike’s eyes after drinking gasoline, and the pump’s secret messages intermingling between prices and Mike’s glances. If I could recommend any improvements it would be in their mouths. It seemed to be the only really sloppy part that didn’t seem to be consistent with the rest of the cartoon. And maybe a little more emotion, like when Mike was reminiscing about that movie, his eyes squinted in glee, I liked that. But when Luke was cornered, his face was bland. Was he nervous, scared, playful? I couldn’t tell. Anyway, I’ve been watching your F.U. cartoons for a while now(although I’ve never reviewed one), and overall I have to say I love them!

rockymike responds:

Hey, thanks for the review. We are improving our work the more we go along. I've been putting a lot more work into the facial expressions and I'm glad you took note of that. I'll try to improve upon that in the upcoming episodes. You're right that the mouth movements need fixed as well. I only have one movie clip in Flash for the mouth, which makes all the mouths move exactly the same. I need to spend more time on lip-syncing - that's one thing I'm really going to work on for F.U.3. Thanks again!