Comick's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Cosmic Machines]

Dang space cats, you go through all the trouble to feed them and all you get is a fungal infection XD Experimental but cool! I think if you cleaned up the art/animation a bit and fixed the audio it would help the quality. But the idea of a space traveler in a weird cosmic universe could open the doors to some creative possibilities.

colmendean123 responds:

Thank you so much Comick!

[GOOEY GOATS]

Wow I really loved this short. Its a perfect blend of heart, comedy and dark humor! Don't pay attention to the 3.4 score, this should be in the high 4.5 range! The amount of work to make a stop motion animation takes hours and hours and the fact you made one that is 17 mins long plus have multiple sets, characters, props, expressions etc...its just a feat! No wonder it took you 2 years, its really great! Also, I loved the way you animated the expressions on everyone it had a really "cartoony" aspect to what is actually a dark "body snatchers" horror element...turned into a daughter/father family adventure haha. So unique and very much entertaining. I actually felt a little bad for the damn ox though, his outcome was like going from bad to worse XD. I expected him to put on a little hat and suitcase and just walked out the door heh. Anyways, great job on this you have a new fan! and looking forward to what you create next!

Sonjira responds:

Thank you so much!! Yea that Ox did get kinda goofed on, but he's a part of the gooey family 🐂 gotta take the bad with the good.

[The Last Mother - 2D Animated Student Film HKU 2020]

Damn that was amazing! It gave me goosebumps while I watched it. The visuals and music worked so well together it sweeps the viewer away leaving us with many messages about nature, life, death and the ending and rebirth of the world. Really great job on this! I hope it gets a front page feature...it deserves it.

GVlash responds:

Thank you, that was our goal ! ♡ ♡

[41 Seconds of a Man Sneezing]

Great!! The sad thing is that I doubt many will realize this is a stop motion of actual printmaking block carvings. I made one linoleum print block before and it took me HOURS just to carve one image, roll the ink (without making a total mess) and pressing it. The fact you did several and then composed it into an animation is so cool and takes skill!

AustinKimmell responds:

this was the final for a printmaking class I had a few months back. I actually did the animation first in flash, printed it out, then traced it on linoleum. It was a lengthy process and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[Shmelf & Blorvin]

I loved this so much! Refreshingly different style and experimental animation that was wild and unafraid to break rules. Some people forget that animation is only bound by your imagination and it can be used in so many ways to convey characters and how they emote. The sound editing itself lead well to the animation as a whole and kept my interest throughout, even if I didn't quite KNOW why he was so pissed about the previous snail options I was happy to see they did find one of good quality for the collection. When it said to be continued??? I thought "YES, please do!" Keep up the great work

StephenHutchins responds:

Thanks so much! Really glad you connected with it I appreciate the feedback!

[Pokemon: Overkill]

A complete re-hash of a million things I've seen before without anything new added. It's animations like this that make me sad to know that great potential and hard work can be squandered on a massive recycled fest of things that are not even your own creations. Please continue to animate and maybe try making something not connected to every pop culture anime on tv and you can grow into a unique voice. Because right now you will not benefit as an artist if you become that 1823273 millionth animator who has already done the same thing as this. They just go straight to pokemon and rake in the praise and I think "sure you catered to the masses and fed Nintendo another piece of free advertising so they rake in that money and sell more pokemon games so of course they aren't going to complain! You are giving away your talents to a corporation that will use it make sure the fans of THEIR stuff will always enjoy their products and meanwhile all you get from it is a 5-star lol I love pokemon comment do more! i love pokemon!" The minute you start to rely of other's creations the harder it will be to break away from it and do your own thing. And yeah since its only your first animation I can assume its just for fun and you were just practicing your skills so its not like this was the worst thing ever hahah, its just a little reminder that you can create anything you can imagine and create something far BETTER then this pokemon stuff in the future. You have potential and you know how to pace and angle the scenes well and animation wasn't bad either very smooth and you know how to use After Effects and Flash (which is a skill that requires a lot of practice!), but lets see what's left of your animation pieces if we took away the pokemon, naruto fights and dbz smirks hmm? Can you create something that is your own original voice and characters and still be massively epic and enjoyable? I bet you can! :) Keep it up!

VandalShockPanda responds:

WOW. Thank you for this feedback! I see where you are coming from and I agree 100%. But I'm just a guy that likes to make animations for fun and a lot of people forget to have fun with creations. I really did it for me, but had people tell me to put it up. I promise you not everything will be parody. I have some original ideas in this demented head of mine. I was just making fun of a lot of animes in this for fun. That being said I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to give me such great advice! Thank you again!

[Jurassic Tard]

So many tropes so little time....sigh

Although you invested a good amount of work in keeping clean and well colored characters, the main issue I had with this cartoon was the animation...or lack of it actually. And any animation that was incorporated was recycled or merely a camera pan. Here is a list of the parts I found could use improvement:

1. Lip-synching. 9 times out of the 10 the mouths did not match the words. You had maybe 4-6 stock mouths which went over in a loop or was used to fill in a space which comes off as lazy and cheap. The worst example was when he screamed "push it!" and his mouth opened wide then closed in one motion haha. The old guy probably had the bulk of the bad lip-synch, but that may have been since he talked the most in this cartoon. If you HAVE to use stock mouths, at least time them to the right number of syllables and use a mouth that matches it.

2. Static character spouting mouths off and goes from one pose to the other and becomes a still pose frame again. Sure it's a means to an end and some people who don't know how to animate use it as a crutch to pass the work as animation all the time... but I found it so annoying in this cartoon for the one reason that I saw that you really DO HAVE the skills to make a smooth and lovely animated cartoon...I could see it in the parts you really worked on, like the tiny second where two raptors run out of the bushes and vaporized. That part was wonderful and very well animated. They were fully in motion and they turned their heads and the painted background and vaporized effect was nice too. So when I see a scene like that juxtaposed with scenes that cop-out and use formulas and work arounds, I sigh because I know that as an animator you don't really care about it enough to invest or improve on the rest since you'll get praise anyways for a half-animated job. Hopefully you don't get into a rut and just "animate" like that all the time... like I said I saw you can actually animate a nice scene in here so please invest more practice and time in doing real movements and character acting beyond "use a stock funny face that only animates to get to the next face" shtick.

3. Have you considered doing something more original? Don't get me wrong I loved Jurassic park...back in 1993. But this video really had nothing to do with Jurassic park except use its characters as a mean of recognition to the audience...like "oh! I recall Jurassic park! I am comfortable with this material because I already know it!" But then it's really not about the park, it's a backdrop to make a robot dinosaur that destroys stuff and the rest is tired humor like taking old movie dialogue and using it for parody, making a rape joke, and oh look dead body "screeeeeam". I didn't want to jump to conclusions though that this is all the work you make so I did go to your page to see past work, and it was a Zelda parody so I'm again hit with the idea that you might not be interested in an original story...which in a shame since you have the skills to do that.

Anyways, sorry for the long review. I tend to try leaving reviews that help the artist see what can be improved structurally as well as conceptually; and I hope you can see this was not meant to be bashing but rather a broader realistic view into the processes that you are doing are kinda flat and unimaginative. Look at animators and short films that try to excel in the medium, push the medium, use it to tell stories and talk to an audience... not just entertain the masses and have them forget it the next second for the next bubblegum parody. You have excellent line work and there were parts that were fluid in the animation, and your attention to colors are really nice, and I bet if you were to sit down and really put down a story, you could make it shine. Anyways keep animating and good luck :)

Oh fyi, anyone watching this with internet explorer can see all the whites outside the scenes of the flash wherever you used the pan camera symbol (which is a lot in the beginning and during the triceratops punt)...I switched to chrome and it's not visible on there though.

nevarky responds:

Thanks for taking some time to make a review, I really appreciate it.

The issue I hear you talk about the most is quality, and I agree, this is not near to the best I can do, I'm still struggling on finding a way to make high quality animation but avoiding taking months to make it. I think quality is important, but at least for me, the more I take to make something the less likely I will finish it, but still, I don't want to sacrifice quality over production time, so again, I'm still looking for a way to have both. As for the lipsync I will be more careful about it, I would be lying if I say it doesn't give me my share of headaches.

Now for the idea, I do state I won't make a parody next, I know how cheap it can seem, but I came up with this idea, and I liked it, I honestly found it funny, so I decided to make it, if some else finds it funny that's great, but I don't want to start doing things for people, I like stupid humor, silly faces and random events, it's not all I like, or all I do, but it surely is what shines the most, you are however in your right to dislike this of course. I want to work on a series at some point, but I don't have a solid idea yet, nor do I have a solid animation system(as stated above), so I'm sort of taking this shorts to figure it out. There's not much information to figure me out yet, I was "dead" on newgrounds for 5 years, and have released only 2 animations since I came back, so I think it's a little early to say anything for sure.

Finally, Internet Explorer, as soon as I read you had problems with it, I tested the movie there, and it worked perfectly fine for me, so I don't know if it is an issue only you have, or maybe you need to update your flash player and/or java, but given flash's nature I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a random error. If you would please check your setting and try again and the PM, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks again for the review, I can only hope you'll check my future work and see if there was improvement.

[-hipsterween-]

Really great!

Wow, such a huge improvement in quality since the first Rocket Crotch! Every item from the ground up was drawn super well. My favs being the castle (geez look at all the brick work and shingles!), the portrait art on the walls (I saw a fanged Scrumptious Jack :D !), and the bathroom scene (the door, tiles, and the monster with a red Glowing line work and SO many details in the skin texture). I really liked how you used color and lighting to set up tones and atmosphere, like when they are in the car (all colored a blue hint) to indicate moon-night settings, or like when we go into a purple or green room the people in the back having a purple/green shading. The goblin and ghost duo had lots of personality, and you showed it without a single word! A staple to good character animation is if the audience can read a cartoon in pantomime and you did it great. You had their eyes look like they were thinking and scowling at the invitation, put postures of mischief in their bodies, and finally evil giggling grins to tell the story. Also like the picture with the girl smiling...when it goes back to the scene the picture is empty...then the sexy girl comes in mhhmm I get it ;] .

In the animation I still see a lot of panning of single frame images, but you blended them a lot better than in previous animations. I think it's because you mixed some fbf into them and used the bobs and tween-eases in a smart way by adding them to the beats of the music, so it made the viewer want to bob their heads right along with it :) or at least I did ha-ha! Especially loved the part where the pumpkin head guy is gnashing his teeth up and down to the music and when the skeleton took over the DJ board. That brings me to the music, which had a flow and rhythm just right for this nightclub party in a haunted mansion. You feel the heavy beat and that wisp sound like its traveling with the cartoon and accentuating scenes when they move with it. Also liked how it went muffled in the bathroom scene just like the music was coming from the party itself. So kudos to Shadowfox!

I had to replay this one at least 5-6 times because it was packed with so much eye candy and details that you could catch something new on every viewing! I caught a witch on a broom, a king Dedede face, Red M blood, a shout out to the Stray Targets as the best band in the universe (lol-isn't that your band!? XD), and of course a great number of cameos. I guess the only down side was its short length and the fast speed. There were many times I had wished you'd let the camera sit there for a sec or 2 longer so I could awe at the artwork before getting cut off. And then the cartoon was cut short in the end by the time they started killing... I thought those parts could have been built up more, but given the time constraints of making the Halloween deadline it looks like a hell of a LOT of work went into this baby and it had a solid evil ending (no survivors haha). Overall this was a really great polished (but short) cartoon that was a treat to watch, and worth re-watching. Keep it up man; you're improving a ton! :)

lenkalamari responds:

haha, it was only a week ago that i re-read your review for RC. thanks a ton cvg, you always give the best crit. peace x

[Tywo At Large Ep. #3]

A Nice Cartoon

So, as I had said before, I finally got around to watching this cartoon. And I was pleasantly surprised by the attention to details that are found throughout the work. You can see the places where you went the extra mile in the background and scenes, for instance making the river animate in the stock shots, and having background students do things while the action is going on to the main story. I also saw a great blend between the brush tool and pencil tool to make many of the faces and props, and you did this so well that they complimented each other, (which is hard to do sometimes and can look very awkward), but you pulled it off. The way you had a consistent grasp of using the camera angles was just like what they teach in a traditional film school. You knew when an idea of importance or humor was to get the attention, you zoomed in on the subject, and on parts of action you had our eyes follow right with him (like as he went down the hall in the rocket) or was running from the vice principal. Another element of detail that was very nice was the use of lighting and effects....the smoke twisted and faded, and the part where the principal and that teacher are talking in the darker rooms had red/blue gradient tints to emphasize the mood. I was going to add that you over use the tweens, but then I noticed you DO use some fbf its just so subtle and smooth its overshadowed by the more obvious yanking of the tweens. For example, that part where the teacher in walking and drops his papers...I automatically notice the tween walks (not very good), but then you put all this effort into making the papers flip and float so well it's like "Oh that was done so nice I didn't even catch it...because it wasn't awkward heh". Hope that makes sense. So maybe you should cut down on the tweens and make more elements fbf so it balances out better....and don't get so lazy on the heads and feet haha, some people don't even have knees and I think some had heads bobbing a little too forced. Good character animation knows only to do that on occasion for emphasis of something ;). Design-wise I didn't really like the sharp angle mouths you do...you were definitely influenced by cartoons like Invader Zim, because those characters have the same kind of mouths, "square" heads, with a pointed anime-like chin. It's not bad to emulate a style and make it your own, but use it for a reason. Invader Zim was generally an anime-like sci-fi world fraught with futuristic mechanics so their designs complemented the city they lived in. Here, it doesn't do anything. The characters personality is, in a way, constricted to eye movement and a mouth sliding on a template head...you did a little more on the girl when she was moving her brows a bit, but all the screaming and expressions needed more than an open mouth and static bugged out eyes if you get what I'm saying. For an example, look at Roger Rabbit when he freaks out....his whole head and body get into the action! Try doing some of that next time. The humor was 50/50 hit and miss in my opinion, but that happens with a lot of comedies really...oh well you can't even try to please everyone, so please yourself first, right? :) And frankly the idea of kids hanging out at school and having "shenanigans" is a little on the stale side for me...but that's probably because of all those damn live action kids and school sitcoms that are killing cartoons and dominating the current channels . So no offense that I didn't really get into the series or anything and it's good for you to explore beyond it, because it will get you out of your comfort zone and you can only improve. But just know this; you have a lot of talent and passion to animate a cartoon of this caliber and length. And I can see that this was not some crap animation pulled out in a week. You really put dedication, quality, heart, and soul into what you create, and that's what makes good cartoons. So yeah, I look forward to seeing your next animation whatever it may be.

Pixmintro responds:

Wow, this was possibly the best review I've ever read on one of my movies. You dissected this movie like a combustion engine. I'm glad you liked the melding of the brush and line tool, I spent a long time in the beginning trying to get it right. As for the over-use of tweens in this movie, you're totally right, as the movie went on, the use of tweens sort of reduced, especially on walk cycles because I started realizing how bad they looked. This cartoon was pretty experimental I guess. I'm impressed how you were able to find my visual inspiration since it's been masked by a few years of redesigning. But I am branching out and making the character's character designs more dynamic in my next cartoon projects since I'm still trying to identify a good style. As for the humor, a lot of the jokes are really regrettable. Anyway, thanks for spending the time critiquing this thing. :)

[Everything by Everyone]

Good but not great

Congrats on the front page and stuff for your short. : ) It had a few good moments and a few bad moments though. The main issue for me was that the characters had a little too much "tracing" element to it. Some of those animations I've watched so many times that I could literally pick out the pose and frame from where it came from and I think it might have been nicer to see some leeway from their style while still keeping them recognizable. For example with the Bitey pose, rather than transcribing the actual pose he did with the one arm on the tree and the two legs spaced, you could have had him with a bent knee leaning in a different way and then it wouldn't have felt like you took it straight out of the cartoon, and instead made your own variations of what we remember..Actually I think a lot were attempted this way but I can't be sure and it needed more distinction. 2nd was that the animation was very limited. Seeing that I've watched your animations here and on DA, I know that for the most part you do tweens as a primary, so I have no qualm with that. But what I do know is that YOU can tween multiple elements in a better fashion then what I saw in this one. And I can only imagine the criticism you could receive from fans or otherwise of animations that pride themselves on NOT using tweens being suddenly transcribed into tween format for this piece. I'd be surprised if some haven't already hounded you for this, but I don't really know. Music is always subjective and although this song was not my taste (I like System of a Down and stuff ha-ha XD ), I still saw that you did put effort into making the transitions of the characters move from one verse to the next, and you did it very well. A few examples I saw was the way you made characters move up and down with the time of drums and beats, and had camera pans sway slower with the more flowy parts of the music. Also you did a pretty good job at keeping the coloring of each character correct and the shading was pretty much up to par; although near the end you were no longer putting detailed backgrounds and went for solid colors, instead of their own landscapes. Finally the fact that you did something that was not Sonic based was a little refreshing, because it's a tiny step into something that's outside your typical comfort zone and doing things like this are key to opening up creative juices. Making things that are not standard to your typical subject matter is a great way to become inspired when you go back to them. If anything, it was a departure from drawing a circle/oval based figure into drawing a huge array of other shapes to do the other characters in this short. The only place I saw some fbf was in the scarecrow's walking scene and just for the sake of it, I suggest you should TRY to do a little more fbf because it adds to the overall wholeness of an animation...or just practice it even if it's something you never plan on showing. Because in the end it [I]will[/I] effect how much better you get as you keep expanding and learning. Anyways I've talked for too long now lol and let me just say good job on this. It's not the best by any means, but being an animator myself, I know that you had to start this the same as everyone who opens Flash: One blank white square, one blank frame, and one blank layer. And it's up to you to make EVERYTHING else and make it work and it's NOT easy and it takes time from your life and your effort to complete a whole animation of this length. That is what validates this short for me despite its shortcomings and flaws. You made something that you enjoyed doing and it took some effort. :) Keep it up

thewax70 responds:

Thanks for the great review, comick. Like I said, this was rushed(VERY rushed) so I knew this wouldn't do so well. Your review is what I actually think of this movie. I wish Newgrounds had more reviewers like you, lol.

Can't wait to see your next movie. :)