Gimmick's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hypocritical Media : Foamy The Squirrel]

For a comedy movie, I fail to see any humour in any of this. It's rather ironic that an animation (if you can call it that) that's against preachiness in entertainment is itself preachy. Maybe foamy oughta shut up per their logic, too.

[I wanna make you happy]

Why so serious?

MihaP responds:

:))

[Railway To Heaven]

Thought it was going to end with her finding out she actually *was* dead - since the "portal to the afterlife" was conveniently located off the edge of the platform and could be interpreted as her walking to her death!

[FNF Week 7 Animation]

Amazing animation. The part of the video involving Pico gives me deja vu - some of it looks like it could be straight out of "Keep your Hands Off Eizouken!"

[Adrellia Village #3]

Funny

Despite its simplicity, I got quite a laugh from the stupidity of the main character and the effects of the "ice beam", I'll elaborate later.

The art/graphics: Rather simple, the people are a bunch of stickmen with faces and a dress, Cyanide-and-happiness style. While it's not exactly eye-catching, it does strangely fit the current series. The background looks good, but some objects like the amulet were nothing more than some basic shapes..

The animation: The animation was smooth, overall, but at some points of time (for example, the zooming in of the character, and the shot of Kirk, and the delay following it) was a bit too slow for my liking; other parts (like the credits) were too fast. Other parts were a bit choppy, like the moving of the protagonist to reveal the amulet; it could be forgiven, though, as the other parts more than compensated.

The music/sound/voicing: Ironside fitted in nicely, the beginning serving as an alarm and the latter part of the 13 second snippet as an anticlimax, although it was a little high-pitched. The sound effects were aptly chosen, of the ice beam crashing into Kirk, apart from others. The voice acting was nice too.

The storyline/other: Upon viewing it the first time, it seemed a little long, but on second viewing, it dawned on me that it was oh so short. Nevertheless, the light-hearted comedy accompanying it made it better, overall. The credits were rolling a bit too fast, though. I never could've guessed the soundtrack was Quincy Jones' Ironside if I hadn't read Haggard's review. (I finally saw the "13 second snippet" thing after subsequent views)

All in all, a niece, short flash that I'd view again, with an art style I'd normally not think would fit well in flashes, but it does here.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Nice music, sound effects selection
2) Smooth animation
3) Simplistic art
4) Funny

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Credits rolling too fast; points in animation slow
2) Parts of art a bit too simple

[Review Request Club]

MistyE responds:

Thank you for your review! In this episode's original run, TBH the main character wasn't intended to be stupid, but I'm still glad you got a laugh out of it!

Art/graphics: I always thought that the simple, somewhat-jerky style oddly corresponded to the plotline. The original characters were supposed to be complex animals but I settled on a simple but effective style.

Animation: Thanks!

Music: Thanks. I did my best to find a fitting soundtrack for that.

Storyline/other: Interesting that it seemed long at first. Your insight is appreciated.

I didn't know anybody paid attention to the credits, I'll make them slower next time.

[First Encounter]

Not bad...but not flash

The video's all right, and considering that it was done on a Nintendo DS, I think I should give extra stars. Should I...?

The art: Alright, the art was just random stick figures drawn, namely a professor, a stickman and something else, maybe a spray? So if it was a normal flash, then it wouldn't have been as good, seeing as it takes a lot of work -- I think -- do replicate this on a DS. But it's no excuse for poor-ish art. The explosion, the city and the professor's head were drawn relatively nicely, though.

The animation: Due to the effect (?) created in the video, I see multiple screens on the screen, each showing the same picture. Not sure what to make of that, but I guess if I focused on an individual screen then I could call it a smooth-ish animation, which is a bit blocky. I can't really say though, since this is after all, not a flash animation but a video.

The sound: I think the music fits the plot well: slightly funny (to me) and a bit fast-paced, which kinda reminds me of a Wiley Coyote theme. Good job on the selection of music. The sound effects, though, were negligible, except for the last part which really surprised me: One moment I'm listening to calming music, the next a loud scratch as the video cuts. Maybe the sound could've been made a little softer?

The storyline: So I see a stickman bringing something up, next second flying high in the sky, something happens, boom, then the professor's experimenting with a box. I can't really see any storyline here, it's as if you just shot random things to experiment with this. I can't give you any stars on that but I won't take away any, though.

All in all, not so bad since it's actually done on Pictochat, as Wearfare said (and I assume), so I've chosen to give extra stars. But an afterthought: I don't think you should upload videos on Newgrounds. NG's for flash animation. Not for videos. I think you should've stuck to Youtube for this video, but if your aim was to show what people could to with said program, then I think your aim was acheived.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Done on Pictochat (+++)
2) Nice music selection
3) Some parts drawn well

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Overall poor art
2) Blocky animation
3) Loud sound effects
4) It's a video!

[Review Request Club]

PowerRangerYELLOW responds:

What happens is the stickman bites his tounge so hard it bleeds and the resulting blood spray sends him flying.

he eventually loses blood and quickly falls to the earth where a city happens to be than the stickman explodes creating a hugh metor where the city used to be.

The professor gets excited because he has found a brand new discovery and begins tests using boxes.

near the ending he begins to activate the transmitter inside one of the boxes however the machine cannot handle the new frequency.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed review.

-PowerRangerYELLOW

[==Firefight==]

Okay

I watched this animation, and I was ready for the person to move on and possibly kill some more people when it just said replay. I was literally like "That's IT?" at that point of time. That's when I saw the author comments, this was a test to practice your animation skills. Ohh.

The art: The people aren't very well drawn, but the background sure is. I like the 3D effect you gave for some parts of the house, along with other minor-ish details such as the station wagon behind the bush and the car in the garage. Overall it would've been good, but the bad character art brought the quality down.

The animation: So this is a test of your animation, so let's look at that, shall we? Okay, the first thing I notice right off the bat is that the animation's smooth and not chunky or blocky at all; good job on that. The spawning of the bullets and their "mini-explosion" against the MREs are also pulled off very well. So far, so good.

The sound: The sound effects are okay, I mean, you said that all gun sounds sound equal, so I won't bother with that, but there's a slight problem with the music: it would normally build up suspense but in this case, coupled with the animation, there's just....not enough suspense, and the music just tends to continue even when the animation's finished. Not. Good.

The storyline: Very, very short. At first I thought it was going to be a full-length movie, but then when I watched it and looked at the file size, I was rather disappointed.

All in all, okay if you're animating after a long hiatus, but otherwise not very good if you're aiming for quality, no.

~~ Summary~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Nice background art
2) Good sound effects
3) Smooth animation

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Music still continues even when flash finishes
2) Very short

[Review Request Club]

Phantox responds:

I think I spent a whole week drawing that background (not including the time it took to restart from my last save when flash crashed)

I don't know how to make the characters better, though so I just leave it the way it is.

Thanks for your review

[-The Gift Giver -]

Not bad

I couldn't get what they were saying even though the sound volume was on full blast and I used my headphones, but I pretty much got the gist at the end. I'll elaborate later.

The art: Not that bad, but rather mediocre at the same time; the "black man" doesn't look as though he's starving, but has a potato head and a banana body. The beggar has a long brown beard, his eyes are a dot surrounded by a semicircle and another dot. The semicircle is presumably some eye outline or something. The gift giver is static and is just some smoothened out circles and rectangles merged together with some brush strokes.

The animation: It's smooth and the lips move in sync with the sound. The person walking, though, is rather broken, moving in spurts rather than smoothly (for me). There is no animation showing the beggar (?!) eating the chicken, i.e just a zoom in of his face going "nom nom nom" rather than him picking up his hands and eating it; the "drop of sweat" from the gift giver (?) is not obeying the laws of gravity, i.e the motion tween should have an ease of -100 rather than 100, since 100 means it slows down when it reaches the destination. That's not right.

The storyline: For those of you who have difficulty hearing the soft voice (such as me), I'll explain: It's a person (presumably a beggar) who wants food from the gift giver, and demands food. The gift giver then gives him chicken, which then through the exploitation of the stereotype that "black people" are attracted to chicken, kills the beggar to get it, only to find out it's chicken not popcorn. Something I found original, apart from the generalization part. So far, so unique...I guess.

The sound effects: Like I said, the voice was very soft and so I couldn't make out anything except for the louder words such as "proposition" and "food". It's only good that it could be figured out from watching the whole movie, otherwise I'd have given this a much lower rating.

All in all...not bad, I guess. You could've stopped it from looping, though.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Good art (?)
2) Nice lipsync
3) Smooth animation at points
4) Original-ish storyline

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Broken animation at points
2) Very low sound
3) Short

[Review Request Club]

ManNSmkyRoom responds:

Thanks for the review, I'm still a little dumbfounded about the audio. Why is it so loud when I watch it but not for you? How can I make sure the audio on my next animation will be at a correct level?

[Achivement Madness]

Good

For 15 to 20 hours, this is not that bad a flash! I liked that this was based on achievements, and that the person actually did those kinds of things. However, I didn't get to see all of them...including killing RobotJesus? Maybe if you had more time, you'd have done it...? :P

The graphics: They're Madness sprites, although they're redrawn so it's not an exact clone but rather an adaptation. I appreciate that you did that! Also, the drawings of the explosions and "nyan cat" were nice.

The animations: They were fluid. The explosion was especially smooth, but not too smooth, just like in real life. Things like the drawing of the gun were quick, just like a person would do if he was being threatened as well! Good job on that.

The voice acting: It sounds like the person is generally a slow dimwit whose brain was compromised...I'm guessing that was the noise you couldn't remove. Although I didn't expect it, the voice acting did match that of the character -- he was so dense he failed to understand what achievements were.

The sound effects / sound: These were well chosen, and some were rather gruesome sounding, but then again this is Madness day. Some were loud, though. The gunshot effect at the click of the "replay?" button was a tad loud.

The storyline: It's a person who has to get achievements to get a reward for doing awesome stuff, and he eventually gets it through completing various tasks. Original! For one second I couldn't make out the difference between the original Newgrounds medal popup and this popup, they were almost alike!

All in all, this was a great submission, and it deserved the score of 3.91. 4/5, 8/10.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) [Nice adaptation of] Madness sprites
2) Nice choice of sound effects
3) Fitting voice acting
4) Smooth animation

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Some sound effects were a tad loud.

[Review Request Club]

Deathisawesome responds:

I was going to do all achivements on the list, but somewhat ran out of time ;)

Yeah, tried to keep from tweening, it tends to be to smooth :O

I actually slowed the voice down after recording it, just to get that feel to it, so glad you liked it :)

Maybe I should have edited some effects some, but I didn't have time for it :C Next time I will though :)

Thanks for an awesome review! :D

[Madness Dance Party 4]

Good

I liked this movie, mainly because I didn't expect this. I knew the title was "Dance Party 4", but having never seen the predecessors I didn't know it was going to end like this. I was a bit shocked at the message "at this point of time I decided to stop animating the series" and was relieved when it showed "Nah, just kidding!". I'll elaborate later.

The sound: It's a music video, right? The songs chosen are appropriate: one to build up tension in the beginning of the movie ("the intro"), another one to show the person with the boombox coming in, and the other one to release tension built up when the boombox apparently broke. A nice choice of music, in my opinion.

The art/graphics/animation: The animation's smooth. Not much to say for that. The art...it's a bunch of slightly modified Madness sprites. Not bad, but I think that you could've added your own style to it, even though it's Madness day. Overall it's good, but I expected more. (The boombox was drawn nicely)

The storyline: I'm assuming this is similar to other previous Madness Dance parties, where they dance; not bad on its own, but it seems to me that there's no real plot, except for this one, because they just...dance. That's it. The only modification here is that the person comes in from the scooter, drops the boombox, then later emerges with a new one and shoots someone with his boombox-gun to make him dance.

All in all, not bad, I liked it, but it's a tad short. 8/10, 4/5.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Nice choice of music
2) Good animation, art to go with it

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Storyline?

~~ Other ~~
1) Too short? Was it intended to be?

[Review Request Club]