Step's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Beast Snacks 1]

Lol...

...Thanks for using Minutes to Midnight. Quite a coincidence that I worked on that song as well and that you requested this in the club I'm in, but whatever xD.
The movie itself is very well done, and I don't really have much to say about it. Usually I have a lot to say about a submission, but this one just seems to leave me speechless :P. Nice job on it!
On an unrelated note, man, I just took a look at the low ratings of this, and you're definitely right. I really don't understand why'd they'd give this as low as a 0, 1 or 2. Some people are just asses.

The graphics were a very slight bit low quality at times, although I suppose it's a very small price to pay for keeping the filesize of this submission at a minimum. On the whole the graphics were extremely good, and I really don't understand why people would call this 'the worst thing they've ever seen'. As you said, the graphics in this are absolutely amazing, and it shows you've worked really hard on it. Nice job with the graphics. Animation was good, with a clear anime-style to it. Sometimes the animation was a bit rough, but overall good animation.

The storyline was a bit weird, to be honest. Some parts seemed really awkward, mostly in the fight with the village weakling, and to be honest, at times I lost track of the storyline. I don't think this does does its job as a first episode that well; I would've loved to see more about how they grew up, and why there was a tournament, etc... Still, some jokes were good and made me lol, and while some were cheesy/bland/childish, overall the humour was good and the storyline wasn't too bad either. Good job. Concept is a bit generic, though :P.

I'm in two minds about the audio. A lot of the voice acting seemed either too loud or too quiet, and I think that the songs could be louder at times, mostly in the more epic or climatic parts. On the other hand, the voice acting was very good, even if its volume levels could use work, and the vast amount of music was impressive.

All in all, it shows that you worked really hard on this animation. The length, the graphics, the animation, the large amount of voice acting, the amount of songs you added, etc... they all indicate that this is made by someone who knows their way around Flash and has potential to be a great artist. Just work a bit on the storyline, the volume levels of the audio and maybe smoothening up a bit of the animation, but in general, awesome job!
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

tacobuttfish responds:

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it, and that you noticed the hard work that went into it. Episode 2 is in full production now, and we're going to be super careful with the audio and try to make sure it's adjusted properly, and the animation already looks much smoother! And thanks to you for your work on Minutes to Midnight, it's a great song, and I listen to it a lot while animating. It will be a recurring track in this series! Thanks again for the insightful review and for checking it out, hope to see you back for Episode 2!

-Taco Buttfish.

[The Love I'm Searching 4]

Amazing!

After watching this I was left speechless. I actually watched it four times just to absorb the story (that and because it's a really epic flash :3). I mean, there's just so much to see in this animation. It skips crazily from scene to scene, full with detail and some hidden references. This is definitely the best music video I've seen on Newgrounds so far, good job! :D

The animation is just superb. It's not very smooth at times, but heck, you've worked a year and a half on this. I'll have to cut you some slack. Besides, a lot of the animation was very detailed and it shows that you put a lot of hard work in it. Still, some things could've been better, such as when they were running inside the school at the beginning. The leg animations were all the same :P. I should stop nitpicking xD.

The art style was superb. Sure, there were a few cliché things such as the mouths occasionally growing twice as big as they're supposed to be, but heck, that comes with every Animé so I won't complain. What I can complain about, though, would be the fact that the characters looked so similar. I mean, does everyone have to have white hair? Lol, I think if you vary the hair colour, the different characters will be more distinguishable, since right now some of the characters look similar to each other. That, and I don't think that everyone having white hair is a huge coincedence xP. Yeah, I understand it could be an art style, but having the same hair colour makes it harder to understand who's who...

However, what was quite impressive was how you blended real life pictures with animations. Usually, they look really out of place with each other, but I quickly forgot that the backgrounds were actually real-life images, and not drawn backgrounds because they were blended in so well. Good job with that =D.

The concept, unfortunately, is generic, but that hardly matters much. What I don't really like about the story was that it was pretty hard to grasp. It might be because of the fact that the characters look similar to each other, or because of the fact that the approach to the story is very subtle (how were we to know that the protagonist waving her hands constantly meant that she wanted to be a conductor, or how do we know that she failed in achieving this goal?), but somehow this Flash *almost* felt random. I mean, if I didn't read the story in the Author's comments, I would have not got head or tail of what was going on. There were a few things that I still don't understand, such as why the protagonist was angry when she saw her friend play the violin...

Having said that, the fact that the story was hard to follow didn't ruin the Flash at all. The first time I watched this, I had no clue what was happening, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. There were some funny parts, some emotional parts, and some interesting parts throughout the submission which really kept the viewer captivated and interested in what would happen next. The fact that the scenes switch so quickly also make this really fun to watch, especially more than once, because the more you watch it, the more you manage to build up a story and see how one scene is related to another.

The audio was extremely good. There was some voice acting which was great, and the song was very high quality, which is a rare find in Flash submissions here on NG. Not only was it high quality, but it was damn catchy too xD. So yeah, superb audio. Subtitles would obviously help here, but then again they might distract the viewer from the Flash itself (since it's so action-packed and all...) and cause him/her to miss a scene or two, so if you do add subtitles, then if I were you I'd definitely make them optional or something.

To summarize, I pointed out a few flaws here and there in this submission, but they definitely aren't enough to reduce a point from my review. This deserves the 10 I gave it for sure, and it surely deserves more than just 40k views and one award. I hope you keep up the amazing work, and great job once again on this submission!
10/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

Skaijo responds:

Thanks again for this supportive, thought-filled review. This is probably the longest I've ever seen to be honest but it touches a lot of points I'll certainly use to improve on. Sorry you had to watch it so many times to understand what was going on. I'll make sure my next major project is less abstract. I was just in a a certain mood when I though this project up. :3

I learned a lot during this animation--but most importantly DUPLICATE SYMBOLS!!! So that's why a lot of stuff looks the same, copy and pasted over again. Lazy yes, but it sure cut down on the production time.

All the characters also have white hair as this animation is actually the trequel of my past two works Don't trip and This is UNMEI. The characters with white hair represented a separate cast that live in an environment that's effected by the real world. In the last two animations, that distinction was made pretty clear--but I really wanted to do something different this time and just take my time expanding this parallel universe a bit peacefully without any eminent doom or fighting scenes. None of those animations were seen by many people, but that shouldn't and can't stop a well-deserving project from getting published on my part. Meh, it's complicated but this series is more or less complete. :3

I really appreciate the review!

[Zinoid]

It's alright.

I never saw any 50x50 flashes before, so I suppose this is quite a unique submission. Slightly random, hard to understand, but an overall decent music video. Not a bad job on this.

Animation wasn't that smooth, but the fact that it was so slow and 8-bittish gave the submission a unique style to it. Even the graphics seemed pretty 8-bittish, but as I said, these gave the submission a nice style to it. Not really much to comment about the graphics/animation, since these were all fit into a size of 50x50. Still, you used your limited space pretty well :).

The concept, as I said, is original. I have not yet seen a flash which is so small in size without being utter crap, so good job there ^^. The storyline was hard to grasp, unfortunately. I didn't really understand what was going on, because of the lack of background that this story has. A box-shaped character transverses a few landscapes, dying randomly in each one, except at the end where he finds a pink box which he fancies. Sure, stories with a subtle meaning to them where it's up to you to create a background story are cool, but unfortunately this wasn't one of them, and it was pretty random. I think this could do with a little background story to it, maybe some stuff which makes more sense, since without a story this got a bit boring.

The audio was great and fit with the flash really well. I don't think there's anything you can do to improve the audio, so good job in it :).

Overall, this is an OK submission. Unique, original, has good audio, and a good style of animation/graphics. I think my biggest gripe with it would be its lack of background and the fact that the story was hard to grasp. Other then that, keep it up ;).
7/10
4/5

-Review Request Club-

Abracadabra123 responds:

Zinoid is indeed a unique movie. I'm sorry if I answered this review three years later.

[MonKKey Chapter 2]

Well done!

I really don't know why this doesn't have a score of 4.00+. It's extremely well done, and only has a few small defects here and there. It shows you worked a long time on it, so excellent job!

The graphics overall are fantastic. Characters were drawn well, and the plants and surroundings were great. Unfortunately, there are some parts which seem a little sloppy or sketchy, such as some of the backgrounds. Animation was excellent though. I'm not really that experienced at animation, but I think the animation was well done and looked smooth and great. I especially like the camera in this.

Unfortunately, like Fro, I didn't watch Chapter 1 and I have no time at all to go and see it too, so maybe I'm missing out on some of the story here, but I really couldn't get a grasp of what was going on. Maybe it was the lack of voices narrating the story, maybe it was just because I didn't watch Chapter 1. Maybe you could add a main menu where you can choose some stuff such as 'The Story So Far' where it shows you importants parts of Chapter 1 so you can easily know what's going on in this chapter. Given the length of the submission, a scene-selection won't hurt either.

The sound effects and music were fantastic. The background music sounded great yet didn't interfere with the story, and the sound effects were extremely good. Still, the voices, on the other hand, aren't so good. The voices were really quiet, and I had to turn the volume up pretty high to hear them, and the problem with that is that the sound effects and music were just the right volume, so not only did I hear the voices properly with very high volume, but the sound effects were really loud too. Long story short, I think the voices need to be much louder. I would compliment your use of stereo, but unfortunately I'm deaf from one ear and can only hear mono, so yeah, I can't say anything about the stereo :P.

Overall the submission was fantastic, and I'm really surprised as to why it's only 3.99. Really good job, the only problems would be the sloppy graphics here and there, the quiet voices and the fact that this story is so hard to grasp.
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

AM-Frasier responds:

Thanks I'm glad you like it. I will indeed be increasing the volume on the voices sooner than later. I'm glad you recognize the amount of time and skill that was put into the project.

[Uzbekistan]

Good, but can be funnier...

Overall this is a decent submission. I got a laugh or two from it, so I suppose it has some OK jokes. It's fun to watch, has its moments and kept me interested all the way through, so yeah, good job ^^.

The graphics were alright, although at times they did seem very sketchy/messy, for example the background in Scene 2 wasn't drawn too well. Some of the characters were drawn pretty well though, and graphics overall were above average. Some small details and fine-tuning can also make this submission look neater, like for example in the menu, instead of making randomly positioned writing around the screen, add menu buttons under each other with neater text. Small details like this could really do wonders to this submission.

Animation needs a bit more work though. Lip sync could do with some touching up, there needs to be more facial expressions and hand gestures, and, well, what I'm trying to say is, we need moar animation. Some parts seem a little weird, like when that US army soldier ran around like a madman. When he ran away from the camera, instead of shrinking into the distance, when he went a little far away from the camera, all he did was disappear, if you get what I mean.

As for the concept, a little weird at times, but in all it was pretty original. The story progressed quite quickly with some random aspects, such as the news on TV coming out of nowhere, and the easter egg which has little to do with the story, so the story wasn't really too special. The humour section is where I have quite a bit to talk about. When the flash started, the jokes were bland and there weren't many. As I kept watching, I laughed a little, such as in the evil laughter part, and on TV with the chicken and the Uzbek, and the Olympics. The 'Obviously not made in Uzbekistan' written on the TV was quite funny too.

My biggest issue with the jokes would be that you could've done more with the jokes and added more. For example, in the beginning, you could have added more jokes for sure, and another example would be the Easter Egg. It really wasn't too funny, and for an Easter Egg, was disappointing. The evil laughter part was alright, but was pretty stupid, and I think you could've taken that opportunity to make a good joke. Instead of keeping them laughing all on their own without anything happening, you could have made something happen while they were laughing,. The different camera angles was a nice touch, though.

There were a few spelling and grammar mistakes which, although didn't really do anything to ruin the submission, won't hurt to be fixed. Some examples of grammar mistakes would be in the beginning:
"How many gold do you want?"
It should be how MUCH gold, since gold is uncountable.
"me to"
It should be me TOO, since to is a preposition.

There were also parts where the subtitles weren't equal to what they were actually saying, especially in the interview with the U.S. soldier. Sure these are small defects and nitpicks, but if you don't fix them, it's like making the flash look like you did it in a hurry and couldn't bother fixing these small mistakes, which gives a bad impression, IMO. Wow, I'm an assy critic xD.

The audio was fine. There wasn't really any background music in the submission, but Fro singing at the beginning made me laugh xD. Fro is a natural singer *Cough*...... aaaanyway... the voice acting on the whole was fine, although what's weird about the voice acting is that some of the voices are quiet while some are loud, maybe because of Nick and Fro both using different mikes or something. There was a good range of different voices, and the voice of the U.S. soldier and the person selling the gold/cotton at the beginning were well done. Some of the other voices were a little dull and need more life to them though, but overall, voice acting was fine.

In general, this is an above-average submission which I enjoyed watching. Some parts could use some work, but this is fun to watch, and I liked it overall. Keep up the good work!
8/10
4/5

-Review Request Club-

...........Yay character limit.

MonoFlauta responds:

1° Paragraph:
Yeah thanks, glad you like the jokes :P
2° Paragraph:
I rushed a little in someparts, because i though they were so important but yes, not all has an awesome quality :P
3° Paragraph:
Yes the idea of the guy from army was that he jumped and fall from a cliff :P it wasnt really well animated you are right :P
4° Paragraph:
Haha thanks, yeah not everyone like the jokes but i am happy that most of people like them :D I think the story is really nice to :P
5° Paragraph:
Yes but the funny thing of the laughing part it was that they keep laughing for a long time :P, well i think that is the funny part of that...
6° Paragraph:
Haha i told fro to CORRECT THE MISTAKES! he knows that is not my native language english :P Tell him he made that mistake lol :P
7° Paragraph:
Yes the problem with the subtitles is that Fro made them Haha no, the problem is that when he recorded he changed some words but then he didnt correct them when he send me again the script with the grammar correction (because i suck in english as you can see).
8° Paragraph:
Yes, i think that the soldier and the first uzbek that appear are the best ones :P i am agree with you.
9° Great thanks a lot for the HUGE review :P All in this review will be usefull for my next video :P
THANKS A LOT :P

[Snow Wars]

Awesome!

I really liked this, and if I had to judge only the jokes or only the acting in it, I would've given it a 10/10.

The effects were well done, and I also liked the fact you added that AT-AT in the backkground so well :P. Maybe you could try add something other than just guns firing short lasers, like maybe rapid fire guns, or some other types of guns. You guys had enough imagination to make such a good film, so I'm sure you have enough imagination to make some more guns. Just some nitpick though, not something to complain about much. Still, because of the low quality, it was hard to understand what was going on, and since there were a few times when the sun got in the way, it was a little hard to grasp the surroundings and stuff. Still, as you said, there's an HQ version on your website, and you had to take away the quality to get it to fit in under 20 MB, so I won't reduce any points for that.

The jokes were very good, especially the ones related to Kurt or the blind guy. Still, at times the jokes were a bit generic, such as the one at the beginning when they were arguing about what day it was. Also, towards the end, I think the blind guy's joke at the end was dragged on a slight bit too long. Still, jokes on the whole had me lol, so good job. Acting was brilliant. Still, as for the story, because of the fact that it was hard to grasp what was going on, I didn't understand everything, such as the star wars part at the end. Was the AT-AT and those droids teamed up with Kurt, and if so, why didn't you make a small scene where you see Kurt trying to win their alliance?

I really liked the fact that you had a scene selection and Character Bios too. The Character Bios were funny, and the Scene Selection gave this some replay value too. Maybe you could add a play/stop/pause/rewind/fast-foward? It might be too much to ask for, but while I was watching it, I was constantly nagged by friends of mine on MSN and I missed parts of the movie just to switch window and tell them to shut up. If it wasn't for the Scene Selection, I wold've had to start from the beginning quite a lot, and even then, the Scene Selection wasn't too large.

The audio was awesome. Voice was heard well, and the fact that you added subtitles really helped (although the narrating voice at the end could've used some subtitles). The music was fantastic and fit very well with the submission. Nice job!

Overall, I really like this submission, and I hope you guys keep up the good work. You're born actors ^^.
Oh, and congrats on the Daily 5th.
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

Fro responds:

Hm, go read the response that I gave to the low 2 review. That should answer your story about weird plot.

[Silent Hill Menu]

More than I expected ^^.

It's a pretty good flash, and even though it's unfinished it's cool to watch. Too bad you can't continue it, because it's a great start :\.

When it comes to the animation, it's all smooth and looks nice. The preloader was really cool too. Graphics were also great, such as the background and the signpost. Not really anything wrong over here :\.

The menu in general looks great. Maybe you could add more variety of animations in the menu (possibly make the animations come up randomly, instead of a fixed loop), and also the menu choices could be scarier and a bit more attractive than red text in a creepy font. You could do something creative with the menu choices, like make them hang from broken signposts or you can make them slide down from the top leaving a blood trail behind them xD.

The song in the menu was great, and so were the sound effects you used, which were timed well with the animations. The only thing I can complain about over here is that there was no sound when you clicked on the word 'Proceed', although I expected some subtle monster cry, or maybe an orchestral drum hit or something xD.

Overall, it's an excellent menu, and I can't really find much wrong with it. Just work on more variety of animations in the menu, and maybe some more sound. Other than that, keep it up!
7/10
4/5

-I Know More About Music Then The Rest Of The People In The Review Request Club And I'm Going To Show Off By Using Up All Of The Characters In My Review-

Oops, sorry :P. I mean...

-Review Request Club-

Fro responds:

I love your ideas. Thank you very much.

[The Creep]

Not bad...

I don't think it was good enough to deserve that front page, but only because of a few problems that can easily be fixed. This is a good start, I'd love to see you work on this a little more.

The graphics weren't that perfect, but still better than loads of graphics you see here on NG. Background wasn't good though, and the graves weren't that well drawn either, but the character close-ups overall were well done. Animation was smooth, but this did have a few wierd things, namely the fact that ever since the creep switched the man's arm with himself, his jaw was sometimes there and sometimes not.

The concept was actually quite good. A walking hand isn't that original, but ripping off people's faces (loved that part XD) and sticking the arm into the socket of the dead person is :D. What I didn't like was the ending. It was kind of a bummer. I let out a giggle or two throughout the movie, especially when the man's face was ripped off, but at the end, the fun was all gone :(.

Audio was great. I loved the song that was playing in the background (at first I thought it was going to be some horrible 8-bit "song", but man, did it get better XD). The flash needs more sound effects though, namely when the creep was starting the chainsaw up. Also, I would've loved hearing a few zombie groans or something. Although it's like a music video, I think it'd work out better with some sound effects too.

It's a cool film, but needs some work in general. Add some sound effects, fix up some strange things like that jaw, working a little more on the artwork, and please, think up a better ending. D: Still, great job in all, I enjoyed it :).
8/10
4/5

-Review Request Club-