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EmmDubya

87 Movie Reviews

18 w/ Responses

Beautiful and charming.

I was scouring the portal after having not been too active for a week or so and when I saw a flash with a score of four and a half I felt compelled to view it and see what the incredible score was about. What surprised me was that after viewing the flash I actually felt like it deserved that incredibly high score, unlike many other Flashes in the top flight that are great, but very few of such a great quality. You mention in the description that you have been working on this project for a year and a half, and looking at how much attention was obviously paid to the every detail, macro and micro, I certainly believe that wholeheartedly.

Of course, the first thing to look out for in an animation is exactly that - the quality of art and animation. Right from the outset the art inside the house and the static art as a whole seems nearly pristine, with detail shown everywhere it fits. I liked the fact that a lot of objects seemed to glow slightly in the moon's effulgence that was especially apparent in the early scenes as the character traversed the streets at night. On a partially related note, the coloured luminance of the comets against other objects such as trees was very well done, and the fact that you put thought into every aspect of the animation - I know the lighting of things like the comets and such are a focal point, but nonetheless the amount of thought you seemed to put into them certainly impressed me and I don't think could have been done much better.

In terms of character animation, Jazza's work was high-tier, albeit not quite on a par with the background images and such. At no point did I notice the smooth quality of the animation dropping and the design of the primary character was pretty adorable - especially with the huge eyes and subtle smile that seemed to always be there - although the fact that it was that, always there, got a little bit on my nerves and a bit more variation wouldn't go amiss, in my opinion. The same goes for the alien, whom despite taking a rather different character, with a more sinister feel to him. After seeing him waiting outside the woods I was fairly confident that he'd follow the child in and I ended up worrying in that sense, but after that didn't happen I certainly was confused as to what'd happen - his re-emergence in time to steal the bike wasn't what I expected. Considering he managed to simply get into a hot air balloon and continue on his way right after, I think that putting him in the animation seemed a bit unnecessary, foreshadowing a problem that, when it finally comes, is circumvented immediately, calling into place whether that foreshadowing was really necessary or adds very much.

When you say that this was originally intended simply as a music video then I certainly do agree with you. As the song progressed, as did the storyline in a similar manner, even if it's more abstract than detailed and clear animation at every turn the audio seemed to be fitting, with beautiful piano lines that seemed to be in perfect harmony with every other part of the flash. I think that if I heard it separate from the flash I'd still absolutely love this flash, as it conveys some strong emotions, but I don't think it'd find regular listening without the magic that it being used in such great unison with the rest of this video, which cannot be done if I'm just listening to it in the background, as I usually do with music.

The main shortcoming, I feel, is simply that the plot and such isn't too interesting. Yes, everything about the flash is technically incredible and very charming indeed, but at the end of a day it wasn't too interesting. I definitely like the idea of what I believe to be the dream of a child whom wishes for a particular toy for Christmas, incorporating the likeness of that toy into the dream, but while as a concept it's not bad in terms of being gripping and entertaining it doesn't quite fit the rest of the flash. I agree that music videos usually aren't intended to simply be interesting, but with flashes of this quality I must nitpick.

I give 9.5/10 and 5/5.

Sexual-Lobster at his best.

I go into this review as unbiased as I can, considering I'm a pretty big fan of your previous animations after having watched every one of your flashes on NG and knowing the lyrics to this and the other two Fernando songs by heart. Just bare that in mind. I believe that I've managed to stop myself from coming across as an arselicking fan. :3

As it has been for the past few years, the animation is fluid and smooth, with no moments where I really got the impression that a certain movement was rushed or such. The art style is more of the same, arguably unoriginal, however animating these same characters in a completely different style would be a negative in two regards; firstly as people would not react positively to any sort of change and secondly because your experience in this particular art direction surpasses that of any other and allows you to create your best animations and artwork.

One element of the animation present in all of the song flashes (but not others) is that it's very clear that many of the animations (such as Fernando's hipswaying) are completely identical to the last and overall there seems to be movieclips repeating everywhere. Due to their timing with the music, this had a rhythmic feel and can also be seen as a positive, although perhaps toning down on it slightly would be a good idea. Admittedly, Randy's dance towards the end which was clearly contained within an MC gave me a good laugh.

I believe that the inclusion of a storyline into this was a positive, for songs simply revolving around references to previous submissions that many of the new viewers will not latch onto can be less memorable than those with stories like these, even if it's a pretty thin one. I think the return of Hernando is a positive, for he is a great character too. Putting Todd McGovern as someone whom Fernando doesn't seem to be too keen of seems rather odd, as the last time I recall him being in a flash of yours it was in the crabs episode right at the start of your animation endeavours, where he appears to be as close to Fernando as gopher producers can be.

Now I'm going to come onto the audio, firstly the music. When I first opened the flash I had not yet read in the description that the music track is a modified form of Space Duck's background music, and I didn't even notice despite that being one of my favourite tracks on the Newgrounds audio portal. This version wasn't quite so relaxing, but instead was more fitting for this particular flash, giving the urge to pulsate my hips and get thrusting in time with the music. I'm not sure which version I prefer, but they're both great despite being better for very different moods.

The voice acting I personally found convincing and I cannot really fault it. Todd's voice sounded rather more nasal than I previously remember, although my recollections are vague and cloudy, so I cannot remember his exact voice in the past. Hernando's voice especially stood out to me as an example of fine voice-acting, perhaps as his accent gives more opportunity than the other characters' other than Fernando, whom talks in a bit of a whisper, covering his accent up a lot.

My least favourite section was that which was devoid of all speaking/singing parts, simply because when I'm running through the song in my head that section doesn't stick in as well as the rest for that reason. This is me seriously nitpicking, though.

To conclude, I think that once again you have outdone yourself once again and created a memorable song to go along with your recent few and displays great humour, skill in animation and musical talents. I'm very impressed.

9/10. 5/5. A catchy song coupled with great quality art and animation that just happens to have hilarious lyrics to top the whole thing off.

Sexual-Lobster responds:

holy crap dude, what a beast of a review

well, thanks!

One word: Samey.

With the characteristic art style and such, this is clear to be a movie in the 'awesome' series right from the outset. As you hear the humour, it's even more clear to be a movie in the 'awesome' series. As the voice acting begins, it becomes yet clearer that it's a movie in the 'awesome' series. Do you see where I'm going here?

Just about nothing in the flash seems original. Although you're a great author, it feels like rather than going out and doing something new you seem to be rehashing the whole awesome thing because it's guaranteed to get positive reception and a lot of views. After all this time, however, it just feels like you're dropping all the old jokes and such onto a different game each time and jiggling it around a bit until it fits.

The actual animation itself was pretty smooth at most moments, with a few moments where it dipped into choppier bits, however it's still far better than the majority of animations I see. The background art, I actually really liked, it was pretty pleasant and definitely gave me a feeling of Pokemon, perhaps due to the tree shape looking a lot like the impassables from the game itself drawn in flash.

Although it's a staple of the series, the high-pitched and slightly squeaky style of voice acting I simply found to be annoying. Sure, it was fitting with the atmosphere, but it just becomes irritating after a while. When Ash wasn't speaking, and it was just the Pokemon, it wasn't so bad, but nor was it particularly good.

One of the main quips I have overall is how long the final joke is carried on for. I assume you were going for the whole 'comically timed injury that causes a character to voice pain for a longer period of time than expected' thing, however I just don't think that it worked out too well. Overall it gave the impression that you had little over material to work off of, and thus to pad out the whole thing that single joke was just stretched for as long as you possibly could.

Overall, I just got the feeling that this was created not because you felt inspired and compelled to produce some new content, but you felt like you needed to create something in order to keep fans happy and decided to play it safe by not creating anything new and putting pretty little thought. The production quality isn't bad, but in terms of entertaining somebody whom has seen the majority of your other flashes over the years, this isn't particularly great.

Where do I begin?

I'll begin rather vaguely and also bluntly: I believe that this is a terrible flash. When I saw your username due to it sounding pretty good, having proper capitalisation and not containing numbers, I got the impression that upon watching the Flash, I'd see something that is definitely worth watching. I was negatively surprised.

I'll start with what gained my only star: I rather liked the typewriter effect. It was synchronised very well with the audio and I was getting a decent feeling. As I got past that stage, I was sorely disappointed. After that the flash devolved into a mere slideshow and little more than that. There was no proof of animation abilities, or any abilities whatsoever other than that to copy and paste images you found on the internet into the flash window time and time again.

There's little else to say, as picking apart the flash when there is nothing there to pick apart is near impossible. What I will say is that time-and-time-again making flashes based on reactionfaces isn't a good way to attract positive attention. Many people find them overused/believe that their novelty has worn off a long time ago, and unless you fully animate them (and do so well) they're certain to time and time again turn out like this, unpolished and unoriginal.

I know that this submission is intended to be humorous and informative, but it came out neither of those. The jokes have been done and redone to death to the point where they are beyond tired out, and I'm pretty sure that anybody who have not experienced them to the point of despair wouldn't be here in the first place, meaning those whom you wish to tell about these hilarious super-witty inside jokes already will not be watching this.

Another quick note, unless you're describing the possession of a meme, that apostrophe you keep putting in there (in the title, the description, the flash itself) is completely unnecessary.

I believe that with more fresh and original ideas you could possibly end up creating a few flashes that really are something to be proud of, however as of yet there's little redeeming value to this and you're showing very little potential, even if there is a lot locked away inside there.

1/5, 1/10. Remember to keep trying and try to pump some originality into future flashes.

Absolutely hilarious.

This is quite easily one of the best submissions I have came across in a while, with both great humour, art style and animation. Although people are likely to vote it down due to perceived racism, I personally find it completely hilarious regardless, and I believe that the video should be taken as comedy - for that's what it is.

The animation was pretty smooth, although rather tweened-feeling, and I found the art style fitting too, it reminded me somewhat of Sexual-Lobster's, although looking at them side-by-side the comparison isn't too close. This is a positive thing, as I completely love the GreasyMoose series and the art style that goes with it.

Audio was very fitting, with the voice acting, especially that of the 'negromancer' blending well with the overall atmosphere comedic atmosphere of the latter stages while providing good contrast with the more serious section, as it seems was intended. The thu'um sounded good, and far more manlier at least than the attempt that /v/ had at recreating 'fus roh dah', and the use of Sons of Skyrim in the background contributed further to the 'epic' feel that the more serious moments came under.

As previously mentioned, I just find the whole thing hilarious, and hope that others feel the same way, especially as technically this is a well produced Flash. I see the potential for a Daily, or even Weekly, winner in this Flash.

OH CHRIS

As a semi-ex-interweb-friend of Chris (who, may I say, is pretty fucking bitching at DooM), I have to say that this is the only thing in his life that he can truly be proud of. For those who would like an update on him (accurate to kinda-recent-ish-ly), as of the last time I spoke to him he was undergoing a bullet hell obsession, staying home all day errday in order to play what I semi-remember as dodonpachi and slagging off Doom, which was his previous obsession, and one that he managed to get me into. Knowing him, since I stopped talking to him he has probably found another thing to be obsessed with and is slagging off dodonpachi on some obscure gaming forum right now.

Oh, and his FB id is 100000112639617 ;D

omg

it was beautiful, and that isn't just because I'm pissed off of my fucking nut right now. <33

I love you, don't leave me.

Sidorio responds:

My destiny awaits. I cannot but off this quest any longer.

You Sexy Thing, You. <3

Another cock-rocket film is added to the series and once again you've made immaculate improvements to the series. As soon as I opened the window I saw a perfectly drawn image of the recently earthquake-raped Haiti, rolling around in it's own rubble and I was touched. Straight after, the lovable Cock-Rockets came on screen, and with their amazingly smooth animation they traveled across the screen, in terror at how such a world power had been reduced to a clusterfuck of rocks and that sort of bullshit; at how despite their thriving economy the amount of foreign aid that had been coming through, the situation wouldn't just sort itself out. I have to say that the scene in which the cock-rockets raped the white missionary was just hilarious, especially when the Haitians stormed into the room and join in. I must admit to fapping uncontrollably to it - I spent a good week or so clearing the stains off my wall after that but it was all worth it. And oh god I love the bit where the bus drives off the cliff, that was so original that my face melted. It still hasn't returned to normal

Further on, the way you captured the earthquake victims' disgust at the orgies going on between the cockrockets and the millions of corpses was just immaculate. The expressions on their faces just made me shit bricks. The only moment that had more emotion than that is when they finally took the hint and went on their way out of the city, trying to cause as little offense as possible. Their disappointment when they found that the locals were responding negatively to their aid must have been absolutely crushing for the poor cock rockets, although I see that they recovered perfectly for their adventures in Japan, when they saved the country from the horrible, evil being that was rampaging across it.

Once again, you've created a brilliant submission, with immaculate animation, compelling emotion and I'm absolutely touched to have an animator like you working with my scripts. You've exceeded my expectations once again, you beautiful sunflower.

5/5, 10/10

PS: ApothesisLost is my boy. We talk about diabetes and AIDS and that sort of shit.

Sidorio responds:

I'd be a dirty faggot if I didn't respond to this.

Pretty Generic

As much as I appreciate the fact that this is your first flash and (as many people remind me) I probably couldn't do much better, I'll be reviewing this in the same way as I would anything else. Hopefully this will lead to my review being more informative for you.

The first thing that stood out about this Flash is the lack of sound. I'm sure other reviews will mention this too, but lack of any sound is a serious turnoff when viewing Flashes. A good, well fitting set of audio tracks can make the difference between a flash passing judgement or not. For sound-fx, a good place to check is Flashkit.com and Newground's own audio portal would be a great place for if you want to check for suiting background music.

The problem with using audio is, although it can be what makes a Flash, it adds to the filesize - which can cause people to be sitting there waiting for a long time before your Flash begins. A way to get around this is to add a preloader to your Flash. You can create your own, as this tutorial explains:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view /328061

The alternative to creating your own is to use one of Newgrounds' stock preloaders, which can be found here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/downloads/p reloaders/

These will show a bar of loading progress before your Flash starts, and when the load is completed a play button. Make sure to add "stop()" to the frame that contains it (1 or 2).

Another small issue is the text. It's all only for a few frames, and due to the lack of distinguishing colour you can't quite tell what it's saying. Something else that sticks out is how he seems to punch the ground for no reason whatsoever. Perhaps you just wanted to use these sprites, but I feel it breaks the flow that was just starting out on there after an unnatural feeling start generated by the sudden appearance of those zombie things, no transition whatsoever.

I wish you the best of luck on your future flashes, but this just didn't do it for me.

Very Dark

I came onto the page expecting nothing special, and I was surprised. The dark, murky feel to it made me literally shiver through it. The different pieces of text didn't seem to tie in together, although it all seemed to compliment the theming extremely well. The grainy effect and little details all rounded it off well. 9/10 - 4/5 Thanks for inspiring me to make one of my first reviews since 2008.

Foxcato responds:

Thank you very very much:)
I'm glad you found it enjoyable. 3 more short movies on the way
+ a 3-minute film called Watch This Space:)

Age 27

Joined on 2/23/08

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