Surn's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Nyu and the Ponyta]

Don't see that too often...

Art:
Excellent, the simple Game Boyish pixel art works. I liked what you did with the intro cut scene. While it only black white and grey (like a gameboy) and the characters were stiff the drawing was very good. My only complaint is with the use of the blur filters which take away from the pixel effect by distorting the pixels.

Audio:
Great, it was mostly a simple 8-bit operation (for music and sound effects) which fit well with the visuals. My only complaint is with that laughing music which didn't seem to fit in with the 8-bit sounds.

Animation:
Very good except for the use of filters. As said before, the blur filters seem to take away from the pixel effect.

Overall:
Excellent, but work on consistency.

supersysscvi responds:

Hm... the blur and the laughing. Well, I knew that I didn't know how to change the laugh the way I wanted to, but the blur... I didn't think the blur was an issue. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Puppets in the Park VI]

Interesting take on a nursery rhyme.

Art:
Very good, it's pretty much on par with the animators that get front page. My only suggestion is to brush up on your drawing skills or perhaps put more detail into your characters (there's always room for improvement).

Animation:
Arguably cheap. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were using the "puppet" status as an excuse not to put in mouth movement and facial expression.

Audio:
Good. I liked how you added the park ambiance.

Plot:
An interesting and imaginative twist on the "Old Lady In the Shoe" story. However It may have been way better had it not been done with "puppets".

Overall:
Good visuals, good plot, lame animation.

[Late Valentine Sadness]

Is good, yah?

Plot:
It was short and sweet. While the disappearing lover symbolism has been thoroughly used it still seems to work.

Art:
For the most part, the art is great. You seem to be good at creating shapes and fitting them together into what you want them to be. However, the guy's left hand in the getting up animation and the top right corner of the fridge could have used some work.

Animation:
The absolute low point of this animation. While you didn't seem to rely heavily on tweens the animation was very choppy. The worst example would have to be as the guy approaches the girl. It looks like he skipped a few frames at the end of the animation. Still, it's better than if you had tweened it. The other part is how the shapes "show" as the girl disappears. This problem seems to be a common one and my only suggestion is to take a screenshot of the figure against a color-you'd-never-use background, cut it out in Photoshop (or something to that efffect) and substitute the flash figure for the picture at the end.

Audio:
The music was appropriate but may have done better if it was set to "stream" rather than "event". Sound effects may have also helped as well.

Misc:
About the "Who made this and why is it so bad?" screen: It's a really good thing that one can be self critical. Well done!

Overall:
Great visuals, poor animation. My main suggestion is to spend more time on your animation and to continue to practice your art skills.

darkmagewizard3 responds:

Okay! Wow; a pretty in-depth review considering I don't get that many. About the animation...yeah, I'm not good at all. And I obviously skipped frames due to lack of patience and time; I still wanted to put this up close to the day it's supposed to be about. Audio: There's a reason I don't talk in my stuff. I don't know how to stream. I really didn't think it was that important to have the music fit to the animation, since it wasn't a music video.

Oh, and I'm happy you like the art and that screen.

THANKS.

[Missing: Boomshakalaka]

Overall: Very good for a beginner

Art:
Decent in some places, poor in others. You did well with picking out the colors and incorporating cutouts (I like what you did with the police badge). Unfortunately your overall drawing skill needs work (look into shading). Perhaps next time you draw stick figures you should use the line-tool for the limbs and body. I say this because the gray lines making up your figures give them a segmented look and the lines on the arms are messy.

Animation:
There was little actual animation and a heavy reliance on tweens (which the expert critics usually whine about). I guess tweens are acceptable for a scrolling background or a car going in a straight line but frame-by-fame is best for say blinking eyes or a tear drop rolling down the face. The fire on the rocket should have been moving. I'd suggest at least a two-frame animation involving two slightly different drawings of the flame. My main complaint is with the rain. Not only was it poorly integrated but it froze and started a new copy when it started over.

Audio:
The sad music did very well to set the mood for this but there was no sound effects.

Misc:
The concept of this was beautiful. Making an animation to regain a lost friend (even if it's an e-friend) is a noble cause. However this was greatly diminished by the tea-bagging bit at the end (which should have brought the rating up to "T").

You should also look into preloaders and stop buttons.

Overall:
Work on your drawing and animating skills but also spend more time on your work.

UsedCarMan responds:

than you man, very informative review, much appreciated, and good news, my friend was found! :-D

[I Eat People]

Brilliant Song, Fair Visuals

Art:
The people were drawn well and so were the monsters. There was a fair bit of creativity with the monsters but were somewhat generic. On a side note "Nick" reminds me of "Ocula" from the movie "Small Soldiers".

Animation:
Well done in some points but minimal in others. You did a good job on giving Gary and the Purple-People-Eater an articulate mouth rather than just having a two frame mouth that simply opens and closes with wach syllible. You also did well syncronizing the pictures to the song. On the other hand the Purple-People-Eater had virtually no body language and looked like he was tied up with invisible ropes because his arms appeared to be pressed to his sides at all times.

Audio:
You should release the song on the Newgrounds Audio Portal. The song had a simple melody and a simple message which worked well. The singing suited Purple-People-Eater will with the deep "evil-echo" voice.

Overall:
The animation and visuals were decent but the song was absolutely brilliant. If you've grown in skill since you've made this perhaps you'd like to consider doing a remake.

[Pac-Attack!]

Animated Album Art?

Art:
Not a whole lot of originality outside of the arrangement of the sprites. It's interesting how Donkey Kong's GIF conversion gave him that spotty look (which seems to work).

Animation:
My main complaint is that the loop is shorter than the song itself. I do like how you managed to make the background scroll seamlessly with those white "rush lines" that cover everything but the ground in the background.

Audio:
It seems that you built this animation around the song which seems to work.

Overall Impression:
Gets old after a few seconds and has about as much visual content as you can fit into an animated GIF. Though if it was an animated GIF it could work as album art for the song.

["Snowfall"]

What a twist!

This was brilliant! I mean, it started out with the impression that it was going to be this "cute" cartoon and ended up as a run-for-your life delay. The icing on the cake is that the cliche peaceful music was playing all along giving the impression of a plot-malfunction.

[Bob y Steve Cinco]

What did you make this with?

There was virtually no animation and this looks like the pseudo cartoon stuff you find on Youtube. The script was amusing though and kudos on Rick Rolling.

[Finally]

...

There was more animation in the intro than in the body of the cartoon. Said cartoon...well... just messed up.

[Effects Comercail]

Gabara

The animation was pretty good. However, it could have done with at least some ambient music and the pause between when he opens the window and clicks an icon is too long.