WavyGravy's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Blue Lotus]

A Charming and Flamboyant display

Although I agree that there is much room for improvement, I very much enjoyed the innocent charm behind this little short.

What impressed me the most about your animation was the FBF facial expression of your characters, it was easy to read.

I felt your first impression with the flying seagully wasn't nearly as strong as the bulk of your animation. In my opinion, the first impression is a key to captivating your audience. Excellent music choice, it fits the mellow/tranquil mood of the scenes well.

You shouldn't worry too much about receiving a high score. After all, if this is a labor of love (which I believe it is); what you've learned and the helpful criticism you've received should be all you need to pave way to your next great idea.

Overall, this animation showed us your creative potential and with time, you can create an even more profounding animation. Well done Miss Mel.

purefey responds:

Thanks for all the feedback! I am definitely going to be producing more animations. :)

[Thanks for all the fish!]

"Play it again, Sam!"

This is a testimony for Hitchhiker's fans everywhere. What was absolutely surprising was, when I first viewed your animation a year ago, it quirked my interest as to what the movie was all about. After, witnessing how the music was used in the film (miscellaneous video of dolphins), I have to give you credit for providing a vivid cinematography, greater than what the origional film was after. Especially when the chorus sings "Come one and all", it's a joy to behold.

A small thing I wanted to add is your use of the dolphin's 3/4 profile were more effective than the usual frontal, as it gave it a extra "umph". The music carried through smoothly and I can't tell you how much I love the music, certainly a combination of swing + musical styles, kudos to the song writers.

My respects to you and Douglas Adams.

AntonyC responds:

Hey!
Thanks man :)
I appreciate the critique.
You're dead right about the 3/4 profile bits. It was originally designed to facilitate that one dolphin who winks at the camera, but I loved it so much I just had to put it in elsewhere :D
Thanks for watching!

[Jinas 1: A New Friend]

AITD, you reached your next plateu.

There is certainly a great attention to detail to each scene, and even more on the characters. The fact that the characters all exhibit a crisp outline tells me that you placed a great emphasis on the hand-drawn quality of the characters.

It's awesome a visual appeal to see your artsyle fluent throughout the entire episode but I can imagine it being quite taxing. It isn't overly complex and kept simple, with appropriate shading.

It must be hard being your own animation studio, and yet you and many others have taken up that task. Truly story tellers, evokes the imagination in all of us. Even now,people watching could be pondering.. "What will happen next?"

I can understand your break from this, this looked to be a fairly arduous task and with many of life's priorities on the line, who would blame you? I know I still have to get off the ground.

I read a few of the reviews here and agree with many of them including you breathing life into these imaginary characters. I believe it is thanks to the facial expression you sculpted and the superb voice actors. They certainly fit the characters they portray. Fine choice of original music as well, and one small thing I really admire that not many artist provide is adequate credits to the other people involved with this project. I'm sure these guys greatly appreciate it.

I completely Disagree with what Squrza had to say about your film. He's nitpicking on small details and the "story does not start and end at each episode" is unavoidable. Sure the length of this episode doesn't give the full scope of the chracters personality BUT you can began to appreciate the characters development in this introductory episode.

AITD, not many would venture in the realm of fairytales, and even more so in a original sense. I'm certainly glad to see this first part completed, its a strong departure from many of your other films. A huge congrats on your frontpage and your awards, and a bigger congrats on finishing this. I'm curious as to what inspiration you drawn and where this is heading, heh, but time and your motivation will all determine that. ;-)

AloneInTheDark responds:

Thank you alot for the review Bahamut. One of the reasons i spent a lot of time on the visual style is because this series will probably be spread out over a long time span. I'd like for it to look a bit consistent so that the style of the first episode will not notably be a lot worse from the last. I'm very happy you could enjoy it! Maybe now we can finally do that interview! lol

[Life Factory]

..and Josh McKinley once said, "Here's my theory"

"Life Factory" The title of the film drawn me in and I wasn't disappointed.

I got to say, you brought forth a very interesting concept. Each sequence provides the viewer a glimpse into the "construction" of a unique "by-product". The intro scene explains cleary the environment of the movie. The visual cue behind both the personality & information was creative.

The colours you used for the factory seems to spawn from one colour, perhaps you were highlightning the human. Neitherless it was very simple, perhaps a bit more detail could have been added but for a 3-Days work, nice job overall. Ha, the "human feature" section remined me of one of those (create your own *noun*) games.

The music was a very nice choice, it definitely appealed to the theme of your animation.

Some advices I can give are the "Emotions" text in the movie would have worked more nicely as digital text rather then drawn, as it seemed hand-wrotten. Also, you might want to add a replay button at the end. I noticed you used a certain movieclip for many scenes, I like to suggest for future animations more diversity in BG.

I read that you wanted to import transparent images into flash. In order to do that, just export the transparent image as a .png and your all set.

I encourage you to continue and improve, because I believe you definitely have creativity in your makings, haha.

OrigamiNugget responds:

All I have to do is make it a png? Wow. They never told me that in any graphic design classes.. Thanks! I appreciate the 8!

[Happy Three Years, Fred!]

Original and fresh.

This was a very comical cartoon! I really enjoyed the dialogue between these characters as it was quite fresh. Your use of the line and pen tool provides a very clean look. The only few things that I can comment on was the a small line by Fred the monkey "ate the cake" which sounded a bit uneven and the missing arms of the penguins(?). Neverless, this was one very enjoyable short and I offer my congrats on your 3 year success. Thats definitely an accomplishment to be proud of!

JKR responds:

Hey, thanks for the well written and thoughtful review! I agree with you, the "I ate that cake" Fred line was a bit off. I recorded it several times, but I guess I should have tried to get it better still. And the "penguins" are actually aliens called "space chickens" who use telekinetic powers and have no arms. Everyone thinks they're penguins though. =)
Thanks again for the review!

[Homer Simpson's Car]

A+!! Shipping was quick and easy! Recommend Buyer!

*Cough* Ebay *Cough*

Hey, quite stylish. That intro did well for the simpsons. Who would every imagine a commercial based on that incredible (yet ackward) car? Who would have used such good camera shots for a car features? Who could have found such good choice of music?

You better believe it, the Shrike himself.

Personality was cool, the safety scene could have used a door since I don't think Lights (was it lights?) could be actually be a prime safety factor. That style and those "shines" were awesome. If your interested check up making use of gradients for that shine effect tutorial somewhere...

Overall, great idea! Tis another great tribute to the simpsons. Just might want to use the smooth fuctions more to clean up those lines. Those simpson wavs were hilarious. Looking forward to that Parrot Hunt Game.

*Bids $82,000 on used Powell Car*

TheShrike responds:

Thanks!
That has to be the best review for ANYTHING I've ever received. Yeah, it scored a 6 overall, but your review was helpful, and informative, which is what I'd prefer to see in a review.

Thanks for your time, and... wow. It took you this long to see and review this? Meh. Better late than never. Thanks for the review!
=]

[Hunter Zero Ep.1]

Quick Pace Actions with a engrossing story.

Its been a while but lets see. Incredilbe menu, with an great movie-style introduction. Surely, the music and choice of actions makes well for this sprite animation. One of the qualities that places your movies above many other sprite movies.

I would suggest perhaps adding name tags for those robot masters that would "blink" for those unfamiliar with Megaman.

The story does seem to flow well from your previous Bass Revenge. Nice job once again on this Rigo, but I'm still looking foward to your Project X series. Good luck.

CheveLoco responds:

i didnt think about the tags...i may add them..it would be a good idea..


about project X, i have started working on it again...if everything goes as planned it should came out before the end of the year...meanwhile get ready for Hunter Zero 2..it's coming out Saturday, November 6th...thanx

[LotR...Return of the King]

A twist on the word "King".

Let me first say that Lord of the Rings was a grand trilogy. Perhaps reading the books would be the next best thing. I'm going to be truthful in reviewing your movie as every author deserves to hear so.

The Background is of decent quality. The Forest is accurate with good tone of gradients. I would suggest adding shadows to give it a more refined look. Perhaps shadows at the side of the tree bark to distill the shape of the treetops.

The Characters appearence is quite lifelike. Most splendid in that detail but I have to say the proportion seems a bit off. The Bodies doesn't accurately fit. You might want to take a look into tutorails on body proportion such as at Polykarbon (I'm not allowed to post the url but i'm sure you'll find it if you type it in google or such.)
Just a suggestion.

I'm glad to see the humor behind this! Haha, we bestow the title of King to many legends.

Well, I for one am looking forward to your next LOTR Parady. Good luck and keep practicing ole' chap!
-BR

Slightly-Crazy-Dude responds:

Thanks for the excellent review mate, so i think i will atleast give you a responce.

The background was the easy part, next time i will heed your advise and try and make it more "lifelike"

The characy=ters were drawn quite slowly, had to get detail correct you know. Proportions are off, i will look into this site you mentioned, hopefully i will learn a little.

Glad to see you enjoyed it and thanks for the excellent review. And im sure you will like my next attempt. Its a little different, but you will enjoy.

[Alive]

Seperated as individuals, connected by fate.

Very impressive flash. It seemed the backgrounds for this flash was all hand drawned. Also, you placed a great detail in every object. That really captured the colors.

The Music fitted well into this. I just love these types of music. Very solemn and ambient.

As many has mentioned, this movie captures emotions exceptionally well. Watching this I can see traces of anxiety, depression, fear, joy, hope, contempt, determination, and free-spirited. (Not in particular order of the scenes!)

Taking a look at your ending sequence of the elcipse (or the end of the world?), I see that each one of us, are all embodied to Life as individuals. That message was clear and inspiring. And as you putted "An animation as diverse as life itself." That is very true in this sense. Excellent Work.

AloneInTheDark responds:

Finally, a personal intrepretation. Yes you are very right and see what i intended to show. The message is very simple. 'You are not alone on this planet'. There are many other things that u can notice and think about and i wont spoil it all yet.

[The 10 Second Showcase]

Wonderful Array of Works

This showcase was great. To see many artists come together is a grand idea. I was really suprised to see my alias in the Audio credits, so thanks! Nice selection of music. So thats what you were looking for... heh.

Each movie was entertaining, both in it's content and style. Dim of the SFB did an excellent job with the menus! As well T0MMY's commitment to the project and it's organization. His idea to bring forth a collection of artist was insipirational and new. Who else can come up with such ideas?

I'm not sure who did the little Bios and avatars but it brought a smile to my face. Thanks.

Once again, Great job everyone, it has become a big success and I myself, have learned much.(Especially about time management!) It's truly been a honor to be involved in this project.
-BR

T0MMY responds:

I did the Bios and me and Dim together did the avatars. You'll notice about half of them have a different style than the other half.

-T0MMY