OzyPN's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Northern Incident]

The ending was a total let-down

Technically brilliant, atmosphere palpable, character well-rounded considering his screen time. In fact, everything up until the furries appear was more than I had expected from a flash.

The "joke" ending isn't bad in itself, but there are two things wrong with it:
1) Non-sequiturs are fine but really belong in a much shorter movie
2) You have the talent to do so much more

That's my view, anyway. Agree or disagree with it as you please.

[Gravitaxis ++]

Made my day and it's only 6am

Long time fan, this comes in as my new personal favourite.

I'd like an option at the end to see it full speed played forward, but it isn't really a criticism. Hence the 10 :)

[The Paper Prince]

I liked it

Things to improve: sound quality. You already talked about it but it is a bit of an issue.

Check the character's height on the first swivel chair bit, I think it changes.

At first I wasn't sure about the sketchy style of the animation, it didn't seem rounded or... comfortable, I suppose the word is. Like you weren't entirely at home with drawing the character. HOWEVER! This had changed by the end of the film, where I thought the style suited the movie well. So I don't know what to suggest there, or if I should even suggest anything at all.

With no speech, I'd suggest that you try playing around with music. Don't go overboard and lose focus on the story, but it's a longstanding trick that when there's no speech, there's music. Even if you don't decide to go with it, it's a direction I think you should let your creativity take you down.

I didn't catch what was with the photo at the end. Maybe pause a little longer, or have the character do a double-take on what finally made him decide to jack it in. After all, it's the culmination of everything the viewer has seen.

Otherwise, I think you're a strong contender, and best of luck!

ernest-aka-gooey responds:

Ahhh yes... I wish I could have better sound quality. I'm not too sure which type will give the best quality (MP3? Wav? Idunno) but I've found that it will stay in sync with the type I've chosen.. so for when I send it in I'll make sure to up the quality of the ADCMP or whatever it is.

Height on the swivel chair? I'll look into it..

Aha ok ok that's awesome that you felt the style fit 'cause my friend and I had a discussion about that kind of quality my animation had to it and she said she felt the style worked well but I still didn't trust her. So hearing someone else say that makes me feel better

Music.. music music. Ah... I would have to get help from a friend for music. I'm like.. musically challenged. Heh. But yes. I definitely agree it would liven up the animation.

Alright. The photo seems like it could be easy to change. I think I know what I can do to make it a bit clearer...
Thanks!

[A Bid For Freedom]

Well done

Get dictionary.com? Are you having a joke, or just seeking to flatter yourself on how wonderfully verbacious you perceive yourself to be?

Illustrations are wonderful, however; the page-turning effect commendable. The reader has a voice like liquid honey - and if only he could learn to pause properly, he'd be a joy to listen to. As for the writing, it's mostly sound. A little GCSE at times - an oreo? - and I can't quite get such a stately ballroom to sit comfortably with references to Youtube. Perhaps that's a quality.

To summarise, whoever illustrated should look into a professional career. The writer has great potential and, I'm sure, will blossom with time. There's not much else to it apart from the reader, who I do enjoy hearing, and the page-turning, on which I've commented previously.

It's good, but it's not perfect.

AdamCook responds:

I see you're coming to this as (I presume) a writing professional, so I'm glad you're taking a studied critique with your review and cutting to the quick.

First off, this was designed for a populist audience; Newgrounds clearly appreciates intelligent work, but rather than curate a museum piece I wanted to make something fun and outgoing. It's in my nature, as is making everything else needlessly complicated by over-elaborating and getting fantastic people in to embellish it.
Add to that the fact that I turned the actual tale around in a short space of time, based on the Storybook Collab which interested me a lot, and thus I worked with exciting elements as they came to mind.

Nacho Rodrigues is actually a professional animator traditionally, but he was fine with constraining his imagination to single lively frames. Cecilia's work is linked in via Nacho's site, but as far as I'm aware this is her first Flash work.

Andy will love your "liquid honey" comment - incidentally, is there any chance you could please Private Message me the points (or at the very least a few) where he wasn't pausing properly? There's a strong chance that a good deal of it could be down to my last-minute audio editing.

Re: the dictionary.com comment;
hahaha, you're rather quick to judge me based on a two-word comment!
Let me apologize to Newgrounds for assuming that there'd be more people, young people and non-English viewers especially, who might not come across all the words in their daily speech ("narcoleptically" and "faux" for example).
I didn't want anyone to miss out on the nuances of the experience, which is why I mentioned it. I don't hold any delusions as to the grandeur of my expression, and I know there are far better writers than me out there; I just say what I feel as best as I can say it.

I love that you think my florid prose for this piece was somehow down to my education. I'm surprised you didn't pick up on the heavy sarcasm and irony I dunked it in; "fear gripped me like a Thighmaster" was hardly an attempt at blood-curdling suspense, and re: your "Oreo" comment, keep in mind the romantic interest he's courting appears to have many issues underneath the surface that make this whole relationship rather peculiar.
It's a light-hearted piece, and so the prose, for me at least, is fitting.

There are about an equal number of people in favour of the Youtube joke as people against, showing how personal this issue is.
From my point of view; I've been at parties like that (well, not EXACTLY like that), and I've thought to myself "I'd much rather be home on my computer", so really the two disparate subjects can coexist peacefully.

You have a good technical eye and ear for writing, but perhaps you could do to look for the spirit of the thing a bit more. After all, this is a collaborative effort involving lots of talented people passionate about entertaining first and foremost, and I think we've all delivered above and beyond at what we set out to do.
Regardless, I'm really happy that there are people with your intelligence active on Newgrounds; I'm glad to have entertained you to the degree I have and we all hope to deliver even greater works for a long time to come.

Cheers for your thoughtful review!

[Keep your Computer Happy]

Great!

Having appeared on a CITV promotional video when I was 10, I can affirm that this is of the quality I would expect to see between programmes :)

After seeing Magical Trevor hacked to bits for 118 247, I wouldn't be surprised if this turned up there.

[SUPER 8 Cinema]

Outstanding

This goes beyond "great" and "amazing" because it's something different - originality is key and should always be applauded in art.

A flash the most deserving of a front page that I have seen in a very long time.

["Bugged"]

Really good

A little slow at times, though. Write a script for a voiceover and get a narrator, and you will have a chart-topping flash

[Can't Catch Tomorrow]

'Twas good

Looking forward to more from you in the future - this is an excellent first submission and you have potential to go right to the top. Animation, obviously, will benefit from experience as you push forward, but your eye for setting up scenes is right there.

Don't keep me waiting too long for some more!

[Nutty Room]

Allergic to nuts

First off, anyone who thinks this is disturbing should go watch Alfred's Playhouse. No, this isn't disturbing - this is actually a well-put-together flash that has fitting animation and big style points from me. Worth a 7 :)