mr-johnson22's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Peck!]

I watched this and I laughed. I watched it a second time laughed even harder. I watched it a third, fourth, fifth, etc time, and now I feel warm and fuzzy whenever watching it again.

I must say, though, if you're going to make more Peck cartoons, you HAVE to keep the coach, or at least some kind of foil for Peck. Peck himself was only really funny because of how he abused that poor coach's patience. Peck getting beaned in the outfield (twice) is funny, but the coach's desperate pleas for him to just do something is what really made it funny. "PECK, YOU GOTTA RUN!!" Hilarious. And that voice work! Darn. I crack up every time the coach barks Peck's name.

The scenario shifts (or whatever you want to call them, you know what I mean) were great too. I think you guys are getting the hang of pulling those off consistently. It's kind of like in your Obama cartoon when Obama takes a sudden interest in the other guy's plans, except in this cartoon the shifts just keep coming. It almost feels ad-libbed and it makes no sense, but it somehow feels so very right. I don't know if you're trying to work out a "style" for your cartoons, but I don't think anyone would mind if you made a habit using that gag.

I didn't get the commentary video (yet??) so it's entirely possible I'm saying things you're already aware of, but I think there's value in reviewers giving their first impressions. Plus, I wanted to give you a hand for making a darn funny cartoon.

Emrox responds:

Thanks man! I think you hit on a lot of the stuff we really liked about Peck, and it's cool that you appreciate all the same stuff we did. One of the most common complaints I've gotten is from people who don't get what the characters' real relation is or what their motives are, so I guess the idea of the plot just doing a 180 and having that be the joke is kind of lost on some people. But you got it, so great!
Rest assured if we ever do a Peck 2 coach will be there. Not 100% on what it would be yet, but we're working on something.

[Urinal Buddies]

You're getting pretty good at writing & delivering "awkward" banter. It had me smiling throughout. It's also not a problem that it didn't end up being a Clock Day short, as the premise didn't need to be Clock-related to be funny. Good stuff!

Brewster responds:

Thanks, yeah the whole clock thing worked out because besides the character design it really had nothing to do with clocks.

[Taking a Stand]

Cute little cartoon! It was funny & charming enough to be enjoyable, but the voice acting needed a bit more "oomph" for it to have been convincing. For instance, the kid's sarcasm didn't quite come through too well and therefore hurt the joke of his snarky behaviour.

The visual style fit (or rather set) the tone nicely, and the facial expressions were great. And the concept was a funny one. Good job!

Brewster responds:

Thanks! I get what you mean about the way the kid talks. When I was recording I hadn't really figured out of I wanted him to a smartass about it, or if those were the actual ingredients and he was being genuine. I hope people got that he was, in fact, being sarcastic, but yeah I kinda started straying away from the sarcasm with some of the ingredients.

[Caution is Key]

Ouch...that HURT. In a good way.

Great job on this! The animation in this was nice and fluid--especially with some of the facial expressions of the knight--and the theme of "don't look back" was really creative. It took on a whole new meaning there, heh. The choice of music was fitting, and everything in this cartoon, from sound to animation, was consistent with the "humour through helplessness" you were going for. Good luck in the tournament!

Brewster responds:

Haha great review, thanks dude.

[Cadaver]

That was really good! Definitely didn't see that coming. Here I was expecting to be frightened, and now I feel all fuzzy inside. Great job on such a heartwarming story! My only complaint is how the captions didn't do a very good job of differing narration and dialogue. Opting for text over voices kept the right atmosphere, but having the same plain text flatly declaring things detracted from the experience. Other than that, this was a great animation.

Zombie-Pimp responds:

thanks for your comments and criticism :)

[The Final Chance]

Good song, but this belongs in the Audio Portal.

Daymint responds:

I know I actually Made an Audio one XD

[True Friendship]

John K. wrote the episode "Son of Stimpy" (the tear-jerker episode of Ren & Stimpy where Stimpy tries to find his lost fart...better than it sounds) simply to prove how easy it is to make a sad cartoon/film. All you have to do is follow a few common filmic tricks and you have your audience crying like babies. So the mood of your animation, while effective, isn't anything out of the ordinary, and isn't nearly enough to compensate for the rather lacking animation and story.

Granted, the artwork & voices are good, but there isn't much to this short other than a drawn-out (and fairly standard) "goodbye" scene. Disregarding the lack of originality, you did accomplish what you set out to do, and did it well. But if you plan on doing more dramatic shorts, try to give them more depth of emotion than this.

Piggybank12 responds:

Hmm, that's a very interesting observation there. To be honest, that didn't really cross my mind about how easy it could be in creating an emotional story like this.

I did recall though while making this the method of writing Pixar has for their movies. When it came to writing their films (and correct me if I'm wrong here), they had a figured-out method for how to pace everything and what they needed to do in order to get the emotional results they wanted in their projects. Of course, they changed things up to some degree at time went on, but it largely stayed the same for most of their films, and played a big part with how they've managed to keep an emotional pull in almost all of their films, not to mention made the writing a lot easier for the emotional parts. Hearing them talk about this method though practically strips away any and all of the emotional pull the Pixar films have, simply because they all follow this set method on what to do to get the right emotions.

So yes, you would be right about this sharing the qualities about it being a typical "goodbye" scene, you definitely would. Is that any reason though to ignore the messages it provides? I think it's definitely safe to say by your logic the Pixar films all fall into the same category of sad films/cartoons. However, the messages are not only still there, but are also powerful and still meaningful. For example, look at Toy Story 3 (spoilers abound here!) and the ending scene with Andy. It plays out almost like this in a way, with how Andy tells Bonnie about every toy, plays with his toys one last time, then drives off finally leaving Woody and Buzz. The layout of the story is roughly played out the same way here. However, that's not the point: the message is what's most important with the story. I'm all for innovation, but perhaps the way we already know how to convey that message still works the best here.

TL;DR: The story, while doing what's already been done, still works and pulls people in, despite what you say here. I completely agree with trying to make something with a bigger emotional pull next time, or something even completely new, but according to what many people have told me here and other places, they have related to the characters in a powerful way already. Not only that, but many have been picking up the messages it has within and learning from them, which is fantastic. This type of layout for such a story may have been done before, but it still works. Why fix what's not broken?

Regardless, thank you for taking the time to write a review, and sorry for taking so long to get back to you! I will try to do something new and different for the future, whatever it may be, and will keep in mind what you said here.

[World of wardaft]

Make sure your movie's done before you submit it

The only good thing I can say about this movie is that it least looks like you put some effort into it. Other than that, it doesn't have any real purpose--it's not very funny, it's not appealing, and the music loops on top of itself. Worst of all, you even included a preloader; usually this would be a good thing, but it clearly means that you know how to code and that you didn't even bother to pause the movie when it finishes. That's pure carelessness on your part.

Also, the style of your drawing is undeniably similar to that of Eddsworld, but I assume that was intentional, as your username is also quite similar to that of Edd's. Basing one's style on someone else's is almost always a bad thing to do, as it's very unoriginal and borderline plagiarism.

Overall, make sure your next projects are more polished. I know we all have to start somewhere, but people don't want to see amateur material like this. Make some improvements before submitting something else, and I'm sure you'll whip up something nice.

Seansworld responds:

About the preloader, I've updated the flash and put a replay button at the end.

And the plot- loads of mistakes and holes there, so I need better plots in my next flashes.

[Skull in Connemara]

I really want to see this play now :P

This animation serves its purpose perfectly: it briefly introduces the characters and plot of the play, settles in the macabre mood, and piques the audience's interest. It is also extremely professional; I can only imagine how creepy and atmospheric this must be in action, with the mist and everything.

I wish you and your friend all the best. I hope that the play is a success! Judging from this intro alone, it looks like it's going to be great.

TheBoogley responds:

So many kind words! Thank you! Fingers crossed it's a good run, Justin has really enjoyed the process of directing, he has been acting for years but this is his first time directing. Maybe I'll get to make something else for another production down the track. :)

[Why Robots? ep. 1]

Very Funny

I hope you keep this franchise going, as it has lots of potential. Just work on your animation skills, and maybe add voice acting. Other than that this movie was very clever and funny.

Pandoryk responds:

Thank you for this nice review! ^^
I hope that I won't lose my sense of humor!