TheReviewTrickster's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[SURREAL]

Nice animation and interesting concept. Perhaps not the most original, seeing as how it's some sort of we live in a society everyone is pawns thing, but I like how it all turned out to be utterly pointless and random in the end and the actual punchline was funny too. Really cool scene when he got "pushed" by the statue. The colors I think were a bit too much, or maybe I just dislike being confused at first because the sun when the guy gets up and goes onto the balcony looks too much like the moon. Nice music, too. Kinda repetitive and a bit stress-inducing when listened to for too long, which was probably the point.
Overall this was nice and original, keep it up! I'm sorry for the shitty review, I'm really not feeling up to it right now.

theGreenCat responds:

The colour choices were the initial concept for the animation, even before the story idea, so they are an integral to the piece. That being said, I can definitely needed to give the colours more thought.

Thanks for the detailed review, I really appreciate it. Honestly this is probably one of the more comprehensive critiques I've ever gotten.

[Midnight Zombie - The Drive Thru]

The animation is very old school. The music contributed to that, too. I kinda like it. However, the plot is just incredibly confusing. Completely nonsensical even. We never get clued into where it's gonna go next. Not by the dialogue, not by the setting. I mean, at the start they're in their car and then they're standing in a room. It doesn't make sense and leads to constant confusion. Try telling us somehow where the plot is going and being consistent with the setting or showing us what happened in between scenes. The voice acting is also too emotionless. The dude at the start goes a bit incomprehensible at the next window part (if that's what he says).
Overall this has an interesting atmosphere, and it's surreal, but not in a good way, it just feels like scenes are missing. Try working on that next time. This could be a lot betterm

PolyesterGiant responds:

thanks for the feedback

[C&H The Fire Whisperer Animatic]

Ah, this is great! I should really watch more of these. Loved the concept and the voice acting was great. Great ending too and a very practical solution for a disobedient fire. I think the sound effects were too loud, though, so the voice acting ended up being hard to hear. I think you did a good job with the visuals. While the beard in the final version may be a bit more fitting, I still liked this one a lot and I loved it when he got it half burnt off. And I actually found her baldie design pretty cute, but theirs was a bit more like the people you'd see in these shows.
Great job either way, I see they kept a lot of your things in, and this was very entertaining.

[DIY Sage Wisdom]

Really nice hand motions in this, they seem so intricate. The sounds are very soothing too. The "bleh" is a bit frog-like, but it adds to the mesmerizing atmosphere. This really feels like something from the mid-2000's, I guess it's the color scheme. And I was not expecting it to go this way, loved the ending!

[Rose Angel intro]

Well, it's choppy, but pretty cool and energetic. Maybe the sword could be a bit more colorful/red, it does come from a bunch of red dots.
Alas, this isn't really a movie and I think it could do fine as a gif in the Art Portal. Not really any plot or dramatic action and no sound. The low score has nothing to do with the quality, I simply think this isn't Movie Portal material.

[It's not his fault]

Well, it's an interesting concept and I love pixelart. I really liked the opening thing about not turning it into a dystopia, but there was neither a city nor a dystopia in this. The line about there always being clear skies after rain, but there never being rain was quite clever. Not just as a play on the saying, but also a signifier as to gets going on in the guy's head. I'm not sure what the angular black object towards the end was supposed to be. The ending showed us the guy was really sad or stressed out or something, but we already knew that. The background was too dimly lit for me to discern anything else and I don't think it gave us any other clues. In the future, try balancing aesthetic with clarity of information a bit better. The dude's walking from the frog's eye view was also a bit wonky because the upper half of his body wasn't turning at all. The animation in general was pretty good, and I liked the way the wind stopped blowing in their hair. It felt pretty impactful. Music was also nice.
Overall an interesting concept, but a couple missed opportunities. Try fully exploring your settings and stories in the future. This was kind of an exposition dump from the character inside the dude's head followed by more exposition that we already knew without any new (or maybe visible) clues. Showing or implying can often be better than simply telling. Like if the thing that happened was someone died or he lost his job, show the tombstone and someone's legs standing over it or him clearing out his office or something. We already knew what the thunderstorms meant. Show us the character looking up instead of telling us explicitly that it's been getting worse and let the thunderstorms signify what they signify. If this was about not suppressing emotions, maybe you could have said or showed something poetic about tidal waves or floods or something. Try experimenting with that and keep it up, you have some very interesting ideas!

[Tammy my Love]

Hey, that was really fun! Really fitting voice acting, and phenomenal animation. Really lively, loved all the wacky expressions. A favorite would have to be when the cake fell off Tammy's face and she had cherries instead of irises. The songs were also really nice, especially coupled with the movements. The story and characters were fun but a little tropey. That's fine though, it was good fun. Well executed. However, it really seemed in the beginning like she hated Ron. The whole her actually liking him thing came out of nowhere and was pretty predictable. The singing I think was a bit quieter than the music track at some points, too, but I was listening to this at pretty low volume, so I'm not sure. Otherwi
Keep it up, you have a ton of potential and this was really fun. Like I said, the story isn't groundbreaking, but the whole thing is still entertaining in a major way and maybe if you had focused on Tammy's character a bit more it could have had a really nice story to boot.

[BedBlu vs Chasm RHG #1]

Ok, well, it's your first, so it's not that bad. However, there are some general notes and improvements that you should consider next time. First off, the transitions are too distracting. I'm talking about the weird black swooshing wave thing you have at the start of the battle. Then, the fighting coukd be better. Chasm's first punch is blocked, then he doesn't even try to hit BedBlu again until he's far away. Thry both just stop dead in their tracks for a moment. When BedBlu taunts Chasm to come st him, the close-up of Chasm punching looks a bit awkward and they both disappear in the next shot when the smoke is clearing. It's slightly confusing because the way you show them inside the actual shot is counter-intuitive. Blu is facing to the right of the shot, but Chasm is facing directly towards the camera and whrn the cut is made the part of the shot where Blu was becomes a white void that we're not even intuitively filling with Chasm's fist in our minds because Chasm's fist would be moving towards the camera. Sometimes you have to think of different shots like puzzle pieces. Sometimes they have to fit together. One will have the stick-out end and the other will have a whole. In this case Blu's shot had the hole in the form of the void on the right side of the shot, but you turned Chasm's puzzle piece 90°, so he wouldn't face towards the hole and the stick-out part (his moving fist) wouldn't go in it, instead giving us a front view. Also, the part where they do cool things with their arms just kinda goes nowhere, there's no blast and the arms return to normal right after the collision. The action before Blu loses his scarf is actually pretty cool, though. The Lotus Dance ability seems kinda interesting, but vague. The scarf doesn't really mean anything to us, is it a normal accessory or does he use it to fight or what?Normally when characters sve these accessories they either stick with them if they're just accesiories or get upset about losing them if they're weapons. This is a combination of both and it's a little confusing. The end of the story is fairly funny.
Overall you need a bit more of a quick pace, continuous punches, your fighters aren't going to stand there and let the opponent make the move. You also need to think about shots more carefully. As for animation and backgrounds, close-up art, that'll improve with time if you keep practicing.

KenAnimates responds:

That's actually the best tip i've ever gotten thanks so much :D
i read through the whole thing and i understand alot
Thank you man :)