TheReviewTrickster's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Preview for next animation #1]

I'm intrigued and really like the style but I feel like this could just as well be a GIF in the Art Portal as there's no sound and no progression, just a loop.

DCdrawsstuff responds:

That's fair, I was justuploading this to tiktok and didn't feel like exporting it again.

[Higher Order]

This is a great example of visual storytelling. The style fits perfectly, it's smooth and the designs are memorable, but what sticks out the most is the way you developed this story. The journey starts very slowly with a subdued, blue-white color scheme and as it slowly "dawns" on us what might be going on, the brightness increases and red gets introduced. The beginning could also be compared to the "dawn" of the man's life, though the end isn't a sunset. The combination of static (walking and flying loops) and dynamic (the creature's exquisite body movements and face turns, as well as that gorgeous ending reveal) elements in the animation keeps the tension and accentuates the development of the story very well. The music does complement it fairly well, but after a while the repeated violin motif started grating on my nerves, at least the first time watching.
I'm glad I saw this today, it has exactly the kind of striking contemplative imagery I enjoy.

HeRetiK responds:

Thanks for leaving such a thoughtful, in-depth review, much appreciated!

[Kampfyre {Animated}]

Locke's face looks a little weird, as I can't tell what kind of expression he's supposed to be making with his mouth. Otherwise, it's pretty charming but I don't think it's fit for the Movie Portal as it's a very short loop without sound. In my opinion, it could just as well be a GIF in the Art Portal. Keep practising, though, and if you make something longer I'll gladly watch it.

assassin1337 responds:

It's the shade of his mouth, I imagine he has a "froggy" expression! I may repost it to the Art Portal if it doesn't get accepted to the Movie Portal

[Move out]

The animation is decent, good enough to do a fun fight scene, but the whole thing moves too slow. Characters will make a swift motion, then stand there for a second or two, all punctuated by repetitive sound effects. You could have a little less of those pauses, especially during fights. If you're gonna interject with dialogue, try adding more movement. Otherwise, I thought the ending was funny as well as the bit after red gets nutshotted. So, keep it up, but experiment with ways to keep the flow going!

dgshooter responds:

Thanks for the tips :>, I 'll be sure to practice more with fighting stuff, it was never my strong style so I'll keep practicing it

[Madshort:1 Gruntshot]

Hey man, don't worry about it. This is cool! I love alternative madness styles and the animation was quite smooth, with the Lupin III-esque chase scene being a welcome bit of slapstick in a genre(?) that's usually serious action bloodbath or full comedy romp. Admittedly, the action is a bit hard to follow when it's as fast as at the start (probably due to the lack of colours/other distinguidhing features) and I found myself having to rewatch the part where the ATPs run away several times to get what was happening. I didn't realize the guy on the right picked up the guy in the middle. I guess the problem is that the viewer is jnvited to focus on the guy in the middle, because he's the one who performed the action of tapping the grunt's shoulder. If he was the one who dodged a shot, I think the rest would be easier to follow. This way, I didn't get that the other guy ducked and then the fact that the hand pulled him the opposite direction of where they go in the next shot didn't help.It seems binding those kinetic, attention-drawing moments to let the viewer flllow the action is the real challenge. I'm sure you're up to it and I really hope we see more from you!

Unit13 responds:

Thank you very much! Yea i realized i screwed up with the attention crap and mostly with awareness of what's happening on the screen .Maybe that's cuz i just was making stuff up without any plan as the time went on(it wasn't meant to be a short at first but rather a small lineart test for me). Soooo yea i 100% agree with you.

[Raising Awareness]

That's a nice message, and it's really cool of you to try and make a positive impact with a Flash Flood cartoon. I guess it's also funny, because of the absurdity of a clock talking about this, and that last joke with the canned laughter landed very nicely. My only complaints are that it was a bit static and didn't illustrate what it was talking about too much except for the doctor's office.
Keep it up!

Little-Rena responds:

Thank you, it's a strange thing to try an convey, tried to add something funny in, while not being insensitive, I wanted the doctors office in to make it less static, but I do agree, could have put more in here.

[Stickman Crews Gaming Experience]

I'll be the first to admit, I wasn't expecting this to be as entertaining as it was. The bit at the start where you enlarge the background should have been edited out, as it sorta gives a bad first impression. The "editorial comments", your little bits of narration and pointing out those doritos, were also unnecessary and took me out of it a little bit. Be careful with doing these things in the future and try to show important information without just telling it straight to the audience. The dialogue wasn't the best, obviously, but it did have fun bits. The Super Mario part's gag about the pipe was pretty well constructed. The zapping by random things was a bit jarring and I think you could have done more with each world. I did really like the Pokemon entrance, that one felt satisfying. In the end, you copied Animator vs Animation in an obvious way, but the action, for what it was, was still pretty interesting.

Overall, you should try to tell more visually or at least through dialogue, without resorting ot 4th wall breaks, and try to explore your premise's potential more. You'll get better at animation and writing with time if you practise, so keep it up!

AlexShort responds:

Thank you for the feedback this will help a lot and I also didn’t try to copy animator vs animation but watching all of those videos inspired me to make an animation about stick figures who go on these crazy adventures I appreciate your review and I will definitely do what you say to thx again

[Project Douglas | Episode 1 | Late]

The animation, while not being very polished and quite simple, has a certain charm to it and I appreciate it. I have to say, though, faces and no bodies being clearly visible through glass are pretty jarring. The set-up isn't terribly original but I still find it fun enough. I think the random way characters are introduced and interact is a bit weird, it feels forced, like people are showing up for their lines and then being told off by the protagonists 'cause there's nothing else for them to do. There were some nice jokes, the Mark Wahlberg dad one being an entertaining one and I really liked the "Oh ghank God, it's just a student" one, since I really had no idea where that situation would go! Some of the time, I found things hard to understand. The characters talk over each other at times and it's also partially down to me not always getting the accents, which is mostly okay 'cause, well, I'm just not familiar with them. There's also a problem where some characters talk much louder than others (the dude in the car) or some sounds (the music in the car) are significantly louder than the rest, so I had to keep switching volumes. Try to get them to more similar volumes in the future if you can and maybe find a way to make some lines overlap less with other sounds or have the voice acting be more easily understandable. I think there could sometimes be confusion, too, since characters often speak before they appear and when the dude who got hit by a car first appeared I couldn't tell where he was or what he was doing.
Overall, a fun first episode that has potential and I would like to see more of, with some fixable technical problems and lacking a bit in plot fluidity, which is something you'll get better at with time. Cheers!

ChrisMcCarthy responds:

Thank you so much for the response brother, deffo given me a load to work on !!!!!!