TheReviewTrickster's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mantaur]

The idea is pretty cute, and I like the characters. Really fluid animation, too. The Mantaur was a joy to look at. The humor was actually pretty funny and I think the girl and the old man are a pretty cool duo. The writing could be a bit better, though, 'cause "Nothing you can do can escape Mantaur" is not a great sentence, both because of the two cans and because of the fact that what she does isn't what needs to escape, she is. The ending is also kinda lacking, I'd like to see her at least show up back home. The voice acting is good, especially on Mantaur, but the girl could be a bit more articulate at times. However, the biggest problem is the sound design. Some of the dialogue is really quiet compared to the rest and thus harder to understand.
Overall, this was like a fun treat, but there's still room for improvement and I'm glad you've learned a lot making it. I'm sure your next works are gonna be even better and keep improving on this!

SimonBeed responds:

Thanks for the review! It was my first time making a film so there's a lot i can improve on for sure! That and time limits didn't help either. actually the Mantaur part was a whole 30 seconds longer but juggling with modeling the background in 3d and animating the whole thing was pretty tough. Making a film is certainly something that needs to be honed over time I believe so hopefully I'll have more opportunities in the future!

[Clocks of the BBS 2020]

Oh, nice! I liked this little presentation, feels quaint and comfy. The claps really added to the comedy of some of the images and made even the lowest-effort one funny that way. There were also some really nice edits. Happy belated Clock Day!

Little-Rena responds:

Thanks, and it was certainly a better turnout this year! Last years was very rushed!

Happy belated Clock day!

[Fight Practice]

B-baka! It's not like I like this animation or anything. It's just that... the whole thing feels very dynamic, keeps moving at all times. I really like the way the music started up along with the gift blushing. It really made the (already funny) twist feel even more exciting. The style is very nice, I like this kind of cartoony stuff, and the animation is pleasant throughout. The only thing that was a letdown was the ending. No big explosion or anything, it left something to be desired. Of course, though, I get that it was a test. Keep it up!

Loskidamus responds:

Thanks a lot really appreciate the feedback :D and i had something plan for the end but it was over the top and out of my skill range

[Vision from Light]

This was a very pleasant surprise. Something really interesting.

Let's start with the animation. Very, very nice. Pleasant style, not too simple but still polished. Really fluid movement. The shots are pretty damn nice and the movement inside the frame shows depth in a very visually pleasing way, it's satisfying and dynamic. Movement has weight, too. Really great job on that. One thing I'll remark on is that some of the faces look a bit too much like legos, so a bit silly at serious moments, like when he clicks the lighter on. That and the way he was holding it was weird and silly, right up to his face with his arm positioned in level with his shoulders.

The sound was pretty good. Nice sound effects and music and I think the voice acting was pretty good, though I'm not generally a bit fan of grunts and gasps and stuff.

The story was certainly interesting, I like that it did take a pretty dark turn, but some things in the execution bother me. First off, it's just really, almost unbelievably, bad of the character to do that to the poor girl. Second, I don't understand what caused him to have the vision... dream... thing. He realized the girl had a mom? That they lived in the woods? They were Christians? I mean, he already knew she was blind. Unless it was somehow God that showed him that, I don't see shy it would hapen as he showed no signs of remorse prior to that. Secondly, that vision was too short to really have any impact and I don't understand what happened. When he took off his willful blindfold, he realized how blind he truly was? It could have been shown way more clearly than that. Also, why does the blindfold disappear in one shot only to appear in the next? He wasn't even shown sleeping before that. All the editing during that part is so weird, with the jump to the jarring shot of him impaling her. It's all so weird and comes out of nowhere. It feels like you wanted to put it in, but didn't know how. The thing with his girlfriend is the same story. One shot she's there, the next she's not and it's all so confusing.
Overall impressive from a visual standpoint, but the story and editing is so weird for half of it that it just leaves you confused. Keep it up, though, I'd love to see more from you!

Crospic responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I'd say was a little too ambitious. :)
Overall, I'd really like to try again.

Id say my mistake was that I only spend like 11 days on story board and that was it. Also this is my first time creating anything with actual story in it.

[Imposter]

Sorry I didn't review this earlier, I'm very sporadic with this stuff and, in attempting to choose the best of the month, I figured I should also review some stuff I've had on the backlog.
I really like how this starts off. It's quick to get to the point, shows you immediately what the dilemma is with the one bullet. Nice shots throughout, actually, very nice parody of these scenes in da movies, a lot of the shots seem taken straight from 80's action movies, especially the helicopter perspective ones. The animation is what it is, it's obviously not highly polished but you more than make up for it and I feel like the simplicity actually adds to the experience.
The sound effects are pretty great, too, emulating everything necessary and also adding the wacky cartooniness we all love. Really detailed, too, with the walking.
That gun-waving sound effect, tho.
The comedy has the one punchline, but damn is it strong. It surprised me completely, it was hilarious. That's why I love Red Skeleton, he's such an unpredictable character and I love the way he and Chutney work together.
Keep it up, man! For a simple gag minisode this works perfectly!

ChutneyGlaze responds:

ooh this is awesome review :)

[Surreal.]

This looks quite nice and very interesting, with the cogs and the little figure in the corner. However, I just don't think this is the right portal to post it in. The Art Portal does accept GIFs and, even though this is a longer loop, I do think it would fit there better and would be fine, considering that the only thing that really changes through the 20 seconds is small, non-specific movements. Not a thing where it'd be too long to post as a GIF, because different points of it can be viewed with the same experience, more or less, if you know what I mean.

Soapy-Bubbles responds:

Oh, thank you for the information :o

I did not want to export as a GIF because it would ruin the quality, but mp4 files do not work for image submissions so I just put it here; I'll make sure to export as a GIF next time though.

[I am 20 now (Animated song)]

Nice animation and I like the imagery with depression. Pretty honest. Music is nice, too, good sound quality and fairly catchy. Has variety, too. I feel like the voice acting at the end was possibly a bit too quiet, as well as the singing at the start.
Overall a fun and well-done but personal video, where the audio and visuals back each other up nicely with some improvable points. Happy birthday!

DIWAKAR responds:

Thanks a lot man.

[Psycho Essence #1 The surviving Dwarf]

That was certainly weird. Pretty interesting in its weirdness, too. It had some coherence and wasn't just randomness. I would have preferred the characters to be spazzing out less when they aren't on the hallucinogen. Just gets a bit repetitive. Some of the effects and backgrounds legitimately looked very cool, like the character transformations, for instance, that of Hubert at the start when he shrivels up and the kids disintegrating at the end.

The actual story itself is quite interesting, but I think it could be a bit less nonsensical in the sense that it just seems like everyone's going to random places and random things are happening, and I don't think it was explained well what the zombie thing was all about, though I think it was an issue of wording in the subtitles. I read it as people losing the ability to hallucinate and losing the ability to become zombies. Still, reading the description, there's way too much weird stuff that you seem to have worked out in your head but that just isn't shown here. Why did they go to the temple? The horse was the father's spirit form??? People weren't turning into zombies because of the hallucinogen but in spite of it?

I'm all for surrealism and surreal stories, but I just think you went overboard with the randomness and weirdness because it can be very hard to tell what's supposed to be happening when stuff is this weird. There were parts of it done right, some really quite atmospheric and impressive-looking things and pretty fun surreal character designs.

Schuschinus responds:

Thanks! 3D animation was new for me, thats why I went full experimental.

Grammar needs something like mathematical parentheses.
1. lose ability to (hallucinate+become zombies)
2. (lose ability to hallucinate)+(become zombies)

The second one is meant. From what I know, LSD lowers the treshold to our subconsciousness and children have naturally a low treshold. So I made this setting, where hallucinations are a sign of a young and healthy mind. People lose this ability, and become zombies because of that. Their physical appearance mirrors their braindead state. They try to heal the zombified people with contagious hallucinogenes, that spread like a counter-plague. But it fails.
The origin of the zombie plague will be further explored in the following episodes.

You can extrapolate, that the father is the horse, because he neighs in the beginning. They go to the temple, because the council is there. But I admit, that I didn´t work out these ideas.