DarkKiranami's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Click Bait]

Judging by the art style and music I figured you were the one who made Less Than Three all those years ago. The animation was nice. It's nice to see that you are still about and animating things ^_^

GoshaDole responds:

Yessah~! That was me. :)

[Swingers Episode 5]

I can somewhat sense what you're going for, and you've pulled off the aesthetic better than you have in the previous episodes, so there is definitely improvement here. You seem to have nailed down the feeling of what you want to happen, but I think you can still execute the lines and cues better.

The characters don't seem to be dynamically present at times, they often feel layered onto the same scene. One thing that contributes to this is that the characters tend to have attitudes/reactions that are exaggerated too far from generally relatable attitudes/reactions. For example, Ragtime always seems to have a sour attitude, but I can't gather 'why' she does from the information given in these movies. I find myself asking, "What is her daily life like to make her feel the way she does?," "how was her childhood?," etc.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the characters strike me as one-dimensional. In my opinion, more character/story depth is needed to take this series to its full potential. I do enjoy the series as it is, and a couple parts in this episode were executed well enough to be humorous, but that's all the reason for me to want to see this series become all that it can be.

Great work and effort! Good luck and keep improving!

Warlord-of-Noodles responds:

I don't show my cards in the first hand.

[Super Hero Clock Teaser]

You displayed good sensibilities in avoiding cheesiness, better than most authors I see who take on something this ambitious in flash. I liked that the character design for the hero included razor sharp arms that resemble clock hands. The things you have shown so far seem largely to be original material, so that in itself got a positive response from me. I'm looking forward to the release of this, good work!

Jess-The-Dragoon responds:

You are the first to ever notice that the superhero's blade arms resemble clock hands which is exactly what they are. Thanks for watching!

[Game Grumps: Sonic]

Really nice! Your animation skills have improved greatly since I lasted saw one of your movies. Your keyframes were dynamic and you captured the humor really well.

CatFat responds:

Thats nice to hear! thanks for another review ;D

[Swan KingS]

This is amazingly fleshed out and detailed, and I liked the humor. My only complaint is that it was a bit difficult to understand what the masked figure was saying at times.

cockvane responds:

Thanks for your generous review! Yes, the challenge was to make the masked guy's voice disguised from people recognising his natural voice, whilst still keeping it understandable. He needs to keep his identity hidden - but it will be revealed who he is in lateer episodes, so stay tuned everyone!

This might help though -

SUBTITLES/CAPTIONS NOW AVAILABLE HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=s8yDvmclypU

Subscribe to my youtube whilst you are there please! ;-)

[Spend It Wisely]

I loved it, even when the dialogue wasn't that funny the expressions and the timing of them made me want to laugh. It was nicely put together, with an easy to follow plot that relied on unfortunate setbacks to add humor and keep the story going. This is the kind of cartoon that is a pleasure to watch because of its quirkiness, nothing philosophical or anything, just good old basic humor. The animation was so polished that I felt like it could have been on cartoon network back in the day (or even today, though cartoon network has sunken very low as of late). Good work on this guys, I'm looking forward to seeing more in the future!

P.S. (That was an Animation Show reference, wasn't it? You seemed to go to some lengths to try to imitate the feel of it, and it worked out fine.)

TommyVF responds:

Thanks so much. Glad you think it looks and works good. The Animation Show? There was no references, but we love that animation and are surely inspired by it in general. Especially in the old Flash "Daydreams". Thanks!

[Contemplate Life]

I liked it

The drawing and animation were good. One thing I had a dispute with at first was the dialogue, it started sounding pretentious around the "your corruption is your fault" point. But after I read the dialogue clearly in the author comments, I realized that it does make sense (if in no other way, at least in the context of teachings that echo this view on life).

The voice was difficult to make out at times, so that could have been clearer, and the dialogue itself could be revised to provide more impact (the speaker would have to work on expressing it better as well). Overall this was a mild success, I think you accomplished what you were going for, but you didn't hit it out of the park. What mainly needs work is the audio (speaking), and visual content that encourages the viewer to contemplate (In the context of visual information, many of the scenes were basically static). What I mean by static is that this flash usually had a single group of images being panned or moved around for each statement the speaker made, but there was little to no information being added during the scenes to better bridge the gap between the visuals and the dialogue. With some more creative substance, the visuals could play out less like separate pieces following each statement in the dialogue, and more like an instrument that helps to focus the mind on the train of thought that the dialogue is establishing. The sound and visuals would be working together to provide a cohesive experience. When the sound and visuals don't flow well enough together, the mind has to work harder to analyze and find the link between the audio and the visuals, and the extra work the mind has to do tends to pull the viewer away from an otherwise immersive experience.

So that's my review, it might not be easy to employ what I suggested but I hope you find it useful. I personally don't follow a religion but I believe there is some sort of god-like force in existence - that might be why I could see meaning in this. The way I see it though, it's only fair to judge this not on the message itself, but on its execution, seeing as people may not share the same beliefs as this flash portrays. Thanks for submitting and good luck on your next flash!

nahtanojmal responds:

Thanks, and point taken. More familiar visuals to tie it together ;D

[Funny School Things 2]

Listen,

You did good, don't listen to the people who put down this or the first one. Your drawing definitely improved since the first one, and you're definitely going to get better with that as you make more flashes. But the most important thing you've got going for you here is the jokes - for the most part were good enough to make the flash entertaining, and the drawing/animation were good enough to convey what you wanted to.

One main things I'd say to improve on is the delivery (the timing of the lines and the position of the scene). I understand that these are drawn from real life but you can enhance delivery without changing anything important. You could improve that a little, but overall this is a big step up from the first (mostly graphically).

Keep improving, keep up the good work, and don't forget that the script takes dominance over everything else. Good luck!

Aqlex responds:

Thanks xD. I realize that there are plenty of people who don't like these, but then there are comments like this that completely erase that. I love seeing how much my animation skills have improved since back in the day! But I completely agree that I need to work more on my timing, and on my composition. I know that I can speed things up a little and make that joke hit a little harder. It's something I really need to work on. Thanks for the review! =)

[Duality Complete]

Liked the idea

Not the best of executions, but the idea was interesting.

I've actually thought of this concept often, and I've concluded in my mind that something similar to this is going to happen eventually in terms of engineering. I can kind of sense the presence of some uniquely incredibly innovative people on this earth (people who aren't well known), because hypothetically if you as an individual think in a certain way, you would naturally expect there to be others who share the same way of thinking.

But enough about that, this was good for a first real animation, the only advice I have is to work on your execution - which would involve reworking multiple elements such as the sound (I feel it could have fit the idea better, as it sounds overly desolate, though I do understand it was going for a dramatic feel), story (couldn't bring myself to 'believe' it, you know?), graphics (not really necessary to improve in this case, the graphics are sufficient as long as the other elements are improved on), and the animation (the flow, the style - the animation here seemed pretty linear and inexpressive to me personally, i.e. the motion, even though this was practically almost inevitable due to it being pencil drawn). To make this kind of thing reach its full potential, you have to instill as much meaning as you can into every little detail, as if you're weaving something together of which every component has a purpose - this way you create a short, thoughtful animation with huge impact. To perfectly execute this, however, you'd likely have to spend more time planning out the animation than animating it.

Well, that's all I have to share, good job on your first and good luck on your next project :]

Weenog responds:

Hmmm, what can i say... i'm glad you liked the idea.. i get that "i was gonna do that!" feeling quite alot aswell. fact is, there's probably no idea out there that hasn't been thought of before, all you can do is offer a fresh perspective to it or combine things in interesting ways.

As for the rest i can't say i have any real regrets about the decisions i made .... having seen it about a thousand times myself it has become quite difficult to look at objectively. It's hard to imagine how "intense" this is gonna be for someone who hasn't seen it & doesn't know me. To bad it couldent sweep you away though ;)

I did plan this ahead for quite some time & did everything in my power to make this as good as i could, so i don't think thats the real issue. all i can realy say is, it's my first movie afterall and i still have a alot to learn.

thanks for the review & take care. ^^

[OLD MOBS EP3]

Good.

There's room for much improvement in the series, especially when it comes to cinematics. But what I judge on is effort, and it looks like you put loads of effort into this, plus I can tell you are honestly going for a decent plot. Keep on doing what you're doing and you will definitely improve greatly over the next several episodes. I have to give you props for doing your best and not doing half-assed work, just make sure that every episode is an improvement over the last and you'll do great.

As for this episode, it was pretty good, not as many awkward parts as I expected. Something you should definitely work on is the awkward parts, such as near the end where the three bad guys were slowly tweening into position with an action background. Also, when the the mouths of the characters open, the lower part of their faces gets distorted and it looks strange. I realize you may be doing that on purpose, but i think it would be better to either shift the jaw down when they talk, or not at all, rather than expand the lower part of the head. Try to show emotion better with your characters. Carefully formulate your plot to make it more believable. Besides those things, the flash was pretty good.

I approve of your effort on this and if more people did their best on newgrounds, there would be much less spam and crappy submissions on here. Again, keep up the good work and never give up!

tacobuttfish responds:

Thanks and I'm glad you can see that we are improving with each release, and we're putting all of our talent to use, so you will see it grow better and better and closer and closer to perfection. Thanks for the advice and we hope to see you again for Episode 4

-Taco Buttfish