SoulMaster71's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[NightmareCity:Catastrophe]

I don't mind that everything is a lie...

...as long as you love me forever!

I'm going to come right out and say it: this is, at the moment, my all-time favorite Flash animation. I don't know if I have the skill to review it properly, the in-depth knowledge of artistic criticism needed to properly describe how good this animation is. But if I don't try, I'll never know, right?

My usual "Pros/Cons" format won't work here. Why? Because there's nothing wrong with this Flash, at all. OK, maybe after watching it a few times in a row, I start to see the Uncanny Valley aspect of the pink cat just above the hero, the look of her would be slightly odd out of context. But taken in context, it took me like 30 views of this Flash to see anything "off" about it. Possibly more, I don't really know how many times I watched this one, but I only saw it recently. It's such a good animation that I was willing to watch it so many times, and that it took that long to see its one flaw. And don't get me wrong, that's about the closest thing to a "flaw" I could find in this movie. The fact that I'm even mentioning it comes across in my own mind as nitpicking.

As for everything I like about Nightmare City: Catastrophe? Everything else. Aside from that one moment, it looks great. Every single moment of it gives the perfect impression of a hero out to save the love of his life from a city of vice and violence, all set to 403 Forbiddena's song Northern Lights, which might I say fits it amazingly. The opening shots establishing the violent "gang war" of sorts in the city, our hero standing up and fighting, but beaten down, his lover sacrificing herself to save him from otherwise certain death, and that sacrifice giving him the power to transform himself into a man capable of defeating the enemy before him. Perhaps his girlfriend didn't escape the city as he wanted her to, but a part of her lives on in his heart and his memories. It works, and even better if you understand the original Nightmare City (which I should also get to reviewing one of these days).

Overall, well, best Flash movie ever in my opinion. Well-drawn except for maybe a few seconds, well-timed to great music, and telling a Hell of a story.
5/5, 10/10, Favorited.

[Mortal Kombat: TEOME]

'Bout average, really.

Not perfect, but not too bad. It's certainly got a good idea behind it, Noob and Smoke interrupting Sub-Zero vs. Scorpion, but there's a few missed moments and a few missteps in the animation (or apparently, coding) that hurt the final product.

PROS:
A fight between Sub-Zero and Scorpion, interrupted by Noob Saibot and Smoke. The backstory among those four characters is solid enough for someone to make a whole series of MK fan toons centering on them, with plenty of fights. I gotta give you props for the idea, if only as a longtime MK fan.

CONS:
Right off the bat, the text moves too slow. Maybe for your next animation, if you make another, you could do something where pressing a particular key on the keyboard could move the text along. I forget which high-profile artist did that, but I know one of them did. Maybe it was Alvin-Earthworm. Also, yeah, the fights moved way too fast. Slow 'em down a bit next time, there's gotta be a trick in AS to do that. Increasing the number of frames it takes, I guess.

OVERALL:
Could use some work, but it's a good enough idea to deserve the work.
2/5, 4/10.

[YGOAbridged Leather Pants]

You've done it.

You've succeeded in making Lady Gaga, whom I don't like, funny. I shouldn't have doubted it was possible, and I certainly shouldn't have doubted that it would be Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged that did it, but it's not something I saw coming. Interestingly, TV Tropes has a term for a villain whom the fangirls like a lot despite his unrelentingly evil status: Draco in Leather Pants. Don't know if LK is a Troper himself, or if he was considering it when he wrote it, or if there's some weird Internet hive-mind that he's drawing cues from, but the idea of a villain in leather pants taking the hero's power sounded a little too familiar to pass up the reference.

PROS:
You made Lady Gaga funny instead of just weird for the sake of weird. I'm in shock. Let me state again that I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga by any means, and yet you managed to make her/him/it funny. And then you kickstarted my aforementioned Troper memories. That's enough for a 10/10. I'd give you more, what with the 4kids logo (thankfully) over Marik's "Millennium Rod" and some other hilarious moments, but the system won't let me.

CONS:
Cons? What cons?

OVERALL:
Hi-fucking-larious. Really, I was just getting into Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, so having this here is pretty good.

5/5, 10/10, Favorited.

[#15 Beedrill]

Yours is the Flash that will pierce the heavens!

Damn, I love TTGL. And I mean LOVE. As in, if TTGL were a woman, I'd try to marry it. Best anime I've ever seen. So with this, I'm feeling it again. Remembering how great it was.

PROS:
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. That is all. No, wait, that's not all. You used the superior Japanese audio, where the characters actually sound hot-blooded and awesome instead of, well, everyone in the dub sounded more like Leeron than like their own character (though that made Leeron himself voiced perfectly). And it was a little funny seeing Pokémon doing it, but like in the actual show, "funny" took a backseat to pure "awesome".

CONS:
Um, uh, the rough animation? Sorry, I barely noticed anything but the awesome.

OVERALL:
Dude, Pokémon meets Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann! My head just exploded from the awesome.
5/5, 10/10, Favorited.

[The Love I'm Searching 4]

I wouldn't have known it was a sequel.

I see you took a new direction with this installment of the Don't Trip series, Skaijo. That's not a bad thing: I certainly liked Adam Phillips' "new direction" for Brackenwood. But, you know, somehow I just don't get the same "feel" from this as I did from Don't Trip or This Is UNMEI. Maybe it was that it starred characters that were previously in supporting roles, but I think it was more the lack of action.

PROS:
Is it a sequel to Don't Trip and This Is UNMEI, two of my favorite Flash animations of all time? Yes. Is it fairly good in its own right, without story implications? Yes. Can it be a good starting point for building Ilu as a character later? I hope so, because this animation made me like her for her dreams, even if she does bully the younger kids (or hang out with people who do). You say you did this to improve your background skills? I say you succeeded.

CONS:
The improved backgrounds do nothing to make the characters look better, and their natural scruffiness is made all the more apparent without action scenes. Much of the movie, even at the start of the day, they look kinda dirty, like they've already been through something that day. Then again, it's not as if I'm an artist at all. No, my main complaint is the feel of this movie. Sure, you wanted to make something for the series that wasn't over-the-top "Uli vs. Trip" stuff. Fine. But just having a mellow, slice-of-life-ish thing in what was previously an "action series"... It just doesn't feel right. Not too much of a negative, since I like this episode on its own, but I liked this series for its action.

OVERALL:
I liked the first two better, but that's not saying I didn't like this one. I hope you can work Ilu's character development into future episodes, while restoring some of the action.
4/5, 8/10.

Skaijo responds:

I found this review very helpful. You made a lot of sincere points. And your right on how there's a drastic change in how this story is told compared to others in the same series. Why with the lack of action, pills, or transitions to the real world/black and white world--it really does feel like a completely different animation. And I'm glad you didn't make it sound like that was all something I just accidentally forgot to add in.

I love Don't Trip and This is UNMEI too--and your familiarity with the series frightens and impresses me all the same. You don't run into many people that actually KNOW your characters' names or who can recall scenes you've animated nearly four years ago. So I appreciate these comments muchly.

Long story short, the great things about animating as a hobby is that I'm free to explore different options for each project that I have time for. That's one of the best things about this past time. To be specific, I liked Don't Trip so much that I made a continuation of it nearly two years later. I could have made a third Don't Trip all over again... it might even look less scruffy and would have had more super moves set to another Jpop soundtrack. But c'mon. :3 Then what? Make a fourth Don't Trip animation after that--this time with an orange pill and a middle-aged Uli Unmei with kids--to reflect my own future life situation? :3 Lol, you know I'm being sarcastic. I'm just saying that it takes so long to make a project--that I'd hate to spend all this time working on nothing but better graphics while animating myself into a corner. We've see that a lot.

So yeah, it's different. This is a different animation. It's certainly something that this series hasn't seen before--and with focusing on completely different aspects of the animation, I made a lot of risks as to whether or not that same demographic/viewers could appreciate. I had fun making this--while challenging myself not to make a three-quel that I knew would probably get well accepted.

My next animation will certainly have more action in it--but it'll reflect how I want to grow as an animator first and foremost. It'll be different too. I'll hope you'll enjoy watching me grow.

[the Last of the Dashkin]

Oh, yes! Finally!

I've been waiting for all too long a time for this. Really, over two years? And in that time, how much has changed? Features were added and tweaked and changed, users came and went, exploits were discovered and fixed. And that's just this website. All through this, I've been waiting, wondering, "When is the next Brackenwood coming out?" I should have reviewed this when it came out a week ago.

PROS:
It's a new direction for the series, giving a real introduction to Bitey's character and backstory instead of "Bitey being an asshole while outrunning Sonic the Hedgehog" (not that I didn't love those), but it's still got what I love about Brackenwood: the animation, a little bit of the fun (at least, that part where he smashes the hive over that purple Bigfoot's head), some high-speed chasing. Meanwhile, this gives some actual story and character development. You know, something for people who would like something a bit "deeper" to think about than just the random funny exploits of Bitey. Ooh, and the YuYu as the kidnappers of the rest of the Daskin, somehow I think that will give some meaning to when Bitey nearly got kidnapped after some more plot revelation, though fine if it doesn't.

CONS:
You're expecting me to find negatives in a Brackenwood movie? Call me a fanboy, but I can't find any.

OVERALL:
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, my favorite anime of all time, got more awesome after adding more and more storyline and continuity to the series and reducing (though not really eliminating) the episodic comic elements. I can clearly see Brackenwood turning out the same way, and that's saying something given how much I like the series already. You've got me waiting for the next one, Mr. Phillips.

5/5, 10/10, Favorited.

[3rd Grade Transformers]

And the humor is, where?

This movie isn't all bad, but the humor (is it or is it not supposed to be a comedy of some sort?) is either invisible to me, or just plain nonexistent. Now, I'll admit that I haven't seen Revenge of the Fallen, but it seems like the plot and action of the movie are not connected to this submission as the focus is not on the Transformers, but on the LOL WACKY MISHAPS of the school play.

PROS:
The art isn't too bad for what you're trying to get across. And as usual for an Egoraptor movie, the sound is perfect, especially the voice acting.

CONS:
Where to start... How about the fact that it's not that funny? I mean, I can recognize that these are supposed to be jokes, but other than the "girlfriend's" fake boob popping out they just don't do anything for me (and even the boob scene provided more a chuckle of embarrassment that I'm watching this in public). They just seem too random, drawn not from any inherent flaws in the storyline of the original movie nor (as you were probably going for) from the inherently non-professional nature of 3rd-graders but seemingly picked, to borrow a reference from the Family Guy-spoofing episode of South Park, by manatees in a tub of balls. Why did the ceiling fall on those four kids? I especially didn't like the puke spot at the end: was it supposed to be an anti-climactic finish? Only works in movies that looked epic before the end. Gross-out humor? Didn't work. And the one moment that could have provided real humor, where the kid was protesting that he didn't want to be in the play, was ruined by an adult pulling him offstage and apparently beating him or something. What school does that anymore? It might have been better if he broke down and cried like a little kindergarten girl.

OVERALL:
Despite supposedly being a "comedy", the jokes in this submission provide no humor content. And that's too bad, because the art and especially the voice acting could have been used for greatness.
1/5, 2/10.

[Super Mario bros Z ep.8 (old series)]

Not horrible, but not amazing.

This is going to be my hardest review yet, specifically because I'm trying to review this movie and only this one, but it's so tempting to try to make this a review of the whole series or even of the sprite animation style. That's probably one of the pitfalls of a series being the standard-bearer for the genre or the medium: anyone who isn't a fan is going to attack the series and its creator in some symbolic assault on the whole thing. So, onto the movie, shall we?

PROS:
The fight scenes aren't bad, for sprites. They're fast-moving, and other than being made with video game characters they could conceivably do justice to the DBZ originals by which they were inspired. The few moments of actual hand-drawn work was good, and the storyline isn't that bad for a DBZ ripoff. I also liked the use of SMB3 power-ups, especially given that as a setting Bowser's gunship is reminiscent, at least in idea, of the boss levels of SMB3. Oh, and occasionally the use of Luigi as a weapon was funny.

CONS:
This series lacks originality. Sonic is already close enough to Goku, Shadow to Vegeta, and the Chaos Emeralds to the Dragon Balls, Super Sonic/Shadow is no different from Super Saiyan, so just throw it in the Mushroom Kingdom and you've got a crossover fanfiction! But what's more important for the review, this episode merely follows Episodes 6 and 7, rather than building on them. The fight scene seemed barely if at all better than those in 6, same old Internet memes that I could hear after about five minutes on the BBS, same old stuff as always! With a truly great series like Brackenwood (the exact opposite of this in every way I can think of), the author builds on his skills and his story more and more in each episode while keeping the basic premise alive. You have neglected to do that. Instead you made this just another chapter, no better than the last, except for the 3D gunship (I'd like to see a bit more of that in the next ones!) and the hand-drawn close-ups.

OVERALL:
It's not much of an innovation compared to anything else in the series, except in the two added aspects I mentioned. But it's not horrible either, being about as good as video game parodies written to Dragon Ball Z fanfiction can get. Overall, it's only a bit above average.
3/5, 7/10, and I'm wondering if I should have done this on my impersonation alt.

[DBZ: "Saiyan's Paradise"]

Seeing the title in my daily e-mail...

...how did I know this was going to be a parody like this? Ah well, I've seen the videos both for the original by Coolio and for the Weird Al parody "Amish Paradise", and I gotta say, this was probably the best of the three. Then again, that's probably just because I'm more familiar with DBZ than with the ghetto or the Amish.

PROS:
Song = awesome. Since the songwriter was yourself, and it was by all appearances made specifically for this movie, I can mention that. I really liked the line about playing dead like a dog, nice and witty like rap probably should be.

CONS:
Looked a little more like a storyboard or something for a future animation than like a real animation itself. You say it's a WIP though, so I'd like to see the "finished" version if and when it comes out.

OVERALL:
Not perfect, but quite a bit better than average. 4/5, 8/10.

[TAOSTH pt 1]

Not very good at all.

First of all, there's probably thousands of Sonic the Hedgehog-related sprite Flash on NG (and yes, that includes ones starring Shadow or Tails or other characters as well), so if you're going to make one it has to stand out. And this one doesn't stand out at all.

PROS:
Well, it could have come out worse. I've seen Sonic tributes without sound or any sort of background, so there's two points right off the bat.

CONS:
Just one in an endless sea of similar movies, and not even a particularly good one at that. The backgrounds were dull (at least they were there, but they were dull), the storyline was bland and completely typical, the one joke (Sonic having sex with Rouge) was at once both boring and slightly off-putting, and maybe you could have given buttons to move through the text once we read it instead of just having it change at slow readers' intervals.

OVERALL:
*YAWN*, another day, another Sonic movie. Needs to separate itself more from the rest of the pack, because while there is certainly a place for Sonic tributes, there's so many of them competing in it that you have to stand out to not seem boring.
1/5, 2/10.