PIED3's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

["Deadstar" Episode VI]

Really enjoyable animation! I like the sound track themes, the voice acting is decent, and the visual style is really well done. I have no idea what's going on butI haven't watched all the previous episodes so that might be my fault. There's an eery atmosphere to most scenes. My favorite 'episode' was 5:52 onwards, i especially like the shot of the statue's indifferent face at 6:35. Great imagery!

cineman513 responds:

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. I will admit that I am proud of that scene your talking about. I wasn't sure how it'd turn out.

[Lumberjack Loveshack]

Very nice work! The clockwork imagery was all very nice and I like your use of colors and light. There are a few things i think could be improved on though: the camera movements. You open with a zoom out, which is nice and helps the viewer feel like they're entering an environment. Then you cut to a still shot; fair enough. Then it's a pan diagonally down; this feels a little disorienting. Then a still, then a pan diagonally down. This is an odd pattern and the motion erally doesn't flow. It's hard to work out the spatial relationship between the things being shown and some scenes feel like repeats. There are a few establishing shots but again, scenes feel repeated and the different pieces the viewers seen are never really slotted together.
I loved the tension built with the two entirely separate scenes (and colors) obviously happening synchronously gradually coming together and then colliding.
That said the pacing is pretty bad. Things happen far too slowly and any intelligent viewer will have anticipated events a few scenes ahead. For example there are about 40 seconds during which all the man does is gesture "Stay back!" (though i do like the battering in sync with the drums in this scene).
Whilst I do like the concept I think it could have done with some padding out to help keep up the videos pace. A really enjoyable animation regardless, good luck with future work!

Jedargh responds:

Hey thanks! This is actually my favorite criticism of my work. Super constructive. I agree with you about all of it. There were parts when I didn't have the time to make new content in order to get the timing right later in the video, so I did have to pad a bit in places.

[THE SHININ']

Holy mackeral this is entertaining! Might be a little too bizzarre if you haven't seen/read the original but I've seen the film twice so i could follow. Real cool art style, and neat animation too. I'd prefer a bit more fbf but obviously that'd be pretty damn time consuming for this hour long epic. Good voice acting, especially Jack Nicholson, got his mannerisms down pretty good. The humor is not quite my taste but a few scenes still had me laughing. Ludicrously entertaining though, i'm really enjoying it so far (half and hour in). Good work!

poopinbeaks responds:

thanks you so much. your enjoyment is SERIOUSLY appreciated. by the way, what's fbf??

[Hot Toffee Pudding]

Did you write the song too? You should definitely upload it to the audio portal! I like your voice. Pretty amusing lyrics and a fun animation to go along with it. I liked it when the dog jumped out of their imagination and into the lounge. Cool sets and nice lighting on the candle lit scene! Keep it up

36tomatoes responds:

yup, wrote the song too. thanks, glad you liked it. was fun to create. had recently joined the no job category of society and had somewhat vast amounts of spare time so decided to do something creative with it, wrote the story, made the song, spent 2 weeks inside a cupboard which was my set night after day creating this. :)

[Dynamism]

Pretty enjoyable! I liked the colors and it was all very well synched. Good song too. The imagery was a little lacking though and you didn't have a clear style (sometimes you used curves but for the most part lines). I think you should have stuck with one or the other. It was also very flat, perhaps you could have tried making it feel a little more 3d? Not sure how you'd give something like this depth but i'm sure there's a way. Keep it up!

DoopSwindler responds:

Thank you for being honest and giving me advice. I will make sure to consider what you said for my next music video :)

[Surfer Bear - The Office]

This your first NG upload so perhaps you don't know about these things but i HIGHLY reccomend adding a preloader and a play button. A replay button at the end would be nice too instead of an automatic loop. You can download a snazzy NG one from here: http://www.newgrounds.com/downloads/p reloaders/ (the download includes instructions).
As for the actual flash i thought it was pretty fun! Nice pacing and atmosphere. The jazz (or is it blues? I'm ignorant of these things) music was a classy touch and in fact, the general sound quality was pretty nice.
The animation could have done with some more fbf in my opinion as it was all a little static and rigid. Definite potential and a good concept, looking forward to more of your work!

Tziip responds:

Thanks , I really appreciate your comments, from now i'll put a play button and is jazz.

[St. Stephen]

Ah wow, i love it.
You've got a decent undistracting art style and whilst some parts looked a little sloppy (the two lines of blood on the bears fur, the log bridge, etc.) there were also some beautiful moments. The parallex effect on the changing scenes as the bear travels was nicely done and there were some cool environments.
I quite liked the music too and as a music video it was certainly well timed with pertinent imagery too ( i liked it when the bear stopped to look at the sun/moon). The concept was my favorite thing though and the story was really swell, especially the ending. I thought the animation was good too and i'm a sucker for some nice fbf.
A great experience!

dylan responds:

Thanks for the kind words! I definitely agree that there are some less than stellar parts, the log bridge being high up there on my list as well; sacrifices were made to fully finish the video by the deadline, but I'm glad that you enjoyed it overall!

[Blonk]

I think you've over used music in this. For the length of the flash a soundtrack of 3 songs is just a bit much. There is no time to settle in to any of the various moods conjured up. I'm told at every point exactly what my emotional response to a scene is supposed to be and if it wasn't bad enough being ordered around like that, i'm not even capable of following the orders. The changes are just too abrupt.
That said i liked the flash. The animation is simplistic as is the graphical style but you have some neat transitions and some pretty scenes (i especially like how you showed the painting). Some of the scene changes are a little fast and the transitions unsmooth but for the most part i thought the direction/"cinematography" were good.
I also really like how the message is told. It's not an in your face "drugs are bad kids" telling and it has some subtelty. But it doesn't become so subtle that it enters pretension, after a bit of analysis i understand the point you are making, and i appreciate that level of directness.
I don't actually agree with an all round critique of drug use and there are plenty of recreational drugs that can be taken without losing your hobbies/mind. However, i shan't pretend that's a problem with the flash and won't mark you down for it. It's also a school project so perhaps you stuck with a status quo take on drugs to avoid controversy.
I feel i've been a bit negative in this review so let me end by saying that i enjoyed the flash and watched it 4 times. I enjoyed how you told the message and there were some interesting character designs. Keep it up!

FossilClam responds:

Wow, thanks for the detailed review. I definitely agree that it's too short for the amount of songs, originally it was going to be longer, but I had to just get it finished, the lack of dialogue also shortens scenes quite a bit. I did have troubles with the pacing, I'm glad you pointed it out. I don't believe that all drugs are terrible, but that if they become the main focus of your day, you probably should slow down and think about changing. I'm glad you took the time to look at it so closely, thank you!

["Possession" Trailer]

Wow, i'm excited!
Your time spent making live action films seems to have paid off because the directing/cinematography of this trailer is well beyond that of most animations here on NG. The opening shot for example is an enigmatic and unusually proffesional rather long single shot that immediately had me engaged. The time lapse city scape, the view from under the dog, the stylish use of reflections, the frequent use of a moving camera for dynamism, it was all very nice!
The art is decent and i like the old school no bullshit detailed uncarictured charecter designs. The sort of art style popular in flashes a few years back before everyone started doing shouting, "wacky faces" and no outline blobs. I don't really like the idea of trailers in general because i like to approach a film/short with a completely blank slate (obviously impossible but, it's the target). Despite this I fully understand it's promotional value and i don't think you gave away too much with this. I've avoided reading your synposis as i want to enjoy the finished thing as much as possible.
The music was fitting and the little bit of voice acting seemed decent. The concept seems an interesting blend of the supernatural and the modern mob/gang. Overall i thought this was pretty damn great, you've obviosuly put a lot in to it and i'm excited about seeing this finished thing! Good job and good luck!

mussashimits responds:

Hey, I appreciate the detailed comment! Yeah this flash will be a long one so I used some simple designs for the characters that I could reuse in each scene.. I wasn't sure how people would think of it, but I'm glad you liked it, haha. Anyway, thanks for your support and encouragement, and I'll let you know when the product is finished!

[Spiderdub: Sarcophagus]

Hm, i'm with test-object on this one.
I think you are a very good animator and whilst tacoman wasn't my kind of humour i thought it was well made and could see it's merit. But this, this dub, it really isn't NG material. This is youtube poop type stuff and to be honest i hope it gets removed. The fact it got daily first above...
well actually there weren't many good animations released yesterday, but the point still stands that this relies very heavily on unoriginal content and goes against the spirit of NG! Of course it's up to Tom what he allows on the website but this is really isn't in tune with the rest of the site and it's attitude.