Noves's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Wii Dare U]

Like everything else I see you work on, I like this. It does what it is supposed to do, and is slightly humorous with its delivery. You'll get enough praise from others for the quality of this (as you should) so I'll get to my constructive criticism.

Your visual style seems to constantly change. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you've given us "Cyanide and Happiness" looking stickmen to well-drawn characters. This toon is somewhere in between. I'm not saying it would be better to have everything exquisitely drawn, but I'm glad you didn't use the stickmen. I think it wouldn't have delivered your message as well. Also, I was a bit distracted at first because the characters all looked like they came from "Adventure Time".

In all honestly, that's all I got for criticism. This was well done in all aspects, and I'll be waiting anxiously for what's next. I just hope that people will judge this for its delivery of an opinion of the Wii U (which I agree with), and not for the opinion itself.

[Skitzo-"Spare a Dime?"]

Heh, these are great. So messed up, but that's the point and I love it. The old cartoon style and gags conflict with the psychotic killings so much. Such a change of pace, hilarious.

It's done well too. The music, art style, and storytelling all fit together well with themselves and the style of old cartoons. The small details like film grain and the film sides only help. The only thing that would have made it seem more authentic is the music. Don't get me wrong, the choice of music was great, but it seemed too clear. I imagine it's hard to find music that sounds like it's played on an old Victrola, but I think it would only add to the contrast that makes these cartoons.

Also, I get what you're doing when you cut away and show the photograph. It adds to the overall effect of what's going on, but I think it takes away from the style a bit. I'd like to see an art style change like a more detailed drawing from the rest of the cartoon. Maybe something akin to the overly detailed drawings that Ren & Stimpy and Spongebob uses for some of their jokes. It would keep the continuity of the visual style while still helping support the contrast.

Whatever you do, I'll be watching and waiting. Keep up the great work.

Comick responds:

Thanks for the nice comment! :) I'm glad it read well and the cartoon flowed together smoothly. I know what you mean about finding some real old music and its harder to come by then you think! (at least samples that are in public domain). Lately I've been in works with a friend who can create some new 1920-ish tracks so that might be the next best option for me.

Oh and I dont know what you mean by cut away and show a photograph...Im guessing you mean the part where skitzos eyes are dollar sign in a circle cut frame and that was a style used in the 1920s as a form of focusing on a character to accent something important. I wouldn't throw is a spongebob or ren/stimpy into this since the point is to make it look like it came from Skitzo's "lost" cartoons in an older era of film. Also, haha and no offense but I'd also never add that "detailed funny face" type of thing to my cartoons because its DONE to DEATH and everyone in the world uses that as a trope for humor to the point it makes me groan in pain. But again thanks for the awesome review! :)

[Lil' Paco Episode 1]

An interesting short. I love the cartoony feel of it. The animation and art seems a bit plain at times, it reminds me of some low-budget cartoons I used to watch as a kid. I still like it though, the overall style fits. The music fits the scenes well. The sounds seem off to me every now and then. I can't really place what it is though. I wish I could, as to offer some real critique, but it may just be me being obsessive in order to try and find something to improve. The story itself is written well, and the conflict in this episode leaves a lot of room for others I'll be waiting to watch. The only thing I didn't like is some of the referential humor, especially the "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" clip. The jump from You think you're smart don't ya? to that made no sense to me...so maybe I just don't get it, but it was really out of place to me. Also, the Transvestites clip, while funny, didn't seem to be necessary at all as it didn't really pertain to the story in any way. Both are different from the Totoro reference as I get the joke and it helped explain the visit to N Cat. Still I feel as though if you bring your own material into the series instead of making jokes with others', that it brings more integrity to the series and is something that makes me appreciate a cartoon more.

All in all, I liked this cartoon. I'm looking forward to the progression of this series and hope to see it flourish. Keep up the great work!

BatOuttaHellStudios responds:

Thanks for the in-depth review, it helps give me ideas on how to improve in the future. On some of the referential jokes, it really started out as more of an experiment to see how people would react to crazy cut-away gags that have nothing to do with the plot a la Family Guy. (Especially with the Don't Cha gag) In the next episode, if I recall correctly, you won't see any cutaway jokes. And if the series continues from there you probably won't see any in later eps. Like you pointed out, it doesn't really mesh well with the story, and that's precious time that could be used developing characters. Fun experiment, though. Anyway, glad you liked it and are sticking around for future installments!

[Wonders of the Universe 4]

Another great episode! The crew did another wonderful job in all aspects and I can't really think of anything too improve upon with the animation, music, voice acting, sounds effects, etc. It's put together very well and I like it overall. The only constructive criticism I have is that the episode's plot was a parody of 2001: Space Odyssey.

Mind you, it was a good parody! Don't think I wouldn't appreciate another parody. I think I'm just a bit let down by the method of storytelling. I appreciate internet series for their originality. I don't mind a joke in the episode that references or parodies something else (the "It's a trap" dream joke for example), but this isn't a parody series. So when the main plot of an episode is a parody in this series I'll watch it with enthusiasm, laugh at it, enjoy it, and be entertained by it...but what makes me like this series are the things that set it apart from other space-themed shows.

What I did like is how the writing left plenty of room for speculation down the road, something I felt was lacking in the last episode. How is the flash drive going to affect the series in the short or long run? I can think of several different outcomes and await with anticipation. In retrospect, I suppose the parody served a purpose of continuing the overall story, but I still think I'd have liked it better with something more original.

Overall, it's no big deal with how the story is told to me. I'm just being nit-picky to come up with any constructive criticism, hence the 5 stars. I'd just rather try to offer something more than the deserved praise everyone else seems to be giving this.

Toonwerks responds:

One thing we tried to do was develop the episode where you could enjoy it even if you haven't seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, and except for maybe some of the climax and very end we think we managed to do that.

On top of that, 2001 is one of my (th1rt3en) absolute favorite films, so I took a lot of care in trying to make this 'feel' like the actual movie than just reference it. For instance the Blue Danube scene references the film but also uses the music effectively in the scene; it wasn't just there to be a reference.

We've got a few original and parody ideas planned so there will be a mix. As we're all fans of the sci-fi genre I doubt we'll be able to stay away from references. For now at least :)

Thanks for the review!

[Wonders of the Universe 3]

While I still love this team's work, I can't help but feel that this episode didn't offer much to the overall story or universe it happens in. It seemed like more of a random story with little significance. I certainly realize that I could be wrong, but that's the overall impression I'm getting.

Aside from that, I find that the entire ensemble is continuing their great work. Unless I get very nit-picky and search through the video with a fine-toothed comb, I have no criticisms in the writing of the episode itself, the animation, the voice acting, the music, the sounds, or the organization of them all. I know that my review would be better if I could find some specific things to praise, but all this team needs to do to provide more high quality videos is to continue working. I'm sure there may be some things in the video that this team wants to improve upon, but from my perspective, you're doing just fine. Keep up the good work, and I will be waiting for the next episode.

Toonwerks responds:

We actually ended up cutting a lot from this episode, though I don't know how much of the stuff we cut actually had to do with deepening of the universe this takes place in. Really the goal with this episode was to introduce a new character to the series, and we wanted to approach it a bit differently than we did with introducing Canis in episode 2.

I'm not sure which style is better, keeping the scope more broad across a huge adventure or more focused on a couple characters. I'm sure it's a case where there's pros and cons for both. We chose the latter for this episode simply because after episode 2 it was appealing to only worry about 1 or 2 characters. You can rest assured that future episodes will include a bit of both,
I know I'm not lying when I state that episode 4 (which is already pretty far into it's production) definitely opens up the world this all takes place in a bit more as we specifically wrote it with questions about the plot in mind.

[Dragonzball P]

Not gonna ask.

Just gonna say that this was great, the overall silliness was just hilarious. The voices fit perfectly, the annoying kazoo music just added to how ridiculous the video was, the facial expressions were awesome (as always), and the comedic timing was spot on. I want to fit in some constructive criticism in here but I really can't find anything I dislike in the video...so good job.

This whole thing actually reminded me a lot of Chris and Harry. It didn't have the randomness of Chris and Harry, but this video did have the same amount of absurdity. I'm not sure why, but these are the kinds of videos I have to watch a couple times in a row before I get my fill of it, and I'll end up doing it again.

Please keep this up.

[Wonders of the Universe 2]

Love it.

The crew that works on this is great in all aspects. Animation, music, characters, voice acting, writing, and I gotta give a lot of praise to Toonwerks for getting all of the together so well.

As an individual episode, it's great. It continues with the essence that made me like the last episode, develops more story, and leaves room for more. I'm am definitely interested in the episodes to come.

As a series, I think I'd rather give it time to develop more before passing any real criticisms, but it looks like it's going in a great direction.

As for criticisms...it's hard to think of any. As I've said...everything seemed fitting for the mood the animation has set. The only thing I can really say is that the computer was a little hard to understand a few times. It's nothing major really, it's just that some sentences went by quickly and took me an extra few seconds to process. In all honesty though, the voice fits the character well, so don't change it.

Bottom line: This was a great work and I'll be waiting patiently for the next one.

Toonwerks responds:

From the standpoint as one of the creators, I know it's easier to pick out flaws. There's a couple bits of animation that I know will bug me for ages to come, and there's some slight continuity errors with the art in the engine room, but it's so minor that not really anybody notices it.

Personally I think the biggest problem with the series so far is that we just don't have the time to give some of these stories taking place the proper delivery. It takes long enough to bring these episodes to fruition that a lot of things get cut.
For example, there were originally two inspectors, but we ended up merging them into one character. There were also a lot of big jokes that just didn't have any way to be worked in without going off on a tangent.
Every time we talk about future episodes, we always have to think in the back of our heads "most of this will probably be cut in order to tell the story properly" and a lot of the stuff is usually a lot of fun and I'm sure most of us at Toonwerks is sad to see some of it go, even if it IS for the better good. We just don't make enough money to not have day jobs and do nothing but animate for a living, so I'm sure we'll always be pressed for time, even with 2 or 3, and even 4 of us working on something. ~ Casey

[Zelda: Day and Night]

A good start.

I like this. It's definitely a great start of what, I hope, is more to come. I like the artwork. I really think the work with shadow makes it look slick, but the odd, triangular-shaped light patch in the middle of the field threw that off a bit. It just looks odd every time I see it. It's not exactly a big deal since it didn't draw me away from the story much, but it still did when it shouldn't. That small detail aside, everything looked great.
The animation was alright. I would have liked to see Link's movements be a little smoother, but it's fine overall.
Also, I know the reason behind it being a short clip, and that's fine, but it felt like there was only half a story told and it cut out right before the climax. I understand that the fighting wouldn't fit in with what the assignment was about and would have been extra, unnecessary work in an assignment, but it almost feels like I'm being teased with here comes the exciting part as denoted by the battle theme then fade to black.
On a more positive note, the use of sounds and music was well done to shape the atmosphere perfectly. You show that you can tell a story and set its mood.
I hope my review doesn't sound harsh, I really do like the clip, it's great for what's it's purpose was. I just get very picky when I review something and wanted to review this as more of a featured product than an animation exercise.

All in all, I think this is great for a first flash, and if this is where you're starting then I can't wait to see how your work will look in the future.

["Ice Cream"]

This is excellent storytelling through animation.

Everything is done well. I love the animation style. The mix of photograph and drawing worked really well. The setting was perfect with the dark colors depicting an eerie mood. The voice acting was great and fits the character perfectly. The storytelling was brilliant. The main character was awesome. Just good work from start to finish.

My favorite part had to be the scene with the car headlights in the background to the axe swing. The look, the sounds, the effects were all great. Made for a great building of suspense.

Keep up the great work! I'm looking forward to seeing your future works.

[Leo & Satan IV]

Good stuff. Keep it up.

This is another good episode, but it's just a continuation of an excellent series. There's nothing too groundbreaking about it, but it's still better than average. Heck, it's better than most.

I'm glad to see some new elements added to the mix such the quick change in art style while Satan makes one of his ridiculous facial expressions (another element that helps make this series). I also like the amount of juxtaposition between goofy Satan and demonic Satan (some small gags like the lubricant and large ones that usually end the episode); it was a step up from the last episode. The background gags were great and Leo just works to set up Satan every time.

These are just my two cents, but you're doing an excellent job. Keep doing what you're doing because it definitely works. Can't wait for your next work.