Noves's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[NGTV Christmas Marathon]

Happy to be the NGTV announcer and the Ducks and Drugs characters. Thanks for letting me be a part of this and a great job and Merry Christmas to all the collaborators!

Kolumbo responds:

NOVES the man the myth the legend - thank you for all the work you put into this and special thank you for the insane speed you did it at - couldn't have made it without you!! much love and merry christmas!!!

[HAPPY FAMILY 2]

So happy for this.

Kolumbo responds:

thank you again for all the help!

[Dual Force]

You're cartoons are getting better and more ambitious, and I like that. I think you did well with the audio choices and you've got a stellar voice cast, great job to all you! Also, you've got your own distinct art style that I like to see.

On the negative side, I will say that I didn't really enjoy the writing. The story was alright, but I can't say I got into it. I picked up on the jokes, but didn't get much out of them. It could just be my sense of humor though. Also, I feel as though the fight scene had some choppy animation that made the fight look awkward.

Don't get me wrong, I like this, but I want to give an honest review. I'll be looking for your work in the future and am excited to see what's next.

Twisted4000 responds:

Thanks a bunch, and no nothing is wrong with your sense of humor, I just have a weird sense of humor, unfortunately, lol. As for the battle scene though, I just didn't animate in 1s, I feel that if there's some choppiness it gives some flow and looks more lifelike. And not a prob, honest reviews are the best kind. Glad you enjoyed it overall.

[Skitzo-Too Hot to Handle]

I always love these, so creepy. As always, the little details are what make it. I really liked that quick change in scenery when the fire alarm goes off, as though you see the world through Skitzo's perspective where everything is alright until his eyes go red and its a scene of dischord. The music slowing there was a great touch. The only way I could see this being better would be to keep the black screen and silence at the end instead of looping it to the preloader screen (not sure if that's possible with flash though). The extended pause of it at the end gave a sense of despair and hopelessness which only helped the overall creepiness of it (another great touch), but waiting for the preloader screen and have it never come...it just seems so dark and final.

Anyway, as a series, I like how it keeps to its dark theme (I think we all have an idea of how it's gonna end) as well as being a 1920's cartoon. The mix is such a juxtaposition and I love it every time! Keep up the great work!

Comick responds:

Ah thanks man! Glad you enjoy them :) Yeah I did actually have them orignally go to black and then stay there....I agree I liked the final-ness of the cartoon just ENDING and being silent and not reloading haha. But then people complained that they wanted to watch it again and they were annoyed about having to refresh or reload the toon every time so I made a compromise to still get my black silence in there but after a long while it will reload again heh. And thanks for watching them more coming soon....

[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! :)

[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.

[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

[Chris & Harry]

Holy crap, man...

I'm not sure why I thought it was as funny a it was. Some mixture of the overexaggerated facial expressions, the cut-away to the random businessman, the quick change of tone in the video from the cake, and the sheer randomness of the gags has absolutely entertaining to me.
I think what really did it was that your delivery was very well done. Each gag was so well timed and paced between each other to keep me laughing, but still have time to watch for the next in its own context.
I will say the animation could have been better, but as long as you stick to your own style it's okay. I'd rather watch a good video with cartoonish drawings than a super-realistic video of a well drawn walking sequence. In all seriousness, I think the cartoonish drawings fit with the nature of the video well.
All in all, keep up the good work.

Oney responds:

thanks man!