makestuff's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Away Trailer]

This is outstanding work, thus far. It's visually stunning, well edited and the music scoring is not the same-old, same-old in d-minor one hears in too many movies, these days. The building suspense of a dominant minor seventh chord that doesn't get resolved at any time in the trailer turned out to be a brilliant call, as it screamed for resolution in some direction or other, like a key change with a cuing of brass and a splash of cymbals. Instead, the suspense lingers after the final image jumps to black. Bravo!

[Cafe Conspiracy]

This started out as meh, but once the guy got going with his spiel, it turned out to be hilarious. The writing is brilliant. The audio needs work, otherwise it would have gotten a higher rating.

pagetheatre responds:

Thanks! Trying to work on a less shitty audio setup.

[The Beast]

Great choreography, smoothly animated. Here's my character submission:

Name: Yim (female)

Power/Weapons: Wing-Chun based moves, good at getting inside & countering; leverage, timing, sticky hands/blades and powerful chi that can be unleashed in knockout blows; additional weaponry in the form of a pair of 12" broad bladed knives with hooked handles, good for a finishing move of scissoring decapitation.

Personality: Cool as a cucumber.

[Back to the Fuhrer]

I still laugh hard every time I see this cartoon. This is partly due to my being a fan of history and thus getting the references. It's also because it's a brilliant piece of comedy, expertly timed, smartly conveying a cautionary tale in under three minutes. Bravo!

[Toll of the Lost 1]

Bravo!!!! This is brilliantly executed in all aspects of production, visual, audio, storytelling and dialogue. Kudos to the cast and composer, too. Often there are decent productions that come up short in an area or two, but not this one. (Being persnickety about music, I greatly appreciate the score, which is a throwback to the classic adventure scores of John Williams, showing off a broad orchestral pallet and harmonic range, while too many other composers, these days, never venture beyond the home key.)

I look forward to seeing the next episode(s) and hope someday I can be a guest voice in one (or more) of them. Keep up the great work!

Xiphon responds:

I think there's definitely aspects of the work here that could use improvement, in some cases a lot of improvement, (I could fill a book with them to be honest). However, audio quality and performance is a thing that I feel is often overlooked in Internet based entertainment. Most people don't really take a lot of time and care to record in good recording spaces or practices, and it's just sort of accepted that way.

I remember doing a lot of voices for my own work long ago, and people complained about it. It's what pushed me to seek out help from real voice actors and the change in quality at the time was night and day. Just having a performance that made you feel something, was a concept I hadn't even considered, and ever since I've looked at the audio side of a production as it's own art form. Toll of the Lost certainly pushed my understanding of it even further.

On the matter of the score, there's not a lot I can personally say. It was mostly handled by Pierce, who I touched base with very frequently. He's a big fan of John Williams, but music production goes over my head. Outside of me wanting the show to have it's own identity and offering input on how I want scenes to feel, properly telling a story with music is something rather abstract to me. I know some of the technical basics, certainly enough to direct this, but I could never score something myself.

[The escape | Animation]

This may not be the most elaborate animation, and the V-O could be better. However, I like its distinct style, and the bi-tonal background music is reminiscent of a Bartok piano etude, which also makes it stand out.

[ART & ANIMATION]

This is an engaging and heartening story--also a cautionary tale for those in the teaching profession. It's good that professor got sacked. I guess he never watched "Paprika" or "Patema Inverted," among many other masterpieces of Japanese anime that I categorize as art. They share vibrancy and meticulous attention to detail rivaling Japan's most celebrated "fine" artists. Pity that teacher failed to see the connection and further the artistic ambitions of an eager pupil.

Congrats to the author on getting back into one's true passion and sharing this story.

kingrab responds:

hey thanks for the supportive message. Really helps me out with the confidence thing :D. It is a shame a lot of teachers dont like Anime and such because there is some really good work out there. Spirited away? come on! its great!

[COIN]

This is one of my all-time favorite cartoons on Newgrounds. The style, pacing and sheer inventiveness is outstanding. And to paraphrase Nietzsche: What doesn't kill Donovan Murdock makes him stronger!

[Boltron Ultimate Episode 4]

This is jaw-droppingly inventive and brilliantly executed. It's a wild ride sitting through this videogame narrative without having the added stress of playing the game. With the series' visual appeal, this makes a satisfying experience for those of us who aren't that fast at these types of game to be able to get through the entire narrative of the game, otherwise. I look forward to more great work from this team.