makestuff's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[What Would Actually Happen In Batman VS Superman]

The concept is understandable, but the drawing and animation leave a lot to be desired. Since this is early work, it's my hope the author keeps working to improve.

[LIFELESS]

This short is a work of art with an honest message. All that magnificent machinery is the work of human minds and hands--as is the animation, itself--and without the tender loving care of the machinery's creators and maintainers, the machinery eventually fails to function. The other thing about the machinery is that it is designed specifically for the benefit of humans, whether it's to manufacture products humans demand to make their lives better or the products, themselves, being manufactured. Those machines were designed to serve humans, but if there are no humans to serve, what's the point to their existence?

I have no criticisms about this piece. It's visually striking, with clean animation and a solid music score. I hope this team stays together to do more work of this caliber.

LifelessAnimation responds:

Thank you, it feels amazing when someone cares to write something like this, good or bad. We are glad you and so many other people liked something we worked so hard on to achieve.

[Vikings of the Interstate (Pilot)]

Great job with the animation and characterizations. My one note is that since they're in "middle America," there'd be more encounters with armed citizens possessing AR-platform semi-auto rifles and various types of shotgun and handgun. So it might be a bit more of a challenge for the vikings than what was depicted in the 'toon. Still, it was well done, especially the fight scene with the heroic butcher. I look forward to more episodes.

[Godians Fight]

This is an excellently produced animated fight scene that makes me want to see an entire story episode with character development and dialogue. (I'd like to voice a character--or more--if this goes to full production beyond this scene.) Kudos to the team who put this together. I'd give it the full five stars, if there were a more complete story being told, and it maintained this high standard of production throughout. It's like a teaser-trailer, and I can see it being effective in a crowdfunding campaign to finance this as an episodic series.

The background music is outstanding. I wish more action movies set in the present day had hard-rocking soundtracks like this. I could listen to this on its own and enjoyed the King Crimson-like guitar riffing near the end.

I look forward to seeing more from this team.

One other note: I tried visiting semogentertainment.com on two different browsers, and it's not coming up. I'm getting the "server not found" message, instead.

Smyton4tw responds:

Thank you for your comment! I actually just made this for the Godians creator since he's working on a comic for it. I asked him to give me his updated website so I can put it here.