Bad-Atom's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sprite TV 3!]

39 sketches, 21 animators, no laughs

1/5

I like sprite movies. They're in a category of their own on NG.

Sprite movies can be hysterically funny, emotional, goofy and random, or (most of the time) plain stupid. This submission falls deep into the latter category. This is the most elaborately produced example of juvenile stupidity and lack of comedic understanding that I've ever seen on Newgrounds.

I know comedy is subjective, but when you have TWENTY-ONE animators collaborating you'd think something funny to me might slip through. Usually with something this random I'll find a few laughs here and there, but this time... nothing. A few of the sketches came close (the Frogger one, the Princess in the rocket for example) but didn't score. Most of them were painful to watch, especially knowing this would get a high score and get featured just because of the "sprite" factor. That's a problem with NG in general, so I won't go into it.

Sometimes nice animation can make up for a lackluster effort in the writing/comedy department, but it doesn't in this case. And the animation wasn't really that great, to be honest. The bar has been set pretty high in that regard. Aside from the rather cool "create your own sprite" preloader and the clean and simple menu screen, I wasn't really impressed by any of it.

The voice acting was mostly terrible. There's a Voice Acting Club out there that's a great resource for animators. I wish they had used it; instead it makes the whole production sound amateur. Music and sound effects were actually pretty well done on the whole, so no major complaints there. In fact, some of the sound choices were inspired.

Like I said, I do enjoy sprite movies. I like seeing animated video game characters and different people's twist on them. This unfortunately was just a chore to watch. I don't like writing negative reviews either but I made an exception in this case.

(Also, the file size is ridiculous, and I'm not even on dial-up.)

TITROTU responds:

Sorry you didn't like it. We tried our best to get a manageable file size.

[ASCII Animation]

Great idea behind this, let's see more

3/5

I really liked the idea behind this. I bet it is time-consuming. :) I hope to see you expand on the concept and improve the animation. You could fashion a creative story around this concept and make it something really special and unique.

A side note: it's not really ASCII code - you're using colors, letters and words to approximate drawings, not just ASCII code.

KyleDaFox responds:

It does take a while. I'm going to start another, longer, better one. This was more of an experiment.

[Scenes From A Memory]

Great atmosphere

4/5

You created a very nice atmosphere and feeling with your animation. It looked beautiful and the music you chose fit the scene well. My only complaint would be the speed of some of the objects and backgrounds. The stars in the night sky and the rocks on the ground were moving too fast and it took me right out of it. With a few tweaks here and there, this would be a 5. Great work.

badmonkeyfinger responds:

i know what you mean with the scene with the rocks movng too fast, im not happy with it and im working on fixing it

[Through Eyes of The Moon]

Very different than usual NG fare...

4/5

I've enjoyed your previous work - it's always a welcome breath of fresh air from the usual stuff I find on NG. This was no exception. No blood and gore, no sprites - just beautiful scenery and music to match. Your designs are excellent and the effects were nicely done. I do think the movements and transitions were very stiff and artificial. If you worked on the tweens a little, it wouldn't be an issue. But I still enjoy your work and hope to see more.

cheshirecat1582 responds:

Wow really... Thank you so much!! yeah i agree the rigged ness needs improving... actually I took your advice and im improving on that right now... i just submitted a new flash with less regged ness lol... I think im getting the hang of this flash thing after all... lol Thanks sooo much for the great review!!!

[World 2-4 Retaliation]

Nicely done, but a few issues...

4/5

I was pleasantly surprised by many elements of your animation. I thought it had a nice sense of pace and style and the music worked really well. I also appreciated the use of custom sprites. They were well done and a much-needed break from the norm.

Now to my annoyances. :)

I recently had a mini-rant on the NG forums about common things that annoy me in Flash cartoons. Your cartoon is a good example. First of all, I am so sick of Mario movies, especially ones that take place in the world of SMB and feature large-scale battles and major character deaths. It is getting old fast. Yours, while done well, sadly falls into that category of "been there, done that".

Second, I'm tired of overly long credits. Yours weren't *too* bad, and at least there was that last bit of animation at the end. But still, credits should be kept to a minimum. Most people won't sit through them.

There were a few minor technical issues as well. The rain effect seemed off to me. And the Toad sprites looked like they only had one eye - was that supposed to be a side view? But, like I said, these were minor issues in an otherwise excellent animation.

I really enjoyed this, as well as your previous work. I just hope you can find a new twist next time, or try something from a different game again. (I mean, you did a Clu Clu Land cartoon! Now *that's* something you don't see every day!)

Psycosis91 responds:

I'm glad you enjoyed it, even with the few annoyences. I have to agree with you on the 'been there, done that' factor. SMB movies have been done to death. The long credits thing, also, I hate seeing in a movie unless it's for a reason. I do have a record of having long credits (Megaman's Massacre for example) but this time it was becuase there was an extra little bit afterwards. The rain is just really a lot of lines that loop, I might make sprited rain for future movies, and the toad sprites, yes they're ment to be a side view.

Thanks for the review.

[Sugar Rush!]

Good idea, but kind of quiet

3/5

I liked the idea behind this. Hopefully not entirely based on real life. I also liked the music (of course, since most of it was mine :) )

There were some issues though. Voice acting would definitely have improved this. The dialogue bubbles were good and well-timed, but no one wants to read an animated cartoon. The music was also a little on the quiet side, and the lack of sound effects was noticeable. The pacing could have been a lot snappier.

But these are minor issues that can be easily fixed, and I look forward to your future work.

M3moR3x responds:

Hey man, Thanks for the review..i know i need voices in it but sadly my mic is cocked up lol..

[Tom fights the Ninjas]

Crappy in a GOOD way...

2/5

The "animation" is crappy, and the audio isn't anything to write home about, but for some reason it works. The story, being made up as it goes along, is very funny. I actually laughed out loud a couple times. I don't know if good animation would make this any better - it is what it is. But it was kind of fun to watch, and sometimes that's all I want from a Flash cartoon.

TomSka responds:

Haha thanks... I think...

[Punch-Out 2 TEASER]

Good sound, poor art and animation

My first review, but who cares :)

I thought it worked well as a teaser, and the sound was pretty good. But the art and animation left a lot to be desired. Very jerky animation and the sprites didn't look too good either. Hopefully the final product will look much better.

AngelnX responds:

Oh yea i know i just need more time to work on it. its very difficult making sprites similar to the real sprites from punch0out, but hey, the final cut will be the best!