Sentio's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Snaily Gump]

I like it!

There are some obvious deficiencies here, mostly in your drawing and animating skill, but the story and music more than makes up for that. In particular the music was fantastically chosen, and really added to the overall entertainment value of the animation. Story wise it was solid, with plenty of jokes (though the final one was a bit cheap and left the animation feeling a bit flat), while I was impressed with the voice acting.

My only real criticism was that the lip-synching was a touch out with the voice acting, and that you can always improve your animations (maybe put more effort into the backgrounds, rather than having them largely stationary).

Still, one of the best animations that I have seen today, so a really good effort.

hankypoo responds:

Hi Sentio, after reading your review i can say that i must agree with you on those deficiencies!! thanks man!! Ahh yes the lip sync, quite difficult but i really want to master it. thanks for the criticism. I agree totally!! I know i will become better. Thanks alot for the review!! I will improve on these things!

[Bubblewrap Boy]

Need to work on animating, but good.

I actually really enjoyed this, but it was more down to the choice of music than the animation style itself. The music used really gave it a strange artistic feel, which meant I could look over the relatively poor drawing and limited animation. Sound effects were also excellent, and I thought the quirky story fitted the music well.

The areas to improve on are fairly obvious then- you need to work on your drawing skills, and in particular you need to keep practising with animation- most of what was here was simply an object moving from side to side- it would be nice to see something a bit more advanced next time.

Still, entertaining enough, and showing plenty of potential.

tinettenolan responds:

Great, thanx :D plenty of hours still to be put in and improvement is to come :) Im a first year student and still novice to it all, but watch this space :) will spend some time on developing intricacies and detail.

[Sleepy Hollow]

I like it! Just a few areas for improvement

Positives:

Some excellent animation in here, especially the way you move the 'camera' around the scene. The characters move smoothly, though there are long sections where everything is too static.

Art style is excellent, and I like your character designs and use of colour.

Some well used music which is well timed, and the same goes for the sound effects.

Areas for improvement:

The sections of dialogue are slow and boring. Improve the script to get a few more laughs, or shorten it entirely to get to the action/point. Some of the speech bubbles are up too long as well, dragging the pace down even more. You could also try out some voice acting rather than relying on dialogue boxes. Finally you could be animating during the periods of speech- everything is completely static in these sections, and even something simple like a hen in the background would instantly make the scene feel more real.

While your music was good, there wasn't nearly enough of it! You could have had background music going on throughout (which would have helped with the slow dialogue as well). Certainly the background wind sound was getting very wearing by the end, while some appropriate music would have been more entertaining. If you need music perhaps visit the audio portal here on Newgrounds for a wealth of material (though obviously it would all need correctly crediting).

Still, a very good effort for a first submission, and plenty of potential for some excellent pieces in the future!

Gogga responds:

Thank you for your advice. Much appreciated.

[True Love - a fairy tale]

Short and sweet

Not a bad effort for a first try, but a few things to improve on...

Positives:

Nice use of music throughout, which did a lot to add to the mood of the animation. In future maybe check out the audio portal here on Newgrounds for a wealth of music to include in your animations.

A nice short tale that wasn't overcomplicated and was reasonably well paced (though a bit slow to start).

Decent if unspectacular drawing, though I did feel a touch inconsistent. Some of the drawings at the start were worse than those at the end, suggesting that you were improving all the time (a good thing!), but could have gone back and reworked the beginning a little.

Negatives:

Animation was minimal (though the use of a skateboard to prevent your character simply floating along the ground was inspired). Maybe try and be a bit more ambitious with animation and get a few more moving objects into each scene- nothing too radical, one step at a time, but I felt you actively avoided animating objects here rather than giving it a go.

Sound effects were a mixed bag- making your own with a mic might have been a better option (the scream especially was grating).

Definitely worth a pass though, good work and keep improving.

AesSedai responds:

Ok, thanks.

[Folly]

Need to work on sounds, but animation is nice

Positives:

The animation and drawing style was rough, but quite well done despite that. It was nice and consistent, and there were no obviously lazy drawings that I could see, while some parts had some nice shadows and good shading.

It was paced pretty well, and as such was entertaining. Had it been slower it would have gotten boring fast, but the rapid fire style of it worked well.

Negatives:

As you say yourself, sound effects were poor throughout. This could have been masked, however, had you used some appropriate music to play over the top. There are plenty of excellent examples right here on Newgrounds in the audio portal if you ever need music for an animation, and it makes an enormous difference.

It would have been nice to have some voice acting rather than speech bubbles, especially as the speech bubble pacing was a touch fast, making reading them all a bit more challenging than it should have been- doable, but a rush.

Otherwise it is a case of refinement rather than all out change- it is always impossible to get better at drawing and animating, so long as the basics are there.

A good effort though, worthy of a pass and a semi-decent score.

randomdude12 responds:

thanks alot for the review. I'm glad you liked it, mostly.
I originally wanted to use voice acting, but my voice ends up inaudible for some reason. My friend was going to do it, but he decided to go work at his uncle's hotel.

I'll definitly do better on the audio for all future submissions.

Thanks agian

[Sodaville]

Not bad for a first try

Positives:

The lip-synching is pretty good, and something much better animators struggle with.

It is reasonably well drawn, though it lacks animation in a lot of scenes

Music is well chosen.

Negatives:

A lot of scenes are lacking in animation (in particular when items are flying out of scenes). You could perhaps make more effort to make backgrounds interesting, with things moving around behind the action (even if it is a repeated motion).

The story was a bit slow paced, and the jokes were pretty poor (more grimace worthy than laugh worthy). Work on your scripting and pacing- it would be funnier if it was faster and the punchlines came more frequently. There was a lot of pointless dialogue that could have been axed without damaging the story.

Still, pass worthy, which is a victory in itself for a first timer.

S4inT responds:

Awesome, thanks! Everything you said was stuff that I felt was true myself. This is unfortunately because I was an idiot, and basically spent one night doing this. The lack of animations was pure laziness (I am sad to say).

But thanks so much for the feedback, next time I'll do all these litte things that I (and yourself) find lacking in this film.

PS. Yeah the jokes are very lame, that's kinda my type of humor though. I still don't think this is funny...rather grimace worthy -well stated. I just laugh for the "lameness" of it all

[SlashClassic4: Monsters!]

I never saw the show :(

Damn living in the UK- I'm not sure this show was ever shown there, and as such I have no clue what the hell you are on about for most of that flash. Sadly that really damaged the humor mark, but I gave it a passing grade over all as it isn't your fault I had a deprived childhood.

Most of the marks are the same as ever, so I can't be bothered to go through them again. Maybe do Slash Classics on things that everyone has seen or knows about in future :D

2/5

SlashFirestorm responds:

Ah! Real Monsters was one of the greatest cartoons ever aired. It was about a bunch of monsters who scared the hell out of kids, then showed it to the Monster Academy through this weird mind-projector thing.

It fucking rocked.

LOL AND ALSO OBLINA LOOKS LIKE A DICK SORT OF LOLOLOLOLLOLOL

[SlashClassic1: Self-Rape]

Bon Jovi is teh sex

I saw him live last year and everything...

Anyway, the flash! A fantastic self parody there, and one of the funniest submissions I have seen in a long time. It was funny cos it was true (except for the giant erection- we know it was three inches really).

Graphics- not good, but then it wouldn't have been half as funny to see a well animated/drawn Slash rubbing against Drew Pickles, so it doesn't matter.

Style- typical Slash classic style, and reliant entirely on humor, which there was in abundance. I still hate the damn speakonia voices, but it wouldn't be the same without them.

Sound- annoying, but necessary for the style, so a 5.

Humor- 10 out of 10, one of the funniest submissions I have ever seen. To be able to make fun of yourself is great, and it is all the funnier for it.

So a solid 3/5, which isn't bad at all for a flash with so little animation skill.

SlashFirestorm responds:

Questioning the size of my penis is a challenge.

COME AND BEHOLD MY ENORMOUS DICK

Also, Bon Jovi.

I need to update this one...