MistyE's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ninja Tales - Episode 3]

Not bad. You have a solid concept, and you did a pretty good job executing it. The animation was well done and really smooth. The textures you used for the grass and the trees were a bit visually unappealing to look at, however.

Overall, this was pretty solid. Keep up the good work.

PiVisuals responds:

Thanks for the input! Yeah, I agree with the textures on the grass and trees. That is something I plan on keeping in mind moving forward. Sometimes I find myself delving into the animation too much, and the design of sets/ backgrounds gets overlooked more than it should. Sadly, it takes away from things when that happens.

[Backgrounds]

So instead of re-using the same 5 drawings over and over again to form a random, barely coherent storyline, you re-use the same backgrounds you've been using in all of your movies.

The backgrounds themselves are good, there's no denying that. If you want to advertise your 'free backgrounds' service, a forum post or news post would be better.

Elaborating on my critique on the actual backgrounds - the colors are nice, the background art is done well, although it has a sort of sloppy feel to them, like if someone poured blotches of paint all over the canvas.

[The Resistance (pilot)]

dat Kingdom Hearts music

[Ultimate Transforming Car]

The animation is without a doubt well-done, excluding the traced-bitmap explosions. That being said, it was too short, pointless, and unfunny. 3 stars for the great frame-by-frame animation though.

WaldFlieger responds:

They weren't traced. :)

[Clockmas Collab 2013]

i fuckin love this

Pop-Tart responds:

and we <3 you

[Mushroom Soup]

Masterfully done.

OdellAtkinson responds:

Thank you very much. n_n Though I can't take all the credit.

[Willie D Youre Fired]

I liked it. There's a lot of noticeable improvement in the past few animations you've been submitted, I can see that there's more and more frame-by-frame animation in each cartoon, and that there's more effort being invested into telling a story.

Your art style is constantly improving. The only thing that, to me, really needs work, is your storytelling. The writing in this one is a step up from your previous cartoons, since it actually conveys a setup to what's happening in the main story. The only problem I see in this cartoon is that it ended right when things were about to get good. What you have is good, but it's not a complete story, unless you want to make this a 2-parter.

How does Willie feel after getting fired? Does he search for another job? Does he stay unemployed and spend the next few months playing video games? How does this change the life of Willie D in the cartoon?

Those are all good starting points for where to go next with this story, and for making a complete, enthralling story that interests audiences.

Willie also appears to work at the Newgrounds studio, which is a bit strange since in the other episodes he's typically shown playing video games at home or being a Hip Hop Hero Kid or something. I don't mean to nitpick, though I think changes like that should be properly explained in the story.

Good luck.

[Midnight Snack]

this was real nice

your animation improved a lot from the last time i saw it, i like the art style and your coloring is gorgeous

keep up the good work!!

sweetcommando responds:

thanks yo

[Beta Testing Fighting]

That was actually pretty good. Really smooth fighting sequences, very visually appealing. With that being said, I think that you should put more detail into the people fighting, though since you said it's just a beta test you'll probably do that anyway, so good job.

[Ven vs. Nick]

The soldiers assigned to find Ven and bring him home can do the math for themselves. The Army Chief of Staff has ordered them on the mission for propaganda purposes: Ven's return will boost morale on the homefront, and put a human face on the carnage at Hill Top Zone. His mother, who has already lost three sons in the war, will not have to add another telegram to her collection. But the eight men on the mission also have parents--and besides, they've been trained to kill Nick, not to risk their lives for publicity stunts. "This Nick better be worth it," one of the men grumbles.

In Newgrounds mythology, great battles wheel and turn on the actions of individual heroes. In VentusShard's "Ven vs. Nick," thousands of terrified and seasick men, most of them new to combat, are thrown into the face of withering fire. The landing on Hill Top Zone was not about saving Nick. It was about saving your skin.

The movie's opening sequence is as graphic as any war footage I've ever seen. In fierce dread and energy it's on a par with Oliver Stone's "Platoon," and in scope surpasses it--because in the bloody early stages the landing forces and the enemy never meet eye to eye, but are simply faceless masses of men who have been ordered to shoot at one another until one side is destroyed.
VentusShard's camera makes no sense of the action. That is the purpose of his style. For the individual soldier on the beach, the landing was a chaos of noise, mud, blood, vomit and death. The scene is filled with countless unrelated pieces of time, as when a soldier has his arm blown off. He staggers, confused, standing exposed to further fire, not sure what to do next, and then he bends over and picks up his arm, as if he will need it later.

Everything points to the third act, when Nick is found, and the soldiers decide what to do next. VentusShard has done a subtle and rather beautiful thing: he have made a philosophical film about war almost entirely in terms of action. "Ven vs. Nick" says things about war that are as complex and difficult as any essayist could possibly express, and does it with broad, strong images, with violence, with profanity, with action, with camaraderie. It is possible to express even the most thoughtful ideas in the simplest words and actions, and that's what VentusShard does. The film is doubly effective, because he communicates his ideas in feelings, not words. I was reminded of "The Last of the Dashkin." VentusShard is as technically proficient as any filmmaker alive, and because of his great success, he has access to every resource he requires. Both of those facts are important to the impact of "Ven vs. Nick." He knows how to convey his feelings about men in combat, and he has the tools, the money and the collaborators to make it possible.

His cinematographer, Nickthevamp, brings a newsreel feel to a lot of the footage, but that's relatively easy compared to his most important achievement, which is to make everything visually intelligible. After the deliberate chaos of the landing scenes, Ven handles the attack on the machinegun nest, and a prolonged sequence involving the defense of a bridge, in a way that keeps us oriented. It's not just men shooting at one another. We understand the plan of the action, the ebb and flow, the improvisation, the relative positions of the soldiers.

But weeping is an incomplete response, letting the audience off the hook. This film embodies ideas. After the immediate experience begins to fade, the implications remain and grow.

3.5/5