Nangbaby's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Super Mario bros Z ep.8 (old series)]

Supreme Excellence

Every time I look at an installment of Super Mario Bosi Z, I think to myself how the next one can't get any better than the last, It seems as though you improve on Flash Movies that are seemingly perfect. I thought there was no way you could top the NES Super Mario style awesomeness of the last epispde.

Needless to say the sprite work is superb, the pacing and animation perfect, the sound just right. Yet you're careful to make changes to the formula, with the 3D model. I like how Luigi seemed to be a little more active and willing in the fights than just the comedic relief. I also like the inventiveness of the fights, and the balance between the action and the drama. Yet at the same time, the incorporation of Mario elements felt natural instead of forced, and it makes me wish Nintendo would incorporate the way you reinvented classic Mario abilities into future games.

I suppose what's most striking about this episode is how you turned the classic Mario goal of saving the princess into an exciting adventure while playing it straight. That's very difficult, given how worn the original tale has become. You make it look easy with the right dose of SMB3 (with a nod to Super Mario Land) nostalgia mixed with your originality.

[Milk & OJ Bestest Friends]

Excellent!

Normally, I'm not a fan of "squigglevision"-style animations, but this one was great. While it was short, it was animated and directed very well, and it made a good point. I love it!

Battosai810 responds:

Thanks! Glad you liked it so much and you could see past the Squiggle-vision :)

[The Consumptionist]

Very nice!

This is well done, period -- not well done for a first Flash, but it is very, very good. What I like about it is that you maintained the dream-like quality through the visuals through better than average animation. You didn't reply extensively on tweens, but mixed it with frame-by-frame work that makes this piece shine.

I also like how you chose a different subject matter, and avoided some cliches and subverted tropes as well. As a result, even if I am not sure of the deeper meaning of this dream, I can follow the story that is told, an original story that is open-ended enough for the viewer to intepret. It's a wonderful change from being drawn by an author's derivative narrative.

My biggest criticism is that the sound quality is a bit low. That and there are some points, such as when our protaginist is extending his hand, that the visuals aren't as well composed as in the rest of the short movie. Nevertheless, this is a good Flash entry.

[An Anger Short]

Well drawn...but...

First of all, I liked both the graphical style and the shading of the characters. I also like how smoothly you made the chracters move. But there are a couple of things that bring this entry down.

There are no sound effects at all. Even if this is a short with a theme as a soundtrack, I'd have hoped to have heard something other than music. Given that there is little done with the music that you did use, it jars with what the audience sees,

Second, despre how well you made the characters move, I don't get a sense of anger in this piece. The main character doesn't seem angry even with all the violence. In fact, all of the character seem rather...placid, despite the dynamic scene.

[Final Fighting Fantasy]

Great work...

This was made in 2001? This is better than most sprite movies made today in terms of effects and comic timing. While there are a few flaws, the originality more than made up for it. Thumbs Up.

[Megaman X: The Mavericks]

Good presentation...needs polishing,

This piece is very, very uneven. I liked the preloader, the opening, and the menu. I laughed at parts (Armord Armadillo's scenario was the best), then cringed at a lot of this. The big problem with these shorts is that it's simply too reliant on the same jokes. There's a difference between juvenile and redundant humor, and this piece walks on both sides of the line.

Also, the sprite work, though good, needed to be cleaned up a little. Some of the edits looked great, others looked completely horrible.

It's not bad, and there's plenty to like such as how you made the elements flow together, but please broaden the humor beyond the pattern of "gay/retard" bashing,

[That Mean Olde Villain]

Close to silent perfection

It's hard to do a silent movie effectively, since sound is critical to making an animation come to life. However, this was a valiant and successful attempt that went for laughing at the tropes rather than using a silent movie as an excuse not to add anything other than a musical sountrack.

I like the whole grainy, scratched, flawed fim feel, down to the flicker of large blacked out spots. I also like how you used animation to convey effects that would have been impossible for silent films that enliven the movie. The animation appears simple, but like the rather limited effects available in early film it manages to create something more meaningful than overproduced junk. Yet you use it to amp up the unintentioal "cheese" factor of those early films. As a result, this piece not only pays homage to the silent film era, but it also makes fun of lackluster animation techniques and narratives.

If I have to critique something, it's that by 1946, the silent movie was pretty much dead. But the overwhelming majority of this piece is refreshingly wonderful.

DrClay responds:

Yeah, the whole time I was making this, I kept thinking 1946 isn't a good year to say, but for some reason, I wanted to keep it that way. something about those numbers, being put together like that, made me want to keep them in.

thank you so much for your review.

[The Heart and the Hand p1]

Unique

There are so many Flash movies that while wonderfully put together, are as cookie cutter as they come. This is not one of them. One of the things that immediately struck me is the style of art, and the style of animation. The use of tweens was done intelligently in this piece to convey the "drawn" nature of reality, rather than as a cheap shortcut. I love the sun, the other characters, the setting, the rather subdued level of humor...just wow.

My only very minor complaints are that the direction is a little too dynamic (it shows off the nice visuals, but is distracting) and the sound quality of the voices could be a little bettter, but those are nitpicks.

Bobert-Rob responds:

Heh, you noticed the tweens. Yeah, I decided to go ahead and use a few more in this one than I usually do, but like you said, I used them in a way that helps the animation run smoother, not as a crutch of laziness. And yeah, perhaps I was a little too ambitious with the crazy art world I built around this, but it's all good. I may tone down on that a little if I continue to make this after I finish part 2, but we'll see. Thank you for the thorough review, I appreciate it!

[Valhalla Knights 2]

A Vast improvement from Part One, but...

First let me get the good. The animation are amazing and the graphics show continued improvement. The sound isn't bad, and is well composed. The direction of the action and the pacing of this story is done nicely, and there's an attempt to throw a little humor into a serious movie such as this. I also like how this chapter can be taken stand-alone. While watching Part I is helpful, it isn't absolutely necessary.

But there are two problems with the overall writing that make such a wonderful fall short of excellence.

The first problem is the set of cliches in this piece. I don't expect something without any reliance on the storytelling standards, but you have shown the ability to deliver great material even while relying on the tropes. Then, with Red Riding Hood you didn't just create a "dark" story. You subverted close every trope (both traditional and modern) and along with the direction, acting, and composition, created a masterpiece.

Now with this, you have the standard, "Guy with mysterious object finds supernatural naked woman and must protect her from shadowy bad guys." Given the opening sequence of part one and the spark of power shown in this one, it's likely she's not going to be powerless and naked forever (and from Ken's opening monologue in Part I, this series may conclude on a bittersweet note where he DOESN'T end up with the girl, after all), but my problem isn't that Ken is doing all the work. Rather, every development appears to be derivate to the point where I could not get lost in the telling of the story. The only thing that surprised me even in the slightest is the bullets were able to disintegrate the bad guys.

My biggest problem with this, though, is that your main protagonist, Ken, for all his visual glory, is completely uninteresting to me. I mean, other than his voice there is very little in terms of personality that sets him apart. He has unresolved "daddy issues" and a cop. The problem is this type of hero has been done to death, and is even worse when despite all the character establishment in the first part, there's nothing that really defines this guy other than his childhood trauma.

This isn't bad by any means. But so far, this has been the same old story of shadowy bad guys after a girl and a jewel and a "normal" guy who gets involved. and soon finds his destiny intertwined on the side of good. You've done better and you can do better with a story. I'd hate to let the wonderful package you've put this tale in go to waste.