WarpZone's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Invaders From Space]

"Invaders! Quite possibly from SPACE!"

Graphics: Pretty much what everyone else has said. You've made great use of camera work on the sequences with the game-ripped sprites, you've done some great sprites of your own for the original characters and effects, (Which is something I've always wished for, when I'd see someone else's sprite cartoon and they go mixing sprites with vectors in places, just cuz it was "easier...") and the isometric 3D sequences were awesome as well. The video at the end was unexpected, quick, and to the point.

Sound: First of all, that music kicked ass. Way to apply chord progression to an otherwise repetitive series of notes. Musical Theory FTW! Your voice work was less impressive, but I've heard worse on Newgrounds. Actually, those fake robot voices everyone else uses might have fit right in to the video game segment. The RL voices at the end sounded a little bit more natural.

Overall: Heh, that was awesome. It had me thinking of that one Futurama episode where "what if life was more like a video game." I'm looking forward to your next release. Keep it up, kid!

nerdswithattitude responds:

Thanks, that was a very helpful review.

Also "Musical Theory FTW" QFT.

You're right, my voice work is crap. I need to work on it.

Also, I'm glad someone mentioned the Futurama episode (I lol'd at the title quote), cause I made an effort not to make it comparable to that.

Thanks for the support!

[TRR: No Underwear]

LOLZORZ!

Guy below me and guy above me have it right. This is hillarious, despite the noobish graphics. Good job! :D

Serious Suggestions for Improving The Graffix:
-Start with rectangles.
-Move the corners to where the body part should start and stop.
-Curve the rectangle's lines to suggest more complex shapes such as arms or legs.

If you're using Flash 8, you'll want to keep your body parts seperate using "Object Drawing" mode. If you're using an older version of Flash, you'll need to seperate everything into different objects or layers, which is a little bit of a pain in the ass, but it's worth it.

Use thick lines for a more stylized look, try to avoid uneccessary details, and if you're using Flash 8, make the corners Square for a sharper look.

Good luck! :) This is gonna be a tough act to follow, so work on imrpoving your drawing ability!

rubyrulez responds:

Now, if only everyone else was like you, I'd have it made :D

[1 - The Story of Khale]

Great mood piece! Can't wait for the series!

Graphics: Great, crisp line-art, smooth animation, only slightly disjointed facial expressions, and tons of personality. One point deducted because I'm pretty sure I recognize the anatomy from an old SegaCD or MegaDrive game, so I suspect some tracery. Even still, it's very good, and very original. Plus the backgrounds are just plain gorgeous.

Style: At first, I was a little disappointed with how linear the run animation was. You know? Like "Close, but no Bitey?" But then after a while I started to realize that it added a sort of 2D game ambiance to the whole affair which feels right at home on Newgrounds. We've already got flash games that look like cartoons and pixel cartoons that look like games. Why not blur the lines even further?

Sound: Great musical score, well-synched to the animation. There's some room for improvement, but it's not anything specific that I could put my finger on. No doubt by episode 4 or 5, they'll have it honed to perfection. We can only hope the voices are this good!

Violence: Can we count that chunk he tore out of that endangered species of cloud? No? Okay, just checking. In a way, you have to respect the artist for making something this action-packed, without any actual violence or combat. Does that hint that the series, when it comes, will contain actual storytelling? Dare to dream!

Humor: Heh, it was cute. Made me smile in a few spots. Like when he's playing with the clouds, or when he lands in bed. Kid has his frolicking down to a schedule!

Overall: Very nice work, and uplifting to boot! Cuts corners in a few ways, but not so as anyone but an anal-retentive overcritical reviewer-guy would notice. I'm very eagerly looking forward to this series, and also looking forward to seeing what this artist does in the future, as practice and experience pay their dividends.

LeafWorthy responds:

Thank you very much for your extremely thoughtful critique! Heh, no tracery here, the primary influences for little Khale's design are young Disney's Tarzan and popeye. I'll be glad to hear what you have to say about my future episodes.

[The Evil Creature part 1]

Well, you made a claymation movie anyway...

Graphics: Good animation, moving the arms and such. Next time, try making clay characters that are different from everyone else's... try adding hair, clothes, eyes, wings... anything you can think of! Use your immagination! :)

Style: Pretty average. With a little imagination, I'll bet you could make these guys go on some interesting adventures!

Sound: Pretty good. You should try to make a different voice for each character. Also, don't breathe into the microphone, or get some help editing that part out.

Violence: A monster eats some heads. But the blood looks really fake, so it's not that gory. Not really.

Humor: Ehhh, kinda funny.

Overall: Not bad, kid. Good job making a whole claymation movie! Good luck with your next movie!

dumassstudios responds:

Thanks for the tips

[TTA Episode 073.5]

So much more than the sum of its parts...

I just came across this series a while ago, expecting it to be "just another sprite battle." Instead, I was surprised to find a fun and original story, that only grew more complex as the episodes passed. I was instantly addicted, and I lost about a week's worth of my free time just catching up with the series on NG.

Needless to say, 073.2 is wasily the best episode yet. The animation, voices and story keep getting better. I'd immagine it keeps on imrpoving throughout 2007 as Kirbopher and the other contributors continue to hone their skills, but I haven't seen the newer episodes yet. (I don't dare google this series, for fear that I'll lose another week of my life! I'll just digest the new epsiodes as they show up one by one on NG, thank you.)

For the rest of this review, I'll not only be reviewing this episode, but also the series as a whole.

Art & Animation: What began as a series of recolored sprite rips has grown into so much more. Even compared to the other "movie" episodes, this ep. stands out as another step forward. Pixelly line art has given way to anime-influenced vectors and chunky motion tweens. He still has a way to go before anyone will be comparing this series to Bitey, but he gets closer every time he does a toon segment. The simple pixel fight sequences featured in the rest of the series are great, too, and they keep getting better over time.

Style, Theme, and Concept: This is where this series scores big. Kirbopher has taken the concept of VR and run with it. To be honest, I'm not sure how much of the credit to give the marshmallow himself... he's probably gotten one character design each from a ton of his friends, and they all seem to have created their character by modifying a classic video game sprite. Nevertheless, the differences vastly outweigh the simmilarities, and with each redesign the characters become a bit more original. More to the point, the world of TOME is vast and complex, yet familiar. Somehow he creates the illusion that these recycled game graphics really are part of an MMO, and the backgrounds evolve as the characters do, with a fresh coat of paint every season. (Except perhaps for :purplecave. But hey, the simplicity is almost a hallmark of the region by now.)

Story: What was once a simplistic BDZ ripoff has blown through an anime phase, an afterschool special phase, and with this episode touches on new emotional territory... Hope. You don't get a lot of emotional stuff on NG or on the internet in general, and the last place I expected to shed a tear was on the MMO Battle Sequence Show. But it's there, and it's well-executed. I wholeheartedly support this type of writing! Placing it at the end of the episode as a quick, poignant twist was probably a good idea, as it can quickly become sappy and annoying if the writers drag it out.

Having played Second Life, I can tell you that a real MMO that allows the user full creativity would NEVER end up as something this interesting, this colorful, or this fun. Instead you'd see all the male characters looking like professional wrestlers and all the female characters looking like barbiedolls, ugly malls and casinos covering the entire landscape, everyone complaining about the lag, real creativity being stifled by peer pressure and stamped out by capitalism, fears of crossplaying (which were briefly touched upon, way back in Ep. 1) Premium Membership tolls, and of course, trolling, griefing, spamming, and flame wars.

I can only assume that for the same of telling an optimistic story about a utopian MMO VR game of the future, Kirbopher has chosen to rule that Motherboard, the Netkings, and the Moderators have delt with all of these issues. But if Motherboard is truly joined with the minds of all logged-in users, based on what I've seen in Second Life, you'd think she'd be a LOT nastier and more corrupted by the thoughts of her user-base than by any virus. But of course, that's Kirbopher's call, as author. My job is to suspend my disbelief, and enjoy. :)

Overall: Great show. More please! :)

Kirbopher responds:

I appreciate your thoughts on the series as a whole, and I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! This is the last episode to date, but there are other TTA-related things you can find on my website, including details about my next TTA movie like this one, so check that out. I DID create all of the character designs, although a very small few of them were designed by other people, and some of them are completely original and not based on people I knew from TvTome. I'm looking ahead in order to constantly improve my animation skills, just as I have with TTA in itself. Thank you very much for the review!

[The Squares]

Doubleyou Tee Eff Mate.

It didn't seem that sad to me... more upbeat and perky despite the gory deaths. I mean, they weren't even sad or tragic deaths, they were just goofy and light-hearted. Oh... OH! I get it. You're not really sad, you're just making fun of this "emo" trend that swept across the internet like wildfire in late 2005. Very clever. You had me going for a minute there.

Graphics: Decent execution. A tad simplistic, but some of the details really added to the distinction of each Square.

Style: Awesome. The Squares are cool stylized little people, and if any of them survived I hope you do a story about them.

Sound: I could take it or leave it. But on Newgrounds, that's high praise, since 90% of these flashes have horribly annoying, grating, poorly-recorded soundtracks. The Squares' subued perky music and crisp, loud sound effects are almost soothing in comparison.

Violence: Lots of people die bloody, senseless deaths. But that's nothing compared to the greusome slow torture you see in a few Flashes you see around here. Not that I'm complaining. Frankly, nines or higher on my scale disturb me.

Interactivity: movie.

Humor: I guess the plane crashing into a guy in a turban was supposed to be a joke, but it wasn't really funny. Just kinda... dull. I mean, I guess it'd be ironic if the guy were Taliban or something, but the dude had a t-shirt on. He had to be an American. That would be like a non-KKK white guy getting crushed beneath a burning cross that fell over, or a non-terrorist christian getting blown up because he happened to be walking past the abortion clinic when some nutjob's bomb went off. Unless there is a layer to this I am not precieving. I didn't get a good look at what the guy's T-shirt actually said on it. If that was part of the joke, well, I'm afraid I missed it.

Overall: It doesn't suck. It just doesn't rule, either. If this entry was intended sarcastically: I didn't get it. If you literally posted this as an apathetic gesture of hatred towards all mankind, I have to say it's a pretty lame condemnation. George frickin' Carlin was harsher on my self-esteem than this Flash.

But in a way, that's a good thing. The fact that you felt this goofy, bouncy, cartoony joke of a bloodbath was your ultimate expression of sadness and hatred tells me your soul isn't as far gone as you think it is.

So, if your sentiment you typed when posting this was real, and meant to be taken literally, I have this to say in response: Be at peace. You are not a hateful person by nature. You will eventually recover from your loss. I can't wait to see what your next creation is, once you do.

DrDeath2k3 responds:

"Oh... OH! I get it. You're not really sad, you're just making fun of this "emo" trend that swept across the internet like wildfire in late 2005."

...I think you are actually the first person to get that.

...Anywho, thanks for the lengthy, in-depth review! It is much appreciated!

[Punto GGG-Playa Nudista]

(psst... Playa Nudista == Nude Beach.)

Graphics: Awesome, very well stylized art. Color would make it even better. Everything looks very crisp and precise, with everything rendered in thick vector lines.

Style: Little things, like the way the car moved up the mountain trail, looked very cheesey and cartoony, which in this case is good. Also, the use of red in an otherwise black-and-white movie is always good.

Sound: UGH! The sailor music loops around to the title screen! >.< Other than that, the music was nice and lively, and it matched the visuals.

Violence: none

Interactivity: none

Humor: LOL! Yes, I understood the story. :) You did a good job of storytelling, even without words. I got the jokes, too. Maybe peopel who don't know what Playa Nudista means wouldn't get it. The whole joke is, the audience expects them to get naked, right? :P If you wanted to make this cartoon more accessible to Newgrounds, you could maybe change the sign to say NUDE BEACH, or something. But that's only if you give a damn about whether a bunch of yanks laugh or not. :P

Overall: Very good! :) Submit more! :D Also, I think your cartoon was a lot classier than other adult flash websites that have submitted SWFs to Newgrounds.

(Arrepentido acerca de este español malo. Soy un Americano estúpido. : P Nosotros Somos demasiado perezosos ser bilingüe, así que tuve un sitio web lo traduce para mí.)

La gráfica: el arte muy bien estilizada Impresionante. El color lo haría aún mejor. Todo mira muy curruscante y preciso, con todo rindió en líneas gruesas de vector.

El estilo: las cosas Pequeñas, quieren la manera que el coche movió arriba el rastro de montaña, mirado muy cheesey y cartoony, que en este caso es bueno. También, el uso de rojo en una película blanca y de otro modo negra es siempre bueno.

¡El sonido: UGH! ¡La música del marinero serpentea alrededor a la primera pantalla! >. <de otra manera que eso, la música era agradable y viva, y emparejó el visual.

La violencia: ninguno

Interactividad: ninguno

¡El humor: LOL! Sí, entendí el cuento. :) Usted hizo un trabajo bueno de narrativa, aún sin palabras. Obtuve los chistes, también. Quizá peopel que no sabe que qué medios de Playa Nudista no lo obtendrían. ¿El chiste entero es, la audiencia espera que ellos obtengan desnudo, el derecho? : P Si usted quiso hacer esta tira humorística más accesible a Newgrounds, usted quizá podría cambiar el signo para decir PLAYA NUDISTA, o algo. Pero eso es único si usted da un maldito acerca de si un ramo de tira la risa o no. : P

¡General: Muy bueno! ¡:) Se Somete más! : D También, yo pienso que su tira humorística era mucho más elegante que otros sitios web rápidos adultos que se han sometido SWFs a Newgrounds.

Masklin8 responds:

Thank you for your extensive review! I really appreciate it. I'll take your advice about the sound. Very helpful!

[Fireman vs. Iceman]

I haven't seen a duel quite like this before.

A little simplistic, but it's still a hell of a lot better than stick movies. I was a little underwhelmed by the endings. In the end, I didn't have much of a reason to care about either of these elemental warriors, and neither death was especially funny or interesting, at least not more so than any of their normal attacks. If they'd had a REASOn to fight, this would have been a STORY! :D Keep that in mind for the next Flash you do. I see potential in your work, kid! :)

Coaly responds:

Well, thank you. It was simplistic, and the only reason they were fighting was because they were opposite forces.

[How Newgrounds Functions]

I hate these dumb parodies. Just kidding.

That was clever. :) It won't be clever anymore in three days when everybody and his livejournal copies it, but for now, it's clever.

EvilBerryClock responds:

thank you for the review :)

[NGP: P.O Bubbles Teaser]

Shouldn't this be better than the ones it mocks?

I'm not going to make fun of your Flash this time, because it doesn't seem to be helping any. So instead, I'm just going to give you totally serious, non-sarcastic advice. Go to your local library. Ask a librarian how to access the library catolog. It's on computer, trust me, it's as easy as using any other serch engine. You want to search for the string "HOW TO DRAW." Just go ahead and look up any one of those books, they should all be grouped together in the same spot in the nonfiction section. Just start leafing through all of them until you find one that shows you how to draw a cartoon rabbit. Check that book out, and take it home. Read it. Practice. Learn from it. What? You don't like how they draw rabbits? You'd rather draw it your won way? Oh, that's fine! That's fine. But since you clearly can't draw, why not learn how to do it their way first, and then modify that procedure until you're drawing what Bubbles looks like in your mind's eye? I know damn well that's how you laerned to draw trees. You can learn how to animate the same way. Heck, even big animation studios like Di$ney and WB, when they make a new cartoon, and let's say this one's about like, a lobster, the first damn thing they do is examine every other piece of animated footage about lobsters they can get their hands on. That's really the only way the human brain can learn, is through emulation. Now, you can keep emulating the crappy Flashes that you're making fun of, the mediocre ones that were barely a minimal effort, floating in the black between "tomorrow's top 20" and "blammed," OR you can start emulating professional animation.

Instead of parodying the worst stuff on Newgrounds, try imitating the best stuff on Newgrounds! Your entire parodies series would be MUCH more scathing if there were a visible difference between the footage of crappy flashes and the scenes you made up yourself. And even though you may not feel like trying any harder than you already do, I know you could do better than this if you really tried.

It's not that hard. You make a box, you stretch it, you twist it, you makew it curvy. Bang, it's a belly. New layer. Make a box, stretch it, twist it, rotate it, poof, it's an arm. Don't use gradients. But use a color that actually looks like a cartoon rabit color. Make the background match your characters. None of this bright cyan sky. Avoid primary colors altgoether. Heck, use the eyedropper tool to yoink colors from a picture that looks good. They can't copyright pallettes. Hey, you wanna take it one step further? Want to add shadows and really amaze the crap out of everybody? Just draw ONE DAMN LINE across each body part and curve it, and darken the ink color of the lower half. BOOM! Instant 3D! So now it's in all these layers. Select the whole thing, copy, paste it over the the side, and convert it to a symbol. There's your first animation frame. Remove the shadows from the shapes still distributed between layers off to the side, and rearrange them to make the next pose. It seems like a lot of work at first, until you get used to it. Then all of a sudden, you've got a fully animated cartoon rabit that's pulling down 5's, and I shut my mouth and stop heckling you every time you release a movie that's only marginally better than the flashes it's making fun of.

XxShadowMasterxX responds:

just to let you know I didn't any of that...