OrangePylon's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pokemon PoopBrown Version]

Not to toot my own horn, but...

Yeah I'm that shmo who made that Pokémon: Pee Red Version flash two years ago that was sorta popular, a bit. Now I'm not bringing that up because I want to compare mine to yours, or even to draw attention to mine. I'm reviewing this flash because I saw myself in you and since I've made a very similar flash, could offer you advice that I would have appreciated. After all, like me, you actually respond to your reviews, which shows that you do care a lot about what you're putting out there for people to see. And what's more, you expect actual criticism from the negative ones, which I applaud you for. Anyway, I've spent entirely too much space with this probably unnecessary intro. On to where this flash actually gains and loses points in my book:

What I enjoyed most was how you set up a cast of characters with personalities. I actually wanted to see what was happening to Ash and Gary since they had a bit of chemistry together, and giving them both a team of unique Pokémon kind of separated them from the other variations of them we've seen in countless flash movies and Nuzlocke fan comics. Prof. Oak's voice is great. Oak being a pervert is nothing we haven't seen before *ahem*, but the way that his voice actor got it down was very enjoyable.

The sprite work was very lively. The way the camera and backgrounds were tweaked to make it seem like we could see all around the characters (Ash's room) was nice, and using the trainer sprites for close-up shots was a nice touch. The lip sync carried over to when they were small, and the characters bounced around and moved like they were actually emoting, which is a bit more than you can say for my old version. But even if the animation does kick the ass out of mine, it isn't perfect. There are a lot of small hiccups that make you wonder why they're even there, some sounds were off or missing all together, and the subtitles seemed stretched at times and were riddled with spelling mistakes, which drags the presentation down all together.

But all these things I'm saying don't seem to be enough to drag the score down to a 6, and that brings me to this flash's biggest problem: its sense of humour. I see how you've been hearing this a lot, but not everything has to be about sex. Hell, sometimes there are times where you don't even need a joke. Having no joke actually IS better than having a bad joke. Case in point: bringing up the Water Temple just to make a TWSS joke about it being (*tee-hee*) HARD. While 3% of your audience may laugh at That's What She Said jokes, the other 97% will be either cringing or facepalming. It seems like a lot of the jokes were thrown in like that. Another good (or bad, really) example is when the nerd approaches Ash and Gary and says that Cynthia is cute, but is only into girls, because apparently just bringing up lesbianism counts for a joke (and we find out later that that isn't true, so this anti-joke doesn't even have a reason to exist). Immediately after, he gets kicked in the balls. Wait, why? What promted Ash to do that? It just seems like you didn't put much thought into what went there. Also try to deliver a joke and not just point it out, like Prof. Birch wearing sandals. You can't just have him say "how gay is that?!" It's lazy and embarassing, and it set the bar low for the rest of the flash.

Holy crap am I ever running out of space. Let it be known that while your humour isn't to my liking, there was enough that I liked that stopped it from being a total stinker. Or even kept it from being bad at all, a 6 is above average. I laughed out loud at the line "WOAH, was that me?!" The ending especially I really liked. The Star Wars joke didn't seem totally forced; it gave me a chuckle. I have no idea why you're catching so much flack for the Sandshrew fight scene, I thought it was the best part of the flash. It's probably one of the best use of sprites that I've seen, not to mention funny, too.

In conclusion, it had its moments, and I believe you will get better in time and learn from your mistakes.

-Lon

PS PoopBrown was too obvious a title choice.

Eastbeast responds:

This is a great review to read especially. I remember watching Pee Red when I could barley flash and thinking, wow that would be cool to do one day; it was the humor that really made it a classic in my mind and on NG. :) so with respect this is kind of in ode to Pee Red, But not all quite. I totally took a few pages from you (obviously ha) with perverted Oak, Ash being an ass, and even Gary in his development stages was alot like yours. But I knew to even try to copy your exact style would be a cliche' (As if my title wasn't enough ha) I wanted to expirement with a different kind of humor that was completely, well, stupid, but didn't apologize for itself. It was more inspired by the jokes people use around their friends late at night, which sound stupid in the morning. I will even agree that not all the jokes in this I even laughed at, but I wanted to see them combined with a different kind of pokemon story, other than the one's we've all heard (Ash gets to pewter city and them most pokemon parodies become unconsumated in their lack of conclusion.) I really wanted to expand the pokemon universe in my own direction which I seldom see people do well, but I can understand how the humor in this might undercut it's objective to begin with. But as far as animation went, mine might be more dressed up, but yours is much cleaner and consistent, well timed, and is something I hope to improve on. Anyway, I had fun expirimenting with the humor for myself on this one, and will become less selfish in laughing at my raunchey humor to give some more go for wit in the sequel. I appreciate your critique on my use of humor and advice to better improve, it was beyond helpful. :) I look forward to seeing your original work which seems to be what you are doing now, and I am especially looking forward to the humor, that you really seem to have a good talent in. I hope I didn't sound too pretentious right now or anything haha but it is late so I will probably regret it in the morning. haha I am looking forward to your future projects as well.

sincerely

-Esty

P.s Since you aren't going to be making anymore pokemon flashes, could I borrow the title Fart Gold? haha I kid I kid, but seriously.

[There She Is!! step3]

My absolute favourite Flash.

I realize that the lot of you probably won't read this review, but I feel compelled to write it anyway. I've been putting off writing it forever because I know that I'll probably be going on about it until the character limit's up. However, I haven't written a nice, long, positive review in too long, so here we go...

I'm going to start off by saying that I scarcely give 10s out. I think 10s are reserved for things that you consider ABSOLUTELY flawless and perfect. Like I said, this Flash is at the very top, and this is my favourite episode in the series. But I'll actually talk about the movie now, so let's break this review down:

Animation:

Good Lord, it is without a doubt the smoothest and most beautiful animation I have ever seen bless a movie. Yeah, a movie, because this is above film-quality. It looks especially good when you have the camera completely turn around the characters. The style is really original and I think the simplistic mostly black-and-white characters and backgrounds make the animation look even better. Anyone who claims that the animation is bad has just simply never tried to animate anything in their life.

Music:

The music was also a great choice. I'm a sucker for J-Pop and stuff where I can't understand the lyrics because it just makes it all the catchier for me. Every now and then, it still pops up randomly and I just can't seem to get it out. This applies to every song in all 5 episodes. Love 'em. May be weird, but I do find it... well... cute. Which brings me effortlessly to the next section:

Characters:

I love the characters and find it hard not to tell people who refer to them as "the bunny and the cat" that their names are Doki and Nabi. I'm not even in to anime, but I've always loved the chibi style and I absolutely love the expressions on all the characters and how you're able to make them seem cute to me and make me care about them without even including dialogue. It reminds me of Wall-E, another feel-good, cutesy movie. I love it as well, but this will always hold the place in my heart as the original. It takes a lot to not squeal with joy like a moron when they hug at the end of the final step. It's just that powerful.

The series as a whole:

If I reviewed every episode like this, I would end up repeating myself way too much. In fact, I must have said "absolutely flawless" like 30 times already, but it really is just that good. I'll talk about the rest of them in order from weakest-strongest.

I actually see step 1 as the weakest (still deserving of a 10 score). Even if the animation from back then remains phenomenal nowadays, it can't compare to the animation in these later ones. But it sets the groundwork, so it's totally a classic.

Although I love the turn step 4 took, the feel-good moments suffer because of it. It remains really good on its own and I think sets up the final step even stronger. I actually felt sad for the porcupine when it died trying to stop the mob... Shut up, it's emotional!

step 2 was great. I think it had the catchiest song, too. I remember watching it with a friend who was just SEARCHING for animation flaws because he was so in shock. When Doki licked the crumbs off the plate, he pointed out that there was a simple white background. She then turned to the camera and it panned down an entire ally beautifully and promptly shut him up.

The final step had a really powerful ending and seeing all the characters unite to end the "racism" had a huge impact and sent a really good moral out.

In conclusion, I love this series and did have to cut a lot down in this review to hit under the character limit. I would love more, but I think the series ended perfectly, so instead I think something like it would be great. I don't care, I just need more from you guys! I watch these flashes when I'm feeling down and they always succeed in cheering me up. It gave me my first smile after my dog died. I just want other people to know how much this has inspired me and for them to give it chance too, because you'd have to be really cold-hearted to not be moved by this.

-Lon

[The ALL Sprites Collab]

No.

This is the exact stereotype that any sprite author would want to avoid. It's garbage; there were about two talented authors but that hardly makes up for what is mostly a putrid flash. There were even some drawn things in there. By the name I would assume that the minor difference from other sprite collabs would be that this uses ONLY sprites. So there really isn't anything to set it apart, is there?

I'm ready to go through every skit in here and review each one. So I will! :D

[Damn, I have to skip some due to character limitations!!]

The opening thing:

What? Yeah, Anchorman quote. Other people's jokes and other people's characters. That's great. It didn't even look good, the character jittered around a lot.

The me-

Wait, what? What kind of menu is that? A blue fill background with a sprite and the word "Play"? You couldn't have tried a LITTLE harder? I can't use scene select to help me write this review? Ugh.

1st skit:

Wow, I don't think anyone's ever done a joke about how the princess is kidnapped a whole lot. At least you had lousy voice acting to mix it up a bit...

2nd skit:

I'm sorry, I missed the joke. What, Chocolakkawhatever? LOLRANDUM. Or is it because he almost swore but got cut off?... Why did he even utter a WTF anyway?

4th skit:

That was some of the most horrible combinations of sprites and flash I've ever seen. LOLOLOLOLOLOL Luigi gets hit! That doesn't happen in the game. X3

5th skit:

HAHAHA NOW MEGAMAN GETS HIT BY SOMETHING LOLOLOLOLOLOL HOW DO YOU GUYS COME UP WITH THIS STUFF?

6th skit:

Oh, haha. Mario said the F-word. That's pretty ingenious right there.

8th skit:

Wow... It's a penis. I'm convinced that you're trying to be an NG stereotype. :/

9th skit:

Wow, more stolen jokes with stolen characters. How do people find this funny?

10th skit:

What? That Sandbag sprite look resized, if not just overall disproportioned. I don't recall Sandbag being too short to be hit by projectiles ever a joke in SSBB... so what's the point? Then more random violence and more TV show audio. God damn.

11th skit:

HALLELUJAH! It seems that someone put effort into their entry. Congratulations, GameboyHero, you win the I-put-effort-into-my-animation-to-mak e-it-look-decent award!

12th skit:

What? Back to the Future audio with Microsoft Sam saying "my penis"? "Back to my penis" doesn't even make sense. The sprites were terribly pixelated and... why did they need to be in Green Hill Zone?

13th skit:

Okay, that was pretty immature, but I have to admit to not-cringing as it was kind of well done.

14th skit:

Master Chief crushed OMFG THATS SO RANDIM + IT HAV HALO I VOT 5.

15th skit:

Great; it's continued. This time he says shit. Woo.

17th skit:

Sorry, I blinked, was there an unnecessary scene thrown here?

18th skit:

Horrible spritework all around. What's the joke anyway? Tetris block in SSBB? Like that hasn't been done before.

20th skit (whoof...):

Another dick joke! This time it has furry! Who cares that there are about 6 frames of animation?

22nd skit:

I have to admit to thinking up something like this myself. So I can't really knock it down too much. It seems to lag a whole lot whenever Kirby walks over to Ditto. Only ever in that scene. Weird, but forgivable.

23rd skit:

"This game is bad!" OMFG IT WAS BAD! I AGREE, I HOPE SOMEONE GETS HURT TO KEEP MY SUGAR-FILLED BRAIN ON ITS HIGH. BWAHAHAHA.

24th skit:

HAHAHAHA THAT'S SO FUNNY BECAUSE... it's actually really well done. I actually chuckled at this one. Props to... damn, I didn't catch your name and can't go back with scene selection. You win the best joke award, but then ruined it a tad when Snake shot Kirby. Oh well, good job on this one nonetheless.

25th skit:

And finally the ending. It's still not funny.

And that for the most part wraps it up. I can't believe I wrote all that. Anyway, My point is: please, please don't make another and further the stereotype that sprite animations/collabs all involve penis jokes and unnecessary swearing. They truly are annoying, and I await a slew of good ones to aid the cause.

Your's truly,
-Lon

[Super Mario Misadventures]

I want to slap you.

Dude, I make sprite movies of my own and you're making me hate sprites. Not one skit in here was funny or original. You keep responding to low reviewers saying "if you don't like, don't watch", rather than accept the constructive criticism for what it is and making yourself look completely hard-headed. That argument is such bullshit; if you watched the movie and didn't like it, you're completely entitled to your own opinion and can express ways you think the author can better his work in the review section, BUT IF YOU DON'T LISTEN TO REVIEWS, THEY CAN'T HELP YOU.

But I'm getting ahead of myself; let's talk about the movie...

Every. Single. Goddamn. Skit has been done before and is so played out it actually made me FROWN rather than 'ROTFLMAO' as all the reviewers who's balls have yet to drop keep saying. The skits can be boiled down to: Mario doesn't get what he wants and most likely ends up getting hit by something, BUT THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN IN THE GAME LOLOL. The only joke that I would consider passable (it didn't make me laugh, but it didn't make me cringe) would be the part of the bonus room skit where he successfully gets the two Os and then still gets it wrong, but it was still incredibly predictable. The use of sound clips from TV shows is such a cliché in video game bloopers and was never funny to begin with. It's essentially taking other people's jokes and using other people's characters. Seriously, one or the other, man. >.> Another incredible, unbelievably annoying cliché that I was actually waiting for so I could point it out in this review is the long-ass scene where you go through half a song and have your character get a whole bunch of stuff, but then OH! Something happens that makes him lose it all, rendering the scene pointless. That's teh fuhnee.

And the credits looked very poor also, I mean the side notes all the time weren't very funny and you could have thrown in Nintendo, The Simpsons, or whatever else you used under "ideas". Speaking of the credits, I noticed you put that another is on the way. I seriously hope you get a few original skit ideas before release. Good luck, the Mario blooper "genre" is so overdone that I'd be surprised if you could find something obscure enough that nobody's done. Even then, the only people that would get those are the fantards that are gonna review one-liner 10s anyway.

So that's about it, I- OH! I just remembered: You featured Luigi screwing the princess. Holy balls, dude, I take it back, maybe you should just stop making the second one. I mean as if the whole idea wasn't unoriginal enough, that joke is just... is just... ugh... Didn't Jerry Jackson even point that out in his Mario Parody Parody video? >.< That's pretty bad to have Jerry Jackson point out your flaws.

Okay, in conclusion, I have to say that the sprite work was alright at some points, but the idea is so awful and the skits have been done before. This is a very poor attempt at a flash movie, and you seriously need to put more thought into original work. Better luck next time I guess.

-Lon

N66 responds:

I don't want help, Becouse I made this video JUST - FOR - FUN. You understand? I know is not the BETTER OF THE WORLD and I DON'T WANT THIS IS. Tsk.

[Tetris Blocks]

Good, but room for improvement

Your animation was very smooth, the lip-synch was pretty alright, and the script and voice acting were great, but this flash suffers from some very minor issues that take away from the overall quality.

It took me a while to realize that they were falling, I thought you had gotten lazy and made them land in mid-air. Perhaps you should have tweened the background a little bit or something. And the first few seconds of the movie have virtually nothing happening in them. You should have made tetris blocks fall in the background like throughout the movie, as that's how I realized they were still falling. The loading screen also looks poorly done and could've had a little more time put into it. Also, ^^ eyes are best used on things that don't talk, but that's just a little nit-picky.

But otherwise, like I said, it was very well written and animated and you definitely have potential on Newgrounds. I really look forward to seeing more of your work. :P

[Mario vs. Luigi 3 Preview]

A step up!

I reviewed #2 giving it a 6, saying that the sprite work was okay but the overall flash was lacking. This was more towards what I was expecting! The addition of footsteps making noise was a really nice touch, and I can't explain why. It just adds to the quality overall. I do recommend redoing the scenes where they walk and add in them running, because frankly, it just makes it more slow-paced. :S

So what keeps this from an 8? It's a preview. I'm tempted to give it an even lower score, but I did say that this was a step up from a 6. Previews should stay off of NewGrounds unless they're some sort of bonus feature in a separate movie. You should have submitted this to spamtheweb.com or something and made a news post for all who were interested. And of course, it suffers from the same thing all previews do: it just shows the beginning then cuts off mid-flash. That really pisses me off, because not only does it cut off, but when the final movie comes out, I'll have already seen the beginning and a large portion will have been ruined for me. :(

But I must admit that this one looks promising and am looking forward to it. Good luck with this project.

[The Chicken And The Road]

Very good

This was extremely well done. The idea is original and it kept me entertained. The animation was great. Wasn't the best I've ever seen, but still very well done. The whole thing really reminded me of Wile E. Coyote but I saw that that was intentional when you put that "Acne" joke on the box.

My favorite part of this is the ending. The way the cars start crashing and buildings get demolished; just classic. Doesn't matter how many other times you've seen it, it's still funny. "That's how." also made me laugh.

The only thing that really bugged me was that all of Chicken's attempts were really similar, if not exact ripoffs, of something Looney Toons has already done, which is fine but it'd be nice to see some variety and original ideas.

Overall it was a very good and enjoyable flash and is worthy of an 8. :)

Sh0T-D0wN responds:

True, I loved the Looney Toons and they still have a pretty large influence in me - lol.

[Since You Been Gone]

Who needs colour?

Why does everyone complain about it?! Infact, the only reason I gave you a 7 is because of it!!! I love it, it really adds to the style. If you make another one, DO NOT ADD COLOUR!!! The video was pretty cool itself and the animation was good for your first time. Could use some fixing up, but it's a great start. :) The only thing that keeps it from an 8 is that it was the same video as the song in itself, nothing was too original. Also, fix the loop, a preloader would be nice. The song is good, but I don't want to hear it right after I finished it. I suggest editing the movie with an added one, or a replay screen of some sort... Anyway, to sum it up, I enjoyed it and would like to see another. :D

real-faker responds:

Ah, another of the few people who actually like it without color? Thank you. I'm not saying color would or wouldn't be a good or bad thing for it, but I appreciate hearing something different now and then. : D I prrrrrooobably wont add color. At least not for this one... it was just a beginer-ish experiment, so I'm not too concerned. I'm probably going to put a preloader on it eventually when I can figure out how. I'm sure it's a no-brainer, but I haven't bothered to mess with it yet.
Anyway, thank you very very much! I appreciate it!

[Amish Paradise: AWL]

Wow, that was... original! XD

Haha, Street Fighter and Harvest Moon... hillarious mix!!! I would've loved to see Jack fight Ken, but he is an Amish. :( Thank God, I was expecting one of those videos that's the exact same thing as the song in itself, but you managed to suprise me! :) Alright, a few complaints though:

Sometimes having your characters talk in a music video isn't a good idea, as you only have a really short period of time to read the text... don't get me wrong, I laughed at it, it's just that sometimes it went by a little fast... And, prepare to get bombarded by people saying "ZOMFG wy did U do dat to jesus?!/"... Sure, I was offended by it, but I'm smart enough to realize that it doesn't ruin the rest of the movie. -.-

Overall, very funny Flash, gave me a good laugh! :)

P.S. Yay, you used the old lady from my You're Pitiful Flash! XD Woohoo!

Nerd-02 responds:

Thanks glad you liked it. I rly didnt mean to offend anybody with the jesus thing. Its just when i heard "on you knees" i knew i needed to put that in. And the text does move a little fast but thats why i put in a replay button ;D

[Awesome Compilation Vol 2]

AWESOME... -.-

Fan frickin' tastic, I'm glad I caught this while it was still in the portal! :D I especially like LoA and PoA, waaay better than Vol. 1 and I can't wait for #3!!! :D