Cheesius's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[In The Sand]

That was nice.

There were a few things that bothered me, but overall, it was pretty good.

Thing that bothered me #1 - I don't usually care for videos that do such literal translations of the song lyrics... He's on the ocean has him randomly standing on the ocean, he's in the sand has him sinking into the sand.. I understand, that's what they're singing about... But it's a very basic interpretation, and I think something that keeps everything within the same theme would have worked better.

Thing that bothered me #2 - why do so many animators get turning pages on books backwards? When he's sitting there reading, he's flipping the book pages backwards. It's a really common mistake, I just think it's odd.

Other than that, it was nice.

Foxcato responds:

thanks... glad you liked it.
1) I felt it was the best way to do it... though I rarely do stuff like that in my films.
2) Holy crap you're right!! Damn! Oh well... thanks for pointing it out.

[Gleek]

I have to thank you for making this cartoon

See, with this vote, I gain level 10 on NG. Yay! So, yeah. Thanks for posting this. Now on with a review.

the animation was pretty good, and the characters were decent. The sound was a bit of a problem, just in how much background noise there was with the blinks - lots of hiss going on there. My only other complaint was the lack of plot. It was decent, but just not much going on. A simple sight gag, and unfortunately, I kind of expected it. A shame. However, I am looking forward to what you post next time, as I expect it'll be improved from this. Good job.

ChrisMayo responds:

Glad this animation could help with the level 10 :). I agree, the sound is lackluster at best. I recorded it with shitty equipment. I was contemplating rerecording it, for submission, but I didn’t bother. My next animation will have competent sound if it is recorded by me. Other than that it is hard to find quality cartoon sound effects for free online. The plot surrounding this animation was for the simple sight gag. Its purpose was simply to showcase these characters in a sample animation with a gag. This was created a while ago, so I hope to have an improved animation next time. Thanks for your constructive review. More people should review this way.

[Lemmings: Deus Ex Machina]

A bit more optimization and I would have voted 5

As the bodies pile up, the animation gets slower. To solve that, I think you should periodically convert all the seperate bodies to one library object. Like every 5 bodies or so that are added, you should flatten them all and regroup them into an optimized library object. I know, it plays fine when I decrease the quality, but then I can't see the detail you put into the animated characters. Better to sacrifice quality on the corpses than to sacrifice frames, in my opinion.

Still, other than a lack of optimization, it was good. Excellent job.

[Things that dont mix]

It would have been funnier if it weren't so slow

It just kind of dragged on and on... And there's a major sound sync issue going on, which doesn't help much.

First thing I noticed is that you mention yourself twice at the beginning of the thing. I understand you're proud of it, but it's redundant, and makes you seem kind of stuck-up. either get rid of the way-too-slow-motion pogo stick guy bit, or get rid of your name in the too-slow second bit. And either way, make them go faster. Waiting for the pogo stick guy to get across... Then waiting for all the words to appear... It took over 30 seconds just to get into the cartoon, and that's all "Come on, get on with it!"

Once I got to the cartoon, the sound sync issue became apparent. The olympic announcer guy says his thing before the wheelchair guy even finishes his thing.

The fat guy on motorcycle thing had the same issue as the airplane bit.. That is the engine noise was only occasional. Was like RRRRR....................RRRRR......................RRRRR..
.................... Really annoying.

When people talk, it's nice that you did animate their lips properly, I can tell you worked at that - but because the sound isn't syncing right, they continue to move their lips well after the talking's over.

Every bit of animation in the thing seems like it's in slow motion, and the sound is a problem throughout. I had to go watch another cartoon to make sure it wasn't just my comp, but the other toon played fine.

Frankly, it's very much like the framerate on the toon is half what it should be, or the sound is set to event instead of stream, or a combination of the two. Also, did you optimize your graphics? That'd slow things down a bit if you didn't.

Anyway, it's a great effort, If it weren't so sluggish I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

[Samurai Training]

Hm.

Your delivery lacked enthusiasm - I'd reccomend that you do some practice reading and recording, until you can read something like that in a conversational tone.

Your little bits of text that showed up at times were far too brief to be very readable, they needed to be on the screen longer. There was something about hair, and something about armor... But I couldn't read what either one said.

Your "play" button leaves a lot to be desired - it's too far away from the words "play movie" to be obvious that its a play button. I would have made the entire area a play button, because my first instinct was to click on the words "play movie."

Your report on samurai is mildly interesting, but I felt you could have gone more in-depth in places. What makes a low-class or high-class samurai? What sort of self-control training? What sort of mental alertness training? When you say "literary arts," how does that differ from reading and writing? What happens during the Genbuku ceremony?

The biggest problem I see with this is that - as you admitted - you procrastinated on it and did a half-assed job. This could have been much better with a bit more work. If I were your teacher, I would probably not give you over a C+ for this, because although you did get some details and present them reasonably well, you clearly only did a minimum amount of research to get them... Or if you did more research, you didn't really present anything in-depth, all you did was touch on the basics.

[Easter Bites]

It's a shame I've already seen the pic

I mean, the picture has been circulating around the internet forever. Actually, there's two versions. The original, which has one bunny saying "Happy easter!", and the modified version - where someone edited the pic, adding a bite out of his butt and changed it to "My butt hurts!"

Anyway, you lost big on style points since I know you didn't draw the original graphic, but more importantly, you didn't even mention that you didn't come up with the idea - that it's not original. That irritates me, therefore I gave you a 0 for style. Even if you don't know who to credit, at least you could mention that its not your idea, don't you think?

Anyway, other than that, it was reasonably well done.

["Target Practice"]

Well let's be honest here

The only reason anyone is making a big deal about this cartoon is because of what he did after submitting it. It's very similar to tons of other cartoons on Newgrounds. Does this say that all the people who make those cartoons are going to go nuts? No. I have a cartoon up here where a baby's head explodes. I can assure you, I have no intention of blowing up baby heads.

It's a shame that he was so messed up, because he was a hell of an animator.

[Grim Reaper Show 5]

Awesome!

I saw this on the front page, clicked, and then watched the other episodes first so I could be prepared for this. I gotta say, this isn't the best of the series, but it's still really good.

The only suggestion I have is that your "loserville" link in there needs a target - because when you click on it, it opens in the useless little popup that the movie played in.

Other than that, you NEED no suggestions. This was bizarre, strange, and hilarious. Good job.

[Medicated Baby-Heads]

Weird.

That was entertaining, but it was weird too. Seems like a bit of a new direction for the NY series perhaps. Anyway, good job as usual.

Will the next episode focus on various craft projects you can do that involve a dead baby? Ok, I'm sick. Sick, sick sick. But you know it would be funny.

[There she is!! step 2]

I didn't think it would do justice to the first...

This is a perfect sequel. The animation is better, the story is just as cute and clever, I enjoyed it a lot. Good job!