Hoogiman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Grandma's Cheese]

distururururbing

Well animated, a nice cartoon-like feel to the flash, as always I guess. Basically, you're a master and a person of my skill can't really pick out any flaws because I'm just not that good.

That being said, one cannot help feel but slightly disturbed when watching this animation, for a number of reasons. Freud would have a lot to say about this cartoon. Or it would give him some new material for dream analysis.

I do like that Weebl can keep up coming with fresh tunes to make songs to and they're still nice, fresh and quirky, distinct (in a good way) from the oldies such as kenya and badgers and scampi.

Some of the humour in here isn't exactly my cup of tea and will probably scar anyone under 10 here for life, but keep up the quirkiness?! Actually, no, I'm pretty sure even I'm scarred for life. Don't show this animation to your loved ones. Show it to people you know that don't quite have a sane grip on reality.

[I love the HALO World]

Well...

It was decent, but I can't say I overly enjoyed watching this animation. It caters to a certain audience, but I feel this animation could have been enjoyed more in some aspects.

The art style consists of firstly, sprites that you did not draw, and jpg's from the game as background images that you used the trace functions on. Firstly, correct me if I'm wrong but I'm reasonably certain Halo is not a game with 8-bit graphics, and I think I would appreciate more of the heart the animator put into this work if you attempted to draw the Halo guys, just like some other great Halo parodies on NG. Halo is a game of 3d graphics and the art style I feel doesn't really suit it. TRUE 'hard work' would be put in if you attempted to capture the aesthetic beauty of the halo models in the game. Using sprites for a game that (I'm pretty sure) does not have sprites feels like a shortcut, and original graphics would give you an individual voice or style in your animation.

Correct me if you disagree, but conceptually, the beauty in animation that I see is the soul of the author literally being poured into the drawings behind the work. I feel here there is basically only tweening, well-tweened in most areas, but I was baffled when in the line 'I love egyptian kings' the mouth looked a bit dodgy and the tweening in the rave party looked robotic.

Also, these 'bit' style characters seem completely out of place with the 3D rendering of the backgrounds... I'd suggest making 'bit'-style Halo backgrounds to fit the characters or hand-draw the dudes to fit the background a bit more.

I wish you could have drawn a lot more of this animation to capture an individual style, because with the same style of tracing and the same sprite sheet anyone could make a similar animation and you would not be able to distinguish any real original 'flair' or individuality here. Flash animation is about bringing things to life, but after watching what really is non-original graphics, tweens and traced backgrounds, I can't be too impressed with the visual aspects of the piece. You said you worked hard, but try pouring your heart and soul into an animation, try drawing everything.

Those aspects actually make me feel like the animation in this piece are minimal: only heads dodge, no lips need to move for the lip sync (this is the game of course), walking seems to be interchanging a couple of sprites and tweening quickly... it doesn't feel like Halo, and it would feel like Halo if you drew the guys yourself in a 2D style, made your own backgrounds... a cartoony Halo but something that fits the bill of what flash animation. Here, what we have feels never quite fitting and a bit out of place.

Did I feel entertained? I'm not too familiar with the song, but I would be a lot more entertained if I didn't have to look at some of the aspects I pointed out which don't quite give a very natural flow to the animation.

On the plus side, the use of special effects and sound effects were good. It's not a bad sprite movie, but I think the score compared to the 'greats' is almost insulting... is the animation magical and pleasing to the eye? Does it convey the complex emotions of the human condition? Or for humorous ones, is it well animated? Does it have a cartoon-like feel to emphasise the humour? Is the animator's ability used to the fullest capacity to convey the plot or elements of the narrative? Not really in this one minute video.

Is the beauty of the 'Halo World' captured in this video? I don't really think it can be with traced images and sprites, which feel out of place.

Greenfrost6 responds:

Probably the best review I've ever had. (no sarcasm)

Cheers mate. :)

[War, Snow and Fire]

marvelous

This is really what animation is about, isn't it? Great animation tells a story, like you did here. Animation like this, a piece without dialogue and music can tell so many different things, and it's almost a magical aspect of the piece as details are filled in by one's own imagination. This evokes emotions and feelings that sometimes words cannot express. Great animation and something we can all strive towards. Perhaps the last scene felt a bit too brief, but that's just being nitpicky and this was great.

[MetroidPrimeCatastrophe 2]

s'aite

Let me just comment that the animation was quite good and your drawings seemed appropriate to the... theme of Metroid.

However, I felt it was the combination of the dialogue with the voices that let this flash down. Yes, the voices of most of the actors were okay... you just didn't utilise them properly.

There was just too many awkward pauses and phrases that were delivered in the wrong tone that made the jokes... just not work. Samus's voice was really... unfitting, her voice was just a bit too whiny for my liking...

The key is to direct your actors: you can make your voice deliver their lines in a bit more of a conversation-like manner, and don't be afraid to ask to redo lines. Because in a heavy dialogue-based flash like this, voices are the difference between the jokes working and not working, and unfortunately for me... they didn't really work...

However, you should fix up the writing a tad too. Make the jokes snappier, none of this 'mommy' stuff and just put in more jokes... that way if some don't work the constant barrage of gags will probably make a viewer like me laugh, even if I hate some of the gags.

This with the combination of some refined/better voice acting will be the combination for a really good flash! Good luck! (Ask for clarification if you need)

Shadowii2 responds:

I see your point here and I appreciate it, but as I am an amateur animator and I'm not paid for doing stuff I don't really concentrate that much to how the voicing sounds in the movie in general, although I know I should care a little more here.

If I would ever be payed for creating a flash shortie, I would surely take a lot of attention to the voicing that the customer(s) wouldn't be disapointed.

And for the jokes I can say, my taste of humor is quite immature when compared to the jokes people aged around as old as me do, so it depends on the viewer does he/she like it or not.

Anyway, thanks for the opinions and review.

[Spooky Scary Skeletons]

Hurrah!

Zekey you've done it again! Well done on this lovely swell thing of goodness!

And the skeletons were... very scary... and skeleton-like...

ZekeySpaceyLizard responds:

WIG AR LEE TUFF???

[Aeropolis³]

:)sFvrvww

I haven't been in for a while.

It was swell, addictive and uh... trippy...

Um... good work!

[The Haus of Fahts II]

Hurrah!

Zekey, you are the sole reason why this site is so terrifically awesome. A good follow-up, and more sensical than the first one. Excubiously delightful!

[Jay Short # 1!]

Pretty Swell

A cute little movie there, a nice innocent style of what more flash movies should be like. However, I thought the text at the end was a bit unnecessary, but I found it to be quite fun and enjoyable! Make more flash and what not! Graphics were decent, music was good and style was also good. :)

TheCriminalDuder responds:

Thanks I enjoyed the compliments but compared to my other work this isn't all that good. However I'll admit that this has more FBF then my other work tends to have.

[Joey's Bright Idea]

Hurrah :)

What a tabletopian tabletop of tabolic goodness!

Swell and humorous!

ZekeySpaceyLizard responds:

hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooogiman

[Zelda: Heart for the Hero]

A GOOD Zelda parody?

Why, that's ambickously preposterous! Jamfilically demeaning as well! Well done, great voice acting, good use of originality and animation there and what not. Overall just quite a solid, enjoyable piece of work that deserves a well done. Good job. :)