Kwing's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Children Never Sleep]

I don't know how many hours you get for an animation jam, so I won't try and comment too much on things like framerate that exponentially increase the amount of time it takes to work on something. What I will mention is that the overall concept is somewhat dull. There's suspense... Kind of. At times it feels tedious, and the audio mixing often makes it very difficult to make out what characters are saying. Subtitles (or better audio mixing) would have helped a lot here.

Squiggins responds:

Thank you for the review! Yea this was done in a little under two weeks, but your criticism is definitely taken into consideration. Every mistake is a chance to grow!

[TANKMEN 2]

I don't think the humor really hits here, but that takes little away from how clean this looks. The voice acting is superb and the graphics are a reminder of why Tankman was the mascot of Newgrounds for so long. A combination of simplicity and aesthetic talent make this real eye candy, and the abrasiveness of the characters really completes the charm.

[Fallen Angel: Trailer]

I'm not sure what there is to say at this point. Your work is overwhelmingly impressive, back from when Fallen Angel started in 2003 to the near photo-realism we're seeing today. More importantly, the color schemes you use seem to capture mood so damned well. Your attention to detail really can't be overstated here. I did think Sara's eyes were weirdly far apart but aside from that the aesthetic here is off the charts. Here's hoping this gets finished someday.

[Lovestreams]

Whoa.

The animation here is really next level. The realism in the beginning with the computer and shadows looks almost as though it could be live-action, though of course the AIM conversation looks too clean even for a mounted camera. Everything else, from the particle effects to the characters, is both visually stunning as well as having an outstanding smoothness and framerate. More importantly the artistic vision here manifests beautifully, with the loading images and pixelation fusing organically with the rest of the short. The dialogue and imagery both work together to tell a narrative and portray an experience in a way that's far more accurate than words.

Literally the only flaw I see here - and this is really nitpicky - is that some of the anatomy just doesn't resonate with me, particularly the way you draw hands (the fingers narrow a bit too much.) Keep in mind this is me REALLY searching for something that could be improved and isn't something that noticeably impacts the overall product.

[Steamed Hams animation collab]

As far as collabs go, I think this is about as good as it can get. There's such a great variety of styles, and even the lower quality animations just WORK with the theme. Interesting how a good number of these were faithful retellings, while others took some hilarious creative liberties (the hamburger eating Chalmer's face? lol)

[Captain Tardigrade: Prophecy of the Sun People]

"I'm not a fuckin' water bear."

This was one of the better episodes. Impressively long, too. As I've stated before the graphics feel a little rough in some places though not in others (like the sun peoples' outlines have a weird color clash going on.) The overall animation quality is quite good, and Captain Tardigrade himself makes for a good anti-hero. Keep it up.

[Captain Tardigrade: Safety Tips]

This was pretty good. The gore had an impressive amount of detail, and the episode's concept felt original (not just a rehash of the pilot.) I still think the voices need a bit of work, and the comedic timing feels a little off, too, although the content is all there.

[Captain Tardigrade]

This was pretty well done overall. The voices and sound mastering are a little iffy, and the graphics could use a bit more in terms of shading and smooth animation, but for the most part this was enjoyable. This episode started off a bit slow but had some good jokes in it. I'm not sure this skit fits a series though - I feel like there's a high risk of the same gag becoming redundant.

[SACRIFICE.fla]

I'm giving this an 8 because the animation is high-quality, but a few movements are slow (should have been stepped,) the animation is overall pretty short, and the combat isn't super creative (mostly just shooting.) I'd have liked to see a bit more variety with the weapons or their use - possibly greater utilization of the environment, dodging, or grappling.

[Joe Zombie :: Episode 6]

Okay, I'll admit. This is pretty fucking good. For 2006 these effects are outstanding. Your quality suffers a little bit with respect to some movements that should have easing as well as frame by frame sequences, mainly because of how lanky the characters are - Castle III showed a much smoother style a year later - but that doesn't take away much from how far this series has come and how much work has gone into a strong voice cast and visual effects. A couple lines of dialogue feel canned but other than that this is outstanding and holds up pretty well even today. Hard to imagine it's been over ten years since this came out.