Kwing's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cool Teacher]

I liked the animation but was only mildly amused by anything in it. I think the biggest issue here is you don't have an idea of what you want this animation to be about. It seems like a few school-related jokes jumbled up together that aren't that great. The skeleton gag is good but is never expanded upon by 'it's almost done'.

LazyMuffin responds:

what you say is true

[MadFLeX Halloween 2010]

Pretty good, you really went overboard with the tweens and as a result everything looks almost hyperdynamic. The graphics are a huge step up from your last submission, which is nice, and your voice acting is good although it was incredibly quiet and difficult to hear.

The scares were really nothing special and the writing was mediocre, though the 'maintain eye contact to make it awkward' line was a nice takeaway after everything was said and done. You've improved a lot.

MadFLeX responds:

i appreciate you taking some time to check out my older work. i was pretty limited in both skill and artistry, but they were fun to make. most of the time it was just half-hearted, quickly executed ideas that kept me entertained. never thought i'd be looking back at them a decade later as an adult, but all of them carry a fondness whether they were masterpieces or not.

[Xbox 1 VS Playstation 1]

LazyMuffin is pretty lazy, huh?

You've got a thoroughly entertaining concept. Rather than speaking through the persona of a young boy, you could have easily used a much more articulate character to make a much longer and more detailed animation about this exact same thing. Given all of the negative feedback surrounding the XBox One, you could have really torn it a new asshole but you didn't. Come on, what were you thinking?

Too short, your execution falls flat, and there's hardly any content to review. Decent graphics don't save this one.

LazyMuffin responds:

I could have done that, but that would have been a different animation. This wasn't a genuine review. It's a kid who wants to review stuff but he only has access to one of the consoles.

Although an animation of an articulate character criticizing consoles does sound pretty funny!!!!

thank you!!

[Skin : A Pixel Nightmare]

It's not too bad, but it's not great either. I think it's most likely all of the shitty screamers on Newgrounds were what had me on edge as I watched, but other than that it wasn't really scary or even interesting. The game-to-movie concept just didn't do it for me; perhaps allowing the viewer to see what was happening to the real-world player would have made it interesting. As it is, I would have rather played an actual game.

The graphics and sound are modest, and the Earthbound reference is lame. The stereotypical creepy things that tend to happen in creepypastas or dramatic RPG Maker games are all there, but fail to immerse the viewer.

Honestly I think the concept was just bad from the beginning.

ClockworkPixel responds:

To each their own. Thanks for the review

[Xbox One Reveal]

I actually liked this a lot. The voice acting really sounds great, especially because the voices really sound like they're in a big hall full of people. The 'Game requires activation' part really made me laugh, although otherwise the comedy just seemed kind of incomplete. The animation was really simple, but I really felt like the focus was more on the ideas than the graphics, and your animating skills, while not the best, don't get in the way of the animation as a whole.

Just needs a little more material in my opinion.

Rustikit responds:

Thanks but this wasn't actually voiced acted; I just took the audio from the actual reveal and edited it against them!

[What are the odds?]

I tend to be a pessimistic person, so these types of videos typically annoy me. The graphics are good, the animation is smooth, but I felt myself annoyed by the typography used and the voices which seemed unnaturally preened. Additionally, the music and visual interfaced seemed a little -too- simple for my liking. The animation seemed to have a very condescending tone to it. I'm sure this wasn't intentional, but that kind of oversimplification really creeps me out for some reason.

But most of all what annoyed me is the whole idea of 'luckiness'. I mean, the universe is 16 billion years old, and only in the most recent 2 billion years has this planet supported life. Sure, this planet is lucky to be in the position it's in, but it's taken 14 billion years of unsuccessful 'coin flips' before it finally arrived here in time.

Second, time itself is only a perception. So while it may have taken 14 billion years for life to form, during that time there was no conscious being capable of observing the lack of life in the majority of the planets. Our ability to observe these facts comes out of a highly improbable outcome that is only possible through a complex life cycle that must be sustainable long enough for a self-aware species to evolve. Basically what I'm saying is that if there's nobody around to observe the fact that they don't exist, is it really improbable for us to be alive?

Finally, if time is infinite, then it doesn't matter how improbable any given situation is. Perhaps the history of the universe only has one chance in a googolplex of ending up the way it is, but let's do some simple mathematics here... Even if the denominator (the chance of us existing) is extremely high, if time is infinite, than the numerator of this equation is infinity, meaning that every possible outcome of the universe will happen an infinite number of times. This is basically how Owlman from the Marvel universe explains Earth Prime, only Owlman suggests that alternate universes are parallel to one another while I am suggesting alternate realities are separated only by time.

Emrox responds:

Whoa, that's even deeper than I'm willing to get with this stuff. I'm not sure if I can debate any of that, so I'll just give you an A for the day.

[PleaseDiePie]

As someone who enjoys PewDiePie's comely personality and (lack of) puzzle-solving skills, perhaps I was asking for trouble clicking on this. I had a general idea of what I was about to see. Thankfully I feel like this parody was a lot more tasteful than it could have been. I guess the first thing I can do is get into the technical details.

The graphics are alright, but come off as somewhat irritating. The wonky proportions have a wildly expressive quality to them, which serves a purpose, but tends to annoy me the way an itch does - in a persistent, nagging kind of way. This isn't because of the content, but rather just the style and the way I react to it. There are some brilliant political cartoonists on Newgrounds that use this art style, and even when I agree with the message the style still rubs me the wrong way. The animation was only an extension of this, being well-done but similarly surrealistic.

Sound quality was definitely my favorite part of the animation. Many parodies go way over the top with parodied voices, which can work but usually doesn't. Typically the mocked voice acting is more of a distraction than an augmentation of an animation, and only really helps when the original people being made fun of have some speech quirk to begin with, but I'm glad that the voice acting kept the focus on the jokes you made. Although if you wanted to you could have easily made fun of Felix's Swedish accent. Subtle as it is, you might notice that he can't pronounce a 'ch' sound. (Shocolate, shair, shopnese, etc.)

By the way, the fact that you slipped in Satanic by Richard Harvey during the Amnesia parody did not go unnoticed. I fucking LOVE that piece, you should have cranked up the volume on that one!!

Now, animation aside, I'll try and go into the main things you picked on Felix for.

1. Having too many channels - I'll agree this is obnoxious with other channels, Smosh in particular. I think we can all agree that the Spanish Smosh is thoroughly awful. Although considering PewDiePie only has two channels, one of which he never uses anymore anyway, It's kind of a hollow insult when directed at him.

2. Playing popular games - Just about every Let's Player on YouTube has trouble doing this. People demand both popular and indie games, and no matter what happens, tons of people end up being upset/critical over it. As someone who does follow Felix's videos, I think he does a fairly good job with his selection, allowing the 'bros' to pick out games themselves while simultaneously providing pretty good options (Indigo Prophecy was definitely a good choice, being both obscure but having its own cult following). Simultaneously, videos like Happy Wheels and Amnesia videos are done less frequently because Felix has expressed that he has a personal quality standard.

Overall the 'humor' in this animation simply didn't hit home for me. It wasn't annoying, like stuff by EgoRaptor, for instance, but at the same time I feel like watching this animation was really a waste of time. Frankly I didn't get anything out of it.

(By the way, if you want to see some really good retro PewDiePie videos, I suggest the Amnesia custom story Killings in Altstadt and Barbie Adventure.)

Speedo responds:

I appreciate a low-score review with actual explanations as to why you thought it was bad. Don't really know what to do about the irritating graphics. I guess from the proportions, it looked like there would be more wacky movements but there simply wasn't? Like the character had the bendy anatomy you'd expect of a life-filled bouncy cartoon but alls he really did was just sit there? Sorry bout that, animating is pretty stressful and the lazy side can slip through the cracks quite easily.

I know I COULD have done his swedish accent, but I just tried to make it clear that while PewDiePie is obviously the main target of the video, hence the title, the look, etc, he isn't the only person being mocked. There's elements of Smosh, Tobuscus, iJustine, yadda yadda all in this "lols@Holocaust" character who is a personification of all those people. So I gave him a different voice. Yeah, if I was JUST parodying PewDie, I would have called him PewDiePie, I would have done the voice, etc. Same goes for the channel thing, even though I do get what you mean about it being a hollow insult at PewDies expense.

And yeah, Satanic is a great piece. I pretty much wrote an entire Resident Evil parody for the sole purpose of using that track again, its so haunting.

[The Obnoxious Orange]

I REALLY don't get it. Shadling's alternate image of the orange was great, but the rest was a flop. The voices were way overdone, and as a parody, it really wasn't any different from the original series... Which changes it from a parody into a blatant ripoff. This animation is criminally unfunny. As I watched, I kept expecting it to get better, but it only degenerated further before coming to a premature end.

psychicpebbles responds:

i kno u didnt lik this but keep up at the stik figure fights!!

[Final Mansion]

Ouch... Not so good. Not so good at all.The background and gun sprites look great, the music is well-chosen, but this animation is seriously lacking. Though the animation isn't choppy, the movements are very unrealistic, too fast, and completely lack easing and pauses that are necessary for making movement appear realistic. On top of that, the dialogue is mediocre at best.

Anyway, I think the best way you could improve your animation is to try animating someone standing still, then gradually start walking, then running, then sliding to a stop and maybe jumping. Try and capture the essence of movement and physics in your animations.

IaMI2002 responds:

haha! Great Critique, I realized it too late but wanted to finish this film with pure motion tween. Don't recommend anyone doing that, been working on lots of fbf animation since then which is so much more flexible and fun! Thanks for the review and view!

[Dora VS Swiper]

Damnit man... This looked like it was going to be so funny, especially looking at the preloader and the first 15 or so seconds... But from there it was all downhill. The graphics are an interesting mix of really well done and badly rushed, as is the animation. The fusion of the two was odd, but didn't affect the fact that the content was sorely lacking. The voice work was a major low point, as was the lack of a good ending due to a poor script.

bocodamondo responds:

it so on porpuse. if i wanted to do it in anime style i could do it. easy taske. but that would change the point of it. comprende?