TheZebu's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Kite Plight]

Fantastic. Near-perfect.

But this is just an embedded movie; none of it is actually animated in flash... why?

Onelani responds:

This was all made in Flash but because there was so much content, it was impossible to put it all inside on .fla file. I had to export each scene as a PNG sequence and then put it together in After Effects. I then rendered it out as a .mov file and then re-imported it back into Flash. This is why the quality is lower than it should be.

[Death's Curtain Ep.01]

Wow....

this was... just freaking amazing. A few sound/graphic fluidity issues but they didn't detract from the overall awesomeness and badassery. The plot is twisted and clever. The style was very smooth and disgusting (typical of you). The credits thing was a nice touch. Looking forward to more episodes if they are on the way.

Did he kill the daughter or is that deliberately made ambiguous?

SickDeathFiend responds:

well I dont wanna spoil it for you, but the girl was missing from the crimescene.
you can get an idea of what happends to her if you watch Nghorror show. lol

[Chronicles of a Demon Ep2]

FIFENAGE

Great stuff, very funny. Graphics were a bit sketchy, sound could use a bit of work, but overall it was a very entertaining piece of work. Looking forward to the next one!

Darkar responds:

Thank you!

[Dendyn Dynasties]

*Urk!

The art is pretty good. Not too hot about the anime and furry style, but the animation was nothing short of phenomenal. You obviously poured lots of effort into this to make it as great as it is. Everything is fluid and smooth. I can only imagine how long all the FBF took to do.

HOWEVER....

There remains one single thing that makes this an overall 6 instead of a 9....

The music. The music was the most horrid piece of shit I have ever heard on Newgrounds. I'm sorry for sounding so harsh about this but NEVER EVER EVER EVER use MIDI-rendered music. NEVER. It sounds stupid and noobish- you could have easily imported it into a program like fruity loops and changed all the tracks to more organic-sounding synth.

In short- great animation, crappy music. Improve a bit in that area, and you've got a damn good animation. Looks like you have a lot of plot in your head; can't wait to see how this turns out. Good luck sir.

Ryanide responds:

Yeah, sure thing. The problem was, at the stage of making this animation I didn't have Fruityloops, so therefore I couldn't change the music.

Luckilly, I now have Fruityloops, so any other animations that come from me in the future will have music of a much higher quality.

[Sonic: Nazo Unleashed Pt2]

Longest review I have ever written.

I remember the last movie, and I see some slight improvement.

However... still has major flaws....

1. The disclaimer. It's lame. Get rid of it. This is a freaking DBZ ripoff, complete with exactly copied fight choeography and sounds ripped from the anime. (And the same old "goddamn desert place" we've all seen enough times to make our heads explode) Stop trying to defend it and accept it, and maybe people won't bash you so mercilessly.

2. I must admit that this time you held my intrest long enough to finish the whole thing, but it was still painfully boring. I could predict every single move and attack before it happened because everyone's seen it a million times before in every DBZ episode. Other than the primal satisfaction of seeing things getting knocked around, the fighting was lame.

3. Perhaps the best feature would be the short spurts of detailed fbf sequences that made it a bit more exciting than seeing the same old repetitive flurry of flat limbs and bright flashes. I noticed inconcistency in the drawings- some were good, others were terribly sloppy. For the benefit of the doubt I'll assume you didn't trace anything. Spend a bit more time on the underdrawings so the proportions are neater.

4. Music was bleh. Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack. Old. (Although I'm glad you didn't use any american DBZ music). Most Sonic fans who might be interested in your work (like me) have heard all the tracks to death. I don't care how awesome the Green Forest stage music is, everyone is bored to death of it. Voices were obviously limited because you took them from the games (Get real voice actors for crying out loud!)

In conclusion, the basic problem is that it was a bunch of cliche, boring elements thrown together with mediocre art. There's no original story, character development, or any creativity whatsoever to compensate for your sub-par drawing skills, and ended up much like every other lame fan movie ever made.

My advice is to stop making fan animations. They are good for learning the basics of flash, but since you've obviously mastered that, you should produce your own orignal story and characters. Otherwise your style will be forevermore unoriginal and nobody will take you seriously, and you cannot truly call anything yours. Art should belong completely and totally to the artist, not bound to a franchise.

Chakra-X responds:

Phew! This IS a long review! Okay then, my turn, *ahem*

1) The disclaimer is very necessary. Not only so I can give credit when credit is due and to give people a heads up, but one of the voice actors of the clips I used, who was interested in my movie, politely asked if I could let the audience know he did not record any voice from this, as not to get in trouble. You people who criticise my movie as a DBZ rip off clearly do not know what a rip off is. a Rip Off would be taking the DBZ drawing and thematic styles with extremely similar storylines only to change the character's names. THAT is a rip-off. This however, is a Sonic movie with obvious Dragonball Z INFLUENCES. There are no dragonballs. There are no saiyans. The only thing from that show that played a part is the fight scenes and I used that because it actually fits Sonic, despite what people may say. Now Part THREE, that has blatant Dragonball Z influences and if people have such a big problem with it, they can learn to accept it or stay away from the movie. I said in my credits there were a couple scenes with a reference from Sonic X and DBZ, the DBZ ones which were the first times Shadow was beating Nazo alone with melee. You are mistaken if you think everything was copied from it.

2)I aimed for fast paced entertainment =D, however, what kind of fighting WOULDN'T be predictable that actually fit Sonic? I could have researched some kind of fighting style with unpredictable themes, but I highly doubt it would fit Sonic.

3)Just to reassure you, nothing was traced (there was one fbf scene of Nazo And Sonic fighting which was modeled after a Sonic X intro though. The quality changed because some parts of this scene were worked VERY early on, then I worked on part one and came back to this one to find I could draw much better. So my bad =/.

4) Oh come on! Sonic movies need Sonic music! The fact that a select few are bored of the music is something I can not control.

There are so much things in animation today that fall under 'cliche'' it's not even funny. It's because so much has been done before! Cliche' is not always a bad thing either, mind you.

However, I am already planning a more original setting for original characters in an original story. However, I can guarantee you people will claim copies off some other show because too many people see these things in black and white. Even shows on television have been compared to others, yet they are successful.

It is impossible to please everyone, but it is possible for people to understand that.

[Sonic: Nazo Unleashed Pt1]

....

First off- the disclaimer at the beginning is lame. Sonic and DBZ do indeed share many similarities, but some random dude blowing up a city with a single one-handed energy blast is SO blatantly DBZ. I wouldn't have minded so much, but you actually used DBZ sound effects, which are totally lame and overused. And disclaimers are stupid... period.

Secondly, even though I am aware that Sonic isn't known for its ingenious plot diversity (some new evil force comes up, steals chaos emeralds, threatens to destroy the world, and the gang has to stop it), you obviously took scenes and lines directly from Sonic games. (Knuckles' monolouge, exactly like it was from SA without Chaos, just of some other evil guy, and Tails and Knuckles meeting up with Sonic exactly like in Sonic Heroes, sin plane.)

The drawings were poor (even the ones you traced, cheater) and the animation was blocky and static.

I'll give you credit for effort though. But overall it sucked. Hopefully next time I won't close the window halfway through out of agony.

Chakra-X responds:

I find it very funky when some 80% of people praise a movie but some will claim it is horrible..Ah well can't please everyone!

Cities have been threatened in the Sonic Adventure series by missiles, bombs, death rays, Space Stations, and slavery...What's wrong with an energy blast?

Voices were used on purpose, most of them generic enough to fit the plot.

Not to sound conceded, but you are one of the very few who disliked the drawings and I wish people would point out the ones I supposedly traced so I can point out they are wrong =/.

Disclaimers are just to inform the viewer, not only for the DBZ thing, but in case a SEGA employee or whatever sees this or if someone pauses the movie.

Ah well better than a zero =D

[Dr. Keilme]

....

Drawings were decent, but this barely qualifies as an animation. Most of it is static.

This isn't really funny, it's just pathetic. Not creepy or disturbing, just stupid. You took a lame joke and threw in some violence to make it seem "EXTREAM".... nice going.

magicgas1388 responds:

YOUR STATIC

[Intriguinglies]

SMASHING job, lad! Simply SMASHING!

Sorry I wasn't online for you to tell me about the release- I was having interweb troubles and such...

I was really surprised and delighted to see the finished project. Really AWESOME job. This is without question the finest flash you have ever made. The art itself was good, but the animation was simply phenomenal. I envy your fbf talent!

And you've hit a really sweet chord with the "dark-'n-surreal" style. Can't wait for the next one!

And judging from the number of views you got (over 25 thousand, WOW!) I'd say you got front page. Congratulations, man, congratulations. You're definitley going places. Good luck with life.

ThreeTrees responds:

Whats up with you Floridians and not coming online whenever I publish a new movie and not being in the base? I thought you got eaten by a tornado... or a garpike...
anyway thanks man!

[In Memory Of Elle]

...

Alright, I will flat-out say that this is a grossly inappropriate subject for a tribute. Having silly angels dancing around seems terribly out of place for a "tribute" for a troubled girl who met a gruesome end by throwing herself in the way of an oncoming train.

And as some people before have had the courage to state, this for the most part is overly whiny and emotional. It sympathizes with the notion of justifiable suicide. Why... everyone makes a big deal when some middle class white chick who lives in a house with a roof, can hang out at anime conventions, and goes to a free public school system- takes their own life because it is too "hard". No, I am not demanding you pay tribute to the millions of unmourned victims of starvation and genocide that die every second around the world. Just stop being so damn emo. Newgrounds is not a place to deliver your sob story. Especially poorly-made sob stories.

I would also like to state that yes, according to the Bible, suicide is a sin punished by an eternity in the bowels of hell. The spiritual imagery attests to the author's alignment to judeo-christian beliefs (so stop bashing organized religion, uneducated losers). Thus is the almost-romantic justification of suicide in this flash, with the presence of angels, out of place. Quite frankly, wussing out on life is an unforgivable mistake even without the presence of God considered.

In short, this flash makes her death seem lighthearted and spiritually optimistic, and is sympathetic to her self-destruction. Either way, she was either horribly unhappy or metally sick, and this movie is sadly inappropriate.

Doodlebuggy responds:

Oops Did it look like I was justifying suicide. That was not my intention. Suicide is never the answer. I wrote what I wrote to show that she was not a troubled depressed nut or “overly emotional” person. She was fun and happy. She just thought her mother didn’t love her. Everyone at school was shocked when it happened cause we weren’t expecting it.

Sad you thought it was inappropriate. I thought the thought of Elle being an Angel would make Elle’s other friends and her family feel a little better. Plus don’t you think its better then just writing?

Hum…with no disrespect race has nothing to do it. I think you may be analyzing this a little more then needed. But is ok. You’re only human. Just thought I’d let you know what I intended.

Thank you for viewing anyways.

[LL-ILLegal Immigrants]

Good old LL....

Great job! You've created a good flash whose quality lies in its message.

JujubeLock responds:

Message is always key my friend.