psychicpebbles's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Swimmin with the Sharks]

Holy Shit Oh My God

I just wanted to say that this cartoon laughed and I liked it because you good job on it. Maybe i'ts me or jus that that this is good of a cartoon, but I love it.

Seiursly, one of my cafavorite cartoons! i shit my pants and cried and rubbed my tears into my shit and put it in a blender and put it in my mouth and threw it up and threw it back out into the blender and shat in that and then cam into that mixture and then took a funnel and poured it into my ass and shat it into my dads mouth and he threw it up in my mouth and i cried the end.

[Sergio and Bear 2]

Love It!

I really enjoyed the first one, the character interaction was hilarious and always interesting, not to mention the witty humor had me entertained.

This one is good, but not as great as the first, in my opinion.

The graphics were beautifully done, jaxxy. You have some of the finest line work on Newgrounds, it's never cringe worthy to look at. Smooth and flawless. Not to mention the backgrounds were also very nicely done. You character anatomy and designs were also quite lovely, unique too.

The voices by Joshua were amazing as always. The thing I love about Joshua is, unlike most Newgrounds voice actors, his voice is never disappointing to me. In my opinion, he is one of the best on this website. He can do such a wide variety of voices that all jump into their own character. Great choice using Josh.

The animation was also one of my favorite parts. The only real "issue" I had was lip synch, which was not bad, but could have been better. Try to add more teeth and tongues when lip synching, it makes it look more authentic. Other than this, the animation was really nicely done.

The script is where I also have a slight problem. For two reasons.

The first is that I was honestly hoping this story wouldn't drag on from the first, which sadly it did. Don't get me wrong, the script was beautifully written, and it's still funny and has its memorable moments, but I felt cheated out. The joke for the first one was that Sergio was forcing Bear to get a job against his whim, and lied to him to do so. The joke feels a bit dragged on, honestly.

My second issue is the length. Don't get me wrong - length is always good. I just don't think for comedy skits like this. Try to keep it around two to four minutes in length. I just feel like if the entire episode has a punch line, it shouldn't drag on. Or if it does, let it build up. The punch line for this one was Bear freaks out. While it is a funny concept, it was not an amazing punch line. The longer you make the episode, the more impact a punch line should have.

I apologize if I seem to be nit-picking, as I'm not trying. This movie is nearly flawless, and has the elements to be something great. This was, by far, still an amazing movie. It just isn't as great as the first. I suppose though anyone could argue; "Name one sequel that is better than its predecessors" and in fact a lot of movies come to mind which "bombed" that were sequels of popular franchises.

I'm in no way saying this "bombed", at all, but just try to use the same formula as the first. I don't mean recycle the same material, but have an overall punch line and the entire episode building up to said punch line. I really love the concept of Sergio being able to make Bear do things against his will, and how easily and casually he complies. It's a really great concept.

Try to make each episode not continue from the last, as the joke gets a tad repetitive. All of that nonsense said, I really can't wait for episode three. Again I apologize if I appear to be nit-picking, I just really care for this series.

Can't wait for episode 3!

[the envy of the universe]

Not Bad, But Not Good.

I really do want to give this a higher score, but I can't.

The art work was pretty good. The background was actually really nice, but there was only one throughout the entire several minutes of dialogue.

The animation in this was also quite nice, very smooth lines, as I'm sure you used the pencil tool. The lip synch was also very nice but could have used more transitional mouths, perhaps slightly more accurate too. I suggest staying away from tweening so much and try some frame by frame, tweening looks good mixed in, but gets really repetitive when that's ALL there is to it.

Voice acting wise, not bad. The microphone was pretty top notch, and emotion was pretty clear throughout the character interaction.

The only real issue I had was the biggest one. That's the writing. Maybe I don't have your sense of humor, but I didn't detect any comedy here at all. Temperpedic? A sandwich? It all seemed super unnecessary. I mean, especially with the subject of an alien visiting earth. You could have played off of real differences between the two instead of bringing up random things.

It also bothered me that the entire thing was just one big advertisement. I wouldn't mind as much if all of your stuff wasn't advertisements. I went back and looked at your previous stuff, and it's all a plug for some product or company.

It's good to know that you're getting paid for this, but I don't know if Newgrounds is the right place for advertisements. It just feels off to me.

You definitely have the skills to make something worth while, try writing your own stuff that isn't an advertisement, could be interesting.

Good luck man, just work on that stuff.

[Saved by the Horn]

Hilarious

The animation itself made this funny, so I wouldn't change it at all.

The artwork is really one of the only things I would chance. The simplistic characters make it funny, but try to clean it up just a little bit. I still completely love it though how it currently is and it definitely adds to the charm.

The voices and music were also quite top notch, no microphone fuzz and the voice acting also made it fucking hilarious, as you always do. I love that sarcastic tone you always have, it makes me want to constantly laugh.

As per the plot, I can't say I've seen Saved By the Bell in many years, but I loved this. The generic retarded kids doing things that made no sense, worrying about small problems and at he end everything turns out okay. I lol'd at the weird principal and the generic characters. I don't know why I laughed so hard when I heard "Sacha Mo Jones", but I did.

The humor was brilliant.

Fuck me please.

[Press Start: Trial&Error]

Honestly?

I know for a fact this will be marked as abusive, or useless, because I'm giving you actual criticism and actually analyzing the flash, not giving you a mindless 10.

The animation was horrid. Not bad, but horrid. If this was your first submission to Newgrounds I would say otherwise, but you've been submitting stuff since 2006. That's nearly 5 years. I'd think you'd improve the plot, humor, backgrounds, voices, character designs, animations. No. Not even a little bit.

Let me put this in perspective. Happy Harry has been submitting since 2004. Look how much he's improved. Oney has been submitting since 2006. Look how much he's improved. Egoraptor, 2005. Hire a new animator.

As far as the art goes, not even slightly pleasing. The character designs are strange. The fingers and hands become deformed and mutilated. All of the character retain the exact same pose, except for when they move their arms. In which case there isn't even frame by frame animation leading up to that frame. Not even inbetweens. Tweening is the most simplistic animation style and yet you choose not even to do that.

The lines are very sloppy, and the backgrounds are painful to look at. I hate to come off as being mean, but work on the lines. There is a tool in Flash called "smoothen". I suggest you watch JohnnyUtah's last two cartoons about lines and color, it would help you out a lot. Look at some animation tutorials here on Newgrounds and on Youtube, they're helpful and easy to learn.

The script was also not funny at all. I mean, it felt like a real show, which I do admire. The character interaction was all right, but the comedy just wasn't their for me. A parody is a good one time thing. But having an entire series as a parody just loses it's touch and becomes extremely dull and repetitive.

The sound quality was actually superb for the most part. Egoraptors microphone was nice, but some characters voices were a bit echoy and didn't match the rest of the characters.

Honestly man. It's been almost 5 years, improve. Actually try. It sickens me you put almost zero effort into your cartoons and steal the awards from people that actually try, and what sickens me more is that you know you can. You have no intention of reading this comment or actually improving anything ever.

Good luck in the future.

DarkMazeStudios responds:

[posted on behalf of writer/animator Kevin Folliard]

Psychicpebble:

Thank you very much for your honest and reasonable criticisms. I am the animator/writer of Press Start Adventures. But the truth is I am a writer first and an artist... well... maybe fourth or fifth. Please know that we do read and pay close attention to feedback, but Newgrounds is just one venue for Press Start and we're all very busy. We appreciate and respect everyone's opinion.

I have always thought it would be fantastic to revamp PSA's style to be prettier, smoother, etc. However at this time it's impractical for logistical and budgetary reasons for Dark Maze Studios to bring in another animator. This utilitarian copy & paste strategy has really worked for PSA for so long, because it allows us to keep a monthly schedule, and keep our audience entertained regularly. A more detailed style would mean way fewer cartoons. In fact if it hadn't been for the "rough around the edges" style, the show probably never would have taken off at all. But many cartoons have used still models, talking heads, recycling, and simplicity to improve productivity; choosing instead to pour more energy into dialogue and character.

Animation is very important, I agree. But in the world of comedy you can cheat a little and distract people with humor so that they forget about the ugly drawings. It's not right or wrong, it's just up to the individual. Please know that we're definitely not out to steal awards or take credit away from the many talented animators here on Newgrounds. We just want to entertain... on a budget.

Press Start is a highly collaborative process and the animation is really just one piece of the puzzle. If anyone's interested I have a recent blog post that gives a solid overview of how we make a PSA episode start to finish. It's more about the writing process than the sound or animation, but it covers a lot of ground.

www.kevinfolliard.com/blog

[NiN10Doh: ToThe64thPower]

Come On Kirbopher

The first one was O.K., the second one was bearable.

The animation was pretty good, such as the Captain Falcon part, Starfox, Pikachu, and a few others. No offense to the rest of the animators, of course. For the most part it was superb, the fbf was nice, shading was spot on, lip synch was good.

Just looked good overall, really good job on that.

The artwork was also very good, backgrounds, character designs, etc were all very pleasant to look at for the most part. The only issue I had was with your part, Kirbopher, and LegendaryFrog's part. You both have been animating for a number of years and show almost no sign of improvement. Your parts weren't bad, by any means, but I feel like I watch the same thing every time I watch one of your cartoons. It just feels recycled to me.

The audio is what I had a problem with. Not the stolen Nintendo songs. I'm talking about microphone quality. It's understandable that some of you would have poor microphones, but nearly ever piece was poorly recorded and had fuzz or static feedback, and several times you blew into the mic. This doesn't just go for your part, I'm talking about a few. It was nice to see some other popular Newgrounds artists make a cameo, but for some reason even Max Gilardi's mic had some issues. Get professional voice actors if you need to. I understand if ONE person has a bad microphone, but almost every part did.

The writing is my biggest issue with this piece. The "jokes" did not make me laugh once. I didn't crack a smile. Not once. I sat their, waiting. Waiting for something funny to happy. I was stunned when I saw the credits. It was the biggest kick in the balls, when you spend 18 minutes watching a cartoon without a smile or a smirk. This wouldn't be as big of an issue if you didn't recycle your jokes! I actually caught around three reused jokes. You did that phone conversation between Bowser and Skull Kid almost EXACTLY in another one of your cartoons a while ago.

Also, masturbation and screaming was funny when I was 12. If you're going to use that sort of "shock" humor, do it sparingly. All of your jokes are penis, masturbation, sex, etc. It becomes dull and loses it's impact after you hear it every time. Also, screaming only works sometimes. Again, in nearly every cartoon you do there is some sort of screaming. At least make it very calm and THEN they scream, and cut it off mid-scream. That adds humor to it. Prolonged shouting to a joke that I saw the punch line too even before it happened doesn't make it funny, it was completely predictable.

You've stated that you might make another one of these. I'm completely glad, and look forward to it. As long as you TAKE ADVICE that people are giving you. I can't understand how you look at this review and think "Oh, a four. This guy is a dick" and skip over it. Do you even read the reviews anymore? I'd honestly rather get a long, constructive review with a score of 0 than a "lol nice job XD" with a 10. I'm trying to help you, please take this advice.

When you write a joke, make sure it's funny. Make sure it's relevant TO what you're parodying. Stray away from screaming/penis/shock humor. When you are writing a joke, please think "Have I already done this?"

Good luck.

[The Ballad of CrippleKane]

Outstanding

I'm not sure why I didn't review this before, I could have sworn I did.

The artwork was phenomenal. The background were constantly gorgeous and interesting. The character design was also simplistic and complex, the no-line style is hard to pull of but Hans you've nailed it here. Perfect.

The music was also a nice touch, and as you said what inspired you to do this piece in the first place. Now, I've animated to music before (music videos) and it always looks okay. This is probably the most outstanding thing about this cartoon is that the music fits it perfectly. The style, plot, music, it all interlocked and flowed in perfect harmony.

The story was also really interesting and kept me watching. There wasn't a point where I had my head resting on my hands or I minimized it for something else. The store flowed perfectly well and in harmony with the music. When the music picked up, the story picked up, and vice versa.

The animation was also perfect for the style. A perfect blend between tweens and frame by frame. There wasn't ever a point where I thought "he should redo that scene" or I cringed. The entire thing was amazing to look at. You nailed proportions and facial expressions were superb.

In most of my reviews I leave a section at the end for improvement or things I disliked, but honesty, this was literally perfect. The reason I love this piece so much is because it excels in every department. Not only does it excel in audio, animation, art, story, entertainment factor, etc, it flows together.

I think that is what makes this movie so memorable, is that it's not only good work, but it works together in harmony. As I said earlier, when the music would pick up, the story and animation would pick up. Camera angles would shift, backgrounds would set the mood. Every aspect set up the mood and that's what makes this piece so amazing.

You probably won't read this review since I'm leaving it on such an old submission, but Hans, you've seriously outdone yourself.

"Outstanding" isn't giving this enough credit.