Score: 8

"Could Have Taken More Advantage of Premise"

submission: 3rd Grade Transformers

date: October 20, 2009

I actually laughed out loud a couple of times, and the duration was just right. I am glad you did not include this with the plethora of other Transformers parodies because it would have felt more stale and just part of a trend.

What I really liked was you using a third grade parody to describe it. I personally loved the movie, but you did not have to rely upon over exaggerating a negative detail about the movie to be funny. While you did have to result in random acts of violence/cursing, and I suppose that's you style, the awkwardness of the third graders were amusing. And who did the high pitched voice who was screaming "Not Now Charles!"? I thought that was one of the funniest set of lines of the short.

I actually thought the "GET OFF THE STAGE CHARLES" part was funny, but the "human sacrifice" and "i have to take a poo" bits were a little much/out of place, which detracted from the humor. For the former, a third grader willfully stabbing another does not fit the "young, ill-prepared, and untalented" theme you had going on. If the stabber had not known it was a real sword and started freaking out, as well at the victim screaming, I think that would have both been funny and sticking to the theme.

The latter just bugged me because the play "director" seemed funnier as a "verbally" abusive person, rather than a physical one. An adult yelling at the 3rd grader seems funnier to me because a) the way had the guy yelling and b) because we slightly pity the kid for getting yelled at so much, but a cartoony beating off stage just seems generically slapstick. However, I actually laughed during the devastator attempt because while the idea of kids accidentally hurting themselves while trying to form devastator is predictable, the over the top violence they suffered made it funny.

The animation was fine. Not TOO much going on, but the way you presented the costumes was nice, and kudos for the well animated curtain, instead of just a horizontal tween which you could have gotten away with. I also applaud the walk cycle of the kid in the rectangular costume. Perspective is a bitch D:.

Overall, I really like what you were going for here. I hope I did not sound pretentious by going in depth of what *I* thought would be funny/unfunny, but the people here saying it did not have the "egoraptor charm" do not know what they are talking about. Not everything you do has to be fast paced and have super-zany humor for you to give off your 'charm'. And we all have to remember, you wanted to try something silly by poking fun at a popular movie. I don't think your goal was to create a comedy milestone for yourself, but just to have fun with robots and 3rd graders.

Score: 7

"Very Nonsensical"

submission: Sean and Justin

date: September 6, 2009

I liked the way this was animated. The lip sync was a bit choppy at parts but I am not expecting articulate syllable matching drawings in all flash movies.

The humor was an important part for this, and most of the non-sequiturs were amusing (the Bidfoof one in particular since I can relate to that). But the only time I let out a laugh was the sudden purposely-lackluster "Oh shiiiiiiiit" remark when the whale attacked.

Besides that, the rest of the humor was adequately entertaining, but for me, the randomness messed up the timing and building of jokes. I know that was what you were aiming for, so congrats to that, but I think the humor suffered (well, for me at least) because of it.

Memes usually kill flashes for me D:. I really think what is funny on a forum does not translate well in to flash. The one meme reference I thought was well placed, though still could have done without, was the very brief awesome face when the missile exploded (nice job tying those two..er..."stories" together).

The microphone quality hurt the dialogue, but that's a rather inconvenient thing to fix. They make ~$15 microphones that get the job done and with a sock over it, it usually is pretty good for flash movies.

I like the drawing style though, so with some tweaking, this could be a pretty successful series.

Score: 10

"An Awesomely Balanced Approach"

submission: Tarboy

date: August 23, 2009

I feel bad since I probably would not have watched it unless it was on the front page, but I saw Hania's news post saying 1) she made the music and 2) it took you a longass time to complete so I gave it look.

I am happy to say I was more than satisfied!

No sappy, dark, or cute narrative here. While there is nothing wrong with those types of movies, I tend to find animations of this style (sold color shapes with vector styled drawings) like the types mentioned above. Those types may leave a feeling of art expertise and well crafted narration...But sometimes there is a disconnect between my interest and my appreciation.

This animation had it all. A unique story, a visually appealing and talented style of animation, humor, and oddly enough, action! The music was also varied and fitting for its respective scenes, and helped to keep the story connected and succinct.

Your characters were legitimately interesting. Tar boy's origin was like something out of an action cartoon, but you took a 'silly' idea like that and took it to another level, even though the base premise was already interesting. Telling the story through the view of the boy and (Grandpa?) added that bit of humor and a peek at the world you have created about the robots. And absolutely love that you are making a second part to this. I could have never guessed a tar pit of robots would become a demonic humanoid *boy* though (why did you go with 'boy' instead of 'man' anyway?)

The action was surprisingly well done. Especially that scene with the glowing special effects in the dark. And I read one review that trashed the animation for being "mostly tweens". Obviously people like this have no idea what they are talking about since most of the animation seemed frame by frame, even if it wasn't redrawn every keyframe. But no. I'm SURE you spent 8 months just being lazy.

Overall, excellent animation, entertaining story, and interesting characters. Looking forward to the next month.

Score: 7

"Amusing, But Too Many 4Chan Memes"

submission: Pokemon: Pee Red Version

date: July 1, 2009

As a *Pokemon* parody, I enjoyed it. There really is not many of them and there is so much to make fun of. I actually found some parts to be funny. I laughed at Charmander's scream. Some parts I rolled my eyes at.

But what really began to kill me were the memes. While I read why you made Bell-awesome do it because it makes sense, having a meme-based pokemon just bugged me. I love that picture, but when used in a flash movie, I think it should be more discreet. Meme's get their "humor" from being forced and repetitive (which is another reason why I personally did not get much from it), so what might work on a forum may not translate well in animation.

Gary-Or 'Mary''s-voice actor had a noticeably worse microphone quality than the rest, which degrades from the overall quality. Also, feel free to loosen the sound quality a bit, like to 32 or 48 kbps. I am sure we can handle an extra megabyte (unless this was the only way to get it under the default 8mb limit).

The sprite editing as a little distracting. How come you changed the main character's appearance? Out of curiosity? It was not because they looked different, only because the editing was not on par with the original graphic, in terms of quality.

Nice use of MissingNo, even though I was hoping for a more climatic ending, or a play on the idea of how fast they both got to the elite four. But I was amused for the most part, and it's nice to see you plan to pursue original projects. Good luck!

Score: 9

"Will Keep Watching"

submission: Hyperboy: Episode 5

date: May 22, 2009

This is the first time I've seen the series and I am very pleased! Nice action, which is stylized so you don't get generic "bam, boof, wiff" action. Appropriate humor, which was actually FUNNY and not forced. The drawings and animation seemed to improve as time goes by.

Really well done preloader. Lot's of techy detail, but I did not associate "techy" with this animation, unless I missed something in previous episodes. Did you draw that in a separate program and just animate it in flash? There was a gigantic jump though in the first scene in terms of quality, from a super nice preloader to a kind of bland scene/animation, but it picked up the quality once he put on the Hyper Suit.

I really respect your method of finding a simple animation style to get action across. Perhaps I am assuming to much, but it looks like you made simple-looking characters so animation would not take as long, but you still want the "cutting edge" feel, so certain close ups have more detail or realistic anatomy. I've trying to figure out a way to create an action cartoon with a style that is faster to animate, so I tip my hat to you.

You get a 5 from me to bump that score higher, and a 9/10 for the above reasons. Now I will watch the previous ones to catch up. Looking forward to the next one!

Score: 9

"Worth the Wait! A lot of Talent with Ups and Downs"

submission: Street Fighter Collab

date: May 19, 2009

Short 1 TeamTamango-Wacky, the guys voice kind of bugged me when he laughed, but I liked the way Chun-Li and Zangief were drawn and animated.

Short 2 PigPen-I smile every time Ryu says "hadouken" and "buttmuch". I actually thought it was funny, but for some reason the ending could have been better.

Short 3 keirupted-amusing set up, screaming at the end made me chuckle.

Short 4 egoraptor-I loved this. The drawing/animation style was very pleasing to look at, and taking Ryu's kick and turning it in to that phrase was brilliant. Wish half the reviews would stop repeating it; it loses it's flavor :/

Short 5 gel-Awesome art, I have no idea what Ryu says at the end, so I may be missing something big

Short 6 BoMtoons-Interestig plot that had a lot of potential, but I just did not fidn the climax that funny. Depressing ambience worked though.

Short 7 Osuka-Again, a plot with potential. I really liked Osuka's MGS collab submissions, so I was surprised that this one did not really work for me.

short 8 BobertRob-I just did not find this funny. Silly? Yeah. No cheap humor, but not that funny to me.

Short 9 El Cid- Very pretty and very well animated. I found te beginning and end funny, more so the beginning. The hadoken in the face was silly, but I did not laugh, but I still really liked this one.

Short 10-MiddleFingerRings-Better than his MGS one, I like his art style, but I did not get the joke.

Short 11 TheMexixanMuffinMan-I found this hilarious. Relatively less animation, then some, but the dialog was just hilarious. When Chun Li gets the guy though, I was confused to whether if her co workers were trying to hold her back off screen?

Short 12 Fiergon-Haha I love this one. I wish he did more characters, but I guess better not to overdo it? Seeing each character's favorite music was entertaining. I have a feeling the author likes Ryu's music the best for some reason though, but I loved Dan's music.

Short 13-THE SHIT. But really, I wish I upped the volume for the announcer and drew some Zangief stills better. Haha I couldn't believe they added med-oops!

Short 14 thecultguy- I was disappointing by this one. I thought deadpan, dry humor would have worked so well for his drawing style, but as a dick joke, it was unfitting. I guess points for the unexpected ending.

Short 15 phantom-I feel bad for laughing, but Ryu's fantasy (video?) with Chun-Li was funny to me. I didn't really find Ryu jacking off funny though. Humorous expressions.

Short 16 BiffTheTimid- While the drawings are awesome, I was afraid the joke was going to fall flat. I was awrong. Ryu's expression and the "mama,mama" line (from Saving Private Ryan I believe?) made this one of my favorites.

Short 17 Tygerman-The car gag could have been funny, but the Blanka part was "cute" as they say.

Short 18 Egoraptor-Again, love the way it's drawn, but did not find it funny. Was it parodying "Unforgivable"? Because I didn't feel that funny either

Short 19 RobertBob- Better than the first. Could have been better, but I enjoyed the "YES"

Short 20 killammer- Took me two views to get what Ryu was doing, but I had a neutral feeling on it.

Short 21 Nalem-Enjoyed Egoraptor's voice acting, witty joke, and drawings.

Short 22 TomFulp-This was almost creepy by the wat ir was drawn, but I absolutely love Tom's voice acting. "Whaat" and "Hadoken" and his general mannerisms were hilarious. The animation of the arms just adds to the humor. I don't think much others could have made this funny with the same script.

Short 23 Master-Samus-I did not laugh during this, but it was very fun to watch. Clean humor working?! MY GOD.

Short 24 The Swain- Really liked the art, all the jokes I found funny. Nude Ken felt out of place, but Chun-Li's line was a really nice touch (why did he have her say Hadouken I don't get). I am still awed by The Swain's voice acting abilities.

Short 25 Valerofond-I saw this coming from a mile away, and why I can be fan of random violence, I wish this was executed in a funnier way. Not bad though, because it was animated well.

more in my news update

Score: 9

"Fantastic Demonstration of Skill"

submission: demoreel V2: Sand edition

date: March 1, 2009

Since it is a demonstration, and not a complete project, that's the only thing stopping this fro ma 10.

Fantastic traditional animation quality through Flash, and most definitely the character expressions. I saw your news update earlier on and I am glad they out this on the front page. It is unfair that this DEMO REEL alone surpasses the majority of front page submissions in terms of raw skill, and yet the score and view count is lower. That's just how the audience works though. They come here for free, quick , familiar, entertainment, so its harder to create a better sense of appreciation. I too favor narratives, but I do hope you build a very successful animation career.

Score: 9

"Probably Your Best Yet"

submission: Girlchan in Paradise Ep1

date: February 26, 2009

The Awesome series is nice. That's what brought you to fame on this site and I have a lot respect for that.

But I find myself repeatedly watching this flash again and again. I do not know if you made this for the hell of it or if you put deep thought in to the organization, but I found the humor and style much more evolved than your previous animations.

Like your later animations, you try to dedicate parts that demonstrate your skill in animation. While this one is no exception, you had to show the distinctively limited animation often seen in cookie-cutter animes. You still maintain your style of wacky, awkward motions in the characters, but you showed more restraint this time and I think the the relative subtlety payed off.

What really brings this cartoon together is the voice acting. The tongue-in-cheek, idiosyncratic, and purposely awkward script was very successful. Yes, the characters keep struggling with the Japanese names, but there is more that and it seems people are mistakenly assuming that this is all there is to the parody. Phrases like "I could see it in his f-...eyes," and "That EXPLAINS everything," are simply done, but very well timed and (ironically) acted. Combined with the purposely bad editing such as echoes and camera takes, there was actual CARE in to being bad.

The negative is that the humor relied too heavily on the voice acting. When visuals were meant to be funny, such as Konomaru powering up, there was a lot of potential to be hilarious that was not lived up to.

What frustrates me is that this may not received the amount of popularity that your Awesome series. Even for me, it takes a second watch to get the underlying jokes of this animation, and I think that's what everyone should do (AND TO TOTALLY BE A FAN OF THE MEGA UNDERGROUND GIRLCHAN IN PARADISE SCENE).

This is much more original than your awesome series, the jokes are more crafty, and it's just plain funnier, whether you're a fan of anime or not. I also hope you were dedicated to this project, so I do not feel like I am over analyzing :D. I hope to see more of your work adopt this style!

Score: 6

"Funny Dialouge, Animation Hurts It"

submission: BUY The Amazing Stuff

date: February 24, 2009

The announcer was so eccentric that I was hoping of actually seeing him do stuff rather than just hear him, and his voice is crazy. The joke itself was pretty funny in the beginning, but it kind of trailed near the end. Had it been executed better in terms of visuals, it would have made a much better submission. With different shots, better drawings, and a tighter script, I wouldn't be surprised if this was put on the front page.

Score: 8

"Meant For Sonic Fans"

submission: Sonic Shorts: Volume 5

date: February 20, 2009

I always enjoy watching these. I STILL want to make something for the last one!

The animation in this one was better than previous installments for the most part. I do not know where people are getting adjectives like "terrible" in terms of animation. Obviously there are different levels of skill, but I think everyone stepped it up. Everyone had a decent take on Sonic's design, so it's always fun to see that, and the jokes were more varied.

Speaking of which: the humor. I found this animation amusing and comical, but I didn't really find myself chuckling too much because of good amount of animations were rather predictable/drawn out/obvious. The olympic one I could see coming a mile away, and while the ring was actually a nice touch, it probably could have been executed better. Knuckles knocking out Sonic was well animated/drawn in my opinion, but I just did not find anything witty, or slapstick enough.

The main issue I've seen with these series, and while is an unfair one, is that a lot of the jokes would only appeal to Sonic fans. That's fine if you have a specific demographic, but I'm Sonic fan and even the most esoteric ones sometimes weren't that funny. Wonchop's peace I found funny because I understood the silliness of getting all the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic 2 (it was Sonic 2 right? Because I could have sworn you could transform in Sonic 3), and plus it was well animated. Now it would take a pretty informed Sonic fan to know that, but the "erectile dysfunction" bit was broad enough so that non-Sonic fans could find some humor in it, and plus it was in context.

I personally never found too much about the Sonic universe funny. "Comical", yes, but not hilarious. There were a handful actually that I found naturally funny instead of relying on an esoteric reference. So to demonstrate an even greater amount of skill, you should appeal to both fans and non-fans of Sonic to garner further appreciation for the series!