Chakra-X's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[demoreel V2: Sand edition]

Fantastic Demonstration of Skill

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.

[Girlchan in Paradise Ep1]

Probably Your Best Yet

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!

[BUY The Amazing Stuff]

Funny Dialouge, Animation Hurts It

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.

vago187 responds:

yeah, but much like the animation as you so eloquently put it my mind also "trails near the end" Not lack of focus, just lack of... yeah maybe your right.

[Sonic Shorts: Volume 5]

Meant For Sonic Fans

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!

thewax70 responds:

Thanks for the great review, Chakra-X. Very informative and I'm glad you like the series. We'll leave a spot open for you in volume 6. ;)

[One Big Morphing Orgasm]

I Feel Sorry for Not Seeing this Sooner

Only "Daily 4th Place"? This probably contained more animation than the other "Dailies" combined.

Fantastic morphing effects with very smooth animation. The only rift in the continuity was when the entire flash looped (the music skipped). The fact that it was a collaborative effort makes it an even greater demonstration of skill. Obviously there was no plot or concrete characters, but that probably caused the relatively low attention, regretfully. While I too prefer narrative animations, this was very pleasing to watch. Under appreciated, I do say.

TheBoogley responds:

I will never forgive you for not seeing this sooner,
we've been waiting and waiting :3

[Left 4 Speed]

Mixed Feelings

I like Left 4 Dead, and it's cool to see a parody of it, but this was of lower quality that I expected.

First of all, the drawings in this were not Egoraptor style. The big eyes and squiggly brush strokes is reminiscent, but too generic to warrant such an accusation.

What IS reminiscent of Egoraptor is the pacing of the short, but again, does not warrant cries of stealing. However, you also made a Grand Theft Awesome, so to assume you were not inspired by Egoraptor at all this time around is easily just as silly as assuming you did rip him off.

Now, about the actual animation. The Witch and Hunter bits were amusing, and so was the end, but that really was it. It's not that there were no jokes being thrown left and right, but the parts that WERE jokes I didn't really laugh at, such as the Boomer, Smoker, car, and butt-shooing scenes. Boomer scene had potential, but was not executed well (again, pacing). The smoker licking Louis' crotch was bland to me, especially the "hell no" line. Car scene, kind of generic bumrush of enemies. And the butt shooting part was just not my taste I guess, because since it is so random, I could see people finding that funny.

I am black and was not offended by your portrayal of Louis. To those who cry out to this, I appreciate your sensitivity, but damn this was drenched in satire, no need to get hissy fits. BUT, at the same time, you, the author, should not assume people know about online players making fun of Louis. Esoteric inside jokes like that do not work very well. You should have known people who do not play the game would think you are just using a stereotypical black person, who acts nothing like Louis.

The voice acting was decent, minus Louis's. Drawings got the job done (nice attention to background too). But, you combined real voice actors with actual audio from the game. That was kind of weird, hearing a high-pitched male voice as Zoey and then have her screaming audio from the game. Choose one or the other next time.

But there just is not enough substance to this. I do not know why you rushed it if there was no deadline. And selling a shirt for this is out of taste in my opinion. And yet, the score is ridiculously high with over 100k views. Take a video game, create a couple of wacky scenarios, and draw gets someone this high of score and attention? But this is not your fault. I completely understand and relate when it comes to making cartoon/jokes because you enjoy it and it's for fun, not solely for popularity (but selling the shirt could make people think otherwise).

Supah Nin10doh! is a gem in the video game parody trend, so I am not anti-VG parody. But you could have been a lot more clever with this. It looks like you took some isolated things you thought were funny, spliced them together, and animated it. Nothing evil about that, but that means the score will suffer (er, well, from me). I suggest make the pacing more coherent, make less inside jokes, make the "plot" less chopped up.

Oney responds:

;) respect. I did have a deadline, i tried finsihing it before hardcore study for exams. i do think this toon sucks however. ah well you learn from each thing you make!

[Trad Animation Collection]

Oh Snap

So you've graduated, right? That was some pretty skilled traditional animation! The drawings looks professional, all the movements followed through nicely, and the overall animation was of high quality. The baseball and morphing clips were the two most impressive parts. I only give you a review this low because it was wasn't really a full flash, more like a portfolio. However, I give you a 5 for the relatively, atrociously low score.

I do hope this amount of talent lands you a great job.

RWappin responds:

All this stuff was actually from my first year there. Two years to go!

I hope I can get a good job someday too. It can be hard for animators to get one these days especially if you're not in CG.

[Apples and Oranges]

I'd like to see more!

I really enjoyed the creepiness of this flash! I still get spooked when his face changes. The ambient music, the surrealist atmosphere/characters, and Bob's voice made is all very creepy. I look for this kind of stuff in a "horror" movie.

However, I felt the creepiness lower when he stabbed the orange, but the twist at the end was great until the final drawing, for a creepier drawing of Bob would have been more climatic, because looking at the detail of the television set, I was hoping for a scarier face.

I haven't seen your work before, but I really enjoyed this one! And bonus points for creating your own music! 5/5

[Sonic Shorts: Volume 1]

Very well done!

I enjoyed this collab. All were talented artists and I enjoyed the different drawings and interpretations of Sonic. The voice acting, mainly by Gamebuddy, was excellent. If I ever made a Sonic movie, I'd probably ask him to act.

I found many of the jokes witty, but only laughed out loud at Shadow pointing at the Chao, but I enjoyed the presentation. But the main point why yall didn't get a 10 from me is that some of the jokes were very esoteric to big Sonic fans. Having tidbits of fan service to the long-time Sonic fans is always fun, I love it, but when a joke is founded on knowledge that only that particular demographic would understand/find funny, it loses impact, but is not terribly bad (ala Family Guy and Simpsons).

But great collab nonetheless. I think this one is much better than that older Sonic collab. Shoot, I may have to consider collaborating in the next one if time allows me to :D.

thewax70 responds:

Thanks for the review Chakra, we really appreciate it coming from you. :D
Feel free to join in the next volume if you ever want to do a Sonic short. :)

[Cosmos Chaos]

Great Work

I really enjoyed this movie. A constant pace with constance movement=a hell lot of animating, so I congratulate you for actually making this. The drawings seemed to get better as the movie progressed (which was intended by you) and it was a nice use of 3D. Did you use Swift3D or import a video? The chase scene was the best part, the way you animated the water and speed.

Any criticism I have is maybe try a movie with voices, sound effects, and more story telling features. When you do it to a music video, it's a little harder to get people into the characters, and yet you still managed to make a decent connection. Though I know that was not the goal here, but besides that, it's hard to find anything wrong with this without being nitpicky. 5/5.

zeedox responds:

My next project most likely is involving voices and sound effects, which should be an interesting challenge since I have only done music videos so far. I used Blender to make the spaceship. I should try Swift3D though.