Snackers's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[NG Winter Fest Opening Animation | 2022]

THIS ROCKS!!

[Clover Plays Harmonica]

an RPG that has a harmonica as an instrument in one of the songs? Kiiiinda reminding me persona 4 (IDK if youve played it- really good!) just to be honest with you guys BUUUUUUUUUUT the animation is pretty frucjken good so..... 5 stars!

Figburn responds:

you got me YiiK was actually the main inspiration

[OUTSIDER: A Pokémon Horror]

The brutality of that magikarp kill was fuckin hilarious. reminded me of fishing with my dad as a kid

[LUCKYBOY]

You guys had fun making this, and I had fun watching it. I was just left wanting a bit more.

You walk an extremely thin tightrope creating an animation with constantly switching styles. This approach is prone to be headache-inducing, luckily (heh) the team here has pulled it off very well. The shift in styles was impressively never too jarring or grating. I have to give you folks great compliments here, because that's not easy to pull off. Where I begin to have a little problem is in the erratic pacing and story. I think some shots cut too fast and don't give you enough time to process.
Before that, one tiny gripe. The opening credits, I get the shaky cam, its cool and punk! But please, I could barely read the fecking names. I had to pause to take them in! I think doing an erratic camera shake like that with credits, you should maybe sync the lettering with the camera shakes so they stay consistently still while everything else shakes, or something like that. Look back on how the Scott Pilgrim movie opens with its credits, its insanely in-your-face and punk and awesome, but the credits stay clear and legible. OK, just had to get that off my chest.

It really is hard to put my finger on it, but there's something missing here. So you have this down-on-his-luck protagonist. He has no confidence to get the girl, his boss is an asshole, his life is pretty shit, I guess. Very typical beginning, so I was waiting for the twist, or spin on this cliché opening. Only, there wasn't really one. The money in the rubbish bin gag was a funny subversion of expectations, but what follows feels like a played out formula.
He goes through the trials, he has his finest hour rocking the guitar to impress the girl, but despite everything, he still ends up with nothing.
You subvert all these little moments, but in the end the structure ends up being the exact same as a teen rom com. To me, this is basically on the same level of the ending to Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3, not that that's an insult because I love that movie, but I'm just saying. This has alot of 'punk-rock' visuals and vibes, but in its soul and heart, this doesn't feel 'punk-rock'. Again, perhaps not the intention, but still personally what I was left wanting.

I just don't really connect with the humor, which is what is meant to carry this animation and I can see that was the intention. In the end it's a personal, subjective complaint, because I can't dictate what people do and don't find funny. I suppose I'm just left wishing there was more to like about the characters and story besides the humor. Something special, that I haven't seen a thousand times before.

Regardless, I don't want to end a somewhat negative sounding review on a sour note. The time and effort put into this is incredible, the production value next level. It really is kind of insane how great the environments look. Visually, it's a pretty feast. I look forward to anything the members of this team work on next, and I'm happy to see the fun and joy everybody had in creating this. Thank you all for working so hard to make something!

BrandyBuizel responds:

I think that's pretty fair :)

Thanks for taking the time!

[The Engineer: Tiny Robot Santa (Mister Edwards Shorts)]

I really dig this dude, lookin forward to the next one

[Spooky Month 4 - Deadly Smiles]

pelo's magnum opus the greatest christmas gift of all

[Pico's Christmas]

JUST LOVELY
Merry christmas dude

[Gamers Paradise]

holy shit.

[In A Blue Balloon]

It feels like a ton of thought went into every single shot, the composition and layout of every cut was beautiful and the way the character moves through them is so fun to watch. You're always experimenting with methods and techniques and it's inspiring, the overall great presentation in every regard including sound and character designs just furthers my belief that you are currently one of Newgrounds top animators. Please keep making your amazing cartoons.

AntonM responds:

holy shit snackers, thats super kind of u my man!!! thankyathankya

[Squid Game ;)]

made me lol