C-and-S's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Alucard vs Richter: SOTN - Rhapsody of Ruin]

That was satisfying

I should start by saying I adore the Castlevania series, and I stumbled upon this movie while I was looking for the legitimate fight in the game SOTN (On youtube of course). To see this fight in such a grand scale makes me happy to see that some fans are willing to make some of the conflicts within the story a little more faithful to what the characters are capable of.

As much as I loved watching this fight, and I'm very sure that a great deal of thought was put into the setting and general choreography, and lest I forget the superb animation. However, I was dissapointed in the lack of abilities Richter displayed, especially the famous grand cross. I also find myself slightly irked by the abilities that Alucard used, considering that some of them were made up for this flash movie. Perhaps I'm just nitpicking, I don't know why these things bother me, I suppose I'm just the sort of person that desires 100% loyal content.

Don't get me wrong, once again I loved this movie. You could even consider it a good thing that I found the only flaws in the movie to be very negligable ones. It pleases me greatly to see a fan go through such lengths to make an excellent movie dedicated to the more badass characters in Castlevania. Know that I'll be looking foward to your future contributions to Castlevania. I know I'd love to see something featuring Simon Belmont, or perhaps Soma Cruz.

RopeDrink responds:

Well the fact of the matter is quite simple - If I made it 100% loyal, it'd be hack'n'slash of what we've all seen in the game before and it makes it very VERY hard to break any boundries and spice up the fight.

Alucard & Richter are very VERY limited in moveset and animation so I bust my back to try and few new ways to spice it up as well as stay mostly loyal and use all the abilities I could get working.

In the original ending, Richter was to use his Holy Cross Break, however it got cut and I said (In my mind) that at least something was left to be used in a new version, if I ever get around to making one. I'd hate to think of every character having used ALL their moves in one movie, then just simply reusing them in another, so it's a good thing to remember.

If I ever do make one, it'll be SOTN based only I'm afraid - I've only played the NES CV's to the PSX SOTN, with exception to one on the GBAdvance, I've not touched the more recent ones so I can understand a lot of people asking for Soma etc but the fact is I refuse to animate a flash based on games & characters I've never played as - It's be pretty heartless of me to do so :/

Still, thank you for the honest and meaty review - It's much appreciated!

[Jim Day 08]

For once, something that's not about penises

This movie can really relate to the true nature of a cartoon. Though the art wasn't on par with some of the front page flashes, it compensates by being very colorful and original. I honestly enjoyed this, and due to the movie's spontaneous nature I found myself cracking a smile every now and then. This movie takes a bold step into a website like this, with penis jokes becoming the immature comedy standard; as well as an animation style that slightly represents anime. I believe the popularity this movie has received on the website was well deserved.

All I can say is, keep up the good work. You really have improved over this time span.

Jimtopia responds:

The artwork is supposed to be simple, so if you find it not "on par with some of the frontpage cartoons" that's fine. I do draw some inspiration from anime when it comes to facial expressions, and movements, but I try to stay fairly... north american(?) when it comes to the characters. It's great to hear from you again C-and-S, good to see you are still around.

[How 2 Succeed on NG pt.2]

Pretty much enjoyable

I know your trying to be funny, and in many cases have succeeded in that. I have to disagree on some of the things you claimed in the first movie. Though I'm not a fan of anime, and even blindly criticized it once like you are. I have to say that the anime based flashes that are worth considering are actually very well thought out and well animated. This is me making an honest statement, not being some "fanboy" or whatever your list of ten year old insults are.

Other then that I found the movie entertaining; even though this concept has been done a thousand times already. You're absolutely right about some particular flashes on this site.

This review wouldn't be constructive without some animating tip. If your going to make a movie about a guy standing still and talking for the whole damn time, for the love of god it takes no effort. You could at least make his jaw move a little.

Grats on the front page, and keep em coming. I visit NG once every few months to see the improvements, and I'm happy to see that the user base can laugh at themselves now.

[Eres Veneno ++]

Very interesting

Before I review this movie, just to make a personal note. You have a lot of balls posting anime on this site, not because I don't like it, I personally don't care about whether it's anime or not. There are some people on this site however, that think they'll look cool if they're "anti-anime" and bash anything that’s close to the drawing style. I think it's pretty damn impressive that you were able to get front page with this.

Anyway, I'll review the movie now.

You have great skill in animating, in fact some scenes were very well done. I really understand how hard it is to animate things, and it takes a lot of commitment to do the things you did in the video. An example is some of the backgrounds. You obviously put a lot of effort into them. What I mean by this is that you make very good backgrounds just so they can appear in the movie for less then 3 seconds, and from what I know about flash, they probably took a long time to make. However I did notice that for most of the flash you animated (tweened) people with no animations, but I can understand that since your kind of animations are hard to do, but animating the people with no animations wasn't very necessary since it looked well done in the end.

I really dug the music; something I have to commend you for is that right when the fighting scene started you actually synced the first punch with the music. Anyway it was surprisingly fitting, and other then that a lot of signs, billboards, and other things were written in Spanish. Just to let you know, I would've given you a 7 for sound, but you got a 8 just because you synced that punch.

Just in case anyone is wondering, there is in fact a story here. Though at first watch it's hard to spot. This movie makes sense when it comes to plot; it basically just shows you random scenarios with this random kid (apparently the main character) and a girl that constantly pesters him. If you pay attention, you'll notice even the fighting scene is linked with the girl because she actually told those kids to fight the "main character". Anyway to get to my point, I'm pretty sure that getting the story doesn't matter to the author. The author most likely wanted people to watch this for strictly entertainment purposes.

Anyway you made a good movie, I hope you speak English because that way you can read all the good feedback this movie has gotten. I'm pretty sure people respectively wrote their feedback in Spanish. Yo hubiese podido hacer un traslado en Espanol, pero solo se permite 4,000 palabras maximo

[Madness Arena]

Dissapointing

This movie is extremely dissapointing. With a couple of kills it's all over. The action is heating up and the antagonist just gets in, and boop. All I can say is this is dissapointing (like I've said three times before). However, this would make a better game then anything, so it's better you didn't waste time with the actual movie. Gives you a taste of the action, but it's only a couple of crumbs (if that makes sense). Try to redeem yourselves, and good job on front page. It advertises the game.

[Brutality]

One hell of a flash

On a personal note, McFretN. Your the reason that I know about newgrounds, this is the first flash movie i've ever seen on this site. I think your brilliant, I love all your work, and you have my respect. I wish I could say more, but I have a great movie to review.

The graphics are pretty much top notch, this looks like pro-work. I like the special effects for the beams, I love how the guys hair waves in the wind, I love all the lightings and shockwaves, when that guy punches the other, you really pulled off some of the punches very well, it made the movie that much better.

Even though it's DBZ based, it doesn't have any stupid facial expressions that anime does, so I do not think this should be called anime. It had it's own story, a not a very well thought out one, but it gives the reason to watch the fight. I don't mind that at all.

I love this music, it's so perfect for this movie. The song actually synced with the action, and made you really get into the movie. It's so well put together I bet you actually synced some scenes with the music.

The violence is so great, it's really well done. The way that guy gets split in half, the way that girl gets her stomach ripped out, the way that guy punches a hole right through him and blows the shit out of that alien. It's almost perfect.

McFretN, please never stop animating, you still have more people to influence like me. Don't let any bad comments about your movies get to you, I think your the best animator on this site, and you've really inspired me over these years. Thank you for being so perfect at animating.

[Pandora's Book]

Very creative and original

I'd like to make a personal note, by my information of flash festivals, this could really get an award. I can tell you have an amaizing imagination to think of something so creative. Morons looking for humour and action don't understand what a flash is all about, this is a great example of what a flash should be. It doesn't have a point, but thats the beauty of it all.

I loved the graphics, I could tell you put a lot of effort into it. Thats because the whole movie was frame by frame. Also the backrounds were fantastic, and gave this movie an organic feel. Since I don't have sound right now, I couldn't hear the music. So I read the reviews on them, it was relaxing. I guess I'll just say the sound was relaxing. Besides what appears to be the girl smacking herself in the head with the book by accident, this movie isn't violent at all. That part can even be an example for the humour, even though it didn't make me grin.

Anyway I think my review is clear, this was an original movie that most newgrounders aren't able to understand. I'm not insulting their intellegence, but this is just something some people here aren't used to, so expect people to say it was pointless.

[Fallen Angel: Teaser]

I'm speechless...

I've seen this flash a few times, and I still think that nothing can top the nearly perfect graphics. I am a detailed person when it comes to drawing, so I know exactly how much effort you put into every little thing. Your dedication to flash is remarkable, it truely is, I just can go on about the incredible effort put into making this. I mean your really amaising, you animated the fucking dirt that the cars pick up and everything, even some short fights in the backround.

Something that pisses me off is that people think just because there's barely any plot, they think it deserves a 2 or 3, seriously what a bunch of morons. I'm sure theres going to be a plot if you finish this, but theres no doubt it must be grueling to do this.

The sounds are so well done, I bet it took alot of effort just putting them in the flash because there were so many. You could hear the missles wizzing by, the screeches and shots from fights in the backrounds. What I find amaizing is that there was no music, but every second a new sound would come in, which in doing the math there must be over 500 sounds, no doubt about it.

In the violence category, this movie is what it's all about. It could be alot more violent, but I have no real problem with it because it's still very violent. The action was very fast and intense, and there were some clever and cool moves that the protagonist pulled off. Plus for something so well done and short if you think about it in a nutshell, it's a pretty long flash maybe not a full flash movie long, but its still acceptable.

I hope you don't stop animating, you have a shitload of talent. Your my hero.