Ericho's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Action N' Topcatyo Movie]

Topcatyo?

It was weird how Topcatyo did not have a "clock" title in his name on the author & file information. It is always great to be introduced to new characters. I would have never guessed that someone named ActionClock would have one of those movie things as his or her icon. The best part is that you guys just look so great in this. It seems like you went through half a dozen art shifts as everything kept looking different! It got a bit weak at times, like with the fight sequence.

You could have used more of a background, but as it's a Clock flash, I did not really care. I like how you gave so much animation to the way they were talking. It is hard to put into words; I am talking about those little lines that signify that you are talking. Congradulations on working on this for a year! You have done your crew honor.

[The Clockmas Collab]

Very nice!

I was not expecting something that was geniunely good when I unearthed this submission. The fact that it was not submitted on Clock Day makes it even more impressive. I guess people could just not help but get into the holiday spirit! The funniest was probably at the end of Pop-Tart Clock's part when they got bored and killed Santa. It did take them a pretty long time to get up and down the mountain, you know. I don't know why, but that thing BlobClock did just never gets old to me.

I could tell you all had fun with this, hopefully as much fun as you depicted yourselves in it. Every individual part had a fairly unique aspect. It was weird when it came to NintendoClock because he looked like a present himself! In case anyone's wondering, you can just start at one part and watch it the whole way through. I like how you're all on Santa's lap when you move the mouse over your part.

[Valentine's Day 2011]

She should enjoy it

It was great of you to do this as a Valentine's Day card for your girlfriend. I liked this more than the game because I actually thought this would have worked out better as a game! Then again, I suppose the other submission would not have worked well as a cartoon. This was extremely unpredictable and I love all the work you put behind it. Apart from having consistently great animation, you make us recall our youth. All the color effects look like they were used via simple crayons.

At first I thought the thing they were riding on was going to eat the ice cream cones. Speaking of that scene, it could have been longer. You may not be able to travel into an electrical socket with your girlfriend, but you can still have ice cream! It seems weird how someone made of ice cream would hate fun. The story was good and random.

[EVolution-abduction ep1]

Quite entertaining

The time traveler really reminded me of "Invader Zim" both the show and the character. It was really on the loading screen where he had those spider limbs pop out. And like that show, this also had a good amount of humor. In fact, I think this is going to work out better as a comedy series than an action one as there was little action in this. While it could have used some more action, still very well done. I especially like how silly the girl is when she talks about God and stuff.

There's a perfectly logical explanation for her to be in that situation and it's at least scientific. The animation was flawless all around. This is the kind of cartoon that really wants you to know what happens next in the story. I have no idea why Brian went back in time or why he captured those two people. The idea of him being human was also quite original.

[Mother 2]

I am (or was) a Spongebob fan

It was nice to hear that audio as I could recognize it. This still needed improvement on a lot of levels, mostly because the animation was not that good. It seemed like the whole thing was random. How was "Earthbound" similar to the Spongebob Squarepants episode you were parodying? I guess the lips sync up well and everything, but it needs to make more sense. In case anybody is wondering, in the cartoon Squidward does not get to eat that krabby patty and I doubt Ness will.

The color effects are okay, but that does not distract you from the flow of the artwork. The score board thing at the beginning was also really weird. The audio clip used did seem to have the best quality either. It seems like you could have worked with sprites if you want to make it more authentic. The title also seemed random.

Zirch45 responds:

Well, to answer a few things you said:
Earthbound was similar because you can eat hamburgers out of garbage cans and that happened in Spongebob.
I HAVE tried working with sprites before, and that was not pretty ^^'
And I couldn't really think of anything to call it.

[Mega Happy Flash Battle]

Transformers Vs. Evangelion!

This was great to watch if only for Transformers and Evangelion robots to fight and then be stopped by Godzilla! The Japanese were always fans of big things, weren't they? Anyway, the animation in this was really good, especially considering it was made in 2003. There were people who were working hard for what they could get in those times. I didn't even think of the Nazis so much as I did of the robot fight. The funniest part was when that one thing hit Joe.

I guess that purple dinosaur was some hardcore Barney parody. This cartoon had a really good feeling to it even if it could have used some better transition scenes. It certainly lives up to its name. It's also funny to see Joe just flap his arms and legs around so much whenever he's falling. A pity this seems to be your last flash, but great to go out with a bang!

[Chrono Trigger Unglued 16]

Gaspar's back!

Gaspar is easily the most entertaining character in this. It was weird how there was a brief moment where the characters talked and you heard their dialogue. It seemed a bit out of place, especially when it talked about a boner and stuff. This is still funny on several levels, but it is bad for Chrono to have an abscence (except in flashback). Speaking of which, when was the last time that devil/angel shoulder thing was played straight? Nowadays, like both the angel and devil are evil or the angel is a vigilante; geez, it's good to see that trope back.

Anyway, this had lot of good moments and some really good sprite work. I do wish there was some more action in this. The part at the ending credits was the most action-packed of all and I do wish it was more like that! What matters is that you guys spend a good amount of time developing the characters. In case anyone's wondering, Akira Toriyama is the name of Dragonball Z's creator, and I think he might have created Chrono Trigger as well.

Clovis15 responds:

Akira Toriyama did the art design for Chrono Trigger, but much of the concept and writing was actually done by a man by the name of Masato Kato. As for the shoulder angel/devil scene, I don't think it would have been nearly as funny if we hadn't played it straight. Then again, the places that usually perform a parody of the angel/devil sequence are not trying to maintain an internal narrative consistancy like CTU is trying to do. On that note, I thank you for the generous comments in regards to all the work we have put into setting up strong internal characterizations rather than just having characters whose personalities change constantly just to facilitate a joke.

[Abobo: Weed all day]

A game?!

This was well animated, but I could not find the point of it. The best thing was that the sprite work used was actually quite good. I do not quite understand how this was supposed to be a game because nothing happened except this single occurence. Still, I guess it was fine to look at something really short and random. Well, I believe it's an infinite loop so in the strictest sense it wouldn't be short, or whatever. While I have not played the "Punchout" series, I believe that black guy is from it.

Wait a minute. It took you over 400 hours to make this "game" because you were smoking weed while doing it! While I do not smoke weed, I guess this did work as a tribute to smoking weed. Why oh why didn't you air this on 420? Of course, seeing as how 420 is the anniverseary of the BP oil spill, Hitler's birthday, and the Columbine High School Massacre, the bad seems to outweigh the good.

[Otaku meets Loli]

Fairly disappointing

I guess I can not really hate this submission, because it does have pretty good animation where it is. It really does not succeed my expectations because there were icons of boobs on the preview image! It doesn't help that there was little going on in this. I guess you were trying to be decent by not showing us actually loli. That "Hare Hare Yukai" music and dance will simply never get old. I suggest that next time you work on making it more like the preview icon.

Then again, I did not pay much attention to the author's comments which did explain it. This could be much better in itself by probably being longer and having more jokes. I did like it how you could go back. The intro (well the icon at least) was pretty good. I hope you learn to take some time to do some more work on the premise.

powermanX responds:

i am a disappointment...ever since Vietnam i haven't been the same.