CroutonsOfDeath's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Paging Dr. Seuss]

How delightful and charming!

I loved this movie. Love, love loved it.

Otherwise this was a perfect example of dark humour done right. The animation and style was really good and the rhyming was fantastic. We need to see more horrors from the vault of Dr. Seuss.

CatFat responds:

Glad you liked it, thank you!

[The Rebirth of Heiniken]

Hah

Yeah in reality I could whine and moan about how it was too short but despite that I laughed pretty damn hard. Pretty pointless and short but nonetheless funny I suppose.

[Billy Mays The Birth]

A mixed bag but nonetheless entertaining

This was very bizarre and abstract and on a site like NewGrounds that is saying a lot. I think on the whole it was a mixed bag. Some of it was absolutely hysterical, some of it was poor.

Most of the background art was flat and didn't give much depth, but some of it was terrific. The shots in the Maternity ward were good but the quality of that aspect went downhill fast. The animation was decent even if the graphics were a little sketchy and rough at times, but at least everything looked good in motion. Strangely enough some of the most impressive bits of animation came from his Beard, very smooth transitioning there.

I will admit that the Swedish narrator got on my nerves. I chuckled at the silly voice at first but I still hoped it would be a throw away gag and having him narrate the whole flash eventually became grating. I can't say that his acting was bad, he served the tone decently and his dialogue was fine, but his accent sure was bad. Despite some static the voice acting was decent especially with Billy. I think that he should have had more actual dialogue because the impersonation actually wasn't bad at all and the bit at the beginning where he was beating the Doctor with his umbilical cord was made all the funnier by having such a good voice over.

If I had to pick the absolute nadir of the short though it would be the Dio impersonation. No offense but that was awful. I could tell the actor was trying but there was so much noise in the mic and lets not forget that it was terribly off key and I had to watch the scene multiple times to get the rewritten lyrics. Thanks for slipping in a Heavy Metal reference though. :P

I was originally going to give this a vote of 3, but it got a 4 for one reason: Songs from the Wood. Sweet Jesus that is one of my all time favourite songs and even if it was only a snippet any flash that includes it immediately gets bonus points.

The story and direction was good though. In your description you mentioned you wanted to tell a tall tale and even if it dribbled away at the end with the awful Dio segment you did a fairly good job. Some jokes felt forced but others, as strange as they were, were hilarious. I mentioned that I loved the umbilical cord beating and I also loved the bits with his beard and I had a chuckle when I saw his beard carrying him during the running away scene.

This flash isn't perfect; it was a mixed bag but for the most part I enjoyed it. I think with a bit more focus, a less grating accent on the narrator, and a better Dio impersonator this could've been a lot better. Regardless it was still a fun short.

thejuiceizloose responds:

Yea, I am a big Jethro Tull fan, so that song had to be in there for that scene. Thanks for the indepth analysis. You've given us quite a bit to look at for the next Mays cartoon. The subsequent episodes won't focus quite so much on narration, as this one did. We were trying to provide a setting and background story that was easier to do with a narrator, so now that characters and motives are established, we can rely more on character interaction to carry the story. I do agree with much of what you said, especially the Dio scene. We were pressed for time and someone who could pull off a great Dio impression, and obviously were limited in that regard. I still stand by my voice actors however, and I feel like more time and better equipment will make all the world of difference. And I have to agree with my animation. There are many things I am happy about, but even more there are things that I know I can do better on. When working on a flash that is 9 minute long, it seems likely to get sloppy from time to time, so we are working on slimming up the length on the next one. Thanks for the review.

[Geoweasel Episode 19]

A few chuckles

I haven't watched any of the other episodes, so I didn't really have a feel for the characters or continuity (Assuming there is one..), and there were a few bits I didn't really understand; but overall, I did have a few chuckles. I might go back and watch the others sometime.

Geoweasel responds:

There's generally no continuity in the series. I try to make each episode separate enough from the others so that any one can be a jumping-on point, but some stand alone better than others. If you watch the rest, I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for an honest review!

[Spider Powers 6]

I actually agree with Spazkid.

I liked the other ones and it disappoints me that you are just going through a butchered meme here. There are so many other, much more creative things than a Pedobear that the spider could have turned him into. I will disagree with Spazkid regarding memes never being funny, they are funny to read about on ED and some memes can be funny if used sparingly; but this is a case of using it for forced laughs.

just2pale responds:

lol so you're upset that I didn't use a character you liked? lol ok I will keep that in mind for the next one.

[ParodyRangersTheMovie P.3]

Good enough.

I loved the first two parts a lot, and after the wait I think I was expecting a bit more. There were definitely some funny scenes and your animation has definitely improved, but it didn't make me chuckle all throughout like the first few movies.

I'm sure you are tired of hearing this as lots of people have pointed it out, but some of the jokes felt forced. Yeah it's true that NG loves Dick jokes but when making a joke that observes that fact you need to be a bit more subtle. It'd be a bit funnier if Evan Splooge hadn't broken the fourth wall with a fucking sledgehammer himself nor gone on about the dick joke thing, and maybe shown viewers cheering him on and laughing at him instead; something along those lines, you've made jokes like that before.

Regardless I still had a chuckle and I loved the Rangers new Zords. x3 Not bad, but could've been better; but hey, at least its finally here.

[Two minutes of terror EP2]

Very cool

I really liked that. I think that the graphics had some rough edges, but the actual animation was fairly decent. But regardless for a flash horror story (Flash as in short, not flash animation. Writers lingo =3) it was pretty good. I liked how it built up to the ending, it's always nice to have a little tension instead of just showing as much gore as possible. I'll also say that final image was creepy as hell; but I suppose that was the point.

I can also say that the monster itself in all was creative, its a nice idea and It is good to see someone do a blind monster and actually put logic into it. I know so many pieces of fiction that state blind monsters can attack you... because they, are, uhm, monsters and monsters don't need to bow to science cause.. they're... uhm... monsters. That kind of BS annoys me, so it's nice you actually gave us a reason instead of just relying on the "Monsters can do anything" card.

[Hotdog Acidtrip!]

I can't believe I forgot about this

I can't believe I forgot about this films existence. I was glad that "Harmonica Mouth" linked back to it, because I knew I had seen this movie yet could never find it again. I remember people giving me funny looks when I said "There's this movie I gotta show you, its about a woman who goes mad cause a hot dog is screaming at her or something like that..." So I kinda decided it didn't exist.

Haha, I'm so glad I found this again. Also I didn't realize you did it, but then again circa '06 I didn't really know who yah were. Good to know you did one of my old favourites cause I love your newer stuff.

[Rwd 033: Harmonica Mouth]

Today, on non-Sequitur theatre

Yeah, I got a kick out of that. A bit random, but hey, that's how I like life. I think this is the first RWD I've seen save for the Meet n' fuck episode, I might watch some moar later.

I actually could understand miss Harmonica Mouth without the subtitles... maybe because as a kid, I did that WAYYY too much. I am one with the language of talking harmonicas.

Also, nice touch at the end there. You know how to use "Less is more" to your advantage; there are some cases where a joke is funnier showing a big punchline, but some are better leaving it up to the imagination of the person on the other end. The way you presented this one, it's better that you left it up to the imagination of the viewer. I had to laugh imagining that. x3

[Mr. Henderson is shot!]

BEEL BLOW BLIG GO SNOW BO BLOW BYEEL BLOT.

The words of an angel.