CroutonsOfDeath's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Prosnorkulus 2]

A decided improvement on the original, undoubtedly. Not to say the original was bad - if I didn't like the original, why would I click on the sequel practically a year later? I'm not sure why I never reviewed it, or why I felt it was only "OK" yet seeing part 2 and revisiting the first, I can say why - and of course say what I think you've got here! I guess my main issue with the first episode is it felt more repetitive and uneven, the gore was fun and the humour in the original oft hit the mark (And the Sniper's design appealed to my love of curvy villains with crazy mustaches.) but looking back the "Eh" part of me was that there wasn't an even mix of the humour and gore, even if the gore could be pretty funny at times - but here mate, you've got a great balance.

Seriously, I found myself easing through this episode a second time much easier than the first - I was laughing and enjoying the badassery in equal parts, and it felt more rounded, more stylish, and overall more fun. Sure it's not exactly high brow or full of substance, but then again... NewGrounds is where I go to pop my monocle and stop being a fucking art film critic all day. Humans need variety and all that. Plus, there was even more of the Reconnaissance Sniper! Seriously, I'm gay for that design and his character. I've watched this three times now, and each time he makes me smile and when it gets to the "I shot you last week!" number, I burst out laughing. Each time. And when I added my wife to the second viewing, she laughed too. I didn't think it could get better then more Reconnaissance Sniper.

Then in comes Sir Stirling Swift. I beg of you to keep up a trend: Create a really memorable, hilarious character to balance out Prosnorkulous's badassery with a great design and unendingly enjoyable schtick. The Reconnaissance Sniper was the standout of the first, and now we have Sir Stirling Swift - whose design and gag is just as fucking awesome (Even if I still have a bigger hardon for Snidely Sniper, that's what I called him way back when. I still kinda like the name.), and then in #3 I demand we have more of Swift and then another great new character.

And of course keep Prosnorkulous a badass, I'll admit - he's definitely a cipher, but a badass is a badass.

Now onto technicals: Your animation and art has also improved. It's still not the best I've ever seen and has some rough edges at time, but it is stylish, is at least relatively smooth (Choppiness is very rare) and the gore is joyously fun and I love how you can find so many different ways to fracture individual parts, I will hope for some more gore comedy though - get those organs, bones, and bodily fluids causing havoc and harm to others too. I'm a sucker for that shit. And even if the drawings aren't all the best, I've mentioned the word "Design" a lot - and that's one thing that also helps muddle most minor technical gripes I have, the character designs are awesome. I love Prosnorkulous' condescending, silent gander, the Sniper's curvy ass face and badass moustache, etc. etc.

This is seriously proof of what to do with a sequel, you took the best pieces of the original and improved upon its flaws and gained a little technical experience on the way too. I "liked" the original, but didn't love it. I loved this, and I can't wait for Prosnorkulous 3 - even if I have to wait another year for it.

4.5/5/+Fav One of the best flashes for the new year =)

MiddleFingerRings responds:

Thanks a lot mang, really comprehensive review there. Snidely Sniper is a pretty good name lolol. Also, yes I do have a new character planned for the next episode.

Some good ideas about the organs and things hurting other troops, I'll keep that in mind actually. It will add a certain something to a scene I've been planning.

[PleaseDiePie]

I'll admit that I'm a PewDiePie fan, I dunno if you can call me a "Bro" - not sure I want that moniker especially seeing as how said Bros can't take a fucking joke - but yeah, I watch his vids and smile. But I can also admit this video is pretty damn funny - honestly if you can't laugh at yourself or people you like, you don't deserve to laugh at all. I've always loved the way you draw people with the gross, overdetailed faces and the like and your animation is clearly getting better as you keep making your flashes which is needless to say a very good sign.

The only joke that really fell flat for me was the joke at the end, the whole "Oh the viewer on the other end is a fat nerd!" gag is, well, kind of old. No offense - I've just seen it before a lot of times. Otherwise I laughed all the way through, I think the Amnesia bit made me laugh the most. If there's one thing I can agree on, Amnesia vids by PewDie are stale and these days he forces "scares" a lot; maybe it's just that he's done it for so fucking long and I'm kind of glad he's branching to do different games more, but regardless I laughed my arse off there.

I do have to ask - where did the comment you showed at the end come from? Was it a comment he left on someone elses video or a comment on one of his own in response to someone else? Admittedly I never thought he was the kind of guy to make a comment like that, he usually - regardless of his faults - seems to at least be a "nice guy" in real life. But obviously since I haven't met him in real life, there's a lot to him I'm not seeing and I'm kind of curious where he left that comment. Considering you can edit flashes on Newgrounds now, did he by chance leave it on the YouTube version of this video? That'd make it an even bigger dick move, tbh.

Speedo responds:

yeah i admit, that gag at the end was a bit lame for me, since i've done it before way too many times. But I just couldn't shake the fact that I found it funny to show a "bro" brofisting his computer screen. It was like "I wish I hadn't done the fat nerd gag before because those ones sucked! This one is actually good!"

And no, I think the video he left that comment on was called "Adults React To PewDiePie" and they were all saying how much he sucked, and he left that comment.

[TURBO CHICKEN]

Hehe, i got a kick out of that! I think what really did it was Turbo Chicken's voice. It always goes to show that sometimes an actors performance is just as important as the writing. Plus I've always had a hankering for Dark Humour to whet my palette. <3

The animation was pretty good too. I'll admit that the art style "wasn't for me" but I'm not going to dock any points for that, it'd kind of be dickish because it's not that it is BAD art - it is drawn well, I dunno the style just won't become one of my favourites. But that's mostly a nitpick, since its truly the content that counts and it was a fun short!

boybogart responds:

This has got to be one of my favorite reviews here on NG. Thanks CroutonsofDeath!

[Bubbles]

As always, I loved it. Short, sweet, and gut bustingly hilarious. I also loved seeing you bring one of the other authors art styles into the mix =D

<3 - Kadath & Chie (P.S. That semen you donated seems to be taking its effect... the child, it shall be glorious!)

Sexual-Lobster responds:

tell my progeny that i love him/her.

[Dooumb]

I pride myself on being a HUGE Doom fan. Been playing since I'm not sure I should have been... in fact probably my second or third memory in life and my first memory tied to a game was being 4 and a half, and finally convincing mum to let me play it by pointing out I had already seen all the monsters die from over her shoulder so I knew they were all bloody. x3 I was raised on that stuff, so I get all nostalgic when a Doom flash shows up.

Helps that this was a pretty good one. Even if the art was mildly inconsistent (That is mainly just a nitpick though) the animation itself was smooth as hell and quite natural looking, a lot of work must have gone into that animation. I think the bit that made me laugh the hardest was when he just outright bitch-smacked the Icon of Sin/Baphomet (If you care about Final Doom) Ahh always lovely to see a good Doom animation. Sadly there aren't too many, though there was a decent Doom collab from way back, a good adaptation of that hilarious Reprecussions of Evil thing, and Dumbass Doom. So thanks for this!

Saminat responds:

No problemo man! I knew that if I didn't take the time to write a decent script, it wouldn't go down as nicely. Sure, RamboJoe would have made it amazing regardless, but it's guys like you who can see through the animation, and pick up on the love that was put into the framework. Glad you liked it bro!

[I Know You Too Well]

That was a lot of fun! I'm a little surprised how much I liked the song, 'tis usually not my thing but it was catchy and well done. The animation was delightfully bouncy and it synched really well to the video. I'm sure I'm not the *only* one to point this out, but I will admit the fanservice was a little too much; which is probably hypocritical since I like the odd nudie here and there I just get tired of panty shots and scary unrealistic flubber tits but what the fuck ever. That's ultimately a nitpick, something like that can't ruin something that's genuinely very fun and very well executed and overall just fun to watch. Good job! =)

Spazkid responds:

there wasnt that much. If anything there was like 2 or 3. You guys are blowing it Waaay out of proportions, but thanks though.

[Thank you Edd.]

It really is hard to accept that Edd is gone; not just because of his amazing contributions, but also because of how young he was; life should never end that early. Still he will not ever be forgotten by his fans, friends, and family. My wife, Chie & I, have always loved his work. To all who are proposing an "Edd's Day," I feel that is a wonderful idea. Having a day where we pay tribute to a very funny man will at least prove that he did not die in vain.

As we would say here in Japan; gomeifuku wo inorimasu, Edd-sama.

Yusuf responds:

Agreed :)

[Stainville Episode 1]

Hehehe. That was a lot funnier then it had any right to be, usually when approaching "I wanna be gross!" animation, you get something half assed and just "Gross for gross sake" rather than actually "Gross for funnies sake." Thankfully, this was the latter - and I loved the general surrealism and dark humour thrown into the mix.

Also, I wish I came whenever I was angry at someone. Man, I'd be cumming buckets whenever I wanted too... 'course, I'd have to become a douchebag to do it cause I don't like being angry at people... but maybe, just maybe it'd be worth it.

Alpha-Nuva responds:

it would indeed be worth it. i wish you luck on this endeavor.

[Did You Hear That? vol 3]

I absolutely loved it. This series is always fun, and even the third time around - the idea is still quite fresh. Probably because the only limitation is the animators imagination, and it is fun to see what each seperate author comes up with. I have an idea for the series though - what if you were to start a website and start a competition where artists can submit their animation and then users could vote on their favourites, and a group of the best ones will make it into a new volume - or maybe get showcased before starting a new competition. I'd like to hear what you think of that idea :)

Anyways, keep up the good work guys! These are really fun.

Graeme responds:

It is an interesting idea. My only problem with it is that I wouldn't want to put people through all the effort of making a part to not showcase it in a new volume. The reason these collabs are limited to 10 people is because that used to Newground's limit and I couldn't bare to choose who would and wouldn't get the credit.
Neat idea though :)

[Pokemon PoopBrown Version]

Mixed...

Mixed feelings about this flash. Considering you are working with Pokemon sprites, they aren't too bad though some smoothing would be nice. There are some moments where the editing is really, really poor almost like there is no real end to a certain scene or shot. Though that only really happened a couple times, otherwise it wasn't bad.

As far as the humour and story; a couple parts were smile worthy, but honestly it isn't my kind of humour. For the most part I didn't really laugh or care about what was going on, the timing was somewhat awkward and I guess I don't find humour in the premise of "Team Feces is turning people brown!" Regardless, it could have done worse with that premise; something like that could sink to *shudder* SeltzerBerg levels. Thankfully, it didn't go that low and while I simply don't think it was funny, I can't say it's bad for the type of humour it is. I think the parts I smiled at were the scenes with Professor Oak, the quick manly "Skitty" voice and the ending regarding the names of the sequel. In fact, that ending bit DID get one laugh out of me - so there you go. It was a bit long though...

One other positive, the voice acting. It was all pretty high quality and while I didn't like all the voices, I can't slight the quality and effort. In fact I'd argue they were probably the most technically sound aspect of this animation.

I guess in the end, I can see why a lot of people like it and it isn't bad for what it is but it isn't my thing. I can see that there was some effort put into it when compared to many other sprite flashes out there, but it simply didn't do much for me - even if I did smile at a few things and chuckle at the end. So for effort, good voice acting, professor Oak and the ending - you get a 6.

Eastbeast responds:

Thanks for the review. I know there were alot of crunches to keep the file-size low, so I ended up having to cut up the songs and make them loop, although I don't think it was done badly, but there were some places I just couldn't put music because of the file size.