WCCC's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[WelchesJuiceGirl Returns!]

I like the detail of the spilled shell. Question is who he shot before her.

RealRedbookClock responds:

some chinese with covid

[EVERYDAY CLOCK CREW]

Pretty fun collab the gang put together. This was a lot of fun watching the styles merge together. I vote fiev

k9 responds:

Thanks for the kind review!

[Clockmas 2019]

Obligatory.

RealRedbookClock responds:

Obligatory vote 5

[MAXIFICATION 2: Commencement]

Ho. Ly. Crap. The details people might overlook are immense. Some actual frame-by-frame animation. Fantastic ambiance and soundtrack (fleetwire, my boi, nice work), the use of 3d graphics, the flag flapping in the wind, dirt being blast aside by aircraft... The actual choice for fully diverse camera work, fantastic set pieces such as the city's wideshot, to even small details like the population number dropping...

WHEWIE. Grand total, I feel like the animation in this, in terms of actual scope and material depth, is unironically superior to anything from the canon madness movies. That isn't even beginning to talk shit about the canon madness movies, that is 100% a compliment to the work done here. This would be impressive in any field of flash movies, but seeing all the diversity of shots and art in this is a godsend. Those aspects are in extremely scarce supply through madness fan films. Sidescrolling is prettymuch guaranteed to be 95 to 100 percent of the content, so trust me when I say I appreciate the work done here.

This is just a preview and I'm already beside myself. I imagine the actual movie will have to get action and more sidescrolling shots in, so it won't always be this cinematic (as my expectation, as I said), but if it's even got splashes of shots like these I am ALL over it. I don't care if nobody gets shot, this is a 10/10 madness short.

Jsoull responds:

Awesome review my boi! You are correct that the film will have those "regular" side-scrolling scenes, but I plan to pack-in enough detail and cool shit that it more than makes up for it.

[Madness Powers: Devolution]

The choreography is absolutely stellar in this. Lots of things I've never seen before in arrangements, and things that are highly underrated on top of it. For instance, guys in body armor making fun enemies, as just one example of the latter. For the former, things like holding a pistol to a guy's head, reloading it, then firing while he's still pinned down? Awesome. Dropping a guy's magazine with gun-fu and watching him fire the single round in the chamber? A fantastic detail.

Some of the movement, particularly in response to recoil, being hit, and etc do feel a bit on the weak end. Well, for what I've come to expect from Madness shorts, anyways. Still, the reactions are there almost always, so it's certainly not a lack of effort in play. While it is well into the realm of opinion and bias, I would have loved to see more "fling" and "bounce" when the chaos unraveled. I feel like some of the sequences with slow, tactical movements could've also been enhanced with some alternate camera work to ramp up the sense of tension... But let's be honest, side scrolling is prettymuch 96% of everything in madness combat, so once again that's a very specific detail.

I found myself really enjoying the details and movements here, but the sense of energy didn't quite cap it off into a complete "murder boner" or whatever you'd call that. Awesome work nonetheless, I really can't overstate the sense of soul and individuality in the action sequences' planning.

KorboDuo responds:

I'm rewatched my animation and yeah, I see that the pacing is unstable. Thanks for pointing!

[Fefnir - Pilot]

I'll be brief, because I could praise this things for days before listing my only point of complaint. The characters are quite originally drawn and clearly incorporate lots of fresh ideas and new designs. The world has a lot of themes that the viewer learns about yet is kept guessing to some aspects, and the art quality is high and the renditions are very varied in angles, use of perspective and so forth.

You want to present a new, fantasy-actiony cartoon world to us, and you hit that shit out of the ballpark and clear into space.

My only single point of complaint does emanate from the design of the weapons. Throwing knife was fine, but one hostile used a giant slab sword that has questionable blade design and an okay hilt, but no pummels or proper guards or sheaths or anything.

Further, the protagonist's sword was basically a super sized gladius, with not too much to note about its design. I feel this piece was heavily inspired by berserk in a few senses, and if not, the similarities are a funny coincidence.

I would look into adding a bit more depth and feature to the various tools of the series. While not terrible, per say, they are unfortunately placed against the excellent standard for the rest of the world's design, and at least to me that's why they stick out as in need of expansion or spiffing up.

I'm always hesitant to watch new stuff on the front page these days. This did not disappoint in the slightest. You have my attention, sir.

9/10, 4/5 ~WCCC

FrameFreak2D responds:

Thanks for your feedback :D now that you mention it, it does seem like berserk, funny thing, from all our team, I'm the only one who has seen the series and I did it like 4 months ago xD and this was done in 2013 so yeah, something I've learned is that we're not that unique, and that if we have an "unique idea" there's probably many others who have that idea in the world xD

[Pleasure Island 5]

God damn. The moment that squid quacked was the moment I favorited this video. Oddly, I would say the flashback's length was less than desirable, despite the fact I remembered I really needed it to remember this story arc's previous happenings.

Funny as hell, crude as always.
9/10, 4/5 ~WCCC

Sexual-Lobster responds:

cheers.

[Arc Infinitum 3]

I hate to say, it's a pretty good product in many respects, but lacking in a few that stops it from being a potential masterpiece or high caliber piece, if nothing else.

To start with the constructive here:
-High quality and fairly well known voice actors. Always a plus to have those around.
-3d animation and according cell-shading style, both of which have potent punch for a unique and high quality style.
-Really good processing of said art, so it comes out nice and crisp. Further compliments the art style in and of itself.
-A universe with enough interest and things being juggled to keep the viewer in for the unique world they are curious to learn more about, or at least enough to keep their attention.
-A solid amount of length and good frame rate as well, meaning this is a platform reading to go for extremely high quality art and animation as a whole. I cannot emphasize these 2 key points enough to mark the difference between something that's fun for a couple of goes and something that people come back to again and again.

That being said, there are a handful of things that lack polish or may, dare I say, directly need improvement to play catch up to the stunning fields already presented. I should emphasize that half the reason these bug me some is because of the overt imbalance between various qualities, making the goods still good, but the bads fairly exaggerated.

Anyways:
-While the voice acting was of quality, there was a lack of immersion into a considerable few of the lines, which held back the ambiance from being more complete and the atmosphere from holding more direction and interest, compared to the potential clearly carved out. On a related note, a handful of lines feel less inspired or poorly written, or maybe just poorly timed. I would argue the writing is the strongest point in which this lacks, as it holds back the story telling considerably, which is the main focus. That being said, the writing isn't too obviously flawed or filled with gaping holes, either, and that counts for a lot on the other side of the scales.
-Some animations produced by characters seemed unnatural (less to a point of "not superior quality" and more of "slightly below desired quality") and some seemed a tad choppy, though they were few and far between, I'm glad to be able to say.
-The way the action and its conversations near the action were placed against another really ruined the flow of the action scenes, or at least for me. Usually a good style of cutting between the relevant story info and the threatening action relies HEAVILY on fluidity and pace to keep them pressed against another in truly satisfying matter.
-In some cases the choreography for the action felt less inspired and more rigid. There were considerably good concepts in play, but once again this is one of those delicate borders to mind if one hopes to nail quality right on the head for the legendary quality level.
-While I'm not too anime educated, I was able to pick out a handful of characters that were directly ripped from popular animes/mangas. I feel like there was a strong vibe of "paying homage to inspiration" or "references placed in the mix for fun", but the overt way it was portrayed draws 2 issues from my point of view. Firstly, it means a handful of characters are being designed purely by the artist, and one sees much of the other work that makes them love the artist's style, direction, and creations... only for a couple of areas to lack the completeness of that quality the fans become attached to. Secondly, and this one gets me slightly more, for the sake of paying homage or fun references, subtle is usually the way to go. Not only do fans love finding the little things for picking through their favorite pieces and shorts, the delayed discovery effect increases the humor and enjoyment of the bit almost exponentially.

I want to take time and reemphasize that there are some very well done fields as a whole for this bit, as are many of your bits I've seen in passing. If the other fields are be better handled (not that the handling was BAD either) or are able to do some catching up, your work would be simply explosive in enjoyment factor AND quality. As much as I enjoy the things going right here, I find myself being disappointed more because it IS that close to being a knock-out product.

I might catch some more of your works in the future, as they come. We'll see.

7/10, 4/5 ~WCCC

Kel-chan responds:

All my life until the day I die, I will always have "potential" and it will never be honed into anything amazing or explosive. Just have to settle for mediocrity or averageness.

These works will always be intermediate, I just dont have ability to master anything- writing, animation, staging, choreography or whatever. I've already had 3 decades of potential without mastering anything.

If I had that ability, I wouldn't be posting vids on newgrounds at my age. I'd be making tv shows and feature films and getting paid accordingly for it.

[Puzzle Hunters the Series #1]

I want to try and stay constructive here. Let me say first and foremost that I love a lot of your prior work (ESPECIALLY deadly space action) and have watched your newer pitches now and again as well.

There are a good handful of things to be said on this series, and maybe this earlier episode was more groundwork than OOMPH, but overall the animation and art was clean, there were no "slouch areas" I was able to see of rushed or cut work, and it's something new and experimental in one, and that's why this is of good quality.

Here comes the part where I'm conflicted, though. While everything presented didn't have super obvious holes, it didn't have overt strengths, either. The animation and "camera work" left things feeling relatively static most times, the jokes failed to get any discernible reaction out of me, the characters were, to a fair degree, lacking depth and personal identity, and the way the animation, art, and voice work blended together didn't provide strong ambiance or a good cartoonic "pop" of ridiculous or comical nature.

It's not bad, and a fair dose of its components are on the better side of the spectrum, but the soul feels missing and it lacks anything to entertain me or want me to come back for more. I only hope I'm being a stick in the mud here and other people get more out of it than I did, and I WILL keep watching in case there's a transition or a deepening of the elements further, but that is solely due to having seen your potential and ability elsewhere in animation and so forth... but an average joe newcomer with a similar disposition to mine may find nothing remarkable worth coming back for later.

Best of luck, hope this gave you things to contemplate or consider, even if your stance remains the same post-reading.

7/10, 3/5 ~WCCC

BSMattW responds:

This is a fair review, thanks for writing it!

[CLOCK DAY 2015]

Technically, it's the beginning of the 15th year of the CC, so that. Short and somewhat amusing, not much else to say.

chris-the-stick responds:

hmmm... interesting!

thanks for your review, have a nice day, and
happy clockday!