MrShoeShine7's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Monkey Wrench 3 - Us & Them]

This one definitely has the best beginning scene and splash screen yet. The perfect intro to such a great episode!
The character animation + acting is insanely good, it goes in tandem with the spectacular writing from beginning to end. I love the scenes with Shrike and Scratch because they play off each-other so well, I love that every time he's irritated, Shrike's always ready with his itchy trigger finger. (my favorite part of the ep. is at 11:38) Scratch's VA (Chris Zito) shines in this episode, with all the emotion he carries in his voice from the overtly angry to super sarcastic moments. Beebs does have some stellar moments in this episode as well, usually he's positive but when hes angry he sounds serious.

The animation is so polished, so well thought out, and there were no pulled punches especially with the secondary animation with the lack of gravity in the ship. Even the Agari moved so nicely swimming through space and in the cockpit. I did notice on Beebs hand on the left, there is a small animation error at 9:41. Also the big size difference between Scratch and Shrikes head at 22:30. Since this is a late review I'm sure it's been spotted before.

Also the subtle use of the music helps the scenes mood and immerses you into the story. I love the homer choking bart reference. The effects you use on the agari voice are scattered but still legible, the backgrounds are consistent and nicely detailed, the characters fit in the scenes but still pop off enough to be clearly visible. The ending also wraps it up with a bow. I'm glad Beebs and Shrike can watch the El Bandito show together. I just love this episode, and it'll be my favorite for a while. Awesome job Zeurel and team!

[Tadpole Parade]

I really like it. The visuals are so beautiful, great job compositing the shots for this animation. The sounds and little voices were a nice touch, it really brings the little tadpoles and the frog to life. The small elf people were also cute, very nice work.

[Skiing with Jucika]

I just love the unexpected boobies that jucika whips out. Only in an NG cartoon. Nice little short, and I'm glad you showed the original inspiration at the end.

[Suction Cup Man Fights a Bird]

The fight scene was crazy good, I gotta say the pigeon had some fun moments, suction cup man was so quick getting things from his bag. Im not sure when he became a silent protagonist but he's still climbing. And the wholesome ending was great.

[Sonic Shorts: Volume 10]

wow, these were great! I love all the different styles jokes and ideas, and overall it was a blast. I had no idea what you were doing! Really great bits and references to previous volumes, I love all the different voice actors playing the same characters, it really makes each short stand on its own. Volume 10 was amazing, I hope you continue!

[The Brothers Mario]

we need a newgrounds shorts tab

[NEWGROUNDS BUMPER (NN64 edition)]

gosh the spyro ripto's rage vibes are real. Awesome work and the sound effects really make this short! I think it would've been better to end off on a happy note rather than the zombie getting shot, just because the style is so cute, and the main characters are all doing different silly wholesome things. Hopefully next time!

[Stomp Your Feet]

This is a really good ad. I like the different looped dances and the way sploot looks determined and ready to party. I like the scene with the pixelated T.V. Nice! It's crazy you had to work around the audio issues.

[Twoex: Overcoming Reality|EP 2: Overnight Change|]

Honestly this sequel is bursting with world lore and took a dark turn. I'm so happy to see so many improvements with this episode! Great introduction with the different shots of scenery, I love the little insects and animals you sprinkle throughout the video. The photo shattering is a great reminder of the character and foreshadowing her story.

Roxas was going to propose for Flare to live with him, but the way the music started was symbolic of his heart dropping at the horrific sight, I love it. Roxas and the girl I can finally identify as his sister have less screen time but their personalities have shown who they are more than episode 1! I love that in the build up to her rescue theres no shortage of violence, there is so much going on and you have represented that chaotic feeling really well. The way Flare was hiding in the chimney is really smart, the one place where she couldn't be easily spotted is while working. I like seeing some other familiar faces like "the newcomer who will curse us all" and I think the child was the orphan from episode 1. But those are the only two I can account for, at least until I watch some of your shorts, which I do want to admit is a great way at expanding your universe with new characters separate from the main ongoing story.

Speaking of which, you stated this series was "ever changing" as in it wasn't meant to have a main character but many different stories, unfortunately until you have a full episode without your main characters (Roxas and Flare) that's what will really solidify the sentiment. I am excited for that! (Despite me not having seen your shorts as of writing this)

I noticed you moved the subtitles on the top, rather than having them at the bottom? Interesting choice. I did notice a handful of errors, at frame 820/821 you forgot to color the critter... at first I thought you just needed a few more frames before he appeared but I noticed he was there. On frame 3890 you missed Flares eye color fill. On frame 3425 I couldn't tell if the door disappeared behind the mother or if this is a different scene with the re-used background. I like your camera movements but sometimes they're a bit disorienting and its hard to tell whats going on, mainly in the action sequences. At 9:13 when Flare is turning her head, the fur on top kinda comes and goes, its a little nitpick for consistency. I think the sounds you've added are nice, but it feels like you heavily rely on the music where there isn't much sound. I get not having voices, and in areas where the crowds will be screaming or yelling being dead silent is eerie especially if you can hear footsteps fighting and etc. during the commotion, its just something I wanna mention. You could always try using free crowd noises to give that feeling of the terror and violence.

I love that the overall look of the art is cleaner and better quality, no more pixelated lines. It really shows the improvement in that time between 1 and 2. The transitions and animation is really good, the characters are still as cute as I remember. The music is nice and adds to the tone of the episode. I love that at the end we can see the eye of the cursed one, so hype!

Twoeliz responds:

Working on this series means a lot to me so I tried my best make improvements and give it a nice atmosphere. I have thought that adding scenery shots and wildlife really add to the experience. This includes an unusual choice of moving the subtitles to the top instead. My reasoning is that for some readers it would be easier to follow on the top since the progress bar might be in the way when someone needs to pause and read. Depending on the platform this might block the words completely and make it more inconvenient. I do have the animation saved without subtitles if the day ever comes where we can add voice acting so this won't be an issue or too distracting in the future. I should have thought about this for episode one, but my first thought was to keep it consistent with what I thought the standard was.

Character's screen time will wildly vary depending on who the attention will be on throughout the episodes. At some point we might see less and less of a character until the focus completely changes, this is what I mean by ''ever changing''. We will see more of the kids who survived in future episodes. They can serve as a contrast to Flare's current live style
but at some point, they might become the main focus until the story changes again to explore other's struggles. You may have noticed that I don't immediately tell the audience who is who or what they are, I like to try to keep the conversations natural as you saw with Roxas and Roxy. We will learn character's names and their relation to each other slowly. Soon the characters will show their superstitions about the newcomer and many more interactions!


I was aware about some of the mistakes such as the discolored eye but not the critter, thanks for pointing that out. I think I might be somewhat of a perfectionist but with a big project like this when I notice a mistake way too late I try to remain calm by '' someone may have fun finding my mistakes'' or '' hey it can be potential for extra engagement!'' But yes, the door did disappear I was supposed to duplicate the background and move some frames around, but I guess I forgot to do that. So in the end we have a mistake I didn't know of, One that I left there knowing it existed and one that I thought I took care of but hey that's just how it goes.

I will definitely try to improve my camera work I do this all by hand and sometimes I just don't get the phasing right but I do know exactly what you mean. About the details of their fur coming in and out I am hoping that is a habit that I can break. In regular drawings I give them lots of detailed fur but in animation form I know I have to keep them simple. I draw extra details by full force of habit sometimes I think about going back and erasing them to keep it consistent but as a solo animator that is time that I could really use for the next scene. You are absolutely correct that I rely mostly on music to keep my animation going where it shouldn't. I am not the one that works on that side, Euphionia is the sound and music designer, and his expertise are mostly in music creation. He is not a fan of lot's of sound effects so I try my best to lean into his strengths. I do get to suggest sound effects here and there or when to cut out music, but I try to not be demanding. He has his own project to work on as he game develops. He is helping me with this but if the budget for the series is increase, we could afford to spend extra time on sound effects instead of relying on music so much. As for now I will take what I can get but let's hope that something can be better in the future!

Thank you for taking your time writing this! It really helps to keep me motivated. Currently working on the next episode as we speak! Just know that My animated shorts don't always have to do with this story. I do have many other characters that have a story line of their own without affecting the main story. You might see some familiar faces and you will see many new faces, the important thing is to enjoy the animations! I hope to keep animating and providing people like yourself more things to watch. Hopefully the wait was worth it, as you pointed out, no more pixelated lines! Hope to see you when episode 3 is available!

[Christmas For A Star]

This is really good, the animation and the composition are well done. I know the crunchy audio is part of the style, but it has such a good song it doesn't do it justice. Nice job, the story is interesting.