Urbs's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[FrogMan the Series Episode 6]

I can tell you put a lot of effort into this, but quite a few aspects of this just made me embarrassed while watching, mainly the voices. The girl frog sounds so unmotivated and out of character, a good example of this is when she says "holy shit we gotta hurry, help, help, someone we need an ambulance", it just sounds so lifeless and out of character. Another good thing to note is to make sure to not have the characters whisper scream all the time, which happened quite a bit in this animation.

Another thing that bugged me was the constant censorship of vulgar language in this. From looking at the beginning of the video which has a "TV-14" rating on the top left corner, I suppose you want this to be treated like a TV show where you want to censor language and nudity, but that feels so unnecessary to do, especially on the internet.

The plot was hard to follow at times, which left me confused, but I won't go too deep into that, because I guess that will be explained in the next episode (hopefully). Animation felt a bit stiff at times, but it didn't bug me too much, and the music was from Kevin MacLeod, which is okay, but hearing the same songs in so many different cartoons and short films start to really annoy me.

Overall, this is fine for what it is, especially the amount of time spent on this cartoon, as I have no idea how you can spend so long on a project mainly by yourself, so I have major respect for people who can spend that much time on a project, but it does have some little things that need to be fixed for the next episode which I explained earlier in this review. I await to seeing the next episode of where it will go.

artistunknown responds:

Yeah, the voice actress for Chick Frog isn't very good, though she's gotten a bit better than when she started, so there's some improvement. Most of the voices for this were recorded in 2014, aside from a few that were redone because i felt they could be better. I feel like everyone's gotten better at acting since then, but finding time for everyone to record is really hard, and the voices for episode 7 were recorded on the same day since we did have time and since it's a continuation, so unless I can find time to get all the lines completely redone before work on that is too far in, then the problems withe the voices currently probably won't be fixed. I'll try though, but like I said, it'll be hard to manage.

The censorship is something I knew would bug people, but there's a reason for it. It's pretty much the gimmick of this series, you were close with what you said. It's supposed to "feel" like a tv show, as if it were actually being shown on a fictional tv network. This is kinda explained in the series, but not really. The censors do come into play as something more than an annoyance in some episodes though. Plus, it leaves room for having uncensored versions for possible DVD releases. Which, ya know, probably isn't the best reason, but it IS a reason. But yeah, it is kinda unnecessary, but it's only a thing with this series. It's been a thing with this series since the beginning and it will continue being a thing, so hopefully that doesn't put you off too much.

Welp, I tried to make it a bit less confusing, but I guess it didn't entirely work. This is part 2 of a 3 part story, and it's really shit that I had to take so long of a break after starting a trilogy, but there really wasn't much important that happened in part 1, aside from the main cast getting into their current situations. The main plot with Alex being pissed off and wanting to get revenge has been slowly building since the first episode, but it only really began here. I feel like it'll kinda make more sense in the next episode, but idk, really the best thing to do would be watch the other episodes. Many times had I considered not finishing episode 6 again and instead doing a full series reboot, and maybe that would've been the better thing to do, but I already had so much of this done, and I really didn't want to take even longer to remake the first 5 episodes.

I'm not sure where exactly the animation could've felt stiff, but I'll assume it was in the scenes that were animated in 2014, or just where there wasn't enough movement. A big problem I have is not being able to come up with enough good poses, I feel like I've gotten better though, 'cause there's certainly quite a bit of animation in this where it's constant movement with new poses each time, and those bits were animated in the last few months.

Yeah, Kevin MacLeod music is a bit over-used at this point, but I had it and I felt most of it was fitting, so I just went with it. I also didn't have stable internet for a lot of the time I was working on this, so I couldn't really find better music choices. That's not really an excuse though 'cause I could've easily switched out the music later on, but i kinda didn't feel like searching for music, 'cause it always takes an unnecessarily long time. Ideally this series would have completely custom music, and maybe episode 7 could have that, or at least less-used royalty free songs.

Spending so much time on a single project is a really scary thing. The idea of it flopping and all the time spent being worthless is constantly going through my head, plus style and skill level is constantly changing throughout development, so there's always inconsistencies. I've spent a long time on projects in the past, and I'll probably be doing it in the future too, but I'm ready to take a break from long cartoons after this. As much as I love making long stuff, it's just so much more fun to make shorts because they can be done rather quickly, and I've got a ton of ideas i need to get out of my head.

I don't really understand how any of the problems you had with this would embarrass you. It's not like this is a completely professional production with people who know what they're doing all the time. This was started when I was still trying to figure stuff out, so it's full of problems and inconsistencies, but now I've learned a lot so I have a better understanding of what I'm actually doing and how to keep things consistent, so I SHOULD only get better from here. I will be trying my hardest to fix all the problems that can be fixed though. Episode 7 won't come out for a long time probably, but hopefully the wait for that will be worth it, and hopefully it'll be a lot better than this.

Thanks for the review!

[Twilight Princess: BAD WOLF]

The cartoon is good and all, but I think you messed up the description a little bit by having your "YOUTUBE" link to your Newgrounds page. More exposure for NG the better, but I just wanted to point that out.

https://gyazo.com/9202cc29f25bc5c316511ceb8d875be1

k7vin responds:

I put the newgrounds link on the youtube version as well, and I've been plugging the newgrounds link as much as I can. But I agree. Newgrounds is the shit, and I'm all about more traffic to this site :)

[Love on the Streets]

Is this just poorly done improv? What is the joke? Is this a comedy or is this supposed to be serious? What am I supposed to get out of watching this?

Also, audio was way too compressed and the voice acting needs some work, and don't use the boiling tool too much, it's too distracting. If this is an April Fools day cartoon, you didn't do a very good job. You can do better, man.

CooliSushi responds:

It's an april fools toon, there's no need to do a good job ;)

[#100DaysOfWalkcycles]

Very good.

I loved the change in perspective for most of the cycles. Only minor complaint is that I just wished around the 1:40 mark, with the change of tone in the music, the walk cycles would be in tune with the song, with the walk cycles getting more crazy or energetic if that makes any sense. The reason why I say this is because in the beginning you have a lot of casual walk cycles, so if it the walking cycles went a bit more crazy when the mood of music changes, that would be great. However, if these were all in order from when you made them, I guess you can't really change that. Great job nonetheless.

justGoscha responds:

I tried to use more energetic ones and faster ones in the end. Was a lot work to order them by fastness or energy and stuff. They weren't really in chronologic order. But yeah they not always matched the tune, butI tried :D

[Hank Hill at the Store]

fuck yeah hank hill

Eh, the idea was fine. I can tell you didn't really try so I won't go into detail about what is wrong and right, but I do want to see this next part though.

taylorajm responds:

a fair bit of effort went into drawing the backgrounds and hank's face, but beyond that, yeah, it's just simple panning and zooming. Gotta start somewhere, and thanks!

[Be More Edgy]

Where did the teddy bear go? Nobody will ever knowwwwwww

urbfilms responds:

The teddy bear was a lie...created by our imaginations.....

[If YouTube Was a Cat]

lol youtube is random get it???

Seriously, what does this have to do with YouTube in any way? Most of these subjects don't even seem to relate to YouTube, unless you try to look way too deep into this.

From what I guess, this is about the Fair Use issues on YouTube, but the only reason why I know that is because of the description. If I didn't have the description to know what this is parodying, this video would have been just about a cat who fucks up stuff, and that he is coincidentally named YouTube. Without the description, (which most people don't even read by the way) the video itself would have had me confused and not know what's going on.

So lets take a look at what happened in this "cartoon."

Near the beginning, some guy is watching Steven Universe on the television, and YouTube (the cat) knocks over the TV. What? So what does this have to do with YouTube? It fucks up the video? Copyright? That scene was so vague and nothing was going on to let the viewer know what was happening. If anything, you could have called this "Cute Cat Adventures" and just have the cat knock over the TV. At least that would make more sense, since it's about a normal cat, not a cat trying to be YouTube.

Next scene has the owner (presumably the creator of this cartoon) talking on the phone to someone else, and then the cat fucks it up by disconnecting the cord. Again, what does this have to do with YouTube? Nothing at all. If anything, you should have called the cat Skype and explain why that program is shit for quite a few reasons. That would make more sense than YouTube. With that first scene, the cat could represent share-screening a video on Skype, and how that feature is laggy and doesn't work half the time. Second scene could be Skype always disconnecting while the two people are talking. Again, Skype would make a lot more sense, instead of YouTube.

Next scene has the guy on his laptop visiting Tumblr. Seriously, I thought this was about YouTube, not Tumblr. So now this is parodying a completely different website? Okay then. Anyways, it's just YouTube the cat being a pain by going in front of the laptop screen. What is this supposed to represent? YouTube videos keep showing up on Tumblr? The man getting distracted by watching videos? The man is scared about watching TV in general, so he goes on Tumblr to explain about how much more superior YouTube is? How am I supposed to know what is going on.

Last scene before the credits just has the cat burning down the house. Why is the guy still in the house when it's burned down? How is he unaware of what just happened. Is this supposed to represent the guy losing his own YouTube channel? Again, the same complaint as last time, how am I supposed to know what this is parodying.

This is a very mediocre start for writing parodies, but you really need to learn what the issue is and how you are going to make fun of it.

As for the animation, it sucks, but I guess you are still starting out, so I won't take any points off of that. Music was just public domain songs that everyone has heard hundreds of times, nothing new there. Voicing was lukewarm, felt very uninspired and at times was just painful to listen to, nothing major.

I talked to some pals about this cartoon and they were just as confused by this. We came to the conclusion that this is presumably about Steven Universe cartoons being taken down off of YouTube. Of course those cartoons would have been taken down! Its copyrighted material. That's what television cable or buying DVD's are for, to watch those cartoons, not to be watched online for free, unless you want to be a pirate (yarr-harr).

Conclusion is: this was poorly written and animated. Try again next time, babe.

CaptainCinnamon responds:

To be honest, you are right. I really should have been more clear with it. The TV was meant to represent that YouTube was taking down videos for no reason. Steven Universe was just meant to represent those videos, but I see how it looks more like YouTube is actually taking down an episode that shouldn't legally be on YouTube anyway. The phone call and tumblr scene were supposed to represent how some people aren't safe even talking about TV shows/movies on YouTube. But again, I can see how this is confusing, especially with the fact that I used a different website for an example. Overall, I need to work on writing better so my future animations will actually make sense. Also, thank you for understanding that I'm just starting out with animation, but I honestly could do a whole lot better if my home wasn't so stressful, but I'm not going to go on any further with that because it's personal stuff.

I'm just really glad this cartoon's finished and done so I can start over and try to do something I can actually be proud of. Thank you for the review.

[Luicide]

Alex is Mario, isn't he

Damian005 responds:

FUck

[The Disgust Collab]

I am never going to spend 6 or 7 months working on a collab about Disgust ever again.

MobileSpider responds:

hello sir

[The future of Xbox!]

Your stuff is getting better and better every time.

Ex-Poser responds:

Cheers UrbanTowel! I've decided to use Photoshop and key poses more frequently now, so hopefully the animation and backgrounds have a little more edge on them.