GregoryGrub's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Girlchan in Paradise Ep2]

Just When I Thought I Was Out, You Pull Me Back In

I actually enjoyed this more than the first one. The first one had too much dialogue and not enough haha jokes. In this one, there was more action/locations, still a lot of talking heads, and a couple gag jokes that kept it from tanking: the bucket of water, the "you crossed the line", "the fight", and the pencil break learned from mom. Well that's more than I thought, but the problem with them is that they just didn't hit hard. They sound alright on paper, but I don't know if it's the purposeful shoddy voice acting (which I know is a parody, but it shoots the humor in the foot) or the lack of action and facial expressions. It's hard to make a joke sound funny with purposeful bad acting.
For a guy who is animating eons better than Metal Gear Awesome, you're animation is so stiff in this. The characters are like cardboard cut-outs. It seems like you're too busy trying to make an accurate portrayal of a crappy low-budget after-school special soap opera anime instead of a funny cartoon. Humor seems to take back seat on this train wreck of a series. But what is a series without a story arc or any memorable characters? At least meet me halfway and make it more funny. But I know that you've spent more time working your ass off than I have on this critique and that you're not a fucking magician who can just go "POOF! FUNNY CARTOON!"
But when you submit a flash on here, you stick your neck out. I won't chop it off, I'll just look away next time you stick it out. (Wow that sounds gay.If I could critique this critique, I'd say there's too many puns.) I know you've got many years ahead of you and that you learn from everything failures and what not, but I just don't see where this series is going. It appeals to a smaller market of your whole fanbase, judging from similar reviews like mine. And I love anime, just not shitty anime. And I still love your old shit. So there's my opinion, let it rot.

P.S. Ha, You made Broken Pencil Man's strings on his pullover hoodie double as his hard nipples right? Right? Damn it.

[CornDog Express Trailer]

Cornhole Express

A HIDDEN PORTAL...TO ANOTHER WORLD. That's such an overplayed premise. Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, Coraline, and Being John Malcovich in some aspects. But seriously, if you're going to pick a cliched idea like this one, you need to completely reinvent the idea. And judging from what I've seen, you haven't. And this alternate world seems so bland. A enchanting place where bears wear suits? Why is that interesting? Just for being random? I know you're using the, "we left the good stuff out of the trailer" routine but man, you don't have much going on in this at all. And by the way, what happened to Beast Snacks? I thought there was another episode coming out. This Cornhole Express series is a little too similiar in terms of setting too. But I'll still check out the first episode...

tacobuttfish responds:

Well, there is a Mark of the Beast Snacks 4 coming, with as much time is consumed with only 2 guys to take the hit, and working full-time on top of everything else, it could take some time, as far as this series goes, it's nothing like the excellent films you mentioned. As far as the world being bland, just trust me, what you've seen here is not a good indication at all of the "world" As a matter of fact me even saying what I just said makes no sense at all, having knowing the actual plot. I understand if people do not enjoy or like the trailer, but please do not judge our series on a 60 second trailer with a mere 23 seconds of animation. I'm animating on top of storyboards and we threw this together mainly to show A.) We've got a new series coming B.) To help establish the main character's name (It's Toasty by the way) and C.) To show the bit of almost finished animation we had to see if the ever so rough Newgrounds crowd would approve. Doing frame by frame animation takes so much time and to just launch something as epic as we'll be doing next month, we wanted to test the waters as much as we could without ruining all the creativity we've slaved over for the past 3 years.

Oh and by the way, you called it Cornhole Express which is hilarious.

We're glad you're going to check out the first episode, and I think you'll be surprised at your assumptions gone wrong.

-Taco Buttfish.

[The Dresden Dolls]

Yup

I think everybody thought it was about a dildo. That's what me and my friends always said. I think the male equivalent in terms of weirdness is Detachable Penis by Butthole Surfers. I always fancied that song. Oh, the flash wasn't too bad either but there wasn't a whole lot going on to talk about anyway. The style was neat but that's about it. Nothing going on animation wise cept the dancing dildo.

[OLD MOBS EP2]

Cool Hand Luke ate too many boiled eggs

Ok, I want to clear up the strange Family Guy comparisons that everyone is making. I guess people on newgrounds are used to every cartoon copying other stuff like Family Guy. Cool Hand Luke doesn't sound like the pervert nor does he look like him. Why are you people thinking this? Just because he's an old man with a country accent? If anything, the only reference I see is that he's named after one of the greatest movies of the 1960's.

Alright, now that I got that off my chest, I want to talk about this episode. I loved episode one, but this episode was really hard for me to like as much. It was good and original nonetheless, but there were a lot of problems for me.

First of all, Sherbert and Pokes were pretty much nonexistent in this episode and they're my favorite characters. I love their dynamic relationship and the only times it did show them in this episode, they didn't say anything funny, they were just moving the plot along. That's fine and all, but why take away the humor from them? Disappointing to me.

Although I like the moose and Cool Hand Luke characters, the battle scene between them could have been a lot funnier and it was drug out a little too long. The lobster thing looked promising but it missed the mark for me. I was wanting others to intervene and though you had the grandpa and the DBZ characters, it just wasn't enough.

It's not just characters though, it's the comedic pacing of this episode. The last episode you had was just perfect in the pacing dept. You stayed just long enough on each scene and joke and it made the whole thing feel fresh and enjoyable. Everything felt random and spontaneous in Ep. 1 but it felt well thought out at the same time. Ep 2 was lacking those things. Sure, it was random at some points, but not near as funny, and I got bored with some scenes. There was a lot of mystique missing from this episode. The only thing that intrigued me, was the biodome thing which raised a lot of questions and was cool, but that was it. There wasn't hardly anything new in this episode. Besides the moose being a little boy and everyone having beast snack powers.
Again, the battle just took over the story and ruined this episode for me.

I did like how you explain a lot of things in this episode, but it was only explained. It wasn't told in a funny way. I don't know, all of the action just didn't have that punch that the first ep had.

What's kind of interesting to me, is that this episode is more polished and looks better animation wise, but it seems like it got more raw and boring humor wise.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan of this show. I know what you guys are capable of, but this episode just didn't do it for me. It could have been better. I commend you guys for all the hard work, and I guarantee I'll be there at the premiere of Episode 3. Please take my criticism with a grain of salt. I think you guys still have one of the more original shows on here and I know that it'll only get better. Good luck with all of it and I wish you the best. You guys are still awesome.

tacobuttfish responds:

Hey, first of all, thanks for clearing up the Cool hand Luke thing with the character from Family Guy, and yes his name is a direct reference of course to the movie of the same name. I'm glad you enjoyed it and yes, as we were developing this episode we realized due to the fight scene that a lot of the great dialogue with Sherbert and Pokes was most certainly missing, however in the grand scheme of things, Episodes 1,2,and 3 ACTUALLY make up One episode - the pilot. So, when watched back to back, this 7 minutes of the episode was meant to focus on Cool Hand Luke as he is the third main character. I do see where you are coming from though and I'll take what you said very seriously while we continue our work on Episode 3. Very glad to hear you consider yourself a fan of the show, and I think you'll be very surprised and satisfied with what we have planned for the series in the future. Thanks again for the great review and for watching! We'll see you for episode 3.

-Taco Buttfish.

[The Ugly Truth 4]

That's tits man

I don't care what anyone says. Suck it Newgrounds. I loved the beginning part. Maybe it's because Im working on the animation with ya. And Im waiting for them damn VAs to turn in their shit. But someone out there could relate. That's a poor animator. There's a bunch of those. Isn't that all of the artists on here. Waiting for the lines. Well, the GI Joe couldve been funnier. You said you wanted him to juggle and shit. That would be mildly funnier. But he was awkwardly cute, with the whole "I dont got a date for Valentines Day." Then the song. Toto. Classic. LOVE ISNT ALWAYS ON TIIIIIIIIIIIME. WHOAAA WHOAAA WHOOOOOOOAAAA. HOLD THE LI IIIII IIIIII IIINNNNNEEEE. LOVE ISNT ALWAYS SO KIIIIIND. Ok ok. This is silly. Normally I give respectable critiques. Ahem. Well sir, the gorilla playing the drums was off on the tempo and frankly it wouldnt of mattered either way. You told me you had trouble with that because flash made you its bitch. Well, let the monkey be. He aint gonna steal the show. So the music video was good but the song was what made that part. The characters didnt do anything funny. Just stood there. So I clicked it off early. But, the beginning with the happy informational 50s music playing with your angst for Voice Actors. That was a high note. I am useful critiquerer am I not? Whatever this put me in a silly funny mood. So that's tits man. Mission accomplished.

vago187 responds:

I love tits, I really do. I were to choose between tits and tits, I couln't. Cuz I love em both. Unless they are like old lady saggy tits, or really small make chicks look like youn asian boys or fat bitch tits. There is also such things are too big of a tits. Like fake tits. I like round white chick tits, I love em, perky and small too. Don't take me wrong I love big tits too, as long as they are not bigger than my head, ok it depends on the firmness of tits I guess, but I love tits non the less.

[Sock Episode 2: Ptikobj]

One of your best

This is one of my favorite flashes of yours. I have watched it over and over more than any other of your flashes. I know you said it was just an experiment and that you rambled on but the vibe this flash gives, I can't shake. It gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling. These are my favorite kinds of dreams to have. You translate that to flash so well. The writing is off-the-wall and random, but isn't that what a dream is? I love how everyone goes along with the crazy stuff going on. Like the dog eating the cheese, just chillin ya know? I really wish you made more stuff like this, warm fuzzy surreal stuff. I love Salad Fingers and all your shorts you do, but this, this is special to me. I wouldn't mind seeing you make more stuff like this. The creepy strange stuff is cool, but it's not as replayable to me as this is, which I watch every now and then for good measure. You're one of my favorite artists and I aspire to be like you. And you can do whatever you want, but this is the kind of stuff from you I love the most.

[Jbokitp]

Parodies are supposed to funny right?

Well, this Socklops episode you're parodying is one of my favorite David Firth flashes. I cherish it and watch it often. So, when someone decides to parody it, they better do it justice. While this did look strikingly similar to Firth's it did not make me laugh. That's the thing about parodies, they have to be funny otherwise people won't excuse the fact you're making fun of something good. Mel Brooks knows this. One of the things that bugged me with this flash, was your voice acting. Which was terrible. It didn't sound like a british guy. I have a demo where I do a really good impression of this socklops guy. Yours sounds more like a guy with helium. The only thing I found mildy amusing was the Nationwide joke. You're trying to say the music sounds like a insurance commerical. Well, that I think was clever but it didn't make me laugh or smile even. I do think you have some skills at the animating. In fact, it looks so close to the original, it looks like you copied it. Next time you parody something, try to put your own style into the parody. Exaggerate the original don't just imitate it. I commend you for attempting to parody something that hasn't been parodied but remember that humor is numero uno. Damn I didn't realize how old this is. Many moons ago eh? Well, I still felt like giving a review so bite me. : )

[shapes n' shapes]

Brazil,1984. NG isn't cultured enough to get it

Alright the first time I watched this, I didn't get the joke. It flew over my head like the blue pentagon with wings. I've seen Brazil, and I know what 1984 is about. But I didn't understand what the shapes were talking about. When I watched it again, I noticed that the blue shape wasn't jumping when he talked. He was trying to tell the other shapes from the other shape flashes that you don't have to jump when you talk. And he made like a video, telling them to rebel and rise up and stop jumping. But the central services shapes pulled the plug, albeit too late though. Well, I get the joke now. It's clever, though it wasn't made clear enough, even to those that have seen Brazil. I don't know how to make it more clear, but something is missing. So this is a shapes flash that sadly falls through the cracks. it requires at least 2 viewings to catch the joke. And most people won't ever do that. So, to those that watch it, you need to study it and watch it again. There's more depth to this flash than it appears there is.

vago187 responds:

Thanks man, u get me

[Girlchan in Paradise Ep1]

I love you Egoraptor.

But not so much today. First of all, yes, I understand this is an anime parody. But does it have to be as shallow as one? When the author doesn't take his writing seriously and makes fun of its confusion, how does that make us, the audience feel? Confused and not important. This could work, mind you, if it was a one-time short. When I say short I mean one SHORT 2 min episode. After the first minute it was like the same crap. Drilled into my head. Pounded too. I get it. It's a parody. But seriously, there's no story. It all seemed adlibbed. Do you even know the story? I have no desire to watch another episode. There's no plot development, nothing. It's really sad too. Because it has some of the best voice actors on newgrounds, and the one of the best artist, but your writing is so incoherent that it all falls short. You'll probably get a daily first tho. And you got front page too. And you probably made all the anime fanboys happy. Don't get me wrong, I love anime. Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, etc but this isn't original. FLCL found a way to make fun of anime and still have one of the best damn original stories ever. You need balance. I've seen everything you've done. But they're all parodies. If you want to do a series, with a story, you need to actually have a story and not just a random mix of jokes and anime references. I love you Egoraptor. You're an inspiration to everyone. To me personally as well. But this, this isn't going to work for me. And I'm sure someone out there agrees with me.

[Newgrounds Song]

Finally getting some air time eh?

Sweet. You got 5th place! Awesome. And so is hentai. Pretty rad song dude.

vago187 responds:

Thanks man! Yeah finally some air time, the song was just lingering in the audio portal I felt it needed some more exposure.