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61 Movie Reviews

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a wonderful thing

Everything about this little slice of kitty (or Keddi) life is just incredible. So subtle, and yet so precise and stylistic.

To the author: pardon me if I don't review all the Keddi movies. But, rest assured, I've watched them, and they all deserve the most glowing reviews. Magnificent work!

dilosh responds:

oh... thank you..:)

quite wonderful

Everything about this little slice of kitty (or Keddi) life is just incredible. So subtle, and yet so precise and stylistic.

To the author: pardon me if I don't review all the Keddi movies. But, rest assured, I've watched them, and they all deserve the most glowing reviews. Magnificent work!

Like the character, beautiful, but has problems

I just came over here from watching "Salad Fingers." Your author's comments indicated that your other entry (this one) was "depressing." I was interested to see how you'd handle a depressing subject, since "Salad Fingers" bordered on outright morbid, and it was just supposed to be "weird."

You've done a great job. While you should be lauded for your visual skills and your keen sense of an effective score, you should also be given credit for not being overdramatic and contrived. This was, largely, understated and effective.

However, it was not without its flaws.

I found the narrative titles a bit over-expository. You didn't leave me much room to interpret the character because I was told over and over again exactly who the character is and how he feels. In my view, the most effective sequences were "drowsy" "toilet" "edgy" "crowded rooms." These were less specific, and the visual representations were marvelous. But what was also great about them was that those sequences not necessarily literal. There was a sense of abstraction and metaphor (e.g. Scribbler falling apart during "drowsy."). However, on sequences such as "alcohol," "weed," and "pills," the textual, visual, and aural representation is so literal and precise that it is jarring. As a result, a sense of depth is lost, and these sequences become equal to one that says, "I have brown hair." I get it. You have brown hair. I can see you have brown hair. But what are the implications?

The criticism above shouldn't be taken as the whole of my feelings toward "Scribbler." I see this movie as a success. Indeed, it is moving, unique, satisfying and you've given us, the viewers, Scribbler - a character for whom we may not only feel sorry for, but who feel we may know well...perhaps too well.

magnificent!

That was across the board, amazing. It wasn't so weird that it was pretentious or deliberate. The visuals were terrific, the sound was clear, perfectly mixed, and added to the atmosphere in such an effective way. This was absolutely wonderful.

There is a sense of lurking dark comedy in this. So while I smiled as I watched, I also detected something sinister.

You've created another world with very in-depth characters.

Currently this is at an inexpicable 2.5 (or something). I honestly expected that, after I voted (a 5, obviously), it would say it was at a 4.5 or higher.

Well, I guess Salad Fingers aren't the only weird things around here. Apparently, the way people vote is even more bizarre.

Doki responds:

Yes. As i read all these reviews I see not a bad one, all 8,9 and 10, yet my score is currently at 2.60 ??? Who the fuck keeps giving me bad reviews!! It pisses me off so much to see shit movies constantly getting 3's and 4's. Cheers anyway.

potential

This shows promise. Just some suggestions - take 'em or leave 'em:

1. Smoother zoom ins
2. Too many cutaway tangents/scenes gets way too distracting and way too reminiscent of Family Guy.

I'll be looking forward to seeing a full episode. Looks like you might have something here. Good work.

shawn-lepus responds:

For the zooms I’m just using tweening with a move clip that has all the action inside of it. How can I make that smoother? Would it help to knock down the quality or is there something I can do on my end to make it better? Some people have said to up the frame rate but I’m already at 24 fps. Thanks, feedback from artists is always the best. Oh and the Family Guy thing. Sort of fair, but that’s really just how my humor works. If anything I’m ripping off Penny Arcade and Ren and Stimpy, or the Taco John’s commercial where the monkey is a cowboy.

good effort / poor execution

I give you a lot of credit for the effort you put into the setup. It was really elaborate and well thought out. These types of movies usually piss me off, but this was a good approach.

UNFORTUNATELY, it was not at all effective. The ridiculous amount of audio clipping going on makes the sudden scream pretty much on par with the rest of the audio, so there's little shock.

My advice is that you take the audio and make it much more soothing. Then, it will build more interest and suspense when the viewer is waiting to hear the backwards lyrics.

You got me believing that I was going to hear some backwards masking, but the pity is that even though you tricked me, you wasted it!

I say fix and resubmit. Good luck!

noise rock

are you using a distortion pedal with that? it kind of sounds like that. or, is that incidental gain caused by mic clipping?

let me know 'cos i'm curious. and don't give me some bullshit about how you're too fuckin' good to respond 'cos your underdog of the week.

oh yeah, awesome, by the way.

FourStar responds:

uh, i didnt distort anything, the only thing i did with the sound was quadruple the volume

strong showing

I liked this. Very nice illustration, and very nice conception on the whole (of both visuals and story).

Some constructive criticism, if I may:

1. The file size is huge, and there is no pre-loader. Thus, I think it made the animation run really slow and choppy.

2. The music and visuals were a funny juxtaposition, but I don't think it was enough to carry the whole movie. Perhaps some dialogue or subtitles?

Either way, this was enjoyable and it was a strong piece that ultimately tops its own flaws.

preachy...but confused

This is a slideshow wrapped in the guise of being an anti-war movie. In actuality, it is a slideshow that serves as a music video for the song "War Pigs." If the song were to be removed, there would be far less context, and many viewers would most likely have a difficult time understanding if the images add up to anti-war, pro-war, or a simple exploration of both sides.

It is preachy because the author does not let us decide how we feel about any element of the movie. Even before we watch it, we are told what the movie is and how it should be taken. So, subtlty is not its strong point.

But, its greatest downfall is that it is confused. The lyrics of "War Pigs" are not exactly anti-war - they are anti-politician/hypocrisy. The message is basically: bloated politicians make war, but leave it to "the poor" to fight it. Oh, and then "Yeah!" And then some heavy guitar riffing...but that's sort of besides the point.

The confusion here is that the visuals don't really capture this sentiment, nor do many of the subtitles. In fact, while the lyrics condemn the politicians, the images and subtitles many times condemn the soldiers themselves.

Ironically, this movie, which purports to chide the administration for being hypocites who don't value the precious lives of the soldiers, actually undermines itself by insulting the soldiers. Not only are they shown brutalizing prisoners, civilians (thus making the soldiers look evil), we also get Ozzy's declaration that the soldiers are "the poor." I'm not so sure the soldiers in any military would be very appreciative of its national civilian population referring to them as "the poor." It's a bit condascending, generalizing, and downright degrading...especially coming from the people they aim to protect.

So, in the end, we are beaten down with a message. But it's such a convoluted message that the viewer is more perplexed (and woozy) than anything.

And on a final note, if the author is truly trying to make a case against the administration and the war...well, we should be digging a bit deeper than "War Pigs," no? I mean, certainly there must be better rallying cries than that.

And this long review is coming from a guy who is a staunch liberal. I mean, don't call me crazy, but I like my fellow left-wingers to have a more original thought than to quote Sabbath, man.

"Yeah!" [Heavy Guitar Riff outro]

source material demands more

Technical issues (balancing audio, SF/X) aside...

The source material "..Ivan..." is wonderful. Your estabishing shot was incredible, and I was expecting the rest of the animation to do right by it. But ultimately it fell a bit short. The characters (animated vastly differently than the background) stood out as awkward. I think the music was too much - it robbed the animation of any sense of subtlty.

Strong effort, though. And, really, excellent job with the backgrounds.

I could make a career of being blue. I could dress in black and read Camus. Smoke clove cigarettes and drink vermouth like I was 17, that would be a scream. But, I don't want to get over you. - Stephin Merrit

Age 44, Male

freelance writer

BA of English - U of Illinois

brooklyn

Joined on 5/9/03

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