Cyberdevil's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Chill Study Beats]

I guess this a promo for those beats? XD Doesn't make much sense otherwise, it did look like she was doing what she was supposed to there... but I love the animation. So atmospheric and expressive. Reminds me of the Studio Ghibli stuff. So fluent.

Good stuff.

-cd-

STANNco responds:

no promo. Just had enough of her shit

[GMSU 04-10-20]

That cricket lol... also digging that fallen heroine selection there, they really had class back in the day...

It's been a while since I saw one of these! Still seems to be going true to tradition, VA work, sound effects and all. Have you been on a hiatus from the show I wonder, or just from NG? Good to see you're back in any case. Happy Friday!

-cd-

threebrain responds:

Tanks. Ya' dems was classy broads back den. Yeah I was in jail for a while. 7 counts of indecent exposure. But Jimmy Pee don't wear no shorts!

[Wash your hands!]

A movie with a moral. :) Silver Soup looks a bit like that old dude from DBZ hmm... and I guess soap doesn't always help after all huh? Good one though.

Was curious about the reporter name btw, seemed like it could've been Swedish, wonder if there's any reference there? Good short.

-cd-

Nesteaboy99 responds:

Nah, just came up with some random name haha thank you for your review!

[Ibrahim Coyle loop]

Not a bad loop, though he turns his head down pretty fast after that first puff. Hasty motions.

-cd-

MrKai responds:

You're right, thanks!

[sad boi gripp]

Those fifty hours hmm... was this really fifty hours?! It does flow smoothly but that seems a bit much... nice though. In these times we all need a little warmth in our lives. Hopefully with plenty of soap and sanitizer applied first...

-cd-

artistunknown responds:

tbf I don't know how it took 50 hours, I thought I was going pretty fast, but it does sound like a lot for only 30 seconds, but considering the first shot is 20 seconds long of smooth, constantly moving animation, that's a lot of fucking frames, and each one took like 12-18 minutes to draw because the movement is so subtle. I know for a fact it took 50 hours (actually 51) because I've been recording how long it takes to make things for a while now, after being curious. It took 51 hours over 13 days to make this. The cleanup animation took 31.5 hours alone.

Fuck, I was about to hit enter but then noticed the rest, how did I miss that? Guess I'm just so fucking bitter I keep missing important details lol

Funnily enough, this wasn't initially inspired by the state of the world right now, but as I was making it, the meaning evolved into encompassing that, because I started getting more worried as time went on, and I've just realized I should just be making stuff. People need stuff to watch, and I need to make stuff. I was kinda hoping people would actually WATCH since it does have that hopeful message, but I guess I can't really control that.

I'm gonna keep making stuff regardless, but I'm probably gonna continue being bitter about it, 'cause I have to put up with so much shit already I don't really care anymore. Which probably isn't a good idea, I'm just gonna end up embarrassing myself.

At least I can always count on you to watch and review lol, so thanks for that.

[Batman: Mall Cop]

Is this... stop motion? Wouldn't have thought so from the initial animation, but when you zoom out, and the background really looks like a piece of paper... is it just the background? Seems like an unconventional mix of styles if it is, but it works well. Good fun. Good voicing/sound. I can't say it makes me laugh out loud, but does make me smile. Punchline improvement potential, but not bad.

-cd-

Bingleheimer responds:

All Photoshop animation - was trying to go for a UPA coloring style and I find the noise makes it look less digital. Thanks for the feedback cd! Appreciate it.

[Dingalow in Isolation]

A little sound effects and this would've been perfect. :) Seems like you're spending that time just the right way...

-cd-

Dingalow responds:

Agreed. Left it too last minute, unfortunately. Thanks for the feedback, my dude

[Baby Boy (EN Subtitles)]

Oh man... this is the kind of stuff that might really induce some nightmares. XD Was thinking when it first started out, and you're trying to read the subtitles when the eye blink animation happens... that it's almost like their eyes pop out somewhat. Somewhat disturbing effect I thought then, but little did I know...

I'm curious, the knitted wool sweater for the mail woman, was that custom made for this? Also curious how you made the little dust clouds during the car ride? The amount of attention that goes into not just the camera placement and transition, but the lighting - their entire world really changing between night and day, the weight of the items on the grass before they pick them up... even if the claymation itself is somewhat choppy all those details feel really genuine. And a claymation character playing with clay hmm, might be the first time I see that. :) This started so calmly but... damn, what a turn it took. The final monster might've been the most fluid one of all too...

Solid work on sound effects as well. Felt like it started a bit slow, but when you really get into it... not sure why I end all these sentences with an ellipses but it just feels like that kind of story...

Masterful but pretty disturbing work! Though not without a hint of comedy too. At least as long as the kid was still alive.

-cd-

djavh responds:

Hey, thanks a lot for a comment. I enjoy yours in particular, because they're always in depth and it's apparent that you pay attention when watching stuff.

All of the clothing was custom made for this movie. My girlfriend, sister and mother worked on this. The particular knitted sweaters for mail woman and car driver were made by my mother, since she had a serious leg injury at the time, couldn't walk and had nothing else to do. She enjoys knitting a lot, so she made a bunch of cute little sweaters for my projects :).

Dust clouds were made out of little balls of cotton wool.

At the end, I'm happy with this movie, except for walking animations (it was impossible to properly animate walk cycles with my shitty homemade armatures for the puppets, since their feet kept falling off...). Image quality is crappy too, especially for nighttime scenes (sadly, I just can't afford a proper camera now).

BTW, if you're really interested in behind the scenes stuff, look for AurimasFilms on facebook. There are tons of pictures from a lot of my claymation projects there.

[Serpent City]

We might not be witnessing a nuclear holocaust right now but this whole future dystopia thing does feel more relatable now than ever... that intro really managed the switch from normality to: something else. Very well. Was thinking it'd be a different kind of apocalypse and then there you go, reality comes barging in...

Gotta appreciate the twist to comedy it takes after that though. Making light of dark situations. Also more relevant than ever. Only one question: why Serpent City? Is there a religious context to this...? I don't really see any serpents...

-cd-

DampOwl responds:

Thank you Cyberdevil! I love this comment because it's very flattering and kind, but also because I've been waiting for someone to ask about the title so I can get all pretentious. You've opened the floodgate, my friend. (I'll attach a short answer at the end so you don't have to read through me wanking myself off in word form if you don't wanna.)

Basically Serpent City has been in my mind since 2016, which was the beginning of a fairly rocky period for my mental health. I'm sure we all remember the string of celebrity deaths, terror attacks, Trump, Brexit, it was basically just one crazy thing after another. And I needed a way to channel my anxiety and cynicism into something fun, so I envisioned this world. As far as the title goes, I had been listening to a LOT of Bowie when I started developing this idea, particularly his final album Blackstar.

The first track begins with this chanting, "in the villa of Ormen", which gave me this mental image of a creepy occult dystopia. I then found out Ormen is a Norwegian word for snake, and decided it was a nice jumping off point for a title. Villa of snakes. Land of snakes. Serpent City. There ya go. It definitely doesn't play into the story, but yeah, that was the process that led into it. It also sorta worked out because it's set in Ireland, and there's that whole folk tale of the snakes being driven out of Ireland. So this is a future where, metaphorically speaking, the snakes have returned...... Hmmmm...oooooohhhhhh.... #deep..... (or pretentious)

Short answer: it's a David Bowie reference hidden under about four layers of mental gymnastics.