Trove's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Robot Pirates (Official)]

it's a good SONG, but this is a flash portal.

This is really hard to do for me because i hate people who bitch about unwarranted success, but to be perfectly honest, the torrential downpour of 5s that this movie is getting is because of the song, which has been available for months on another site and wasnt actually made by the animator.

This movie is a prime example of how adding mediocre animation to a catchy song is apparently an instant win.

Im not saying your animation is bad... well, actually, that's exactly what im saying. its comprised of a few pixel drawings that are barely animated set to music. You don't even have backgrounds for the most part.

Just so you know i do feel like a tool for writing this because the song is good, but as a newgrounds user im not supposed to be reviewing the song im supposed to be reviewing the flash, and it seems a little suspect to me, as it should to you and to all users who read this, that a few pixel .gifs of danging squares set to music is rated higher than videos done by professional animators with completely original content. I know it's just flavour of the month stuff but... i dunno.

tl;dr: i love you andrew, 10 for music. guy animating: your work is lacking, put more effort into making it... you know... animated; backgrounds, lip synching, animation NOT involving the transform tool maybe?

<3 you man.

lawlolawlstudios responds:

First of all, the song was not made by the animator, but WAS made by the author of this submission. Andrew sent me an e-mail asking me to make an animation of this song. This is HIS animation as much as it is MINE. Don't give in to thinking that I just took the song from STWPT, and made an animation about it. On the contrary, this was a COLLABORATIVE project. This means that two people, a musician and an animator, WORKED TOGETHER to create something cool. Judging the Flash based on the animation is a disservice to the creator of the audio.

This following statement of yours is true and aparent: this is a Flash portal. Well-made Flash cartoons involve both audio and graphics. Your numerical review focuses entirely on the animation of the Flash, and therefore, your words are entirely contradictory. You are not reviewing the Flash. You are not reviewing the audio. You are reviewing the animation. There is more than one component involved.

The way that you look at the animation is also extremely, extremely irrational. A few pixel gifs and dancing squares? Really? The truth is that this particular style of animation, regardless of how "primitive" it is, fits the song perfectly. It is my personal opinion, backed up by the countless opinions of others, that the animation simply works with the audio. It goes together, it conveys humor, it just works.

That said, WHO is to say that another animator on Newgrounds could take this song and make something 'better' than this animation with it. Obviously, 'better' is very ambiguous, as 'quality' does not refer to animation only, but to the entire Flash holistically. If this is unclear to you, I mean to say that even a VERY VERY TALENTED ANIMATOR might not be able to bring such success to this song. Sure, the animation would be fantastic, but the appeal would be different. The demographic is variable.

And seriously, how dare you say that I didn't lip sync or animate without the "transform" tool. I put a lot of work into this animation. The success should be attributed to the way that the images fit the song, NOT the audio only, NOT the animation only.

<3 you too.