TheUnknownAggregate's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[i-waste]

Well intended, but slightly misleading

I understand where you're coming from, but like most environmental waste videos the situation portrayed is oversimplified to the point of being mostly wrong. It neglects factors such as neighbors or family that dispose of electronics by giving them to a grandson, or selling them at garage sales. It neglects the fact that there ARE businesses out there (like PC recycle) who accept old electronics and re-sell them for somewhat cheaper as used electronics (a GOOD example of capitalism and the free market).

I also highly doubt that something in a LANDFILL would end up in the ocean for a fish to choke on. Landfills are rarely near the ocean. And contrary to all the "leeching into the soil and rivers" stuff you hear, landfills are actually built by digging a hole in the ground and lining it with plastic insulation to prevent just that, and when the landfill is full, they bury it and make it into a park.

My final gripe with what these kinds of films portray: If you don't like the "upgrade treadmill" that some brands enforce, then don't buy the latest one just because it came out. If you DO, then hold on to them both if you're concerned about waste. And if the manufacturer forces the issue of upgrading, then stop buying their product, their target demographic obviously involves morons with more money than cents (regardless of politcal stance, pro-environment or not, you would call someone who wastes money like that an idiot too, right?). Your film also ignores the fact that some companies (especially cell-phone companies) already take care of old electronics by encouraging a trade-in program of some kind. Such companies can often take the old electronics and do something useful with them.

Animations like this also tend to ignore that people do have free will, including the will to stop wasting electronics, BUT also the will to disregard films like this entirely when they see through the faulty premise, and therefore defeating the point of your animation entirely.

It also bothers me that as well intended these films are, they usually seem to preceede more EPA and government restrictions on what we can do with our property and our lives, somtimes in ways unrelated to the original environmental "disaster", and sometimes in ways that actually make the situation worse through ineptitude. It also bothers me that when people (rightfully) speak up as skeptical of the claims (especially having just been burned by the EPA) they are derided as being agents of "Big Oil" and "The Evil Corporate America". The fact that people are accused in that fashion just for being skeptical further dilutes any gain from these films. Frankly, the environmental movement today is more of a religion that irrationally hates capitalism for whatever reason instead of doing something productive with their time and money. Sometimes it seems like the only purpose of the EPA is to grow into a bureocracy that ends up micromanaging the economy and life to death.

Chrome-Demon responds:

I completely agree with you. In all honesty, I'm aware that this is an entirely fantastical piece in the way that it portrays reality. I am aware that very few, if any situations exist where something like what I've shown here can occur. Mostly, I created an animation that would be entertaining and could provide, in some way, an incentive for normal people to care more about the waste of old electronic products.

As this was created for a class, I decided that the most logical way to tone this flash was to make it as 'extremist' as possible. If you will, please realize that I do not entirely agree with the ways that corporations interested in the stoppage of E-waste show such things. In some ways, I find that groups trying to inform the public about this subject often go the PETA route, showing entirely illogical and unrealistic situations, or being entirely too dramatic.

However, I would like to note that while this animation is everything you've stated, (something along the lines of entirely too dramatic, unrealistic, and overall too blunt) I believe that my cartoon here is of at least decent quality and does manage to speak a message in a clear, simplistic way.

Again, I 100% concur that this cartoon is, in many ways, misleading. You've raised many good points in your argument and I've found no holes. I hope, though, that for my sake you can look past such and enjoy it simply as an animation. I only intended to send a message deep enough to satisfy the class, I do not, in any way, believe that the content of my work reflects realistic situations or norms.

Thank you, though, for your review. It is incredibly informative and, while it entirely, logically debunks my video, I hope that people coming to this page will read it and understand it. Again, for probably the third time, I simply made this for a grade, and thought it was neat enough to show here. I wasn't particularly intending for people to take it as reality or even my personal opinion on the subject.

Anyway, sorry if I repeated myself or anything of that nature, I'm fairly tired. Thank you again for your review, it was very informative and an interesting read. I hope you enjoyed the animation regardless of its message. :D

[Dailytoon #454]

Extremely short, to the point

Apparently this author wants you to suck his dick. And based on my previous review being deleted, he also has no spine.

No, really. Sit through all three intros, and see what the actual movie is. You'll see my comments above are quite accurate.

[Dailytoon #463]

Berenstein Bears

Fine, mark this abusive too. Berenstein Bears. That's all this is. Berenstein Bears. No, the stock Star Syndicate intros and loader don't count. Berenstein Bears. Other NG users viewing this are not missing much. Berenstein Bears. I'm being insightful by letting others know what they will be rewarded with after sitting through all the stock intros. Berenstein Bears. Sorry if the truth hurts. Berenstein Bears.

Now stop making Dailytoons, you're obviously out of ideas and out of worthwhile material to showcase. Come back when you have something to showcase that's worth people's time to watch.

[don't let the 1 minute of intros fool you, sit and watch it to the end before you delete this post as hateful and irrelevent]

TheStarSyndicate responds:

What's wrong with Berenstein Bears? I don't see the problem here.

[Pube Muppets Quest]

There you go!

A Pube Muppet animation with actual animation! And something more than just a long monologue! Backgrounds have some animation, objects move, there's more than one scene, there's a story line... Good job!

If Pube Muppet had started out on NG this way in the first place, he probably would've gotten a better reputation instead of NG users using him as a cheap excuse to make crappy flash movies, and the humorous anti-PM movie I made wouldn't have needed that little rant at the end :P

[Ducktails Adventure 22]

Not worthwhile

This has background music and a looping motion tween. A worthwhile flash movie has a story, animation...

you know what I'm not going to waste my time repeating myself you obviously don't intend to submit anything other than 5-minute motion tween MP3 music wonders called "ducktails" so I'm not even going to show any compassion or mercy for your artistic wonder. I'm just going to vote zero, and that's that. And I advise anyone else about to click the Review button to simply not waste their time, this author doesn't care.

I'm not saying this just to be a jerk, every episode of "Ducktails" from this author is just as bad. A song, a motion tween, and that's it. It's kind of hard to write something constructive to an author that clearly doesn't care. I see the Kitty Krew put more effort into "Pikachu Surfing" than this, and that series is little more than crude brush drawings, speakonia and motion tweening Pokemon GIFs to tell some kind of nonsensical story one microsecond at a time. Yes, that right: you are JUST AS BAD as the Kitty Krew. Hurts, doesn't it?

I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell the Kitty Krew: This is Newgrounds.com, a site for Flash movies that are interesting, new, creative, or worthwhile to keep. This is NOT a kitty litter box. This is NOT a public toilet. This is not a site for you to just make up shit and throw it to see if it sticks to the wall. If you can't come up with something worthwhile to watch here, then don't submit anything at all. Stop wasting people's time and bandwidth. Thank you.

livelavalive responds:

im hurt

[Ducktails Adventure 47]

Junk

Worthwhile Flash portal content involves a story, animation, something interesting that prevents NG users from voting zero.

A smily face against the backdrop of a glitched out JPEG with overmodulated 80's music doesn't count.

Now give up and stop making Ducktails flash movies.

[Ducktails Adventure 6]

Well not quite...

"this episode is about space and time warps"

More like a waste of the time and space continuum. All you did was animate a very slow rotate into a spiral. Well, what was the point of that exactly? The overall feeling is kind of slow, creepy, and spaced out, I'll give you that. But I have to ask, so far, what is the point of this whole series? Each episode so far has been a song, some background, and a motion tween. That's it. The series so far has been utter junk. The Kitty Krew puts more effort into their Pikachu Surfing series than this, and that's not really much effort at all. Know what I mean?

And speaking of bad Flash animation, what the hell are you doing in your title screen that makes Flash run so slooowwwww with only a few images? I have a fairly beefy computer and the animation isn't able to finish in time with your intro music.

livelavalive responds:

what

[Dailytoon #459]

Well, this isn't anything interesting

Once you sit and let all the intros roll by, it's basically spam for a vibrator (real or not). This doesn't belong here on the Portal.

I honestly liked the Dailytoons the way they used to be when you guys started it off in 2006: some of it was crap but at least there was more than just one piece of junk and there was some actual effort put into it. It's like you guys are out of ideas. Frankly, I think it's time to stop the DailyToons until you have some worthwhile stuff to post. It's either that, or continue doing crap DailyToons and gain an infamous reputation for spam like the Kitty Krew has now.

[DailyToon #451]

There is only one thing interesting about this

None of the animations are interesting or even show any sign of effort. They all look like something thrown together in about 5-10 minutes. SO let me ask about the only thing you caught my interest in... what retro videogame did you get that music from?

TheStarSyndicate responds:

For your information, BUDDY, that intro/menu music was a composition I created specifically for the funeral of one of my good friends. It took a lot of energy out of me and was perhaps the single most stressful process I have gone through in my entire life. This was no "videogame".

Fuck you.

[stranger danger]

Even as someone who generally likes weird shit

I have to ask: What the hell was THAT?!?

Is this one of those "come away with your own interpretation" artistic pieces?