PritchardStudios's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Fridge]

Whoa! Didn't see that coming.
You did a great job creating the creepy atmosphere and telling the entire story with limited sounds and no dialog. That's great storytelling there.

Also, it's wonderful to see you branching out into more than just minifigures.

Keep up the good work!

[Santa vs Rudolf]

Hilarious! A delightful entry that makes full use of the absurdity of the prompt.
The choice to make so stylized was genius, channeling so many cliches so well and to such great effect.

A wonderful entry! Good job.

[Mini Bar The Fifth Episode]

Oh...now I'm really wishing Lego did more Doctor Who sets.
I predicted a doctor, along with The Doctor, but never guessed it would be several Doctors. Nice!
Also, the joke about nobody being there was really clever! I have never heard that before.

I think this one could have benefited from one more joke, and perhaps some extra breathing room between the punchlines. Since both jokes are quick, you may want to give us a bit to process the joke and enjoy it before the next one liner.

[Mini Bar The Fourth Episode]

And another episodes drops!

Wow, you're getting these done fast.

As I said on BiM, once again, there are some audio balancing problems, with the transition "beeps" blaring when compared to most other sounds, and like before, the background music is so low that we can't really hear it. Again, a bit of sound leveling there would go a long way. Thankfully, voices themselves, the most important parts, are at a good level.

Also, 30 seconds of credits for a 2 1/2 minute film is a touch long. I know it's a fun joke, flashing two title cards for yourself, and perfectly applicable for the film, but perhaps to save time, you could squash them into "Created and assembled by..." to save on time. Then again, it's hilarious to see brickfilmers list themselves as producer, director, writer, voice actor, lighting tech, and animator.

It's nice to see recurring characters, like the "Death" looking guy. It allows us the chance to learn more about them, and if nothing else, see more of their relationship with Jimmy. Also, you're totally making me regret my "leeching of free restaurant wi-fi" days from college. Now I feel bad... (Don't worry, I didn't do it often) Will that guy be returning? It would be cool to follow up on him a few episodes down the road.

Fan78 responds:

Many thanks for the kind words. I am going to be doing something about shortening the credits for sure. Yes the death guy who is in fact a Grim Reaper named Gary will return along with other regulars I am slowly feeding into the series.

[My Unluckyish Life- Episode 4: The Boulder Blockade [LEGO Series]]

What a delightful film! The large-scale foot and brake pedal, the great sets/scenery, and great camera angles (Like 1:32) make this a joy to watch. Is there significance to the sign/building name at the end? This is the first of your films I've seen, so if it's a running joke, I don't quite get it yet.

Perhaps the only real flaw I noticed was the minimalist sound design. There were the necessary sounds, and the background music, but no ambient sounds or footsteps noises. Without them, the film felt a touch artificial, more like a live play than a movie, if that makes sense.

Still, the jokes were fun, the production top-notch, and I'm looking forward to more!

SuitedNinjaNerd responds:

The company name is not a running joke, but the joke being that Alex falls into a nail factory, which I'd imagine is pretty painful. Also I'm glad you pointed out the sound design stuff. I'm a huge stickler for sound design myself, so I'd like to think I've improved with it since making this film a while back. Glad you enjoyed and I hope you consider checking out more of my stuff

[Planet X: Chapter 2 : Lego Star wars Stop motion]

The start reminded me of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in that it's a ton of fancy effects shots that show off the cool models, and add to the visual flare, but don't really add to the story. It's a minute and a half into the film before the story really gets going, which is a very large percentage of the runtime.

The sets really show off your building skill, as they are highly detailed and look perfect for a Star Destroyer interior.

At times, the music overwhelms the dialog, but it's a minor thing.

I loved seeing the creature evolve over this film. That was a great way to keep the attacks interesting and enable more creative scares.

[Mini Bar]

Pros:
Your animation seems to be getting better and better!

The bar set looks fantastic. It's large, it's detailed, and I love how you're used the masonry bricks.

The skeleton drivers was a fun joke, as those characters are perfect for comic relief and general goofiness.

Cons:
While it gets better later on, many, MANY camera angles are from way above their heads, creating a disconnect between the world and the viewers. Without a clear reason to do so, I'd keep the camera down at their eye level.

At 1:07, with the sudden departure of Batman, it's not clear who was driving/crashing. Until later, I had assumed it was Batman himself.

While parody versions of characters do act out of character to a degree, the behavior of Obi Wan and Luke seemed too far departed from who they are. Great parodies take an aspect of the character and inflate it to absurd extremes, but trying to cheat their way into free alcohol doesn't have any root in their characters.

Conclusion:

Some of your best animation and set work is a bit hindered by odd camera angles. The vampire bits had clever jokes, though the second half seemed too far removed from the source material to feel smooth.

[Planet X: A Star Wars Story: Lego Stop motion]

I really like the clay/Lego hybrid sets here. A clay base helps free the environment from always being "on the studs" and helps add to the idea of a wild/untamed planet. A bit harsher lighting with more use of shadows/darkness would have been the cheery on top of the otherwise great sets/sounds that made the planet come alive.

At times, sounds were not 100% synced, (footsteps around 3:26) and the blaster flashes were missing the actual laser part.

4:38 was a great shot, and I loved the scary clay monster being in a world of clay. It made me feel that it could have popped up anywhere, or even that the mud itself was sentient. (A really cool, and scary, possibility)

Overall, a great atmosphere and film, even if there was little story to be seen.
the Star Wars elements seemed superfluous, as there was nothing here that couldn't fit in an original sci-fi universe, or even a simple supernatural horror genre. While Stormtroopers are cool, was there any reason you went with the Star Wars IP over an entirely original setting?

ChickenStudios responds:

Thank you for your comments, I agree with your point on the sound at points epically with a couple dialogue bits, which in retrospect would have been a simple fix. On the use of the Star Wars IP I guess the reasons would be I like Star Wars 😂 and also i had never seen a story and tone like this in that universe.

[TRAILER | LEGO ONCE BEFORE: A Very Short Short - part 1- 4K]

Interesting, I can't believe you animated a real worm!

This looks like a very unique, and we'll executed, idea.

[Lego War: Aftermath (2016)]

Wow, you certainly seem to be one for longer films! It seems like most of your NG uploads are over 10 minutes. Good job sticking with these bigger projects. This one in particular seemed quite ambitious. The sets were large, some shots had soldiers and tanks all moving at once. I liked the camera movements, like the slow pan, then zoom at 8:11 and the overhead shot at 1:55 Some details didn't seem perfect, as the CG fire clashed with the plastic fire pieces and simply didn't look good together, but that's a fairly small element compared to the overall picture.

starwarsstudio100 responds:

Thank you very much for your kind comments, man!