PritchardStudios's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Man without a tophat (a lego brickfilm)]

The "old film" overlay effect was a bit too strong throughout; the screen jumped around a LOT, and the simulated film flaws and flashes were a bit stressful on my eyes. Toning that down would have still gotten the idea across without giving headaches.

Beyond that, it's a fun and simple film. I love the fun touches at 0:35 of the guy wiggling off-screen, as well as the tantrum thrown by the guy thrown out of the vehicle, and especially the hand at 1:26.

While not all the title cards were necessary for the plot, (It's usually better to "show, don't tell") they fit the genre well and were not a distraction.

This also teaches an important life-lesson; Life is better with a top-hat.

[Celebrations (2014)]

Wow...I don't remember seeing this before, and that's a shame.

You outdid yourself making each of the many scenes look great. Detailed sets, good lighting, perfect camera movement, and smooth animation are all consistent throughout.

The opening shot feels a bit empty on the left side, and the ending titles seem a bit long for the film, but otherwise it's a very strong montage!

Fantastic!

ENDfilms responds:

If I remember correctly there was a minimum film length and the long credits were to meet that.

[Broken News (BRAWL 2014)]

An oldie, but a goodie!

As I wrote those many years ago, I love the intro logo. It looks clean and professional, yet still maintains a nice Lego feel. How did you pull that off? It doesn't look like LDD, and Stud.io wasn't a thing back then.

Sadly, after that strength, the opening few seconds are a bit underwhelming. The first few seconds need some sort of audio, some sort of ambiance or at least footsteps/chair creaking. It feels rather strange, and made me (once again) think something was wrong with the audio.

A simple short like this doesn't need a dozen layers of perfectly balanced sound, but I feel that the short would have benefited from a slightly more complete sound design. Then again, BRAWL doesn't exactly give you much time to perfect that.

Otherwise, the sets and animation are great. I like how each location seen is very different in terms of set design and even lighting, though the final set is by far the most impressive.

It's a nice short, and tying everything together at the end was a good idea, not only with the two armed individuals, but even the dude at the very beginning. It was a great idea to add some cohesion to an otherwise scattered and disjointed film.

I'm really glad you've popped over here to NG. It gives me a chance to revist your films and expand/rewrite old reviews.

ENDfilms responds:

The logo was built in LDD, then I used a program that converts LDD files to pov-ray format, then rendered them out in pov-ray. It is pretty bare bones as it only renders the camera angle the LDD file was last saved at and pov-ray is so old it doesn't really utilize gpu power to speed up rendering.

[Built by Hand: AKA a Minifigure's Existential Crisis]

I think the experiment with replacement animation was a success!

Integrating a human hand with stop-motion is rough; movements were not super-smooth, and the lighting was fairly inconsistent. However, this test seems more about the replacement animation that did look nice, even if the replacement on the head could have used an extra frame or two. (maybe the stud, the cone, the head, then a brown stud on top, then the full hair)

Still, tests certainly don't have to be perfect, and it looks like you learned a lot.

OneDouglas responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

[LEGO The Dark Knight- Meanwhile (2013)]

You know...I never actually thought about that! This is a wonderful idea for a film.
Also, that "distraction" idea was hilarious!

The voice acting was good, though a bit more animation would have been nice.

[Jeremiah Jedidiah Joe (A Lego Western Comedy Short)]

Haha!
Is this a new film, or did I just miss it when you posted it before on BiM?

Either way, it's an enjoyable affair. The recurring joke is used just enough to squeeze every laugh possible out of it while avoiding overusing it and letting it grow annoying. The plot itself is fun, lighthearted, and creative, channeling the western cliches to its advantage.

The western atmosphere is established well and maintained well through the sets and plot developments and the opening premise concerning cactuses (cacti?) and the ending with the new job keep things fresh and creative. ''

The comedic timing is great, as is the voice acting.

I guess I'm far too unfamiliar with your films to quite understand the very ending. It felt like the group of people, at least some, were recurring characters from a series, but not familiar ones. As such, the "Noah" joke fell a bit flat for me. The "credibility" joke was good, but that whole ending segment just felt strange. The most confusing part was 3:21, as I thought previously the purple cape dude was JJJ in the far past, not a modern character telling the story in the modern setting. It was only after reviewing that portion several times that I noticed the red couch edge in that shot and put the pieces together.

Still, it's a delightful and fun film overall.

GoldBrickProductions responds:

Thanks for the kind words, Pritchard!

To answer your last question, I made this film reusing characters from some shorts I did for a BIONICLE channel way back when; those characters are Bob and Randy and would get a more proper introduction in a later film. Noah Sprague Studios voiced JJJ, so I added him as a last-minute cameo to say thanks. Captain Existential showed up in an earlier film that I may post here when I get the time.

Thankfully now, I've gotten a bit more organized with my characters so if I ever made another JJJ-style story (maybe with one of Randy's ancestors!) then I can keep the storyline cleaner. Hope that helps!

[The Cleaners - LEGO Animation]

A stunning film!

The attention to detail is amazing, the animation, lighting, and sets are spot-on, and the plot is engrossing.

I can tell a ton of time and effort when into planning and producing every single frame. It shows.

Great job!

[Benny n' Lee in: Parallel Panic]

Uploading this over here gave me the opportunity to enjoy this film once again.
Non-stop jokes, great writing, stellar animation, and high production values make this quite the winner.

While the idea of parallel universes is fairly common in sci-fi, you've managed to keep things fresh and fun with your ever witty humor and great comedic timing. In addition, this one seemed to have more effects work, all of which was done well.

I quite enjoyed the differences and similarities in each world. Each had a similar floorplan that was recognizable, yet uniquely telling of each different world. Plus, chaos at the end was a fun twist. The sub-plot involving the skeletons was amusing, and as has been discussed before, sub plots in brick films are all too rare, making quite the welcome treat!

Great job!

[The Milkman]

Whoa...that bottle falling and shattering effect looked fantastic.

Great job on the film! You did a excellent job crafting a film that relied on the plot for horror, rather than simply jump scares or scary music.

Production values were stunning, with a great set, delightful Easter eggs, smooth animation, and solid voice acting all around.

[LEGO SPACE PIZZA: A very short short-- 4K (my first brickfilm!)]

Fun!

I'm impressed by the real-world environments and especially the facial animation.

The faces seemed tracked very well and animated well, although something about them through me off. I'm not sure what. It may be that the facial overlay moves back and forth at times, or doesn't turn the exactly same way as the underlying head. At the 1 minute mark "You need to pay sir" the eyes and freckles shift back and forth, while the obvious mark on the real head doesn't move. The facial features also move all over the place form shot to shot. (1:08 has the mouth at nearly the exact middle of the head, while other shots have the mouth nearer to the bottom of the head.) That does lend a fun, cartoony feel to the short, but also breaks the effect a touch. Based on the consistency of the inconsistency, I'm assuming that was simply a creative choice.

Though it was short, the quick montage of the minifigure discovering the colors and objects of the real world was a great touch that helped flesh out the character and establish his naive and innocent nature.

It's a delightful little film that showcases some great effects.

Keep up the good work!