PritchardStudios's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[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: 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.

[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!

[LEGO Halloween Kills]

Whoa....um, ok.

After fond memories of "The Yellow Brick Horse" I was certainly not expecting...this level of seriousness.

It's incredibly well made on a technical level. No doubt about that. The cinematography, scoring, animation, set, and so on are all top-notch. The only slip in quality is the knife at 0:40, but that's easily forgivable.

I loved the dolly zoom at 0:32; in fact, all the camera movements were wonderful.

As I hinted before, up until the actual knife shot, I figured a swift twist would turn things into a funny, lighthearted film where this was all a mistake, or joke or something. Because of that preconception, the film was jarring the first time through. (Perhaps the release date, nearly a month after Halloween didn't help.) However, after watching it again, a little more aware this time, I do appreciate what you've done here.

I think it's a strong film to introduce yourself with here on Newgrounds.
Good job!

Arginnon responds:

Thank you! This means a lot, coming from you.

This is actually going to be the opening scene of a longer brickfilm, which will be a crossover of two franchises with very different tone and style. I set myself the challange to try and bring those two together, without extenuating either one. So this is the reason for the darkness and seriousness of this scene: this opening clip is purely Halloween, so I thought it should be done in the most horror-esque way.

Since it's going to be mixed with a more light-hearted franchise, I hope the final movie will be closer to my usual style.

[LEGO Lone Clone Ep1: The Beast Below]

The idea of various individuals being pulled together across time is an interesting one with a lot of story-telling potential. However, thus far, I'm not feeling much of a connection with any of the characters except the clone. (Who is in Stormtrooper armor.)

The film felt very slow, with very little story happening in the runtime. It also had 18 seconds of opening titles, that odd, mid-film credits thing, and then more credits at the end. While I think the mid-film thing was meant as the "theme song" portion, similarly to how full-length TV shows have a teaser, then the opening theme song/titles section before the rest of the show. However, it never actually showed the show title, nor episode title, and it took me a little bit to realize what exactly was going on.

The ending was kinda the same way. With no hints of what was coming, and head still spinning from trying to solve the time-travel mystery, it may have been a bit early to introduce the more immediate threat. Now, rather than be hooked with a cool mystery (time-travel) or fearing for the characters (unexplained monster) there's so much that's unexplained and seemingly disconnected that I'm struggling to connect to the plot.

I appreciate the effort put into the camera movements, space scene, and the large detailed sets. I think a tightening up of the script and editing will do wonders for the series.

ChickenStudios responds:

Thank you for your comment! Your so right! It was four years ago that we made this video but only until now have we published it here. The video is rough as hell for reasons you pointed out and we’ve come a long way since then. It was actually funny reading your review because its so similar to what we and my brother have said over the years, especially the storm trooper thing 😂. Any way thank you for taking the time to review my work it’s so awesome👍.

[Dishonored (A Lego Comedy Short)]

I agree. Set bumps are evil.
The characters reaction is perfectly reasonable and appropriate for such a tragedy.
That being said, I think the joke may be lost on those unfamiliar with stop-motion. While it's perfect as-is, adding a quick shot or two of trying and failing to fix the problem may have helped communicate the seriousness of the problem and appropriateness of the reaction to non-brickfilmers.

As for your adapting to the contest restraints, that was top-notch. The story was perfectly clear, and it was easy to tell the tone and feelings of the characters. The ending was a fun twist with the reveal. Having that mirror the beginning story was just pure genius.

The scale shot at 0:36 was also a great way to give us a close-up of the, erm, ummm... tragedy. mini/wink However, from that movement, until about about a minute into the film felt off. I understand you were trying to go for the slow-mo feel, but I feel that a single slow-mo shot followed by a rapidly cut series of high-movement scenes (somewhat like the shots at 1:00-1:10) would have kept the short from dragging, as well as added more impact to the emotion. (The pacing and cutting feel more natural in the second go around at the end.) I did really like the last 30 second or so following the twist.

It was a fun look at the tragedy of brickfilming accidents, with a clear story, and a great twist. You excelled through the limitations of the contest, and made a fun and meta film. I like it!

GoldBrickProductions responds:

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

[Lego psycho goes to psychiatrist]

Well.....I think it's safe to say he has problems.

As always, meta jokes about Lego are quite enjoyable.

While I simply thought something seemed empty, upon second watch, I discovered that this doesn't seem to have any sound except the guy's voice. While it's a testament to his talent that I didn't really notice my first viewing, a few ambient noises would have helped everything feel more full and complete. Still, the voice actor does a great job carrying the plot, conveying the character, and keeping viewers engaged throughout.

The set, however, feels a bit messy and oddly framed. The split from the white wall on the right to the colors on the left isn't down the middle of the frame, nor far enough over to hit the Rule of Thirds. It's in an awkward and unsettling part of the frame, which, when paired with the psychiatrist's placement on the far edge, and that slight dark gray wall on the far right, makes everything feel off. Sadly, not in a creepy "something's wrong here" way that would compliment the dialog, but in a "this just doesn't look cool" way.

Overall, animation looks nice, but the framing and set look odd. The voice acting is great, but a little bit of background noise would have been nice. Yet, even now it's a good film. Basically, working on a couple small things would catapult your next films into new heights of awesome.

AwesomepantsFilms responds:

Thanks, I’ll try to improve the framing and set design in the future. As for the audio, that was a deliberate stylistic choice, (I was aiming kinda for that style of video), but thanks for the feedback on that as well!

[Lego Ninja Duel (2015)]

This is quite the ambitious film! I love that circling shot at 1:04, that was totally awesome.

Grassy footsteps always feel a bit weird to me, as the hard plastic plates underneath the minifigures doesn't look anything like squishy grass. Also, the sword sounds didn't always match the action seen, with bigger whooshes paired with small swings, or clangs paired with a little scrapping together of the swords.

That being said, even if they didn't perfectly match the visuals, you've found some pretty good sounding effects. Did you record those sounds yourself? I'm not seeing any sound credit. If so, great job!

The ending completely lost me as far as the story went, but maybe that's just me.

starwarsstudio100 responds:

Thank you very much for your feedback. I usually don't do sound credits, because in most of my animations I use sometimes up to 100 different sound effects and it is hard to keep track on all of them that I gathered from different sources of the course of years. Yes I do admit that the sounds do not match, this is a brickfilm that was pretty much made in 2015, compared to my recent skills this one did not do well.

Again thank you so much for your feedback I really appricate it.

[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.