Dashiell's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Curse of Dracular]

My favourite short of the year. Simply wonderful concept and execution. The minimalist Paddington-esque paper sets worked beautifully with the claymation puppets. And as a Hammer aficionado it had me smiling and chuckling throughout. When the first shot of the night scene fades in there is a slightly odd transition where it looks like a cut-out area fades in at a different pace to the rest of the image, but it’s a very minor quibble. Please make more like this! I recommend constructing a time machine so you can travel back to 1974 and persuade your dad to write an entire feature.

[TUNE TUSSLE]

Beautiful little stop motion film, please make more like this! The minimalist background is a great aesthetic touch to focus the viewer's gaze on the puppets and the range of movement is displayed very effectively by having the characters dance.

[Grim Fandango Introduction in Blender]

You absolutely nailed the challenge of adapting such a stylised aesthetic. Not an easy thing! I love your little touches like the painted clay texture on the bones that makes them look like decorations, it's these details that really make it special. Would gladly go to the cinema to watch a feature film adaptation of the game if it looked like this.

[A Den for Sick Moths]

This is sublime. Probably my favourite of all the Halloween shorts I've seen on this site over the years. The level of technical accomplishment is unreal – such strong poses in every frame! But you've also managed to create something so original and unlike anything else I've seen before. The atmosphere of dread is palpable from start to finish. There's not a single moment that isn't effective in some way or other. A bold choice to allow the scenes to be as dimly lit as they are, but this absolutely works when there is so much rich texture in the traditional materials. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your work. Thank you for making this.

[Sublo and Tangy Mustard #15 - Picnic]

That was some beautifully loose character animation; for drunk Katy you gave her proportions and movements just the right amount of exaggeration to communicate the drunkenness without being too OTT in a way that would jar with the narrative style. This kind of gentle slice-of-life storytelling is a real balm in 2020, please make more!

Aaron-Long responds:

thanks!

[Nipple Man]

Mate, if this is what happens when you’re rushing then I can’t wait to see what mindbogglingly good hand-drawn animation you create when you take your time (just saw your credit on Gee Wiz after writing that sentence — never mind!) This is so beautiful and imaginative, please keep posting your stuff on here.

[haloween spoops]

This is genuinely one of my favourite Halloween shorts from this year – your comic timing and visuals cracked me up several times, particularly the dark alley part and the ending. Really great job!

SpotAnimates responds:

thanks! I really appreciate it!

[each.day.is.a.blessing E01]

This is exactly the kind of quality content that keeps me coming back to Newgrounds after many years. Everything in this film was beautifully handled from the mature subject matter, the world building, the pacing, the art style. You should be seriously proud of yourself; life is much richer when we have important and truthful art like this. I’m so glad this is just episode one.

[Hooked]

The long production time was 100% worth it. Really atmospheric, beautiful rotoscoping style, and it was genuinely creepy too. Hope to see more like this from you!

Gnydsmelt responds:

Thank you so much Hrobkafon and congrats on that frontpage :) I really enjoyed your whole project aswell!